On a point of order, I want to register a complaint about the Minister and the Minister of State. We spoke for eight or nine minutes and they did not listen to one word that we said.

They were talking. They are ignorant and arrogant and they will not listen but they will get their answer when they go to the doors.

I have listened to this debate continuously this morning. Indeed, I remember it so well eight and nine years ago. I suppose I have to say I am pro life and I think that when a baby is born, it is the most majestic, natural and beautiful thing in the world. I am lucky that, in my time, Eileen and I have had six children, and now we have eight grandchildren. We have to think of the baby in the situation they are in and we have to talk about them. I believe they have a right to live, and to wait three more days to giv…

I am glad to get the opportunity to say a few words on this Bill. I will give the Government the benefit of the doubt because, for too long, this country has been starved of infrastructure. We are strangled and tied down and I cannot see the benefit of this amendment by insisting that we are to go through this Chamber. I realise all the different political views that different Members have from different counties. We would finish up without agreement on anything important that we need for our counties. Each of us w…

It was not my phone.

Why do Members always look at me?

I am glad to get the opportunity to raise my satisfaction and appreciation of all the nurses in Kerry and around the country, especially the nurses with whom I have had the occasion to deal with many times, both in the past and recently. I am especially thinking of staff in University Hospital Kerry but also those in the district hospitals in Killarney, Listowel, Cahersiveen, Dingle, Valencia and Kenmare and the hospitals that Kerry people go to, such as the one over the head in Bantry. Many Kerry people also use t…

First, I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very important Bill. As I have said in the Chamber several times, it is a fact that the cost of electricity has gone up every day since we closed down Bord na Móna. Reflecting on it now, that should not have happened but Eamon Ryan and the Greens were in a hurry. It should not have been closed down until we had at least made some preparations or had enough wind power or energy from other sources to replace it, although I fervently believe there was nothing wrong wi…

It is very unfair that only income from work during holidays is considered for students who wish to avail of the SUSI grant. If they have a small weekend job they lose out, as there is no disregard for that. What is the reason for this? If they have a bit of work for weekends, why not allow it to be disregarded, like the holiday pay? Youngsters appreciate work.

I thank the Minister for his reply. What I am saying is that it will cost the State nothing to allow the work students do at weekends to be disregarded for the SUSI grant. The costs are exorbitant now for students going to college and it is only natural that they would want to help their parents out and help to get themselves to college and pay for all the things the Minister listed, including the fees, student accommodation and travel from places as far away as Cahersiveen and Dingle and all the places in Kerry th…

As much as anyone else, I welcome the MTU in Tralee for students in Kerry. However, I would say again that it does not make any sense at all if these youngsters could work and earn another bit of money to help themselves to go to college. It would help to take the burden off their parents. The Minister is talking about all the things the Government has given out and that is fine, but these people and their families are still under financial pressures that were never seen before. This is especially the case in famil…

I am glad to get the opportunity to raise with the Minister of State the proposed opening of the new Killarney community nursing home, which has been completed for over 12 months. There is a lot of frustration in the region, the town and all around it with the delay in opening it. As I said, it has been completed for over 12 months. The lights were on there every night through the winter. The heating has been on and everything, and people are wondering. Councillor Maura Healy-Rae brought a motion to the area meetin…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I have worries and questions about how this will be opened on a phased basis. Is the Minister of State saying to me that 101 beds will open at the start? When will the other 29 beds open? I can see right away that there will be a requirement for new staff if we are moving the staff out of the St. Columbanus home and then out of the district hospital. I do not know where the differences in the statements from the INMO and the senior official in the HSE came from but the M…

I thank the Minister of State. I was asked to ask him if some official from the HSE could meet with the councillors from the Killarney electoral area?

Like many others, I resent the comments by the former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, more or less saying that rural Ireland is a burden to the State. That was dreadful. Each and every one of us needs to demonstrate to the people of rural Ireland that we appreciate them here in Dáil Éireann. In Kerry we have a unique situation whereby there are 575 roads on the waiting list for the local improvement scheme, LIS. They are not private roads. They are public roads that were never taken in charge by the county council. There …

I thank Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to talk about a very important subject. I recognise the great work employees do in carrying out their duties in so many businesses that I know. When we talk about employees, we have to talk about employers as well because they are in it together. If an employer cannot carry on, he or she will not have the employees. I know this from working in the private sector for many years. My son is carrying on the business now. We have workers who have stayed with us for almost …

-----are telling me that they cannot continue. It can go in one ear and out the other, but I ask the Minister of State to listen because we will not have these people. It is elderly individuals who want to stay in their homes for as long as possible who will suffer. They will finish up in hospitals and nursing homes-----

-----where it will cost a lot more to mind them. I ask the Minister of State to deal with that as a matter of urgency. There was no package given in respect of the increase in the cost of the green diesel used in machinery that is involved in construction, and that will not carry on either. The number of houses that will be built will be reduced because when the price goes up from 98 cent to €1.78, people cannot afford it. They will not be able to keep going. I ask the Minister of State to deal with the last couple…

This has been an ongoing for a long time. Back in 2014 when the compulsory purchase order, CPO, was being mooted and talked about, the management in Kerry County Council at the time were insisting on the CPO process to all the members of the council. Both myself and Councillor Johnny Healy-Rae were totally and absolutely against the CPO process because it encapsulates and gives fierce powers. I have always believed in ownership. If somebody owns land or owns a house, I believe it is theirs and that to deal with the…

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed reply. Before work starts on any man's land or woman's land, it should be paid for first, and not afterwards. It is not right that they may be paid at a later time. The Minister of State is telling me that some of them will be paid this year. What I am saying is do not go into any other man's land without paying first and agreeing the accommodation works. That is my view on it anyway. To go back to when the CPO process was put in place, I was there and involved in the …