The Minister earlier mentioned the dreary tunnel of Covid and the significant challenges the business sector faced as it navigated its way through that tunnel. The Minister and his colleagues in the Department were exceptionally supportive of those businesses during that time, ensuring that they remained viable, and in doing so they protected thousands of Irish jobs. As we emerge from that tunnel we are seeing businesses again faced with additional challenges. One of those sectors is agriculture and our farmers. Ho…

I thank the Minister, particularly for that clarification on the splitting of the bill between the business aspect of the energy consumption on the farm holding and the domestic aspect of it. That is causing significant concern for many farmers. On the categorisation of eligible farmers, we have heard of many instances in the last few days of small retailers, butchers in particular, who have unusually large energy consumption. I assume that most of them are registered as sole traders. Indeed, any of our farmers who…

There have been many excellent advances in the provision of childcare services in the country under the current Government, but there is one glaring omission, and that is in the area of early childhood care and education, ECCE, services. When the scheme was first introduced in 2010, the capitation rate introduced was €64.50 per child. If that had kept pace with inflation, it would now stand at €76, but it does not. It stands at €69. That is putting incredible pressure on those services that provide ECCE services al…

I thank the Minister of State for being here to listen to our ambitions for the development of wastewater infrastructure throughout the country and water infrastructure in general. We need to be ambitious in how we seek to empower our towns and villages to grow and develop and become attractive places within which to live and work. We are still dealing with a legacy of a crash that left many homeowners in towns and villages high and dry almost a decade ago. I am sure the Minister of State and many others have been …

This is a most welcome scheme. It is the first time ever that we have had a dedicated national scheme focusing solely on community centres throughout rural Ireland. I live in a small, rural village, Carrabane, in east Galway and when I look at my own community centre it is the very epicentre of life in that community right from the beginning of life through to the end of life. It starts with a mother and toddler group, it has Foróige and scouts and older citizens meet there regularly. We even have yoga for men on M…

In a week when serious questions have arisen as to whether we can deliver a ring road for Galway, an issue that one expects will be immersed in a quagmire of planning and legal issues for many years to come, it is now time to focus on the things we can deliver that will improve the quality of life of people who live in Galway city and county. I asked the Minister in September 2020 to look into the feasibility of double-tracking the rail line from Athenry to Galway, thus greatly improving the capacity, flexibility a…

I will offer a slightly contrarian view in the short time I have. From the dawn of humanity we, as a species, have always sought to communicate with one another. We have reached out, contacted and communicated through whatever means was available to us. From hunter-gatherer conversations around the camp fire, to communicating with Armstrong on the moon and from Gutenberg to Zuckerberg, we have always innovated over and again to find new ways to communicate with one another. Right now, social media, in all of its ex…

I am here to address the very significant and gross underfunding of Galway County Council, which has been a factor in seriously diminishing the capacity of that local authority to be able to offer the service to people that it should seek to offer. This gross underfunding has been going on for many years and the history is quite complex, so I will not go into that. It is stark in terms of the figures presented to us right now, however, by the executive management team within Galway County Council. Looking at the bu…

I am not laying any blame at the Minister of State’s door for that response. He is delivering a response that was provided to him by officials within the Department. However, I am saying to those officials right now that this is totally unacceptable. I made the point in my earlier contribution that there is an ongoing review of the local property tax and then we move forward collectively once that review is completed. That does not address the situation that Galway County Council, even after that review and after t…

Earlier on, the Minister spoke about the need to develop our rural towns and villages as it is a critically important part of our country's development. I am really beginning to question the capacity of Irish Water to play its part in that. The people of Gort in south Galway have been without a drinking water supply since 2 February when Irish Water issued a boil water notice to almost 3,000 customers there. Almost five months later, that supply has not been restored. Despite my best efforts at engaging with Irish …

The programme for Government rightly commits to the development of our rural towns and villages. The Office of the Planning Regulator is engaging with a number of local authorities as they prepare their county development plans for the future. There is an ongoing conflict, though, whereby those local authorities are being asked to encourage people to move into our towns and villages even though hundreds of those villages are without any kind of wastewater treatment system. The village of Craughwell in County Galway…

I thank the Minister. It is utterly shameful that the western rail corridor connecting Athenry, Tuam, Milltown and, ultimately, Enniskillen, if it is extended all of the way, a vital piece of public infrastructure, has been left to rot for the past 40 years. It is bringing no economic benefit whatsoever to the west of Ireland and to my constituency. What we simply need to do here is to make a decision. Every report that has been published over the past decade has concluded that there is no economic case to be made …

There is no case to be made for rail freight in the west of Ireland. The west of Ireland is not the Ruhr valley with steel mills pumping out tons of steel every day or coal mines pumping out tons of coal. The west of Ireland is securing its future in technology, pharmaceuticals and in medical technology. It has no, and will have no, demand for rail freight to any great extent for the foreseeable future, if ever. The EY-DKM report drew the same conclusion. Research by the EU suggests that rail freight only makes fin…

It is on the rail line. That is where we need the investment.

I thank the Minister for his response. I am particularly pleased that he makes specific reference to the double-tracking of the line from Athenry to Oranmore and to the enhancement of those stations. I thank him and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, for making this a priority. I ask that this be developed with the greatest expediency possible. Athenry is a town of just over 5,000 people. The population has doubled over the last 20 years. Oranmore is also a town of 5,000 people whose population has doubled ove…

Continuing the theme of energy security and the development of renewable energy resources, it is critical that in seeking to develop our land wind energy resources, we do it in an environmentally sustainable way. The ESB developed one of Ireland's largest wind farms in Derrybrien in the Slieve Aughty mountains of south County Galway. In 2003 there was a massive landslide associated with that development. There have been ongoing and significant environmental transgressions ever since, to the extent that since 2019 t…

Ultimately our people look to us as policymakers to provide leadership in the area of enhancing community life and well-being in general. Our school facilities are funded by the State, by the taxpayer, and there is a dearth of provision in such areas as youth work, local community-based childcare and the provision of sports facilities. In recent months we have seen some interesting collaborations between schools and local sports clubs, supported through the sports capital grant scheme. We can leverage much of that …

It was an interesting statistic in the Minister of State's response that 2,000 of the 3,200 primary schools are located in rural areas. One of the key findings of a recent policy initiative from Fine Gael's policy lab on childcare is that there is a dearth of effective childcare provision predominantly in rural communities. I know that a number of school principals are very proactive in this area, but they are the exception rather than the rule. We need to highlight best practice and perhaps provide the administrat…

I also commend Deputy Carroll MacNeill on putting forward this far-seeing Bill which seeks to amend our Constitution and ultimately change the way we do things in this building so that it becomes a far more family-friendly workplace. I have been deeply fortunate to have been walking in the gates of Leinster House for 15 years now. It is an extraordinary privilege to be able to do so, to represent the people of Galway East, to air their views and their aspirations for the Ireland they aspire to. We never lose sight …

The programme for Government contains a very significant commitment to job creation, in particular outside our capital city. Thankfully, due to the good work of IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Irish job creators that is now beginning to bear fruit. Alongside that, unfortunately, it provides a challenge for us with an emerging skills shortage. From talking to a number of companies in Galway I am aware that they are in very serious danger of losing market share and being unable to gain new market share because of…