Drogheda is the largest town in Ireland with a population of more than 80,000, yet since March it has had no driver testing centre. A total of 2,700 people who applied to sit their test in Drogheda must go elsewhere to towns they neither live in nor know well. A freedom of information request shows that of the significant number of centres turned down by the Road Safety Authority, two were found suitable. One is at the Mell Road recycling centre. There was no problem with this site but the Road Safety Authority tur…

I move: That Dáil Éireann shall take note of the Report of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement entitled "Lessons from the Architects of the Good Friday Agreement", copies of which were laid before Dáil Éireann on 27th March, 2023. The recent anniversaries of the signature of the Good Friday Agreement and of its resounding endorsement by referendum have provided an important period of reflection across these islands. To mark this period, the Joint Committee on the Implementation of…

Fáiltím roimh an méid atá ráite ag gach duine sa Teach inniu. Measaim gur féidir linn go léir leanúint leis an obair, ag comhoibriú agus ag obair le daoine ó thuaidh agus ó dheas ach go háirithe. I thank all the contributors for their remarks so far on the committee’s report. It is a collective report and the committee works in a very collective manner. We all get on very well. We really do; we respect everybody and respect their place. I want to speak for a moment about somebody for whom I think we need to show gr…

Could the Minister provide an update on the status of the review of the Special Criminal Court, which I understand he received this week, after due consideration in his Department? In particular, when does he expect to place the report in the public domain and before the Oireachtas?

I welcome the Minister's response and concur entirely with his view that the Special Criminal Court has been a key component of democracy's response to serious intimidation from paramilitaries, drug barons and evil people who would otherwise stalk this land and intimidate jurors. The Special Criminal Court should be used in exceptional circumstances. The fact that there are three judges goes some way towards meeting some of the concerns some people might have but at the end of the day, it did put away the murderers…

I again welcome the Minister's personal commitment to that. Clearly it will be a matter for the House to vote or abstain on that resolution as some parties may choose to do. I want to affirm my support for the exceptional circumstances in which it must be used and the continuation of that in our armoury as a democracy to fight those who would challenge and intimidate most jurors. I acknowledge the work of the An Garda Síochána in County Louth, particularly in my own town, in dealing with those who perpetrated the m…

I absolutely respect the wisdom of the Garda Commissioner and the way gardaí handle protests. They are the people with the professionalism and the experience to deal with it. I am deeply concerned by the pictures I saw on television at the weekend of masked men. Appallingly, they were carrying my flag and your flag. This is unacceptable. It is reported that, allegedly, people went on a bus and counted refugees as if they were animals. This is unacceptable. The way people seeking international protection were abused…

Yes.

I acknowledge the effort and the work of the gardaí in Drogheda and County Louth, as well as the additional gardaí in the county. We have over 70 new gardaí in the whole county and in my own town of Drogheda we have 16 new community gardaí. Whatever about the chief superintendent, and I have no issue with Deputy Smith on that, it is the community garda who is the person that is needed - the man on the ground, the man with the knowledge, the man in the place, the man you can contact, the man who turns up. That is wh…

I am sharing time with Deputy Higgins. This is an important debate. I agree with much of what has been said, on all sides of the House. It strikes a chord with me and the people I have been talking to. Nobody would have believed in February 2022 that 85,000 new people would now be living in Ireland. It is the equivalent of the total population of counties Cavan or Offaly or, as was said by a Minister, of Galway city. That is a huge task. To be fair to the Minister and the Government, I think what happened in Clare …

May I ask a supplementary question?

I certainly will. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the courtesy.

The Government's policies are working. The Minister referred to the first home and help-to-buy schemes. He visited Drogheda recently, but he may not be aware that, under those schemes, houses are being advertised for sale today at a mortgage rate of just under €1,000 per month, making them more affordable than renting there. We need more of the same. The schemes are working because Government policies are working and spending is happening. That is welcome.

There was a grant some years ago - perhaps my colleague, Deputy Durkan, might recall it - where in lieu of a housing application, the extension was built and the council then deemed that the housing need had been met. That might be worth looking at. I will refer to what the Minister of State said regarding the review of housing adaptation grants. We need that very soon. This week, it was announced that more money would be made available for County Louth but Louth County Council decided it would not accept any more …

I first raised this issue in February of last year. Many of my constituents whose principal private residence is a mobile home are living in the ice age as regards heating them. They cannot afford to heat them, the homes have poor insulation, and many of these residents are in poor health or have disabilities and a number of them have fallen on hard times. They cannot benefit from the excellent Government scheme because they do not have their own individual electricity meter; the energy is supplied by the park owne…

More than 2,000 people who were residents of nursing homes died during Covid-19. Rightly and properly, the Government funded supports for nursing homes to the tune of, as of December 2022, €145 million. There are problems, however, regarding the funding of some of those nursing homes. An example on the HIQA website is Ratoath Manor nursing home, which received more than €405,000 in temporary assistance payment scheme, TAPS, supports. Yet it is quite clear that the HIQA inspectors are not assured that this is a well…

The master's voice.

I wish to reflect on the number of people who lost their lives during the conflict, or Troubles, in Northern Ireland. More than 3,700 people died and 47,541 were injured. The majority of those who died were actually innocent civilians, and 68% of those injured were also innocent civilians. Therefore, the Troubles cast considerable shame on all those involved. The Good Friday Agreement is bringing to an end the awful, terrible killing, murder and violence. It has built on the peace and we have hopes for the future. …

Since the resignation of the members of the independent Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal in 2021, more than 759 severely disabled and permanently disabled citizens have been denied an appeals process, having been refused a HSE primary medical certificate. They are entitled to appeal that. There is no way they can appeal now. This very day I have the case of an 81-year-old constituent suffering from dementia who is wheelchair bound and has hoists in his home. He is permanently bound never to leave that home …

Listening to the addresses of the Opposition, obviously most of them are entirely unaware of what is happening in my constituency, County Louth, with one clear exception. Deputy Ó Murchú is well aware, familiar and supportive of what is happening in the town of Drogheda and in County Louth in fighting crime, organised crime and drugs. There were appalling murders, the dismembering of a young boy, the burning of homes and fear and loathing in every street and part of our town two or three years ago. As a result of t…