I thank the Minister. The people I am talking about know about the help to buy scheme. Many of them do not qualify. The Minister referred to zoned land. We have zoned land in Kenmare. Johnny Healy-Rae raised this last week. There are two applications before Kerry County Council that have gone out for further information. Developers are supposed to provide their own water. They have been asked to do so because the water is not adequate in Kenmare. No private housing scheme has been built by any individual in Kenmare…

I ask him to increase the cap that prevents people from getting on the housing list from €37,000 to €60,000. People are going away and not enough is being done.

I ask the Minister to ask the local authority to build rural cottages on land owned by family members because it is only building one house a year at the minute. That is not enough. We would want to have-----

I want to ask a specific question regarding Daly’s roundabout in Killarney, on the N22, which the Minister knows well. There is a proposal by TII and Kerry County Council to remove the roundabout and replace it with a traffic light. Five sets of traffic lights are supposed to be put up instead of the roundabout. I ask that temporary lights be provided first to see how this will work. Killarney is already choked from every side with respect to getting in and out of the town. In any case, what I am saying to these pe…

Like everyone else in here and like most of the world, we are all outraged by what has been happening in Gaza to the Palestinian people for almost the past two years. It is terrible. It is horrible. No words I can use could capture the wrong that has been done. I look at the Deputy across from me, from Wexford, Deputy Brennan, who spoke yesterday evening in such an eloquent and heartfelt way about children who are being killed before they even see the light of day. It is so wrong. Growing up as a young fellow, we w…

We all know how important participation in sport is for young and old, and how it brings communities together. Adequate funding should be in place for sports clubs and organisations in all our towns and villages. Clubs constantly have to fundraise, which puts parents and fundraisers under financial pressure to support them. The funding provided through the sports capital funds has had a very positive impact through the years on the areas that benefited from it in the provision of sports facilities that otherwise cl…

I thank Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to discuss the cost of insurance in the Chamber. We have done it many times before but I do not know if anyone has been listening to us. Clearly, there is not enough competition in the market. I honestly believe, and have said before, that when Seán Quinn was competing in the market for insurance and was an alternative, that was the only time that insurance costs came down. Clearly, it is because there is not enough competition. Motorists are paying through the nose f…

I am glad to get an opportunity to talk about this matter. I will start with drivers who are over 70. I have been looking for this for many years. I am a contractor, and my father was at it from 1956. We have a long record of service of taking children to school in Kilgarvan and Kenmare. I understand the plight of drivers when they reach 70. I had the finest drivers who had to park up and forget about it when they turned 70. I have asked for them to be tested medically, independently or whatever, to ensure that the…

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about the energy crisis. I thank Sinn Féin for giving it to us. What I have to say I have said several times before. Since Bord na Móna was closed down by the previous Government in 2020, the cost of electricity has gone up day by day. That is a fact. In the past week or two, different energy companies have been raising their prices by 10%, 12% and 13%. Then we hear that one company has brought down the price by 4%. No one knows what is going on. Does the Government know? We…

I am in a group.

Since you closed down Bord na Móna in 2020-----

-----the cost of electricity has gone up day after day.

What are you going to do about it, Taoiseach?

Since you closed down Bord na Móna in 2020 the cost of electricity has gone up and we need to have a discussion about it.

What is the Government going to do about it?

I am glad to get the opportunity. Even though so many people with disabilities are allocated home care or home help, often the home help never turns up, or at least not the amount of it that is supposed to be given to people. I have a case of a mother and daughter. The mother is minding the daughter for the past 35 years. The daughter got an acquired brain injury. She had strokes and several things and she is speechless. She has so many different problems. The house is fitted out. There is no home anywhere fitted o…

I thank Sinn Féin for this opportunity to talk again about this very important topic. Many parents face a challenge when they find out that their children have special needs. It is another challenge or big burden on many of them to ensure their children get a proper education. We know that every child has a right to education, and it is not fair that children with special needs are not always given the same opportunities that they rightly deserve. Concerned parents often contact me distressed that their children ar…

I am glad to get this opportunity. I thank Deputy Brian Stanley for tabling the motion on this very important and serious matter to give us all the chance to say a few words on it. We know the scenario in County Kerry is very drastic. Practically no dentist will take a patient on a medical card to remove or extract a tooth or to deal with that patient at all. Gladly, when people were in very dire circumstances, we found places for them in another county. That is a poor reflection. Some of these people are on a Stat…

I am glad to have an opportunity to speak about this Bill, which deals with very serious matters that affect every community, especially in Kerry. There are many failings and many issues. The Minister has said the HSE's annual service plan is to be replaced with an annual performance delivery plan. An issue I have encountered in this Chamber since I came up here is that, every budget time, we vote for X millions of euro to go to the HSE to provide health services for children, the elderly, people who have had accid…

Many people are looking forward to the Puck Fair festival in Killorglin this year. It has been going on for over 400 years and survived many obstacles, bad times and good times. It even survived Joe Duffy's attack on the goat. However, 14 publicans looked for an exemption until 3 a.m. from the District Court recently. They only got an exemption until 2 a.m. I believe they are appealing it. I hope they are. They were told it would be too much of a strain on Garda resources, yet we have to listen constantly to reques…