I know the Minister of the State had a busy schedule today in Cork. I thank him for coming in at such a late hour to deal with this extremely important issue. It concerns the challenges we face as a result of the war in Ukraine. As the Minister of State is aware, Ukraine produces 17% of the global supply of grain. If one looks at both Russia and Ukraine, they account for 30% of all exports in the global market. Some 42 million tonnes of grain were produced in Ukraine in 2021. We have 272,000 ha which are used for c…

I thank the Minister of State in particular for his confirmation that there was a meeting this evening between him and his officials and the farming organisations. I agree that there is a challenge as to the lack of clarity on the availability of seed and, in particular, fertiliser. The other issue of course is the cost of fuel. There is also further challenge regarding the rotation cycle which tillage farmers are working on with Teagasc, and whether there can be a deviation from that three-year cycle for crops on …

This question is about the development of the new regional enterprise plans. I understand that nine plans are to be developed. What progress has been made on them and what engagement has taken place? When are the plans to be finalised and when will they be launched?

Under the rural development policy for 2021 to 2025 there are 152 policy measures in the framework plan. For example, policy measure 25 is to promote awareness, and the use, of remote working hubs. That is a problem in my constituency. There are three hubs in my constituency but approximately 50% of the people in one of the areas involved do not have access to broadband. There is a community centre that is serving a huge population. There are 900 children in the local primary schools. As one can imagine, there is a…

The parish of Inniscarra has been divided in two with the extension of the city boundary. Half of the parish is now in the city and half is in the county. It is a huge community. We have been very lucky in developing community facilities. There are over 50 acres of community grounds between rugby pitches, soccer pitches, GAA pitches and camogie pitches, but there is no broadband.

I have engaged with the local authority and it says it does not have funding to develop further hubs. Can that be looked at with regard to funding so additional hubs can be made available?

I thank the Department for the work it has done. My question is on the funding provided to community and voluntary organisations specifically to assist with the impact of Covid-19. This funding was extremely beneficial in helping communities. Now it is about trying to encourage communities to get back into full action. We have had the Covid-19 stability fund and the town and village renewal schemes. What changes do we need to make to ensure there is adequate support for the community organisations that made a huge …

I thank the Minister of State. The community activities fund he outlined is a €9 million fund. My understanding is that demand for the fund may have exceeded the total funding available. Is any provision being made whereby additional money can be put into this? It is extremely important. The town and village renewal scheme had funding of €15.4 million. This goes back to the issue of hubs. The Minister of State referred to 17 hubs in Cork. Two of these are in my constituency even though 50% of the constituency is ru…

I thank the Minister of State and the Minister for all the work particularly during Covid-19.

I fully support the very ambitious programme the Minister has launched. There will be major challenges in delivering it. We are speaking about more than 500,000 homes benefiting over a period. It is important that we look at the existing structures and the defects that exist to make sure we can deliver in a timely manner. Recently, I spoke to someone who applied to the SEAI more than two years ago to get approval for work they wanted to do in the house. It was not until two years later that the house was inspected …

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, for being here to deal with this matter. I am concerned about the stand-alone sewage treatment facilities that were built right across the entire country back between 2000 to 2008. Companies then ended up in the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, and no one seems to have taken responsibility for the management of these sewage treatment facilities. It came to a head in the past two weeks in Castlewhite, Whitechurch, County Cork. Forty houses have access to a…

I thank the Minister of State. My understanding is that there is now a connection from this treatment plant directly into a pumping station that pumps sewage into a facility for Irish Water, in towards Cork city. That connection is with an Irish Water sewage treatment facility but no one seems to be taking responsibility for the individual treatment facility that is servicing Castlewhite in Whitechurch. There is the added problem that no local authority will take estates in charge where Irish Water has not taken th…

I agree with my colleague from Cork North-Central with regard to an elective hospital for Cork. The South/South West Hospital Group made a presentation to the HSE more than three years ago. An advertisement was put in place almost 12 months ago now looking for sites to be identified and here we are. Even if we identify a site in the morning, we have to get a design team in to design it, go through a planning process and get contractors in to get the job done. It is now time to identify the site. I am not aware of a…

I agree we need long-term planning. One of the things about long-term planning is making sure we do not identify a small site and then say we do not have adequate space in five or ten years’ time. It is important we identify a site and get on with the planning process. The planning process is going to take us a minimum of 18 months. This is now a priority. There is not sufficient capacity. Even if we take into account a scenario where the HSE were to take over all the private hospitals in Cork in the morning, it wo…

I thank the Ministers of State, Deputies Feighan and Butler, and all staff in the Department of Health for the work that has been done over the past two years. I further thank staff in our hospitals, front-line staff in our nursing homes and GPs and their staff for their work over the past two years and all of the people who have worked in vaccination centres across the country for their work over the past 12 months. We have managed the pandemic very well. There were enormous challenges that changed by the day. We …

The programme for Government set out the need to expand primary and community care. The Irish College of General Practitioners has proposed that a high-level working group be established within the Department of Health, taking into account the ICGP, the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, the Irish Medical Council and all of the relevant stakeholders, to develop the expansion of primary healthcare and community care. Will the Taoiseach support the proposal on the establishment of this high-level working group?

I thank the Minister of State for the efforts he is making to deal with this issue. There are huge challenges, however. Like my colleague from Cork North-Central, I want to convey my concerns about the constituency. Cork is the second biggest city in the country and huge areas now are on the schedule for 2025-26. That is not good enough. We also have a problem whereby Eir is providing broadband on one side of the road and people on the other side cannot get access to it. I know of one case - one of many - where the…

I thank the Minister of State for the debate last night. I raised this matter during that debate and I want to tie down the particular issue of why there is not in place in the Irish mental health service a regular peer review of psychiatrists and the manner in which they are managing their patients and the prescribing of medication. When a patient is in a hospital setting, there is a team of nurses and doctors in place and there is a whole system where, if a patient is detained for a period of time, there is a ful…

One of the recommendations in the report published by Dr. Sean Maskey was that agreements should be developed with GPs to share the treatment of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, and pharmacists might help if that were to cause difficulties for GPs with regard to medication. Another point in the report was that clear written guides for the use of antipsychotic medication should be developed. There are very good recommendations in the report. I want to know the timeline for the implementa…

I thank the Minister of State for the work she is doing in this area. It is extremely challenging in that it is not just about money but also about recruiting an adequate number of staff. That is where the challenge is posed across the healthcare system. For instance, last year more than €1.1 billion was provided for mental health care, while the figure this year is €1.49 billion. It is a substantial budget, but this is about ensuring that we can get staff in place in all the areas they are required. Mental health …