I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue matter this evening. Tubber is a very small village situated right on the Clare-Galway border. It is a few kilometres south of Gort and a few kilometres north of Crusheen. It is a beautiful village. I am sure that as a Mayo man, the Minister of State can almost imagine how rural, scenic and beautiful Tubber is. In 1852, like many other villages in Ireland, Tubber had its bricks-and-mortar school built. It is a beautiful school. At the time in 1852, there w…

I thank the Minister of State for that good, positive response. It is in line with what the Minister, Deputy Foley, communicated to me earlier. It is really good news. I have a few points to make. I will not name a Department official because it is not fair to do so in this Chamber but there is one official who has been outstanding on this matter. I and the school have plagued him about this project and he has always been very positive and engaging and I believe he has helped to get this project to this point. Just…

The Minister of State will know about this question because we recently discussed it in a lot of detail. Will she give consideration to a new capital funding stream to support the voluntary nursing home sector in meeting HIQA requirements and providing for all of the upgrades required each year, which are quite costly? Before I resume my seat, I will congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Burke, on his elevation. I was sitting right beside him the day before the Minister of State appointments were to be ma…

We had a very positive meeting last week with the Oireachtas Members from Clare. We met Marie O'Malley, representing Carrigoran House, and Michael Harty, formerly of this House, representing the home at Cahercalla. Both of those community hospitals provide fabulous care. These are outstanding facilities in our county providing healthcare to those at an advanced stage of life who have ailing health. It is not just about the beds, but all of the ancillary stuff such as the recreation rooms, gardens and other environm…

I thank the Minister of State. That meeting sounds very positive. Long ago I used to believe the budget was set each autumn but I know work on the new budget has already begun. It is positive the Minister of State has had those negotiations and talks. Even though we are talking about our country's older population, a comparison could be drawn with childcare at the other end of the age spectrum. In childcare, there is the private sector, the public sector and community childcare. There are funding columns, though ch…

Can I correct the record? I said "public childcare" but I meant childcare providers that are engaged with ECCE contracts. There is no public childcare per se .

I will speak for seven minutes. If someone sneaks up behind me, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle can alert me and I will stop talking. I share many of the concerns that other Deputies have articulated today. I farm. I have 26 sucklers, short-horn Herefords and around me are farmers. My father and older members of my family recall a time when our village had 25 or 30 farmers. It is now down to five or six farmers, only two of whom are full-time farmers. Most of them have gone into part-time farming. They work in jobs in Sh…

I congratulate the Taoiseach and wish him the very best in his new position.

I raise the inability of thousands of people in County Clare to get flood insurance for their homes and businesses. I recall when, in 2009, the lower River Shannon spilled its banks and flooded streets, pitches and many areas. However, only two homes in the whole county of Clare actually took water inside the front door that winter. Yet, the response of the insurance industry has been risk equalisation, an awful term. The practice works very well on the health front - everyone gets health cover but they pay for it …

Get yourself nominated.

You have got Jonathan Dowdall's back.

At least the Deputy has the decency to say that.

Deputy McDonald did not say a single nice word.

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to contribute on these pre-European Council statements. The Government has an important European meeting ahead of it. I wish to raise a few points at the outset. There are certain food products in the EU that have protected designation of origin status. The blaa bread roll from the Acting Chair's constituency is one product with such status. The time has come for the Government to consider declaring Irish beef a protected designation of origin product. Across the EU, there are …

"We as a family are going through hell. We have no life anymore because of what GSOC are doing to our family over nothing. We cannot have a smile, a decent conversation, nothing. I cannot take it anymore. I see no option but to take my own life as the head of the family. I am mentally murdered by it all." This is a letter that I and Paul Williams the crime journalist have been given by one of the 108 members of An Garda Síochána currently suspended. There is a culture of mistrust, unreasonable discipline and disres…

I was asked to read it out.

I would also like to speak on this parliamentary question. A shameful political decision was taken in 2009 to downgrade Ennis, Nenagh and St John's hospitals. The intention was to make UHL a centre of excellence but this never materialised. It was a failure in 2009 and has become a woeful failure for the people of the mid-west every year since. This did not happen on the Minister's watch. I commend the Minister on taking a lot of action during his tenure to address this issue. He has beefed up capacity in the mid-w…

We are having an important debate this afternoon. We were all glad to see restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive. I sincerely and heartily congratulate Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly on assuming their roles as First Minister and deputy First Minister, respectively. It is shameful it took this long to get everyone back around the table. It is particularly shameful how the DUP conducted itself in this period, holding Northern Ireland to ransom. I join others in praising the public s…

I thank the Minister for taking the questions. On budget day, the Minister announced that a €257 million pot is being made available for an increased cost of business grant scheme. I would like to know how many Clare businesses he expects to be able to avail of the scheme and, additionally, what engagement he and his departmental officials have had with Clare County Council in advance of this scheme being launched.

I thank the Minister for the reply. It is a good scheme and I am glad that 3,955 Clare businesses will benefit. The whole way of calculating and working out who will get what needs a little more thought, because this is based on the square footage of the floor space. It is based on the rate space. I found during the Covid period that there was real agility in the Government in identifying what businesses were suffering most and how best to support them. A model like that could be looked at once more. A rate space i…