Can the Tánaiste give me his assessment of the latest personal injuries awards of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB? When can we see that having an impact on the cost of insurance for individuals, businesses and sporting organisations?

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. We all welcome the fall in the level of awards made. When are we going to see this reflected in the price of insurance? When does the Tánaiste expect this to happen? Has he had any engagement with insurance companies on this? According to the Alliance for Insurance Reform, public liability insurance premiums continue to rise the despite a significant fall in the size of injury awards. It states that motor insurance premiums are coming down but that is not the case with public lia…

Neil McDonnell, the chief executive of ISME, said he would like to see the Government implement the provision of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 providing for the creation of a register of the parties taking personal injury actions, in order to identify potential abuses of the system by persons who make multiple claims. That would be a welcome development in helping to expose anybody who is making fraudulent claims. The Tánaiste stated that some sectors are finding it very hard to get insurance. Does the Go…

Will the Tánaiste outline the supports provided for small businesses under budget 2022?

The years 2020 and 2021 have been extremely difficult for businesses, particularly the businesses that have been adversely affected by Covid-19. I have spoken in the House on a number of occasions about the tourism bus sector and the huge pressure on it. There are a number of companies in my constituency that run very efficient bus operations for tourism. They had no business in 2021 but they have bookings for 2022. There was an allocation in the budget for tourism. It is absolutely imperative that this money is di…

The Government has put a massive amount of investment into supporting business through an unprecedented and difficult time. As we head into the spring of 2022, it is essential to continue that support. There are businesses that are still seriously affected and their costs of doing business have increased substantially. In the hospitality sector the way the Covid restrictions are still operating, and necessarily so as we see the level of Covid in the country, is increasing labour costs for those businesses. It is es…

Usually when we talk about insurance in this Chamber, it is in the context of the escalating cost. During questions to the Tánaiste earlier, I said that where the cost of injury claims comes down, the cost of insurance should come down correspondingly, and we had a discussion on that. This matter, however, is about certain sectors being unable to get any insurance cover. We have seen this creep into the sporting activity sector in recent months, with water sport activities, activity parks and water parks failing to…

While I appreciate the Minister of State's answer, we do not have weeks to sort out this issue. It needs to be sorted out immediately. A number of years ago there was a similar issue with access to rural Ireland, whereby landowners were extremely concerned about their liability when people were using their land for recreational purposes. There was a satisfactory solution for that, namely, liability was taken away from the landowner. We need something similar in this case. I suggest that the notion of a waiver by pa…

I am glad to say as a Fianna Fáil Deputy that it is not that our fingerprints are on this budget but that our hoofprints are all over this budget. A number of core policy issues for my party have been addressed well in this budget. The first matter that I want to focus on in the short time that I have available is the provision of SNAs. Some 1,000 extra SNAs are being provided in the education system. I have lobbied unsuccessfully on the issue of working principals in previous budgets but there has been a strong re…

On carbon budgets, we have introduced legislation in regard to peat harvesting that has virtually crippled our horticulture industry. Bureaucracy in respect of forestry licences is seriously affecting the level of afforestation. The livestock sector feels under siege, and there are carbon budgets, eco schemes, nitrates reviews and Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, reform. We are going to set carbon budgets in the coming weeks. It is essential that these are economically and environmentally sustainable. The beef and …

The Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland, CTTC, is the largest private bus and coach operator representative organisation in Ireland. Its membership comprises companies that are predominantly family owned, with a combined fleet of more than 1,500 coaches and carrying more than 3,000 people directly. Coach tourism operators are the backbone of the tourism industry. Without them, we cannot get tourists to various sites or to rural towns and villages. In 2019, a record 11.2 million overseas visitors came to …

I wish to raise an issue I have raised in the House on numerous occasions, which is the roll-out of rural broadband. One thing Covid did was show how important that infrastructure is for rural areas. For businesses to prosper and for people to be able to work from home, that roll-out is essential. I had a businessman on to me last week and it typifies what is happening on the ground. John Hanly's woollen mills employs 35 people in a rural area. He was told his connection would happen between January 2023 and Decemb…

The climate Bill is hugely important legislation, but for it to be successful we need public buy-in. Like a previous speaker, I am from a rural constituency. At the moment, my constituents are resentful of the blame they are getting regarding climate change and anxious about what will be imposed on them and the economic damage it can do. If anything has shaken public confidence in our ability to deal with climate change fairly, it is the mess we have made of peat and peat harvesting. The boatloads of peat that are …

It needs to be recognised that Housing for All is one of the most comprehensive and ambitious homebuilding plans in the history of the State. I am delighted to be a Government Deputy pushing this huge investment. It is one of the key reasons Fianna Fáil entered Government. I want to talk about Irish Water and the infrastructure it needs to invest in. We have to have proper waste treatment facilities in our towns, villages and major urban centres. The current lack of infrastructure is contributing to a deterioration…

With regard to work permits, there is a severe shortage of labour in virtually all sectors across the country. The same is happening in Northern Ireland. It came to a head in recent weeks when a meat processing plant in Northern Ireland, which takes a lot of pigs from the South, was forced to close because of a shortage of labour. This had a huge impact on pig prices in the South. There is a major shortage of labour at the moment in all sectors, whether it is in hospitality, tourism or agrifood. We need to urgently…

I thank the Acting Chair. When will the review of the national development plan, NDP, be published and can the Minister make a statement on it, please?

I want to talk about two road infrastructure projects in Tipperary. The first is essential and relates to the N24. This project will bring about connectivity between Waterford, Rosslare and Limerick. Tipperary town is completely choked with traffic congestion. It is essential that it gets priority and is dealt with first in the context of this very essential road infrastructure project across the southern part of the country. My hometown of Thurles is suffering the same serious traffic congestion. There is a relief…

I spoke first, so I will not go again now. I will speak afterwards.

I want to raise a further couple of infrastructure projects in my county, one of which the Minister visited before he took office, namely, the Dean Maxwell nursing home, Roscrea, which is very important to the town but needs significant capital investment. I hope that will be catered for in the programme. The other project is in Ardfinnan, which the Taoiseach visited on Friday last. A pedestrian walkway bridge in the town would be very important. There is an historic bridge, which is a protected structure, and for …

I want to put on record my appreciation of the tremendous work done by An Garda Síochána at all levels including gardaí, sergeants, inspectors, superintendents, chief superintendents and commissioners. In modern society they have an extremely difficult job to do and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude. This review of reform is welcome and while there are lots of good points in it, I have one major problem with it, which I will elaborate on later. The first thing that struck me when I read the review is that the ob…