The issue I want to raise concerns our national development plan, NDP, and roads funding. I have been raising continuously the issue of the implementation of the existing NDP that was revised by the Government under one of the first acts of the programme of Government. Within the NDP, I am particularly concerned about the lack of the appointment of a design consultant for the Castlemartyr-Killeagh scheme. I have been asking for this for nine months. Money has been allocated but there has been no action from the Dep…

My apologies for being late this morning. I meant no disrespect to the House or the Minister. I got badly delayed in traffic while coming in.

I thank the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, for being here to deal with the issue of targeted agriculture modernisation scheme, TAMS, grants. It has been raised by many of my colleagues. My constituency office has been getting several queries on the matter. TAMS has been very successful in providing to farmers additional capital resources from the State and European funding to enable them to carry out key construction and improvement works on farms. The range of projects included is vast. Timing, however, is critical…

That is very helpful information. I reiterate that the waiting lists and the backlog that is occurring in the TAMS administration office within the Minister’s Department needs to be reduced urgently. It is great to hear of the work that is being done in terms of prioritisation of cases. May I bring a couple of cases to the attention of the Minister? These are people who are very much caught up in the delays. There is urgency to these cases. The Minister rightly referred to animal welfare. These improvements are abo…

I thank the Minister for being here. This issue, as we all know, is hugely contentious in rural areas. I want to acknowledge the point that has been made by my colleague in Cork North-Central, Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan, that this year has seen a huge increase in the number of people who are taking bus transport. Due to the work that is being done by the Department, difficulties have arisen. In my constituency of Cork East, in a number of areas, villages, towns and market towns where the secondary schools are locate…

My question relates to funding for rural road infrastructure. Our schemes are well resourced, but we need more funding in County Cork, given the physical size of the county. Its road infrastructure has long been an issue, not only at national level, but also in terms of the area pertaining to the Minister’s Department. Deputy Humphreys has been a wonderful Minister nationally and she is no stranger to boreens and other rural roads, given that she comes from a rural constituency. We in County Cork face an issue and …

I commend the information the Minister provided and how good an idea it is. The money that has not been spent in the Department of Transport needs to be transferred for these well-deserved schemes that need funding to progress. She made one comment that concerned me, in that County Cork is number three nationally. The county has the largest road network in the country. Surely, it should be first in line for funding for the community involvement scheme, CIS, and LIS. I know the Minister will take this matter serious…

There are not too many people in the Cabinet I would trust to pilot a Massey Ferguson but I guarantee that the Minister is one of them. Her comments are very welcome. It is good to know that rural Ireland has somebody at the table, like her, with the commitment to try to address this issue. She eloquently put it about having the awareness, for the likes of us in rural constituencies, whether it is Deputy Griffin in County Kerry or others in constituencies across the country, that this is a very personal matter to r…

I thank the Minister of State for being here a little after 11 p.m. It is heartening to see her here so late to talk about this issue, which she knows is a major problem in my area, the constituency of Cork East. We need to see an enhancement of facilities for the elderly in the east Cork area. The area is growing rapidly. It has a certain characteristic. Unlike many parts of the country, we are lucky to have a beautiful coastline. There are towns in the area to which people come to retire in later life. Youghal in…

I welcome the Minister of State's response and I understand the point she has made on Youghal's population and size and not having these services. This has been a long-standing problem and issue in Youghal. For many years the town has been without Deputies and I am lucky to be the second person elected since the 2011 general election; we also had Deputy McLellan. I am very honoured to be elected for Cork East but coming from Youghal and having that familiarity with the community there, people feel very much abandon…

Yes, but as for the county boundary, trying to get that intervention from the State at a local authority level is an issue of continuing concern. I want to see the Department of Health putting in further focus and examination. One item of further concern regarding primary care services in Youghal is that a number of plans have been proposed for the St. Raphael's site and it is important that something be done with it. It is a State-owned building and it is very lucky to have a very wide, expansive campus there. The…

I want to raise what happened yesterday at the Committee on Transport and Communications with the ongoing delays with National Car Test, NCT, testing. We heard justification yesterday that there are supposed to be 18 days of a wait for NCTs across the country, which is factually incorrect. People are waiting for four, five and six months in different parts of the country to get an NCT. Also, in the area pertaining to the RSA, our driving testing waiting lists have gone out of all order. It is clear that the RSA and…

Over the weekend, the chief executive of the IDA and others commented about the infrastructure deficit. What is the Government doing to try and tackle this, in particular pertaining to road projects? A significant number of national road projects, some contained within the national development plan, NDP, are not being replaced because of funding. What is being done to deal with that, particularly by the Department under the auspices of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan?

I thank the Minister of State for being present. It is great to have this question selected before the summer recess. I had a fascinating meeting in my constituency office, of which this Topical Issue is the brainchild. I met with a retired public health worker who had worked as a midwife. Without going into too many specifics, it was one of the most interesting exchanges I have had since election to this House. They explained how they worked a lifetime in the health service, reached the age of 60 and retired. They…

I appreciate the Minister of State's response but it does not really answer my question. I acknowledge that it is not his Department or role and that the response is from the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. I have here the forms for the supplementary pension allowance application. They include a statement from the applicant indicating that he or she understands it will be necessary to provide documentary evidence for the continued payment of the supplementary pension each year until the contributory State pension becomes…

I wish to acknowledge the passing of former Cork East Deputy, Gerard Cott, who served as a Member of the House from 1969 until 1973. Our sympathies are with his family and the community in Midleton C.B.S. Secondary School, where he served as a member of staff for a number of years. We have been thinking of them in the past few days. I wish to raise a critically important issue in the constituency I represent. It is a huge problem around the Cork Harbour area, where there are ongoing problems in relation to water su…

I appreciate the Minister of State's response. I ask him to bring the points that have been raised back to the Minister. That would be appreciated. It comes down to this: it is about the scale of time it will take to get to a point at which this will no longer be an issue unless there is drastic rainfall. As I said, these outages are becoming more frequent. They are lasting much longer than in the past. I want to find an equitable and fair solution to support the communities this has affected. Irish Water needs to …

What has transpired over the past number of weeks has been deeply disturbing. It has done enormous damage to the reputation of our national broadcaster. I do not very often agree with some of the points made by Deputy Boyd Barrett but he was correct in much of what he said about the outstanding questions that still need to be answered, in addition to the importance of having a national broadcaster that is in every way impartial when it comes to the broadcast of political views. What is so special about the product …

I would like to get some information from the Department and Minister about what the intentions are regarding the school building programme, predominantly in my constituency of Cork East. It would be greatly helpful to get some degree of an update.

I thank the Minister for the information. It is very helpful and beneficial that we know what is going on. I have worked hand in hand with the Minister since she became a member of Cabinet with responsibility in this area. However, we acknowledge that in east Cork, and particularly across Cork county, there is rapid population growth. For example, the Fermoy area now has a deficit of school places for the first time. We knew this was a big issue around the Carrigtwohill and Glanmire areas and down to Midleton, whic…