I thank the Minister of State for his reply. However, the reply given in the House this morning makes no reference to the location affected. Considering that the location is in the title of the question asked, that is not acceptable. I ask the Minister of State to bring that back to the Department of Health. When a Deputy comes in here from a constituency and asks a question about an area, the fact that there is not even a reference to the area in the response is quite poor, to be frank. That aside, I acknowledge t…

I raise the issue of the N25 corridor between Midleton and Youghal. The Taoiseach will be familiar with this given I have been raising it since my election to the Dáil. It is a key issue for me. Unfortunately, there have been a number of major fatal accidents on and issues with that stretch of road. We have worked hard to get this issue up the political agenda in the Department of Transport. With a Green Party Minister in place and other issues around prioritisation of the national development plan, it has been har…

Do not worry. All is forgiven. I raise the issue of the potential to add units to our annual new housing stock through modular accommodation. Modular housing was looked at as an emergency response initially to the Ukrainian crisis, and there has been much debate on it in the migration space. I am concerned that it seems this is not being viewed by the Department of housing as a potential addition to the housing supply when it comes to what it can do. I have gone on site to see what has been done in Backweston. I wa…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I wish to speak about this issue because it is of huge importance to people across the east Cork region where the homes that are supplied with this affected water supply are being negatively impacted. Because of new policies that have been introduced, there is an additional burden on these householders, which is very unjustified, in the context of the introduction of the deposit return scheme for plastic bottles. Unfortunately, thousands of people in my area have been…

I thank the Minister of State for that information. It is little comfort to the people we represent. Part of the response to this has to be financial assistance that needs to be provided to the families involved. If the State has an agency in place to supply home owners and people who live in these homes affected, with a safe and secure water supply for every type of domestic use, there should be some reflection on that so that in an area such as east Cork, where so many people have been affected over such a long t…

What is going to be done to speed up the delivery of the Midleton flood relief scheme? We have heard in recent weeks that people may have to wait until 2026 for a planning application to be lodged. I want to state how completely unacceptable this is in the aftermath of one of the greatest natural disasters to ever hit County Cork with more than 600 homes and businesses in Midleton alone flooded. Will the Government look at using the Arterial Drainage Act and increase the speed with which that will be delivered to g…

I join my constituency colleague in raising this issue. Midleton town was absolutely devastated by Storm Babet. Both the Minister and Minister of State will be aware from visiting the town of the impact the storm had. We need to see every single function available at Cabinet, departmental and local authority level utilised to drive forward the proposed project. We need to see the utilisation of measures such as the Arterial Drainage Act and everything that is available to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, the Ministers…

Estates like Gleann Fia, which Deputy Stanton mentioned, were absolutely decimated by the flooding events that took place. In areas where there is no plan, and Mogeely, unfortunately, is one that the county council is assessing, we need to see something happen at an OPW level. Further down the same river channel Mogeely has ground flooding issues as well as the river being there. I agree with Deputy Stanton that we need to look at how to address the flooding issues on the River Kiltha. Homes in that area have been …

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I wish to raise the issue of towns that have taken in large numbers of migrants in IPAS centres. My own home town of Youghal is one of the examples across the country that have taken a huge proportion, having lost almost 70% of our hotel bed capacity in that town. Not enough is being done to support towns where this has happened. Economically and socially for the local communities, the community recognition fund of €100 million simply does not cut it. Can the Government consider supporting these locations and helpi…

First and foremost, from one baby of the House to another, I congratulate the Taoiseach on his appointment. I wish him well. He is the youngest Taoiseach the country has ever had and the issue I raise is one our generations share as a major issue, namely, housing and getting more housing built. The Government has done huge work under Housing for All which has been successful as regards increasing the capacity, but we need to look at modular housing for young working professionals to increase housing stock. Industry…

I raise the issue of the Covid sick pay scheme that was in place for healthcare workers who, unfortunately, suffered from the serious consequences of long Covid. I met with these workers in my office recently. They are two nurses who have been out sick since they contracted long Covid. Unfortunately, it is not recognised as an occupational illness. I express my discomfort that this scheme is stopping. The individuals I have met who are suffering from this illness, especially those who worked in a healthcare setting…

The Government will see today that the effects of Storm Babet are being broadcast and a case study that has been carried out involving scientists with specialist skills in the areas of flood mapping. The study showed that the event that happened in Midleton is now twice as likely due to the current global temperature as it was in pre-industrial times. The reason I raise this matter is that we urgently need to see the advancement of the Midleton flood relief scheme, including using everything available to the State …

This is a tricky issue for a number of reasons. The Youghal town urban area has lost a school bus transport service that covered 120 children in the locality. It was a commercially-run service that operated for 54 years, predominantly by one private bus operator in the locality. It ran with great success servicing originally three and then two primary schools, and one post-primary school following the amalgamation of the three secondary schools in Youghal into one, Pobalscoil Na Tríonóide. The bus served Gaelscoil …

It is that we have some degree of recognition for the private bus service and, perhaps, funding for it in some fashion through the community benefit fund or the community recognition fund to restore what we have lost, which was school transport for 120 children.

The Minister of State acknowledged the issue of a commercial bus operator. A secondary issue is that, according to information I have been reading today about the current and revised systems, the distance calculation for where the concessionary bus tickets kick in will exclude an urban town like Youghal under the current system as well as the reformed system up to 2030. I raised these issues with the Minister for Education at one of our parliamentary party briefings. We had a system that worked well. From an enviro…

That has been done.

I thank the Minister of State.

Following this morning's farcical meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts in regard to the FAI, there are huge concerns around misappropriation of funds from Government - grant funding for sports organisations. Money was used that clearly defied the regulations set down and guidance by Sport Ireland to pay off approximately €1 million of legacy loans of the FAI to its creditors. Will the Government look at this as an immediate issue and look into some form of investigation or review in order to establish urgent…

I raise the post-Storm Babet issues in Midleton and the wider area of east Cork. The Taoiseach will be familiar with the damage that was done to our road infrastructure. Approximately €50 million worth of damage was done to local roads across the east Cork area. That is according to Cork County Council. Several roads remain closed, especially rural and secondary routes and quite a significant amount of infrastructure, including bridges, drains and embankments, need sufficient funding if they are to be fixed. We saw…