I am glad to get an opportunity to talk about the property tax and the new formulas that are being brought in. It is ironic this change is being introduced just as we are emerging from a gigantic public health pandemic. People are still worried, confused and out of sorts after being isolated. They are very worried about themselves and their families and now this is another concern. People do not mind paying if they get something in return. The property tax is very unfair in that regard. In rural areas, farmers and …

Will the Minister ensure that sufficient funding is put in place to provide for additional apprenticeships for students given that all courses are now oversubscribed as there is significant demand for apprenticeships and this demand needs to be addressed and in view of the fact that employers need to be subsidised adequately to ensure they will accommodate such students in the workplace?

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I wish to thank the Minister for incorporating apprenticeship into third level as it is a very important provision. However, there is a severe lack of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, blocklayers, plasterers and mechanics in all the trades. There are severe shortages of skilled drivers for machinery excavators, bulldozers, dumpers and lorries. School bus drivers are hardly to be got at all. I am appealing for the Government to go harder at this because we need a skill…

I thank the Minister of State for his understanding of the rule that applies to people at the age of 70. It is very severe and many good drivers are left behind. We need to have more young people coming into all areas. I believe SOLAS should be resourced to manage the registration for employers. Its key focus should be to link employers and apprenticeships and to develop relationships around them. Career guidance teachers need to do more to advise and encourage youngsters at second level to take up the trades and g…

First, I want to sympathise with the families of two young boys who were killed in our county last night. My thoughts go out to the parents, sisters, brothers and families that have been left behind. Their lives will never again be the same. May God give them the strength to carry on and continue with their lives in the best way that they can. It reminds us of what true loss is. While we are here today to talk about post offices, tragedies like this are a terrible infliction on families. I hope that the little boy …

Rural Ireland is being left behind and I do not want any more post offices closed. I applaud the Regional Group for bringing forward this motion as we did previously. We are letting what we have go. It is way easier to keep something than to let it go and try to bring it back again. This is what will happen to post offices.

I thank the Acting Chairperson for the opportunity to speak on this very sad saga and on the desperate treatment of so many of our fine women. I think of poor Emma Mhic Mhathúna, who lived in Dingle in our county for a while. My sympathy goes out to her family and to the families of all the other women who lost their lives because of incorrect diagnoses. Emma was a witty and charming woman who fought as hard as she could up to the very end. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and with the families of all t…

There is a need for support for businesses that may not be closed but do not have as much business as they had heretofore. County Kerry predominantly relies on tourism. Suppliers of fish and meat that were supplying hotels, restaurants and small hostelry businesses have not been able to command as much business as they could previously. They are very worried that they will have to shed employees or close down altogether because their business has been seriously impacted, even though they have not been ordered to cl…

There was a lot of merit in the Minister's first amendment. There are many good points in the Bill but lumping the proposal under discussion into the Bill is like putting the fox in with the hens. It is not compatible at all and it is not fair. A few weeks ago, we had a Bill here decrying the bulk-buying of homes in estates by entities and the outbidding of young people, including young couples, who want to put a roof over their heads. The same entities are being given an advantage again by reducing their stamp dut…

I too want clarification or to be assured by the Minister that what we are doing tonight will allow planning permission to be extended for people who are building their own homes, who fully intended doing so in the past 12 months or so, and then were refused funds by the banks or lending institutions because one or other person in a couple, or both, were on the pandemic unemployment payment. Many banks and lending institutions refused to give them money, so planning and building have been stalled. In other instance…

I thank Deputy Bríd Smith for bringing forward this very important Bill. As matters stand, pensioners have no rights to be included in negotiations. That is wrong. We need to ensure that people have an adequate and a fair pension when they reach 65 years of age. This has not been happening and pensioners have not had a voice. We thank the former ESB workers who gave valuable service and came out in the dark of night and turned on the power. We also thank telecom and local authority workers. Going back in time, they…

People all over the country are outraged by the Government's decision not to reopen the indoor hospitality sector and the insistence that people will have to be vaccinated before they can go into those settings. What is so different about pubs and small restaurants in the Twenty-six Counties compared with the rest of the world? They are open in the Six Counties. We seem to have more so-called scientists, professors, advisers and geniuses, yet we have no one with common sense. Who does the Government think it is cod…

Before long, all the country will land outside the gates of Leinster House and this great centre here.

The Government has the people totally and absolutely blaggarded. It has led them up and down the garden path. Who does the Taoiseach think he is codding?

So you are blaming indoor hospitality for the whole thing. Is that what the Government is doing?

What agenda has Tony Holohan? What has he got against-----

Many businesses will never again reopen. That is what the Government is ensuring.

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on behalf of the people of Kerry. The Government and the Minister are behind the curve again with this Bill to legalise outdoors drinking. I welcome that but the Government was wrong and not at the races when it advised people to drink outside when there was no law to ensure it was legal. I submitted a parliamentary question last October asking whether the law had changed or was going to be changed in relation to outside drinking. On our licence it states we are licensed to…

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this important topic. Many Deputies have done a great deal of talking and it is time for action. I appreciate that the Minister is doing his best in the position he now holds and I have confidence that he will continue trying to do that. We disagree about certain matters. I am worried that, down the line, this legislation will erode the powers of elected members and local authorities. I am also worried that the LDA might be accountable to no one. Publicly owned land sho…

The costs are going up all the time. That is what is happening. We must realise this and do something to help those people.