The aviation sector supports upwards of 140,000 jobs. Some 40,000 of these are directly employed in the sector. Shannon Airport has been disproportionately hit and staff there have been exposed to temporary lay offs and pay cuts more so than their counterparts in Dublin and Cork airports. Shannon Airport is experiencing a sharp decline in passenger numbers and desperately needs a financial adrenaline shot to ensure it survives the economic uncertainty brought on by Covid-19 and comes out the other side in a healthy…

I thank the Minister of State for the positive elements of her reply. In my follow-up statement I will address the issue of Aer Lingus and Ryanair. Their commitments to Shannon are quite questionable. I ask that the Government intervene and address some of the things these airlines have sought through the aviation task force in its recommendations. Aer Lingus is operating pseudoflights out of Shannon. One can book three flights a day but they will be cancelled and one might have to wait four or five months to get a…

This is my first time addressing the Minister for Defence so I congratulate him on his portfolio and hope he will have a successful term. I support this Bill which brings about a number of required changes to existing defence laws. I pay particular tribute to the many men and women of our Permanent Defence Force who step up time and again. They helped when there was flooding in Cloonlara and Ennis in County Clare, where I am from, and more recently during the Covid pandemic when those men and women supported our fr…

I pay tribute to the many principals, teachers and caretakers who have worked tirelessly over the month of August and recent days in particular to get the doors of schools reopened and children back in classrooms so that the learning can begin. My eldest son, Sam, started junior infants at Parteen national school on Monday morning. I was delighted the Dáil was not sitting and I could bring him to school. To see the smiling faces back in the schoolyard of the school in which I taught up to a few months ago was a lov…

At the outset, I congratulate the new Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue. I also congratulate my party colleague, Deputy James Browne, on his promotion to the role of Minister of State in the Department of Justice and Equality. I wish to pick up from where the previous speaker left off and refer, very briefly, to "golfgate", which was wrong a million times over. There can be no justification for what happened in Clifden. The work of Government and Opposition and every Member of this H…

I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, on his appointment. He is a mid-west Minister of State so we hope he will deliver plenty in Clare and his home county, Limerick. I wish him the best as he gets under way with his new portfolio. There are a number of things I wish to bring to his attention in the realm of public expenditure. The first is a sewerage scheme in Meelick which is supposed to be completed in quarter 4 of 2021. As I am speaking, there are technicians from Irish Water applying older su…

I join my colleagues in welcoming the Bill, which makes provision for the largest credit guarantee scheme in the history of the State. That is certainly welcome for businesses that are now at the pin of their collar. This will offer some much-needed liquidity as they try to get back on their feet. It is good news on top of last week's financial provisions and microenterprise loan fund legislation. It proves that in the early weeks of this Government there has been a real willingness on this side of the House to pri…

I congratulate the three Ministers on the new roles they are undertaking and have every confidence they will do a good job. I want to ask about cancelled events and festivals this summer. There have been many cancellations. In my county, the famous Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival, Willie Clancy week, the Feakle festival, the Scariff Harbour festival and Consairtín, which is Ireland's national convention for concertina players, have been cancelled and have incurred debts. There will be no events this year. Will th…

I thank the Minister and appreciate her reply. There is a domino effect to the cancellation of many of these events. Some of these events have tie-ins with local charities and community groups. For example, Ennistymon Community Hospital, Conradh na Gaeilge, West Clare Mental Health Association and Clare GAA are beneficiaries. A trickle-on funding stream is lost as a result of these festivals being cancelled. It has put the county on a downer because these were the stand-out festivals of the spring and summer months…

The programme for Government references unsewered rural villages. The project for one such village - Broadford, County Clare - is shovel ready. The land has been acquired and the project fully designed but it has sat on the shelf for many years. At a time when we have had absurd discourse on the environment, stating that dairy herds are major polluters, there are still rural villages like Broadford where when a toilet is flushed, at best it goes into an antiquated septic tank, while at worst, it goes into a gravel …

I bring to the Tánaiste's attention a very tragic case in County Clare, that of Jennifer Hynes, 42 years of age, in permanent residency in Mowlam nursing home in Ennis. Jennifer suffers from cerebral palsy, has daily seizures and is one of many young people in Irish nursing homes. The programme for Government promises to eliminate this practice and to get these people into more suitable permanent accommodation where their needs can be met. This is a tragic case. Jennifer is a fish out of water. It is a perfect nurs…

I sincerely congratulate the new Ministers, Deputies Foley, Harris, Niall Collins and Madigan, on their appointment. It is unprecedented to have four Ministers working in the area of education. This shows the value the Government places on education, which will be key in all sectors as the economy gets back on its feet. I will begin where the previous speaker left off, namely, with school reopening. I was a schoolteacher until 11 or 12 weeks ago so this issue matters a great deal to me. My eldest son, Sam, will sta…

I welcome the Bill and will fully support it. So far, we have managed the health crisis quite well but the litmus for test for the Government is how it will support SMEs as they try to get back on their feet and as our country negotiates its way through an evolving economic crisis. There are a number of indicators that evidence the extent of the economic crisis we find ourselves in. The total net voted expenditure for the first six months of the year is more than five times greater than it was this time last year. …

Not one time were we called. This is the second week in a row-----

I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Martin, on her appointment. Tá sé an-deas an Ghaeilge a chloisteáil sa Dáil freisin, gabhaim buíochas leo. I will speak briefly about Shannon Heritage and its portfolio of sites. The group has nine sites and also operates the iconic GPO visitor centre on O'Connell Street. Shannon Heritage’s origins lie in the mid west. It was once run by Shannon Development. Some years ago, as many Deputies will remember, the Dublin Airport Authority was broken up. The Shannon Group is now a sepa…

I thank the Acting Ceann Comhairle. I will be sharing my time with Deputies Browne and Devlin. At the outset I want to sincerely congratulate the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, on their promotion. It is good to see a young and capable team working together now in the Department of Justice and Equality and I wish them the very best of luck during their tenure. There are a number of issues I will raise and in the first instance I will discuss the Garda contingency roster. Thi…

I wish the Minister of State the very best with her new portfolio. I plead with her to urgently intervene in the case of Shannon Airport. The airport is facing an unprecedented crisis and has been disproportionately hit by the Covid pandemic and the resulting grounding of planes. We are in a fight to ensure the solvency of the airport, retain jobs and protect the mid-west economy that is heavily reliant on Shannon Airport. Passenger figures at the airport have dropped by 98% since March. The place is like a ghost t…

I thank the Minister of State. Many airplanes are gathering dust on the apron of the runway at Shannon Airport. I understand that public health guidance is preventing them from taking to the skies. However, we need to know why there are still many inbound and outbound flights at Dublin Airport and Cork Airport but virtually none from Shannon. Any open air links in and out of this country must be spread evenly. There is a lot more to this country than the Dublin economy. I hope the Minister of State will intervene w…

I wish the Minister of State, Deputy English, the very best as he takes up his new portfolio. I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead. In many ways, microfinance loans have been transformative for rural Ireland. Small and medium enterprises provide the backbone of employment opportunities in counties like Clare. It is true that we have Shannon Airport and one of the largest industrial clusters outside the capital, but the adult population of Clare, made up of people who are all available an…

Since my speaking time is limited, I would appreciate it if the Minister could respond in writing to my questions. I wish to query the HSE's capital infrastructure expenditure, specifically on pre-hospital and acute hospital services. The expenditure on Ennis general hospital this year for the provision of an off-site outpatient unit on the Kilrush Road will be €600,000. This is minuscule compared with expenditure at other hospitals in the mid-west region and elsewhere in the country. Ennis, it would appear, is a l…