We are as committed as anyone else in this House. It is nonsense, utter nonsense.

It is utter nonsense. Point-scoring on a very serious matter.

Sin do rogha.

Ar aghaidh leat.

The Deputy is sharing with Deputy Brabazon, so it is up to the two of them, but it is a ten-minute block.

The way radar interacts with aircraft is that a little ping signal goes up and back, positioning at all times the aircraft on a vertical and horizontal axis on an air traffic controller's screen. The Irish Aviation Authority has said very clearly in recent planning files that it is unsafe to put wind farms in close proximity to radar. It distorts the signal of where those aircraft are. It jeopardises passenger safety. It also puts at risk the national asset our radar infrastructure is. A huge number of flights from…

I thank the Taoiseach. On a point of order, a Cheann Comhairle, let the record show-----

-----that Deputy Cullinane sniggered at this issue, which is very real in Clare. Let the Sinn Féin voters in Clare know about this.

The American poet Maya Angelou famously coined the phrase, "You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been". The Israeli cabinet either does not know or reflect on their collective history. There is certainly a sense of some selective amnesia. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s father-in-law was the sole survivor of his family following the Holocaust. Both parents of the Israeli minister for agriculture Avi Dichter were Polish Jews and survivors of the Holocaust. Avi Dichter's grandfa…

Miriam Lord once described sport as the greatest of all Ministries because you get to tour every parish in the country and see best practice. In the last two rounds of sports capital funding, certainly in my own county - I think it is probably the same around the country - every group that had a decent application put together properly got funding of some sort or the other. It is transformative. As other speakers have said, from grassroots level and tiny tots up to people who play sports to an elite level and repre…

My question is to the Taoiseach and the Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Last year, here in the Dáil Chamber and at the Oireachtas health committee, I led calls for an independent review into the access to emergency care in the mid-west region. That review, led by HIQA, has concluded. A whole host of recommendations are before the Government now. One of the key ones is that there is a need for short-term beds to be accelerated and increased, but in the long term people need access to a better hospital system. I…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this debate. The auto-enrolment scheme is very important. It will mean that Ireland will no longer be a laggard in the European Union. As Deputy Ó Cearúil said, many other countries have brought this in, some as far back as a decade ago. We are catching up. The introduction of this in the new year will see hundreds of thousands of people who are not on pension plans now being able to avail of something when they reach pensionable age. That is quite important. I do, however, …

This is a very important debate. Like other speakers, it needs to be acknowledged on the record of the Dáil that it was Fianna Fáil in government that brought in the world's first ever national ban on smoking in the workplace. It was ahead of its time and many other countries have followed suit since. This debate is very timely. I wrote to the Department of Health recently. Like many Deputies, I get emails about many issues. I received an email from a man in County Clare two weeks ago. His wife has profound asthma.…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I join with the Taoiseach and other speakers in congratulating Deputies Cairns and Higgins. It is good to be back here again. With the population continuing to grow and the pressure on all forms of public transport increasing, it should be no surprise to anyone that the 2007 planning condition imposed on the Dublin Airport Authority that it could only cater for 32 million passengers per annum would be exceeded at some point. During last November's general election campaign, all leaders …

I am very much a Shannon advocate.

The Taoiseach knows that Shannon Airport is a huge political issue in the mid-west, not just in County Clare. I am chair of the Oireachtas Shannon Airport group, which has 22 members from Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann from the rank of Minister, Opposition Member and Senator across all parties. We meet quite regularly to focus on policies that will strengthen the airport because we recognise that when the Ryder Cup comes in 2027 and when Doonbeg hosts the Irish Open next year, we will need top quality infrastructu…

Hear, hear.

I echo what others have said here. In Ennis and Clarecastle in County Clare, even though the sewage treatment system is modern and new, it is already close to capacity. If we want to reach these housing targets, the first thing that needs to be done is to upgrade all of that network underground. The public will not see it and we might not get great praise or thanks for it, but it is crucial and is the key enabler. I call on Uisce Éireann to look at the situation in Ennis and Clarecastle. It is unforgivable that a f…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this question. I would like to know what plans the OPW has for drainage, flood protection and coastal erosion defences in County Clare this year.

I thank the Minister of State. There is a lot of positive stuff happening in the county. I will bring the Minister of State back a bit to the Arterial Drainage Act 1945. Neither of us was around at that time but some guru decided that different watercourses would be divvied up between the Board of Works, now the OPW, and local authorities. The River Inagh in north Clare comes under the jurisdiction of Clare County Council. Its budget for managing that watercourse and river is minuscule. It does not have the diggers…