This is an important debate and I wish to articulate the views of people in my constituency who have been communicating with me. Obviously, airline staff, pilots and their families are very concerned, but they all recognise, as I do, that health is the most important thing here and it is important that we get it right. The advice of NPHET, which is the Holy Grail in the context of the voice that the Government must listen to above all, must be considered and given the greatest weight. That said, an American rang me…

I welcome this debate and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. Any time I have raised issues regarding the care of older people, she has always listened and she is very attentive to the excellent debate we are having this afternoon. I have every confidence, having discussed it with her in this House and in private, that statutory home care packages for all families who want to receive them is the way forward. That is absolutely critical and essential. It is an essential promise in the programme for Government. The…

I am here as a Deputy from County Louth, a Border county. Having lived there all my life, I know how difficult, sad and tragic the loss of any life is on our island. My county has suffered greatly in many ways. I am also Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Our members have agreed unanimously that the families of the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre should come to the Oireachtas next Tuesday to talk to us about how they feel about what happened to their relatives an…

This is a most important debate, and one which we should use to enlighten people and make sure that the important points in respect of climate change are articulated and supported in a constructive engagement with all sides of this House and the community. The most important thing we can do is to educate and inform and tolerate other points of view and bring people round to understanding what we need to do to bring about the change to save our climate, our industry and our jobs, and to have a quality of life for fu…

I wish to bring to the Minister of State's attention that Irish Water is failing in its duty of care on the management of its assets in Drogheda in County Louth and that for the first time ever, the EPA has issued an instruction to Irish Water that if it does not manage its resources properly, it will be prosecuted. There is a stench emanating from the waste water treatment plant. One of the three settlement tanks has been shut down. There is septic sewage coming in from east Meath because it is not being taken out…

Will the Minister of State ensure that the planning system supports the overall efforts for the decarbonisation of society? I welcome the decarbonising zones that have been identified, with one per county. Where the planning system is not working, however, is that a town such as Drogheda, one of the five national growth centres, has not been selected in addition to Dundalk. I welcome Dundalk's selection but it is not a national growth centre. Will the Minister of State examine the rules and regulations to ensure th…

I ask the Minister of State to answer the question I asked about decarbonisation zones. I welcome his analysis and all the work that has been done. He referred to the national planning framework. Drogheda is designated in the framework as a national growth centre but because the selection of decarbonisation zones is limited to one per county, the largest town in Ireland, the next to become a city, cannot take advantage of the access to new ideas and investments that will come through the Department, the Sustainable…

I accept that Drogheda was not mentioned in the initial question, but I mentioned it in the question I have since asked the Minister of State. I ask him now, simply and respectfully, to examine the issue. One would expect that when a town has been identified as a major national growth centre, it would be included as a designated decarbonisation zone in order that it can take full and proper advantage of all the changes coming.

I have an update for the Minister on the vaccination centre for Drogheda. I understand that five potential premises were visited on Monday, but I request that we look again at the Drogheda Institute of Further Education, which is effectively a hospital-orientated vaccination centre for high-risk patients in the community. It is urgent that the decision is made now. The vaccination roll-out is very welcome. I am meeting a lot of very happy people, but I am also hearing about significant and serious concerns expresse…

There is some good news to report on an issue I raised with the Minister in the recent past. The HSE has decided to have a vaccination centre in Drogheda, the largest town in the country, where I live. That is welcome and any support the Minister can give through his office to ensure the centre is staffed with enough vaccinators to vaccinate the population as the vaccines come through would be very welcome. Four premises have been looked at and a decision is imminent. It is important to say that to the Minister. It…

The battle against Covid-19 has been fought very successfully on the front line in our acute hospitals up and down the country. Facts have been brought to my attention and perhaps the Minister can contradict them if I have been given the wrong information. There will be 138 fewer new interns, that is, doctors working on the ground, than there were this time last year. That will have a significant adverse impact in fighting Covid-19 and, indeed, as the numbers increase in our hospitals, on other services that people…

I want to address a category of tenant I believe is in serious condition at the moment. I have been contacted by a number of people who live in rented accommodation and are in difficulty with their landlord because the landlord has left the accommodation in appalling condition. In fact, it does not meet the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. The problem is that if a tenant is not satisfied with the state of the house, and if the landlord refuses to make improvements, the tenant can and does go …

Allocations for the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, have been announced this week and Drogheda, the largest town in the country outside of the major cities, got absolutely no support. It got zero marks, practically, in its application. Of the 70-odd applications, Drogheda is in the lowest cohort, in about 66th place. That is entirely unacceptable. There is a huge crisis of confidence in local government, both locally and nationally, as a result of this decision. The assessment of the Drogheda applica…

I welcome the Minister. I acknowledge his competence, interest and dynamic approach to third level education and also his new initiatives. I endorse his policy in supporting Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, in becoming a technological university. It is a critical demand for our area. As we know, Dundalk and Drogheda are two large urban conurbations on the Belfast-Dublin corridor, which will be the base for new industry coming here. The technological university proposal makes a lot of sense to us. Drogheda is …

I have a question for the Minister about Drogheda. Drogheda is a town of 40,000 people and surrounding it live another 40,000. At the moment, insofar as we are aware, the HSE is insisting that the vaccination centre for Louth will go to either Navan or Dundalk, which is very difficult for a great many people. Will there be enough vaccinators to ensure that a centre is opened in Drogheda or, alternatively, will the vaccinators be rotated around large centres of population such as Drogheda, Dundalk, Ardee and so on? …

The HSE is aware of offers of suitable premises in Drogheda and tells me it can open one if it gets the vaccinators. I appreciate that my time is up. I thank the Minister and I will correspond on this through his office. If the HSE has the vaccinators, we have the centre. I think the Minister is saying he has the interest and the intent to facilitate this.

The first issue I wish to highlight is where Ireland stands internationally in terms of vaccine provision. The previous speaker should take the liberty of checking the facts before he makes claims which are not true. The fact is that Ireland is ahead of Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy and France in terms of vaccinations per 100,000 population.

I did not catch the Deputy's interjection, but I wish to make clear to him that Ireland is doing extremely well compared with other countries. Indeed, if he had been listening to the Minister for Health, he would know that we have ordered in the region of 10 million vaccines. The issue about vaccination is that we all went together as European citizens. The Deputy may be aware that there is a meeting today of all the European Union Heads of State and Government with the aim of rolling out the vaccines even more qui…

Fáiltím roimh an díospóireacht seo. Tá sé an-tábhachtach go bhfuil na tuairimí á nochtadh againn ó gach taobh den Dáil agus gur féidir linn comhoibriú leo siúd a bhfuil ar an taobh Thuaidh den teorainn. Tá sé tábhachtach, ó thaobh cúrsaí eacnamaíochta agus sóisialta de, go mbeidh an dá chuid den tír seo ag comhoibriú chomh mór agus is féidir leo. I welcome this debate. I speak as Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and as somebody from a family whose members have had a…

This is a very important legislative proposal, which I very much support. We need to be real about what has happened in this State in the past so that we can make the right decisions now. I would absolutely challenge what Sinn Féin has said about houses, the private sector and local authorities. The fact is, that between 2011 and 2017 NAMA offered 6,640 houses to local authorities up and down the country. These houses were built and empty and ready for occupation but the local authorities just took 2,500 of them an…