Next Tuesday.

Judging by all the contributions, the Taoiseach has an awful lot of problems to solve and money to give out after today, and I am going to add one more that has not yet been spoken about, although I have spoken about it many times previously. It relates to speeding up investment for infrastructure in Irish Water. Clonmel has been decimated with outages and disruptions all year to the point where 40,000 households in the region around the town were out of water for three days. It is happening weekly and affects busi…

I welcome the recent announcement by the Departments of the Environment, Climate and Communications and Enterprise, Trade and Employment of extra financial support for businesses to install solar PV panels. It is hugely welcome. The Government has done an awful lot for homeowners in the form of SEAI grants to support them to install solar panels but we probably had not done enough for businesses prior to this announcement. It is significant because, whereas previously businesses could only receive €2,400, they can …

Now.

Now.

I will be brief. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, to the House. He stated that the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, who was present, needed time to consider the Bill. We should have asked him which areas he considered. The Bill is welcome news for consumers, as well as for traders. Good traders who practise well and within the law have nothing to worry about here. The Bill pertains to traders who do not take that approach. As stated, the EU has some of the strongest consumer rights laws in the wor…

I will not repeat what everyone else said. I thank the Minister and his officials for their work on this legislation. As he knows, my colleague, Senator Lombard, did much work on this legislation as well through the joint committee and this House. He wanted to be here today but could not be. I just wanted to pass on his gratitude to the Minister and his officials for getting this over the line. As always, we are happy to work with the Minister. He is a very engaging Minister. We have always found this from our pers…

I thank the Cathaoirleach. It is hard to follow on from the really good contributions of colleagues, especially Senator Doherty's outline of Mary's contribution as a Senator and as a woman in politics. Most speakers have touched on that. There are many people in County Tipperary, especially in the Cappawhite area, who mourned Mary's passing last year. I am sure they are listening to the contributions here today. She was Limerick through and through but she had strong connections to Cappawhite and to Tipperary. Coll…

I thank the Minister of State for being here today, which is much appreciated. My Commencement matter relates to Kilsheelan National School, which is a wonderful community school in a small village just outside Clonmel. People will be very familiar with Kilsheelan, which is a previous winner of Tidy Towns and comes very close to winning most years. It is a wonderful village right on the Suir blueway between Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir. The school has more than 100 pupils with five teachers including a teaching prin…

I thank the Minister of State. In fairness, the principal and the school will acknowledge the good communication they have had with the Department and the Minister for Education. The real key for them is to ensure there is no hold-up and that once they send in the tender report, which the principal has said he will be doing following the end of the process today, things will move forward as quickly as possible. A principal and board of management get asked about these matters by parents all the time. When it is ann…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House today. First, it is important to acknowledge the work done by the Department of Social Protection in issuing PPS numbers, in particular in the last year when 300,000 were issued. The Department has done so speedily, particularly for Ukrainian citizens coming to Ireland. This Commencement matter has a lot to do with retail and hospitality, so I am glad this Minister of State is taking it. From my experience, and from queries received in my office, there are a lot…

I thank the Minister of State for that offer. I might take him up on that. I have a number of cases in Clonmel, in particular, that I need to get through as quickly as possible. I understand the turnaround time is 1.3 weeks. Is it possible to get a breakdown of what it is per county for Tipperary? It is definitely not what I am experiencing. Another question, which is important, is whether that average turnaround time includes Ukrainian citizens who arrived in the past year. Their turnaround time is four days. If y…

I also compliment Senator Carrigy on the work he has done in trying to get this to become the first autism-friendly Parliament. I too took the course. It is very informative and I encourage everyone to do that. I also acknowledge Senator Lombard on the blue flag awarded to Garretstown beach. I use the beach regularly over the summer months. It is a wonderful beach. There is a lovely restaurant beside it that overlooks the coast. It is beautiful there. I ask that we have a debate with the Minister for Finance in reg…

I also welcome the news that credit unions will be allowed to offer mortgages. This is a significant development. It is very important for communities right across the country, including my community in Tipperary. Our own credit union in Clonmel will be celebrating 60 years in existence on 1 June. The Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, will be coming down for the occasion. She met stakeholders of the credit unions approximately two or three months ago. She had a really good engagement about the kind of wor…

I have lost count of how many times I have raised this subject in this House, at home and in local media. It relates to Clonmel Garda station. I look forward to the Minister's response. We are finally at a point where we have a solution and this project can progress. I have raised it so often because of the number of delays to the Garda station project and, most important, to support the gardaí who work in the Clonmel district. We have a fine site in Kickham Barracks to build a new, modern Garda station for all the…

I thank the Minister for that confirmation. The Minister said he hopes this is good news for the Garda in Clonmel and I can tell him straight that it is hugely good news. I was speaking to the superintendent there and he has confirmed his team in Clonmel of this and they are overwhelmed and thrilled that this is happening. It has been a long time coming but we have got there in the end. This could not have happened without the intervention of the Minister, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Nati…

I thank the Minister of State for being here to take this important Commencement matter. As a father of young kids, he will understand the concerns I have for young parents and mothers going through maternity services. Most of my contribution is about maternity services throughout the country but, in particular, in Tipperary University Hospital, Clonmel. The first thing to acknowledge is the work the staff there have done, particularly over the past three years, during Covid. The maternity ward has played a key rol…

I recognise that, and Wexford General Hospital is a good example of a hospital where measures had to be brought in because of circumstances that arose. That is not the point I am making, however. The HSE states that restrictions have no longer applied since Covid but that is not the case in some hospitals. They have not gone back to pre-Covid visiting measures. There is a feeling among parents and families that it is almost as though some hospitals do not want visitors coming in at all. The arrival of a newborn is …

I request that we have a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, on food prices. I welcome the forum that he held with the retail sector yesterday, but now we need action. There is an opportunity for the Minister to come to the House to outline the type of action we need to see over the next number of weeks and months. Everyone is seeing an increase in their weekly spending. People used see in their bill at the end of the weekly shop that it had risen by €10, €20 or whatever. It has got to the point no…

I agree with many of the comments Senator Dooley made. The Cathaoirleach will agree with me in wishing more people had seen the game, as they would have seen that Tipperary should have won it and not thrown it away in the last five minutes. I ask for a debate with the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs on companies selling into Russia, particularly Jameson's owner, Pernod Ricard, which started selling into Russia last September and has sold almost €16 million worth of Jameson product. I have seen in the past…