I thank the Ministers for this useful debate. Deputy McGuinness is in the Chamber. He has campaigned for this for a long time, which should be acknowledged. We need to see firm actions arising from this. It cannot just be a talking shop of a Thursday to fill out the Dáil schedule. The banking sector has seen enormous changes in the last ten years, and in the last five in particular. All of us in this Chamber will have seen these great changes, for example, the move towards online banking and away from traditional b…

I am sharing time with Deputy James O'Connor. I am not sure if he is up in the balcony; I hear he is. I welcome this Bill and commend the Minister and his officials on what are practical approaches to some of the other challenges presented by Covid-19. Before Deputy Duncan Smith leaves, I was interested in his outlining of the Fingal process in terms of the relative lack of engagement, even online. That is reflective of our own position. The Mayo process is not as far advanced as Fingal but our councillors, who wor…

The rail freight service from Ballina railway station to Dublin Port normally takes between five and seven freight trains per week, servicing some of the biggest industries in the west. It is a core part of our attractiveness as a location to invest in Ballina. It is served by a superb team at Ballina railway station. The Ballina freight depot is one of the busiest in the country. However, since Christmas there have been a number of disruptions to services and in recent weeks the service has stopped completely. A w…

I know this is not the Minister of State's Department but his response is incredibly disappointing. He spoke about the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, wanting to bring a focus on connecting key ports to the rail network. Such a connection was in place in Ballina long before the Ministers came into Government. We have a service that works well and which has massive potential but it has been stalled for reasons that have nothing to do with the service itself but, rather, with Dublin Po…

I welcome the opportunity to speak about regional aviation and regional airports. There were many challenges facing our regional airport sector and aviation before the pandemic. They have been considerably accentuated over the past 15 months. We have seen how fragile our aviation sector is, in spite of the fine tradition we have. That fine tradition and those foundations mean we can rebuild stronger and better. The foundations, in terms of its regional support, ability to drive employment creation and identity, are…

I will continue from where Deputy Sherlock left off by linking today's debate on CAP to this evening's debate on the climate action plan. First, is the Minister satisfied that enough recognition has been given within the climate action plan to the efforts of Irish farmers and Irish agriculture? As for the ongoing issues that cannot be measured at the moment but which may be measured due to scientific advances in a couple of years' time, is there provision within that Bill for that to be allowed into our sequestrati…

I stand proudly to support this motion and thank Deputies Mac Lochlainn and Conway-Walsh for putting it forward. I acknowledge the Minister's work on this issue in recent months and over the past number of days in particular. It is important that his huge effort and great personal commitment to the matter give results for homeowners. We in this House and the Minister do not have time for delays. Homeowners, their families and their communities do not have time. We need a scheme that begins to deliver without any fu…

I am asking about the situation with regard to the proposed IDA Ireland industrial park in Ballina. The project has been under way for almost 30 years and we are really no further on. Planning permission was allowed to lapse in recent years. My most recent update from the Tánaiste last January was that we would be ready for a new planning application in the third quarter of this year and I would like to know whether we are still on schedule.

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I am huge fan of IDA Ireland. It does extraordinary work. However, its handling of this issue has been less than satisfactory. The fact that planning was allowed to lapse in the first place does not suggest priority or urgency. As the Minister of State said, we know it is marketing the site but marketing an industrial site without planning is not necessarily the best way to sell the site as a location to potential investors. Will the Minister of State confirm that the…

I thank the Minister of State. I reiterate that Ballina is delivering for some of the biggest corporate names in the world, including Coca-Cola, Hollister and Lionbridge. If we are given the opportunity our workforce will deliver. We cannot be part of this regional effort unless planning permission is granted. It would be even better if, once the planning permission is granted, the IDA Ireland would commit to an advanced unit. We are located between Sligo, Castlebar and Galway. We are at the centre of the catchment…

I thank the Acting Chairman for his latitude. As the Minister said, this issue is happening right across the public service and we are seeing judicial cases dragging the public service to make progress on this. Let us, therefore, be proactive and try to move this forward. Can the Minister clarify the last point she raised about SI 335 of 1951? Is it a matter for the Commissioner to initiate that process with the Minister or vice versa ? Surely, the Minister would agree that somebody at the age of 60 has an awful lo…

I agree with Deputy Conway-Walsh. I detect that the Minister is anxious to change it because she is dealing with the other side of the issue with her social protection hat on. We need to be embracing of experience and age, however. We should be proactive on this issue rather than being forced to act on it as a consequence of legal decisions. We have seen it going to legal forums in semi-State organisations because they were not proactive in acting on this issue. This policy of retirement at a certain age belongs to…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and I am sharing with Deputies O'Connor, Cahill, McAuliffe and Alan Farrell. I commend the Minister on elements of this plan but the important thing is that they are delivered upon. It would be worthwhile as we come to the first anniversary of this Government to reflect on the amount of announcements in the past 11 months and the correlation between those announcements and delivery on the ground. It is time that we did an analysis of that. Frankly, many parts of the system are not capabl…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for selecting this very important issue. The defective concrete blocks scheme is a scheme to remedy the blocks used to build homes in counties Donegal and Mayo. The scheme as outlined is not working and is actually adding to the immense stress people are already under as a consequence of having pyrite, in the case of the County Mayo houses, in their blocks. They are not at fault; the residents did not put the pyrite in. It was in the blocks when they came from the quarry. In the…

The Minister of State has said the grant scheme targets a restricted group of homeowners who have no other practical options to access redress but this is not a practical option for many families. This will not return a building to the condition it would otherwise have been in, which is another aim of the scheme. Tonight there are families who will leave their bedrooms to sleep in living rooms because wind is going through the house because of the effects of pyrite. That is if those people are sleeping at all becau…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I will go first because I am probably closer to benefiting from the legislation than Deputy Devlin. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on this legislation, although not just this legislation but on her work over the last number of years as Opposition spokesperson on older people in pioneering this legislation and delivering it within ten months of the lifetime of the Government. I commend her persistence and commitment in a very challenging time to ensuring we will get ther…

I thank the Minister and his staff for their engagement over recent months. The scheme is falling short. I cannot begin to describe the mental and physical stress that families are under. Deputy Conway-Walsh and I are working together closely on the scheme. The requirement of a 10% contribution will prevent people from accessing it because they do not have that money. Regarding the requirement to replace like for like in terms of energy issues, we are setting up a meeting with the SEAI. I have met the Banking and P…

This is possibly one of the most consequential and society-changing Bills this Dáil and, dare I say, any Dáil will discuss. It requires substantial and detailed parliamentary scrutiny. It also requires public engagement. It can be legislatively successful but it may not have an impact or support. Without public engagement and support, it may not achieve the results we need it to achieve. I am concerned that as we discuss the Bill, everybody else’s attention is on Covid-19. While that is understandable, given the ch…

I too join Members in commending everyone involved in the vaccine roll-out and particularly the registration portal which has worked very effectively. I have two key questions. One is for the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who I thank for her contact in recent weeks about the vaccinations for home-bound people. I am disappointed to hear there are still 300 people remaining as their vaccinations were all due to have been completed by last weekend. Can the Minister of State give me an idea of where they are geogra…

I commend the Minister on his practical approach to this entire issue since the start of the pandemic and join with him in thanking Revenue. I also acknowledge the role of local authority staff who have been involved in rolling out the various supports to businesses locally. I give them credit for a job incredibly well done. I welcome the commitment about the cliff edge, which is important. We need to continue to emphasise that, particularly as we, hopefully, move into a reopening phase. There are several issues ab…