I know this is something Deputy Canney raises with me and my Government colleagues regularly. I see the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, here this morning. She has been raising this with me persistently over the course of the past few months, as have my Government colleagues in Roscommon, Offaly and Westmeath. I have responded to that and taken on board the challenges that have been facing farmers because not only did we have the significant flooding earlier in the summer at a time when it was important in terms…

This is something I have engaged on to make sure we did have extra time and we get much longer than is available under the regulations to continue with this. I hear Deputy McGrath raise the calendar farming issue regularly. If we were to follow his approach, we would be spreading slurry in November and December.

It is, the way I hear it.

Exactly - when the weather suits.

As I said, in November and December, if it is dry, Deputy McGrath thinks we should be out spreading slurry. That is what I hear from him all the time. I never hear Deputy McGrath advocate things which are sensible.

Deputy McGrath has about 15 or 16 years behind him sitting there giving out about everything. He has not delivered a penny into a farmer's pocket and has not delivered very much for his constituency, so I will not take any lectures from him. We have to have proportionality and common sense, something-----

-----we in government are full of-----

-----and something I rarely hear come from him on all the key issues.

I will refer this to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris. I join the Deputy in congratulating St. Angela's College in becoming part of Atlantic Technological University. That is due recognition of the wonderful legacy of St. Angela's College over the years and of the work the Ursuline Sisters have done in establishing the college and bringing it where it is today. It has a strong future within the ATU structure. ATU has done tremendous work across the regio…

Following on from today's discussion in the Dáil I will engage on this with the Minister for Justice and relay Deputy Durkan's views. The Deputy is a strong advocate on this issue and I will ask the Minister to engage with him directly on it.

This is an issue the Deputy has raised with me and Senator McGreehan has been raising it with me in great detail and providing me with documentation and evidence on the damage we have seen. We have put in place humanitarian assistance for businesses and homeowners, which was important. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, visited the area, accompanied by Senator McGreehan, to visit businesses and homes. I thank the Deputy for raising this and it is something I am considering. I am taking on board the s…

This is an issue the Deputy has been a strong advocate on, and as he says, completing proper flood defences makes a massive difference. That is something we need to see stepped out in all of those towns and villages that face challenges. I take on board the point the Deputy is making on the plans and the appointment of a contractor. I will liaise with the Office of Public Works on that and on the points the Deputy raises. We need to see the investment that is being committed to and the plans that are under way deli…

I thank the Deputy and will certainly liaise with the Minister for Finance, Deputy McGrath, on the fact that she has raised this matter today. The haulier and transport sector is the lifeblood of our economy, particularly as an export-orientated country that imports quite a bit as well. The sector makes the economy tick and go around. It is can be quite a difficult business at times and it has had its challenges over the past few years, particularly because of the extra challenges posed by Brexit. We have worked as…

Deputy Tóibín must be in his element because nobody likes to talk and spend all day talking about challenges and problems more than himself. He has even exceeded his own capacity to do that in that one-minute contribution. This is a Government that is trying to make progress everyday on infrastructure and public services.

We acknowledge there are challenges regarding planning and making things happen quickly because we are impatient as a Government for progress and impatient to make sure we can see how we are managing the economy translating into good public services and improved public infrastructure. One of the challenges around that has been our planning system. What the Government has done, following great work from the previous attorney general Paul Gallagher who made this his signature Act, is bring forward the third largest B…

-----because we need to see cross-party support across the House to ensure this becomes law.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I visited the Dublin Mountains with him and with the local Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, chairman Donie Anderson not so long ago and we discussed this issue. I know it is something on which the Deputy is a strong advocate. We have been working in government. Three Ministers have cross-departmental responsibility. Myself, the Minister of Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, have p…

I recognise the significance of four Deputies coming together. It is not something you see very often in this House and I certainly recognise that in the context of this Topical Issue debate and the time the Deputies have given to this issue as part of the committee. The matter being raised relate to events that took place many years ago, as the four Deputies said. At that time, my Department, along with other public sector bodies, invested significant resources in an investigation of animal health and environmenta…

I thank the Deputies again for airing their views on this. This is new to me but I have read the evidence and looked back over the file. On what took place, there was the inter-agency group first in June 2004. Following on from that there was the investigation by the Department's veterinary laboratory services and that reported its findings in June 2006.

It is a significantly long time ago now as well. Further to that, University College Dublin, UCD's, centre for veterinary epidemiology and risk analysis completed its report in August 2009. After that, the inter-agency group reviewed the findings of both of those studies and published its conclusions in August 2010. There have been significant investigations and reports done already and the last one goes back over 13 years ago.