I wish to ask the Minister this morning what interventions he is taking to intervene in the spiralling costs that farm families are facing at this time.

Thousands of people depend on farming in Ireland, including the 6,000 farms in my own county of Clare. If this were a normal year, we would be expecting farm exports such as dairy and meat, etc., to be netting €14 billion for this country and feeding a worldwide population of 40 million. That is where we would be aiming to be at. We have had to look very much inward now because there will be many shortages ahead for Ireland, not just in fuel but probably on the supermarket shelves as well. It is the farmers who hav…

Yesterday, a group of us met with the Association of Farm & Forestry Contractors of Ireland, FCI, in the audiovisual room in Leinster House 2000. One of the requests it is making to the Minister's Department and to the Government overall is for 200 million l of green diesel to be ring-fenced for its sector to ensure we get a silage crop. It is now time for grass growing during the period from St. Patrick's Day to around Hallowe'en. It is now that the growth is taking off. The earth is warming up. The FCI wants to k…

There are almost 1,600 Ukrainian people in County Clare, meaning that 1% of our county's population is now made up of Ukrainian nationals. Our arms are wide open and they are all welcome. Many supports have come from the Government in recent days, including English as an additional language, EAL, teachers and additional teaching posts in our schools. However, more is required and we need ancillary staff. I want to make a pitch for two positions that the Taoiseach might lead through at Cabinet level. First, we have …

How beautifully true céad míle fáilte romhat rings from an Irish perspective at the moment. The arms of Ireland are wide open to welcome refugees coming from Ukraine. As of yesterday, my county of Clare had 1,500 Ukrainian refugees. I believe that figure will rise to 1,800 tonight. That is the largest intake of any Irish county. It must be said that it is a rural county and that its capacity to do this is very much under strain but the arms are still wide open and people are very welcome. Like other speakers, I ack…

I welcome this discussion. The Bill flips on its head the whole idea of take, make and waste. There is great waste in this country day in and day out. Some of the changes proposed in the Bill could see an annual saving of €2.3 billion if people just changed the way they function. I was listening to a Deputy talk about a new motorway from Cork to Limerick. That money would build most of that motorway and probably a bit extra as well. That puts perspective on the annual waste of some of the bad environmental habits w…

I have the same love of the Irish language as the Taoiseach but the fact is that every day many kids in classrooms are struggling to speak and learn the language. The exemption criteria were set out in a circular in 2019. A two-year review was promised. Much of it is still unworkable. A child has to score below the tenth percentile in an area such as comprehension, word meaning or spelling. We need to have this review and make it possible. The Irish language is very important but it is equally important we do not o…

I fully support the motion for Ireland to opt-in to the EU measure on extending EU crimes under Article 83 to include hate crime and hate speech. When I was a primary school teacher, kids would come in from the yard and an elbow, punch or trip would have hurt them, but words hurt them far more. It should come as no surprise to us as adults that hate speech, and all that it encompasses, is equally as hurtful. It has taken us a long time to do this and there have been many iterations of legislation that has tried to …

I support the Bill. It gives legislative effect to the changes to the Covid support schemes announced by Government in response to the public health restrictions and introduced from 21 December 2021 right through to January of this year. These supports have been vitally important to businesses throughout the pandemic and it is very important the necessary legislation be put in place as soon as possible. I do not always pay tribute to the previous Government but, at the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, we were moving…

I thought she indicated that she wished to speak.

Perfect. There are, of course, challenges as we emerge from that situation of peak Covid. One of these is the cost of living. The cost of living has spiralled out of control for many families. Many families are put very much to the pin of their collar. I welcome what the Minister has done overnight and into this morning in looking at ways to alleviate the burden of costs on people with regard to their fuel bills. More needs to be done because what I have seen and what has been spoken about in all forms of media, in…

How does the Minister propose, through his Department, to support Clare County Council and other local authorities in the mid-west as they take over the running of the iconic Shannon Heritage sites in the region?

The genesis of all this is a Cabinet decision taken in June 2021 that the sites would transfer from the Shannon Group, which always has its eyes on aviation and what happens in the skies. In recent years, however, it has also run the heritage portfolio in the mid-west. That has probably been a distraction, and Covid has exposed that. Everyone in the region wants this to be a success, but what we have seen since that decision was taken by the Cabinet is that the Shannon Heritage sites have slowly been run into the g…

I thank the Minister of State. I am reassured by the commitment but it needs to be backed up with subvention. Clare County Council wants to fulfil the wishes of Government and is fully engaged and committed to this. When it carried out due diligence, it revealed structural damage like cottage roofs falling in and the castle roof in poor repair, as well as umpteen things across the grounds of the folk park that could probably be deemed unsafe for people to go into. It is the same in Craggaunowen and Knappogue, where…

There has been huge investment by the Government in primary education. I have heard many positive announcements by the Minister, Deputy Foley, in my constituency. There is one outlier, though. Tubber national school dates back to the 1870s and is absolutely hemmed in and crowded. It is on a triangular site with two very busy roads straddling it. It has no space to expand. On certain days of the week, the teachers ask the pupils to leave their schoolbags at home because they cannot fit in the classroom. I was a teac…

The next speaker is Deputy Martin Browne. In case anyone is waiting to come in afterwards, I ask Members to be aware that we are adjourning the debate at 5.10 p.m. and moving on to the next business.

The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, is sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Jack Chambers.

I rith Sheachtain na Gaeilge, tá sé fíorthábhachtach go mbeadh díospóireacht againn sna Tithe seo ar ábhar na teanga agus an treo ina bhfuil sé ag dul. Molaim an tAire agus an tAire Stáit as an sárobair a bhfuil siad ag déanamh chun tacú leis an teanga. Roimh an toghchán bhí mé ag obair mar mhúinteoir bunscoile i Scoil Náisiúnta an Phairtín i gContae an Chláir. Bhí blas agus grá mór ag na páistí óga i leith na Gaeilge ach caithfimid go léir a admháil go bhfuil fadhb láidir sa tír seo le blianta beaga anuas mar níl …

Shannon Airport has received US customs and immigration pre-clearance for business passengers and for all passengers, in fact, going into the United States. At the moment one can fly by private jet into 230 airports in the United States. There is the potential to land at 5,000 airports if we could address a US Department of Agriculture regulation which stipulates that food waste on the plane must be incinerated at the other end. This is a very convoluted regulation. That regulation was being eased in 2018 in the la…

With the indulgence of the Ceann Comhairle for ten seconds, an agricultural rule in the United States means that food waste on a plane has to be taken off and incinerated when it leaves Ireland. An easing of this restriction was proposed and it was almost over the line during the final days of the Trump Presidency. It is now being pulled back. The Taoiseach might take this issue up with President Biden. It would allow us to get from 230 destinations in the United States to 5,000 airports. We would love that for Sha…