I asked the Minister a question.

I want to express my deepest condolences to Christy Dignam's family, friends, band mates and fans. Christy was an icon of Irish music and his huge talent and generous spirit will ensure he leaves a lasting legacy. It is ten years since the then Fine Gael and Labour Party Government axed the mobility allowance and the motorised transport grant after the schemes were found to be in breach of the Equal Status Act 2000. At the time the Government promised that replacement schemes would quickly be launched but a decade …

The Government's rural development policy looks good on paper. The Minister has already referred to several success stories, but in some cases those success stories are divorced from the reality. In many towns and villages across west Cork and Ireland, community after community has to fight and fundraise for basic services. In my constituency, villages such as Drimoleague and Kealkill are being proactive in seeking infrastructure to enable children to walk safely to school and older people to walk to the pub or pos…

I have to ask if the Government believes in climate science. It is hard to see how it can believe in climate science and then take some of the decisions that it is taking. We had confirmation yesterday that the extraordinary growth of data centres is continuing. Their consumption of electricity increased by more than 30% last year. Data centres now use up as much electricity as every single household in urban areas and nearly twice as much as all rural homes. The amount of electricity demand from data centres was a…

The Taoiseach commented about there being no new planning applications for data centres. We know there are a few still in the planning stages and a number of others that are still in the construction stages. They are on course to consume at least 30% of our grid capacity by 2030. To give some context on that, the average in other countries is just 2%. It is clear that the Taoiseach recognises the value of growing the economy and also the value of not growing it in that way. We all recognise some of the benefits of …

I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and his team for their work on this motion. The Government claims to prioritise homeownership. It is a brazen claim, and one which I do not think anyone really believes. The reality is that for every year that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael spend in office, rates of homeownership decline. Do not take my word for it. The latest evidence of the Government's relationship with homeownership was detailed in the census figures yesterday. Rates of homeownership declined from nearly 80% in 1991 t…

The census revealed a sharp drop in the proportion of the population who view themselves as Catholic. Between 2016 and 2022, it fell from 79% to 69%. There was also a 62% increase in the number who said they had no religion. We all know people who kind of go along with it and baptise their children to get them into a particular school or so they are not left out of communion; the figures are probably higher than what was in the census. Despite this, nearly 90% of primary schools remain Roman Catholic. People should…

A lot of the debate on this entire issue has been an exercise in grandstanding. Some politicians have seized on the nature restoration law and blatantly stoked up fears for their own benefit - not just Opposition parties and Independents but also Government backbenchers. Of course, they will have to try to be in favour of it in principle to tick the environmental credentials box, while being highly critical of it to satisfy populist demands. Can we get clarity on the Government’s position on the nature restoration …

At the weekend, the Taoiseach said that when it comes to housing policy, his highest priority is home ownership. I think lots of people, especially people of my generation, find that literally impossible to believe. Fine Gael in government has literally done the opposite to increasing home ownership. Not that anyone needed any more evidence of this, but today we have more of it from the census. The rate of home ownership fell from nearly 70% in 2016 to just 66% last year. We know this inability to buy a home is not…

It was Fine Gael that said it was the party of home ownership.

Excuse me?

The reality is, and everybody knows it as the facts are clear; rents have never been higher, house prices have never been higher, homelessness has never been higher and the number of young adults living in their bedrooms in their parents' homes has never been higher. Rates of home ownership have fallen, especially among the younger population. A further collapse in home ownership was not inevitable nor was it an accident. It is the Government continuing to pursue exactly the same policies over and over again. I am …

I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Tully in particular for this important and timely motion, which the Social Democrats fully support. It is another week and another motion on the disgraceful state of our disability services, with another reminder that life is harder, more stressful and more expensive when someone has a disability in Ireland. The motion highlights the unmet need in terms of respite care, with particular reference to the lack of respite beds in Cork. Last week we discussed the 10,696 children who have bee…

Tillage is an important part of our agrifood sector and the rural economy. A University College Dublin report from 2020 showed that Irish tillage generates €1.3 billion in economic outputs and supports 11,000 jobs. It is also one of the sectors within agriculture that has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions and it is already carbon neutral in many cases. Despite all of this, the sector is not being supported properly by the Government and tillage farmers are under severe pressure. I want an update on what the Depar…

The Minister is outlining plans for the area under tillage but there are so many contradictions in the policy. The Minister highlighted that tillage farmers are finding it hard to rent land. There is no plan to address that matter, other than to talk to them about it. This has been an issue for a while now, in particular for farmers who might be facing a change in derogation and who are renting land in other places. Tillage farmers simply cannot compete with the price dairy farmers can make in that way. As a result…

Tillage farmers did not benefit from it.

It requires more consistent policies that reward environmentally sustainable farming. There are policy changes that would make a substantial difference to the sector. We could be growing a lot more feed and food. One of the changes that could be made relates to tillage machinery, which is so expensive. The current investment ceiling of €90,000 in the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, 3 is insufficient to address the cost of specialist equipment in that sector. The scheme could be adjusted upwards. W…

How is keeping the derogation in place a solution?

There is a growing concern among farmers and landowners regarding the impact of ash dieback on roadside trees. Potential safety risks stem from the trees themselves and there are also the challenges of safely felling infected trees. Farmers will potentially need to hire a tree specialist to properly assess the trees on their land and to safely remove impacted ash trees. Currently, however, there is no financial support for the management of roadside ash trees. Will the Minister of State provide it soon? I am not su…

It is good that the Minister of State is looking into this issue. Regarding the schemes to date, the concern I am hearing about from farmers and landowners is that there needs to be more support in this regard. In all likelihood, as the Minister of State said, ash dieback will cause the death of the majority of ash trees here over the next two decades. This will impact roadside trees and increase the risk of falling branches and trees. This presents a clear public concern. Landowners are obliged under the Roads Act…