I congratulate you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, on your election. It was certainly a turn-up for the books that you secured the vote against the odds. I wish you well in your position. I have no doubt from watching you in the Committee of Public Accounts and doing temporary Chair that you will do an excellent and fair job. I congratulate the Ministers on their appointments because this is the first opportunity I have had to speak in the Dáil since they were appointed. I wish them well in their various roles and the wo…

I believed I had 20 minutes.

No one is sharing time with me.

I understood the slot was 20 minutes.

Will the Minister of State take note of what I have asked and deal with the issue as soon as possible? Will he do all he can to ensure that the application for the south-east university is made and is progressed quickly?

I had hoped to contribute to the debate on Second Stage but, unfortunately, the arrangements were such that I was not able to get across from Leinster House to here. We have to begin to understand why we are at this juncture and why this funding is necessary. It is necessary because, for nine years, the Fine Gael Government failed to understand the need for direct funding for businesses to support them after the financial crash. It ignored the fact that the main pillar banks completely blocked any attempt by microb…

Part of the recovery for the south east will be the approval for the technological university involving the institutes of technology in Carlow and Waterford. What action will the Minister take to ensure they conclude negotiations and resolve their issues so that they can play a central role in the recovery of our economy in that area? Will he provide the necessary finance and professional input to solve some of the HR issues that have emerged? There is significant debt involved that will have to be dealt with in or…

Yesterday we were told that the cost of construction in the housing sector would increase by €10,000 to €15,000 per unit, that the price of an apartment might rise by €20,000, and that the general cost of public projects currently under construction could rise by 40%. There are issues regarding the Covid-19 insurance and emerging issues out of claims under that insurance because of insurance companies not wanting to cover them. There is also the legal mess that may emerge because of the collapse of US and internati…

I will be brief. I agree with my colleagues, Deputies MacSharry and Niall Collins. A significant number of us are not being given the opportunity to contribute inside the new rules and regulations of the House to any of the debates. I have sat here for hours in every sitting and have had no opportunity to ask the questions I wished to ask. I believe the people I represent in Carlow-Kilkenny are being deprived of an input into the democratic process. I wrote to the Ceann Comhairle regarding the formation of a Govern…

A Cheann Comhairle, I congratulate you on your re-election to the position of Ceann Comhairle. You did an excellent job over the last number of years and I have no doubt but that you will continue with vigour to try to reform this House. There is no doubt that, in the election, people asked again for change. They did not just seek change with regard to the minor things in their lives; they want a major change in how politics is done. They want change in how the political system and political parties work, operate a…