I raise again the issue of school bus drivers. Drivers and bus companies are on to me constantly. They are completely exasperated about the age limit that applies to school bus drivers. Under a recent change, people can hold a driver licence up to the age of 75 years without a medical report. School bus drivers are pensioners in the vast majority of cases. Driving a school bus part-time is excellent for their mental health and financially. They can drive a tourist bus from Donegal to Cork but they cannot drive a sc…

Five or six years ago, An Post closed its office on Liberty Square, Thurles, and relocated to a shopping centre in the town. That building has now been idle for years. The Government has invested hugely in Liberty Square through the urban regeneration fund. It is completely unacceptable that a semi-State body like An Post would leave a building like this in a pivotal part of the centre of town idle. I urge the relevant Minister to put pressure on An Post to get a commercial outlet in this premises as soon as possib…

On 10 February last year, I received an answer to a parliamentary question which indicated that the plans for a referendum on the ownership of Irish Water were well advanced. Almost 12 months have passed. I would like to know if the Cabinet has given consideration to the holding of this referendum and has a date been selected for it?

I raise a Revenue issue with the Minister. Farmers who are unregistered for VAT have always been able to reclaim it for infrastructural projects on their farms. In the past couple of months, Revenue has started to exclude items from that list, for example, slurry bags, automatic calf feeders, bulk milk tanks and automatic scrapers. This is completely unjustified by Revenue. It completely changes the VAT treatment for farmers unregistered for VAT. I request that the Government open dialogue with Revenue to get these…

Regulations are being imposed on rural Ireland. Farmers and rural dwellers are becoming exasperated with the amount of regulation that is coming down from the EU. It is leaving a sour taste. The latest one is the ban on burning green waste. I am most certainly not a climate change denier, but we are being told by environmentalists that it is very good for the environment to leave growth on our ditches for three or four years before trimming and cutting it as that creates a greater carbon sink. However, making farme…

I appreciate the Ceann Comhairle selecting this Topical Issue again so soon after the last night we discussed it in the Chamber. On that occasion Deputies Carthy, Fitzmaurice and McGuinness were here with me. We were unanimous on the need for an investigation into what happened on Dan Brennan's farm in Castlecomer. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine discussed this approximately 12 months ago. We were of the view that a grave injustice has been done to Dan Brennan with regard to the p…

We put this matter to the Minister a couple of weeks ago here and he said he would go and examine the possibilities of having this type of investigation.

A paragraph the Minister of State read out, and I know he was reading from a statement supplied to him, stated he was "advised that the multiagency report concluded that the problems in this herd were multifactorial in nature and that common infectious diseases were likely to have accounted for much of the ill-thrift and poor growth rates recorded". That is just fiction. When animals left this herd to go for trials elsewhere, their thrive recovered. Some 45 acres of vegetation, including ditches, etc., also died on…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

The events of last Thursday shook our society to the core. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and hopefully they will make a full recovery. I acknowledge the heroic efforts of the brave individuals who intervened to save the children and their teachers and our front-line workers who acted heroically on what was a black Thursday for our society. Law and order is not just an issue in Dublin city centre; it is an issue all around the country. Every town and village has its own problems and issues. We ne…

The case did not happen on the watch of the current Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine but is an historical case. Dan Brennan appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine around this time last year. He has been in Brussels twice with this case and has got no answers. He looked for his file that was submitted to Brussels at the time but they refused to give him back his file. Dan Brennan deserves answers. We do not know what happened on his farm but many questions must be a…

First of all, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving us extra time. I really appreciate it. When I spoke a few minutes ago, I outlined many unanswered questions. The least we owe to Mr. Brennan is to carry out a review of this case. His veterinary surgeon, Tom Slevin, did 35 post-mortems and 11 showed results he had never seen before. The bones of the animals were soft and could be cut with a knife and new bones were forming in the arteries and kidneys of the animals. He wrote to the Department to request that a pa…

Flooding is causing hardship nationwide, and that has to be recognised in any compensation package. I wish to make a point about the lack of maintenance and cleaning of our rivers. I was in three houses in my constituency which suffered flooding over the weekend. The only reason they have been flooded is the lack of maintenance of nearby rivers and streams. The policy at the moment is not to maintain or clean streams. We will have increasing frequency of flooding of residences and businesses if we do not reverse th…

Shannondoc has been revitalised in my constituency. It now has very little involvement from local GPs. We have two main centres in north Tipperary, in Thurles and Nenagh, and we have an excellent new primary care centre in Thurles. However, there seems to be an onus on reducing the hours in the Thurles centre. I urge the Taoiseach to use his influence with the HSE to ensure that Thurles and Nenagh have the same working hours for Shannondoc.

It is with regret that I have to stand here again and talk about ash dieback. I have spoken numerous times in this Chamber and in the committee room about the terrible financial consequences that ash dieback has brought on farmers. It is over ten years since ash dieback was discovered in this country and for the 16,000 hectares of land that attracted grant aid, unfortunately those farmers now have rubble instead of a profitable crop to harvest. I have been representing farmers for many years and I have never seen a…

I have had numerous meetings with farmers who were unfortunate enough to be affected by ash dieback. As I have said, the financial loss has been very great. When there was brucellosis, TB, dioxin in pigs and severe financial losses being incurred in horticulture, compensation was always put in place. Here we have a disease that, in cases, has resulted in 20 or 25 years of given lands' productivity being lost. I have never seen loss on such a scale being incurred by farmers. We have had various schemes to encourage …

I want to raise the issue of school transport. Bus operators are finding it next to impossible to recruit drivers. Bus Éireann has a criterion that drivers over 70 years of age cannot drive school buses which is nonsensical. It is an ideal job for a retired person. Those over 70 may drive a tourist bus from Mizen Head to Malin Head, but cannot drive the 5 km or 10 km around their local schools. This needs to be revisited. At the moment certain routes are without buses because operators cannot source drivers. Bus Éi…

I want to raise the issue of Irish Water. First, when will we have a referendum on its ownership? Second, the transfer of water services staff from county councils to Irish Water is proving very unpopular, and I believe the level of services that will be given will disimprove significantly. As Oireachtas Members, we have a system to make representations to Irish Water, and this is working extremely poorly. From overbilling to leak allowances to incorrect banding rates being applied to accounts, when we contact Iris…

I met a number of families at the weekend who are caring for family members with high dependency. Unfortunately, these families have not had any access to respite care since before the Covid pandemic. This is putting huge pressure on family members who have an adult with high dependency in their household. It is an extremely difficult situation. I ask that extra resources be put in place in order that we have respite care in place for adults with high dependency in Tipperary as quickly as possible.

I raise the issue of community pharmacy pay. Community pharmacies have had a pay freeze for the past 15 years. One in ten community pharmacies, mainly in rural areas, is loss-making. This figure will increase unless investment is made. Administrative burdens associated with the community drugs scheme, the ongoing issue of medicine supply challenges and the underutilisation by the Government of our pharmacies' unique skillset has led to burnout in the profession. Community pharmacies are now the only healthcare sect…