As I stand here this evening, there are families, individuals and couples, all prospective first-time buyers, in the Clonakilty area of west Cork who are gutted. I am gutted too. I will explain why. For the first time, west Cork was going to see the delivery of an affordable housing scheme - something that I and the people of the area had been seeking for years. There was finally going to be an affordable housing scheme. We had delivered social houses and plenty of houses had gone on sale on the private market, but…

I have not identified any developer, but this is a situation that I do not want to see happen again.

I do not want to see this happen again in circumstances where the State or local authorities deal with people who act in such a way. I want to get that across. I feel for the families. They will have to wait a couple of years before the next affordable housing scheme comes along again. Thankfully, we will see one in Bandon very shortly. We will see one in Kinsale. There will be another in Clonakilty, but this was the first opportunity. It is a crying shame. One of the biggest barriers to the delivery of housing is …

This week I visited Bandon mart and Skibbereen mart in my constituency. Meeting farmers, it is blatantly clear that they are fed up. They are mainly fed up of overregulation and they are fed up of red tape. They are tired of endless paperwork; new regulations being brought in on a weekly basis; the hoops they have to jump through to qualify for the different schemes; and the endless hours of filling forms to qualify for grants under the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, or environmental schemes. The…

I thank the Minister of State. He clearly has a great understanding of the bureaucracy and paperwork that is faced. The sector needs regulation; every sector needs some form of regulation. However, it has to be balanced. I welcome the recent news on the exemption for farms under 10 ha, which will benefit 20,000 farmers. It will be interesting to see how that plays out on the ground. Many farmers will not be exempt and will still face endless reams of paperwork and form-filling. One of the most frustrating things th…

I would like to follow on from Deputy Bruton's question on carers and go a step further by making a plea that we use budget 2025 as an opportunity to once and for all take away the income limit on the means test for carer's allowance. Time and again, every TD has carers coming into his or her office who are €100, €50 or €20 over the means test. There is no flexibility or discretion from the Department in awarding carer's allowance. These people dedicate every minute of their lives to looking after loved ones and th…

I will start by saying we need non-EU workers. We need non-EU workers with permits. The economy needs that. That often gets lost in the immigration debate. However an issue has arisen in terms of how permitted workers are paid. At the moment, in a food processing plant, for example, there will be non-EU permitted workers working alongside EU workers and Irish workers. They are currently paid the same for doing the same job. However, under a recent legislative change it has emerged that non-EU permitted worker will …

This matter relates to children with scoliosis, specifically in the context of the length of time they have to wait for surgery. I want to raise the issue of Anna Russell, who is 13 years old and is from Glengarriff in west Cork. She is truly a great kid. If the Minister of State ever has the pleasure of meeting her, he will see her charm. She is absolutely charming and I am sure the Minister of State will be taken aback by her incredible personality. She is in first year in secondary school in Bantry. Anna has sco…

I acknowledge the increased expenditure of €19 million, the 200 additional healthcare professionals and the reductions in waiting lists of 5% and 13%, but there is a statistic that is concerning, namely that although there were 509 procedures in 2022, there were fewer in 2023. Therefore, something has gone awry. I appreciate that the Minister is not here and that the Minister of State has inherited a bit of a mess, but that mess needs to be sorted because people like Anna Russell are suffering. I am sure the surgeo…

The Neurological Alliance of Ireland gave a presentation in the audiovisual room in Leinster House yesterday describing the fact that Ireland is near the bottom of the European table in terms of the availability of neurologists. In fairness, the Minister created extra neurology nursing posts, but most of those have not been filled. We need to examine this matter. The issue is particularly acute in west Cork. The neurologist in the largest hospital in my area, Bantry hospital, will retire in May. As yet, CUH, which …

I am sharing time with Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan. I thank the Minister of State for attending the debate on this very serious issue. I will focus on one aspect of road safety in my constituency of Cork South-West, namely, road conditions. As I have pointed out time and again in the Chamber, Cork county has not been getting an allocation for road funding in recent years that reflects the quantity of roads we have in the county, particularly in Cork South-West. That is leading to a gross underfunding of national road…

I congratulate the Taoiseach on his election. I wish him the best of luck in the months ahead. I raise the issue of emissions. The Taoiseach said in his response that we have, fortunately, seen a reduction in overall emissions. However, one area in which emissions are on the increase is transport. Electric vehicles, EVs, will play a key role in reducing emissions in transport, especially in more rural areas. EVs have their detractors. It has become a favourite pastime of some people to bash them or spread misinform…

When we talk about the economy, we have to talk about the value of big sporting occasions and events to the Irish economy, especially in the regional and peripheral areas. It was sad to learn over the past couple of days that Ireland's bid to host the World Rally Championship is in jeopardy. Is there anything the Taoiseach can do in his high office to intervene and try to save this? I understand the hands of the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, are tied in that he has been told he has to get advice about the econom…

I ask for the establishment of a pot of money or fund to help develop local authority-owned piers and harbours throughout the country. At present, there is a Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine fund of approximately €5 million per annum. This basically means those piers and harbours have to fight for scraps from the table in order to do any enhancement works. There was an allocation of approximately €50 million under the Brexit adjustment local authority marine infrastructure, BALAMI, fund last year. We …

I want to raise an issue on behalf of the people of Shannonvale, a small village near my home town of Clonakilty, who have been campaigning for years to get back their children's playground. The playground is located beside a wastewater treatment plant and at the moment there is raw sewage and excrement coming up through the surface. When I first came into this Dáil in 2020 I raised this issue but I have gotten absolutely nowhere since. I plead with the Tánaiste to use the powers of his office to intervene to ensur…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue. This is an incredibly important issue. It is about HHC and HHC vapes in particular, their prevalence in Ireland, the damage they are causing, the harm they are doing to individuals, especially young people, and the damage they are causing to relationships and particularly families right across Ireland. It is a scourge on our nation and we really need to nip it in the bud. It is important to outline HHC is a semi-synthetic form of cannabis which is availab…

I appreciate the response. The unfortunate thing is that it is almost a carbon copy of responses I have already received from the office of the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, when I flagged this previously. There are some encouraging elements in the response in that there is clearly an awareness of this substance. There is awareness of the impacts it has on young people and of the psychosis that is linked to it. What I am concerned about, however, is that the same language has been used for the past number of …

I ask the Taoiseach to comment on reports emanating from County Hall and Cork County Council that the roads budget for this year will be slashed by €33 million. It is very serious if this is the case. In west Cork, local and regional roads are crumbling. They are under pressure because Cork County Council remains at the very bottom of the league table of road funding allocations. It also has the lowest average allocation of funding per kilometre for regional and local roads. It is really important that we clarify t…

I thank the Minister of State for attending. I trust that he will pass on the comments I will make on Dunmanway. The situation with the wastewater treatment in the town is nothing short of a scandal. Dunmanway is one of the biggest towns in my constituency of Cork South-West. Within the past ten years, a brand-new wastewater treatment plant has been built there. The plant was built with capacity for 3,500 people, but the population of Dunmanway is 2,200. The Minister of State will, therefore, ask: what is the issue…

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that he is only the messenger in this case and we will not shoot the messenger but that response is absolutely not good enough. It is not acceptable that people will have to wait for the 2025 to 2029 funding cycle, and I will not accept it. I cannot go back to the people of Dunmanway and tell them they have to wait that long. The process of upgrading the Dunmanway wastewater treatment system so that houses can once again be built has to start straight away. It has to star…