The Government tells us all eligible children will be accommodated. That is a careful use of words, which hides the fact that thousands of children who would have been accommodated in previous years have been excluded from school transport scheme this year. Covid-19 is a factor, but the Government's complete failure to plan, prepare and deliver is a larger one. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, was consulted but the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, was not. That tells us everything we ne…

Replies I received from the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, confirmed that, as of last Thursday, 97,644 tickets had been issued for primary and secondary school transport, not including transport for students with special educational needs. The comparable figure this time last year was 103,764. That is a difference of 6,120 children. That is a lot of children who have been left without a service by the fixed constraints of the school transport scheme. Of course, the 33 children in Skreen are not in…

It should not escape the attention of the Minister that 40% of the Priority Questions that have been tabled are on the issue of taxis. Rather than having a repeat of his exchange with Deputy Boyd Barrett, I ask the Minister to focus on the financial package for taxi drivers for which he is advocating as the Minister with responsibility for the sector.

I am glad the Minister mentioned the enterprise support grant. Taxi drivers are reporting that it can take up to 11 weeks for applications to be processed and in that time they are supposed to be back at work and earning. They do not have the reserves to get back to work. That delay needs to be addressed. I will give an example from my constituency of an application under the credit guarantee scheme. One of my constituents who was refused a low interest loan on a Monday under the credit guarantee scheme was given a…

I welcome the Minister's statement that he will engage with taxi drivers. They have clearly set out their requests and they want the Minister, who is their Minister at the Cabinet table, to articulate their position on expanding the Covid PUP and also the step-down payment. The Minister needs to hear that loudly and clearly from this side of the House and from taxi drivers. Taxi drivers need to hear from the Minister, both in the House and at the Cabinet table. That is a clear and reasonable ask. Another issue that…

I would like to raise the issue of connectivity. Yesterday, I raised the aviation sector with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. There are very particular challenges there, as the Minister will be well aware. This morning, we heard from Mr. Eugene Drennan, president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, and Mr. John Martin, the policy manager for haulage association in the North. They share the same concerns, albeit from geographically diff…

I will address this matter in the context of maternity services and appointments. Speaking on my own behalf, I am very happy to say my wife is 40 weeks pregnant plus one week and her due date was yesterday. We have lived with these restrictions in place at the Rotunda hospital just like everybody else. We would rather if it was different. I am grateful that the pregnancy is progressing well. Deputy Cullinane can speak about the other side of this issue. I am also grateful that this is not our first child. People's …

I am sharing with Deputies Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Maurice Quinlivan; they may or may not arrive. I will have an opportunity during Question Time tomorrow to raise the taxi industry, public and school bus transport and other important issues relating to transport with the Ministers. I will be glad to have the opportunity to do that. I want to focus today on the aviation industry. I echo the Minister's commendation of front-line transport workers during the Covid period. Although the aviation sector was one of the…

I thank Deputy Ward for bringing this motion forward. It is timely and important, particularly for the people living in the areas most affected. It is fair to say that these issues present in different ways in different places, some at the more extreme end. The solution is the same in all cases and it is clearly outlined in the Sinn Féin motion. It is about ensuring there are sufficient Garda numbers for prevention and deterrence and adequate community resources, both physical and human. I am a Deputy for Meath Eas…

If we are to achieve 70% renewable electricity by 2030, a key component will be ordinary people and community groups generating their own electricity and selling the excess back to the grid. Solar photovoltaics, PV, can play an important part in this but blockages in the system are preventing that becoming a reality. Can the Minister outline the steps he will take to remove these barriers and increase the amount of electricity generated from solar PV?

Paying people for the excess electricity produced by their solar panels will result in their installation becoming much more appealing to many more people. At the moment, excess electricity produced by privately installed solar panels is spilling onto the grid for free. It is not fair on those who have paid thousands for them and does not make a compelling financial case for those considering investing in solar panels. One can do it in Newry or Strabane but cannot in Lifford or Dundalk. I have a sister in Belfast a…

In the interest of time I will commend noteworthy.ie and thejournal.ie . They have come in for some pressure in recent days which is probably not unrelated to the important work they are doing in terms of analysis, evidence, transparency and accountability. I would be happy to send the information to the Minister. There is some concern about smart meters and the nature of the information they will collect. Has the planned roll-out of smart meters been affected by Covid-19? What assurances can the Minister give to p…

This is an issue that I have already raised but will continue to raise with the Minister as this Government looks set to repeat the mistakes of the past. The need to connect our two grids on the island is vital, even for the solar improvements we spoke of earlier. The current plan however for the North-South interconnector is putting this crucial piece of infrastructure in jeopardy. What are the up-to-date differences in cost of overgrounding versus undergrounding?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. The Minister raised the report of 2018. He must know that the community has no confidence in this report. It never did and I understand why. It is not the case that the community saw the report, did not like it, and walked away from it. They said from the very outset that they did not have confidence in the inquiry team, in the terms of reference, or in the methodology that was applied. Essentially it was designed, in their opinion, to give an outcome which it duly did. That is fundam…

The solution here, and I want to contribute to finding a solution, is to co-design an independent review of the undergrounding option involving all of the stakeholders, with the identification of a suitable panel of inquiry and independent consultants, where the terms of reference and the methodology to be employed will be co-designed with the stakeholders. We have never had that. In fairness to the community group they engaged with the 2011 report, but subsequent to that in their opinion, which I share, there have…

I know and I am sure that the Minister is aware that he misrepresented Sinn Fein’s position on the North-South interconnector in his last contribution but we will have time to come back to that, hopefully, in oral questions, where I can state the case clearly. On the recent renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, auction, can the Minister outline how he intends to increase the numbers and welcome the community groups who are contributing?

The Minister will be aware of the international comparisons with Scotland, for example, and many parts of Scandinavia in terms of the state infrastructure that is available to facilitate communities which want to connect to the grid. The Minister might outline his plans to build that infrastructure. All of this contributes to the price of electricity in Ireland, which we know is among the highest in Europe. Is the Minister in contact with energy providers to address the proposed hike in energy prices, particularly …

On the price of electricity, does the Minister believe, on the basis of his exchanges with them, that providers are still intent on increasing prices? Are they still on that trajectory or will the Minister's intervention or that of the energy regulator provide some relief for customers? I am sure the latter would very much welcome an update on that. Regarding the community infrastructure, Templederry is a very good example and we welcome the other projects that have been long held up as exemplars but the opportunit…

I will not repeat my concerns on this topic from earlier. Has the Minister met or will he meet representatives of North East Pylon Pressure and Monaghan Anti-Pylon who have been campaigning on this issue for years? Sinn Féin, North and South, has been very clear and upfront in our position on the North-South interconnector.

The Minister mentioned EirGrid's engagement involving community liaison officers and a mobile information unit. I would like the Minister to meet people in the community to see what those words mean in those communities. The way EirGrid has handled this project and how it is perceived have the opposite effect to that presented by EirGrid. The same is said of the sponsorship of local groups, organisations and events. It is not well received in the community. There needs to be a third way to find a solution to this. …