And they will not approve her for the fair deal.

There needs to be an investigation into where it is going.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this very important motion to the Chamber tonight. As the Minister of State is well aware, we have a lack of residential care places for people with disabilities in County Kerry. There was some mention in the budget that 90 new centres would be opened. We have had a centre for many years in Whitefield, Beaufort in Kerry, known as St. Mary of the Angels, which was donated by the Doyle family. An awful lot of fundraising has gone on through the years to help this place develop and keep …

We cannot let that place close down. I am appealing to the Minister of State now.

She is saying it will not. I am asking her to address it. Will it be one of the places the Government talked about in the budget? It has to be.

The need for me to table this Topical Issue arose following weeks of worry and disquiet among workers, users and families who have children or grown-up children with disabilities. They were very worried. The phone was hopping in recent weeks. It culminated in a deputation coming to my clinic in Scotts Hotel on Saturday, led by Donie Doody and several others. I am glad that the matter seems to be resolved. I have raised it several times over the years in this Chamber. What we hear is that 3% will be paid from last A…

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. As she stated, the recruitment and retention of staff is a problem. I raised this matter in the House a few months ago. I am not sure how long ago it was, but I raised it a number of times. I am still a bit worried about any difference that might still remain. I have been told there is a difference of 1.5%. That should not and could not be the case. Some 5,000 workers were going to go out on strike. Thousands of disabled people and their families would have been upset. S…

I am glad to get a chance to add to my contribution from last night. There is a lot of concern regarding road safety with ideas about reducing speed limits and increasing penalty points. However, we have to admit that there has been a massive increase in the volume of traffic on every road. I am calling for our roads to be upgraded. Many of our roads were built in the late 1800s and have not been improved much since. Plans for the Killarney bypass, otherwise known as the Kerry-Cork economic corridor, has been shelv…

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about the budget. Of course, I welcome the increases in social welfare but I wonder how far they will go or how much they will alleviate the situation for people who are having problems and who can barely exist and keep going. Health is so important and is the first thing I want to talk about. We have a lack of GPs in Kerry and I am sure it is same all over the country. There is also a shortage of nurses in our hospitals and chaos in accident and emergency departments, parti…

I am asking the Government to provide a minor injuries unit in Killarney and a separate one in Tralee to help to reduce the waiting times in the accident and emergency department in University Hospital Kerry. Our disability services are severely lacking and the people who operate those services, many of them section 39 workers, are not adequately paid. Residential care is practically non-existent. I dealt with a patient a few months ago who was told that the only place that could be found for her was in County Meat…

I request that the clock be stopped because-----

I am glad to get this opportunity. I thank Sinn Féin for going against the carbon tax tonight. We will not talk about what happened in the past, but we are glad and we hope it will continue in this vein against the carbon tax because it is totally and absolutely unfair. We have been against it from day one. This will hurt many people at midnight tonight. It will hurt the people who are going to work. It will hurt the people who are taking children to school. It will hurt all those in the transport business. It will…

Many years ago I worked with two men. One of them did not smoke and one of them did. The fellow who did not used to always be jarring the other fellow. He said that if God intended him to be a smoking man he would have put a chimney in him. I do not smoke, and I know it is bad for people, but I do not agree with this tax. As has been said about people who are addicted, God how they appreciate their cigarette. They rush outside the door and that is what they look forward to. We are penalising those people. The Minis…

I am sorry to say that it is very clear that the Minister is taking the side of the Commissioner and she should be intervening and trying to sort the problem out rather than doing that. This change in roster is antagonising all those in the force. From what I have heard on the grapevine, what it will mean for Kerry and places like it, is that in a vast area from Killarney, through Killorglin, into Cahersiveen, Valentia Island back up to Waterville, Sneem and Kilgarvan and all around that entire ring, only one Garda…

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on this very important Bill. I support it, as everyone who is elected here should. Deputies have spoken about people who died in terrible conditions in containers, including one case a couple of years ago. Other speakers mentioned the heat and lack of water, but people died because there was no air. That kind of death was totally inhuman. We must ensure that anyone involved in that kind of carry-on comes before the courts in this country and is dealt with seriously. It is t…

And it did not do any good.

First, I have to say that my family operates a school bus service and has for many years. All parents really depend on school bus transport to take their children to school. Practically all parents need their children to be taken to school safely. Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Governments promised that when the outlying school would be closed down, the schoolchildren would be bussed to the central school. Even last year, the Minister promised that all children would get free travel to school. She has gone…

I thank Sinn Féin for moving this important motion. We all saw those people who came up so organised last week and highlighted their plight. It was one of the largest crowds that has been outside the gates for much of the time I have been here. The story now is this has gone as far as parents having to ensure they have a childcare place before they actually have the child. It has gone this far because they see their neighbours and other parents suffering while trying to find childcare places. They cannot find them …

There is no doubt that housing for renters and people without homes is a desperate problem. The only answer is to build more social housing. I do not thank People Before Profit for bringing the motion before the House. I firmly believe People Before Profit and its motions have caused more harm to the private rental sector than all the rest of what is happening in the country.

People Before Profit is the main cause of it. It has house owners frightened away from renting their housing. At the clinics I hold in my neck of the woods - I hold them all over the county - people tell me they have houses to rent for €600, €700 or €800 a month but they are afraid that if they let people in for the year or two in which they want to rent the property, they will not be able to get the people out again. I am asking the RTB and Threshold to adopt a different role. They should go out sourcing houses, t…