I thank Deputy McNamara and the Independent Group for bringing forward this important motion. Sinn Féin is very happy to support the motion and has submitted an amendment to include the south east. The aviation recovery task force report, published earlier this year, highlighted the huge value of aviation to the Irish economy. Air transport contributes an estimated €8.9 billion to our GDP and supports in the region of 140,000 jobs across the State. I, like many of my colleagues, have been in contact with a huge num…

I have raised this issue with the Minister before. My contribution will focus on how Brexit will affect our road haulage sector and the impact it will have on those using the land bridge through Britain to transport goods onto and off this island. The Copenhagen Economics report commissioned by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation found that two thirds of Irish goods exporters or 150,000 heavy goods vehicles make use of the UK land bridge to access continental markets each year. It is a vital route…

I want to ask the Minister about the climate action and low carbon development (amendment) Bill. As the Minister will be aware, the Bill is currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny at the Joint Committee on Climate Action. The committee is just coming to its conclusion. I thank all the various stakeholders. I want to know if the Minister has heard from the stakeholders on the positive suggestions that they have brought forward and if he will be accepting and making amendments to the Bill.

I welcome the fact that the Minister is open to accepting amendments. There is some degree of consensus emerging, certainly that there is an amount of work to be done to improve the legislation. Will the Minister outline the expected timeline, working on the basis that the committee's report will be ready in the next week or two, for further progress on the legislation? I ask the Minister to speak to a point relating to public involvement and public engagement and the opportunity that exists with the passing of thi…

There is a range of issues that have been raised, as the Minister might appreciate, from the range of stakeholders whom I again thank. I refer to the strength of the language, for example, on the targets and the need for, if not interim targets, certainly checks and opportunities to correct the path if we are going astray. That is a significant ask and I would ask the Minister to address that. On the question mark over the 2050 target, given the changes at a European level and the climate target plan there, where w…

It is vital our progress towards a carbon-neutral 2050 and a greener future is done in a fair and just way. Have key climate proposals, such retrofitting, the installation of smart meters and electric vehicle, EV, charging points, been subject to a human rights and equality impact assessment as required under section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014?

It sounds as if they have not been equality-proofed, so to speak. It speaks to the point of the actual impact of policy decisions of Government and the need to do away with the notion of "them and us" in relation to the green agenda. It seems to frame much of what happens and that is underpinned by the implications in the real world of policy decisions on the green agenda. I want to ask about some of the retrofitting programmes, specifically the warmth and well-being energy efficiency programme and the better energ…

There is a significant delay in terms of a backlog. I certainly welcome the funding and would encourage a significant ramping up of recruitment of workers to address that. I also acknowledge the fact that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul indicated that there are around 400,000 people living in fuel and energy poverty. Age Action indicated that there are in the region of 2,000 excess winter deaths related to fuel and energy poverty. I reference the strategy to combat energy poverty 2016 to 2019. Is the Minister go…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill. I want to raise two issues, the first of which is the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS. Under the CRSS announced in the budget a business that is impacted by Covid-19 related restrictions, including closure, can make a claim to Revenue for a payment for each week it is affected by those restrictions. That is a welcome support given the massive impact Covid-19 is having on certain businesses across the State. While most businesses have been impacted in s…

I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Donnelly. County Meath is in the eye of the Covid-19 storm, with a 14-day incidence number of 1,287, which is 660 cases per 100,000. The people of my county have endured and suffered a great deal, none more so than Mary Bartley Meehan, whose husband, Ultan Meehan, and son, Adrian Bartley, both died during the pandemic. I call on the Government to engage with and support Mary in her quest for information and truth. The people of Meath are anxious but ready to play their part to get…

To follow on from that point, replies I have received to parliamentary questions confirm that there has never been a greater demand for school bus transport than this year and there have never been more refusals. It is wrong to state that this is related to Covid and that there is no demand. There has never been more demand for school bus transport and never have more children been refused.

I thank the Regional Group for tabling this important motion. Sinn Féin is happy to support it. We have submitted an amendment which we believe further adds to the motion and we hope that people can support it. The work of postmasters and workers throughout our postal service has been vital during this pandemic, ensuring that people can stay in contact, access their weekly payments and pay their bills. I commend An Post's recent initiative of providing free post to our friends and family who are resident in nursing…

The Department was in contact with us and it explained the background to this Bill, as the Minister of State has done again today. I thank her for that. She outlined the nature of the time pressure due to legislative changes at EU level so Sinn Féin is happy to support the legislation. I will keep my comments brief given the requirement to deal with all Stages this week to ensure the legislation can be put in place by 31 October. Railways are an incredibly important part of our transport infrastructure serving work…

I am conscious that the Chamber and the Houses of the Oireachtas have approached this legislation and this type of question numerous times in the past. Those most vulnerable and in need of support have often fared poorly. The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters was never meant to be an end in and of itself. Maybe there are those who hoped it would be. Maybe there are those who wished it never happened. There is no doubt that the commission in its terms of reference was…

I welcome some of the positive announcements in the budget in the areas of climate action and transport. Investing in our public transport system, active travel options and improving the quality of our roads and rail lines are all vitally important in addressing our emissions obligations and improving the quality of life of our citizens. Unsurprisingly, I also want to address a number of the areas where we believe the Government has failed and set out why we believe these issues should be approached differently. Si…

This is a serious issue and I will approach it from an overarching point of view in relation to aviation. Testing has been an absolute dog's dinner and the State needs a plan for aviation for many reasons, including connectivity, regional balance, employment and climate. There are huge groups of workers and areas affected. The airlines themselves, maintenance and repair, leasing and tourism are all dependent on our aviation sector and our connectivity. The sector has been failed by this Government at the July stimu…

The Minister has not addressed the issue of testing. We have for months been listening to a debate about what are false negative and false positive Covid-19 tests and the performance of different diagnostic assays. There are international examples. The DAA is ready to go with 15,000 tests a day. What are the Minister and the Government doing in that regard? The game has changed around aviation. There is an opportunity for the State to step in and deliver a strategic future for the sector which would make a signific…

This carbon tax is brutal, punitive and a lazy cop-out. It is a failure by the Government to take the hard decisions and to tackle the root causes, the big polluters and the issues of poverty, including energy poverty. It is also a failure to provide alternatives. There is the equivalent of a two and a half-year wait for the warmer homes scheme. Were one to join the queue today, 8,000 people would already be on the list. With approximately 3,000 houses being processed per year, that represents a wait of two and a h…

Transport workers in particular, including taxi drivers and private bus operators, will feel the pain of this. It is disproportionate and unfair.

Children in Skreen have attended school in Navan for generations and they have been accommodated under the school transport scheme for years. Similar to many others around the country, they found their own solutions when they were left out of that scheme, such is its exclusionary nature. Families managed to work with Flexibus and TFI Local Link Louth, Meath, Fingal to get a bus on the road and share the cost. When the 50% rule was introduced with three days' notice, they were told that the National Transport Author…