I know it is under assessment, as I have kicked up blue bloody murder to have it assessed. It is only a matter of time. One would want to see it to believe it. It is a main stretch of the N25, a single carriageway with a hard shoulder on either side. The cars do not have any place to pull up. There is a small privately owned car park. Many of the cars are pulling up on the hard shoulders and the buses have to pull in. The three buses that arrived while I was there actually pulled into the turning lane, which leads …

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for coming back to this question. I was detained at the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. Leanann an cheist seo an pointe atá ardaithe ag an Teachta Wynne. Táim ag cur ceist ar an Aire maidir leis an ngealltanas atá sa chlár Rialtais maidir le polasaí cuimsitheach don Ghaeilge ón réamhscolaíocht go dtí oiliúint múinteoirí. There is a need for a comprehensive policy on Irish language education covering preschool through to tertiary education and teacher education. Will …

I thank the Minister for the update on progress. The clock is ticking. This was one of the programme for Government commitments I was passionate about including. I would like to see the process conclude within the lifetime of the Government. There certainly is a need for it. Deputy Wynne spoke about the need for a Gaelscoil in her area. Deputy Costello, my party colleague, often raises the need for a Gaelscoil to serve Dublin 2, 4, 6 and 8. There is a difficulty in establishing new Gaelscoileanna when new school pr…

I thank the Minister. I have not heard a timeline as to when we hope to have this work concluded. Is it overly ambitious to think it will be concluded within the lifetime of this Government? I acknowledge that there was a need to separate the strands and make progress on them individually. I support that mode of working, but I would like to know if we have a timeline in place for when we expect the process to be completed. Returning to the recruitment targets, I would like to see the common European framework used …

There are Members here who think representing Waterford consists of standing up and shouting the odds from the Opposition benches. There are other Members here who think it is not enough to describe a problem and that they have to be part of the solution. They roll up their sleeves and get stuck in. I could talk about the building of the second cath lab or the acquisition of the Waterford Crystal site. I could mention the groundbreaking investment we have seen in the North Quays. I will say this, however. A closed …

There is nothing wrong with Waterford.

The Deputy will get to come in twice.

Deputy Stanton is taking Question No. 57.

Tá an t-am istigh. Your time has elapsed.

I thank the Deputy. Deputy Doherty is sharing time with a number of other speakers. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Deputies Canney and Tóibín of the Regional Group are sharing time.

I welcome to the Visitors Gallery the retired gardaí from Clonmel who are visiting Leinster House today. They are very welcome. I call the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, to reply to the debate, after which there will be a response from the Rural Independent Group. As we are up against the clock, I ask speakers to be economical with their time.

I suppose I had better say something nice about Eamon Ryan, seeing as how others have. Eamon was the reason I joined the party in 2015. Many of us in the House can describe a problem, but few people put a solution to that problem afterwards. I have got to know Eamon since 2020. He is a great politician, but he is a better man.

I wish to raise the issue of post offices. They are a vital piece of community infrastructure. Postmasters are falling between two stools at the moment. They are suffering from cost-of-living increases. Many of them have missed out on the increased cost of business scheme. As many as 50% cannot avail of it. They have funding out to 2025 but will have to negotiate a new seven-year contract afterwards. Currently, they cannot negotiate with the Government or the company to better their position. They are looking for a…

Both of these questions refer to precision fermentation. Question No. 43 is more general, namely to ask what research work the Department is doing and the horizon scanning that is taking place in the Department on this issue. Question No. 55 is a more specific question that relates to the Department’s thematic research goal in 2023. The Minister will know I have tabled a parliamentary question on this before that thematic call. Have any of the successful applications to the thematic call included precision fermenta…

I tabled these questions, and it would be expected that a Green Party Member's primary interest would be in emissions reduction in the production of our food, but in this case it is not. In this case it is in horizon scanning. The Minister will remember when our sugar market was deregulated. There was a situation where we were not allowed to import raw cane sugar and we had a sugar beet industry here on this island. We were told as we approached the point where the raw cane sugar was to start coming in that the Iri…

We do produce the highest quality of dairy, but I am concerned. I have seen farmers across the south east make huge investments in their milking parlours. They are investing a quarter of a million and essentially have a mortgage repayment on it. Slurry storage is another very expensive area. I know a farmer who put €500,000 into his slurry storage, and the repayments on those loans are predicated on the milk cheque. My concern is that we should be mapping this forward because if something happens to displace the sa…

I thank the Deputy. I turn now to the Rural Independent Group. Five Deputies are sharing.

We are running a little early, so with the agreement of the House I propose to allow more latitude to the Regional Group for closing remarks. It does not serve the House well to suspend as we cannot proceed with the next piece of business before midday. If that is agreeable to all Members, I ask the Deputies from the group to close the debate.

Before I speak to amendments Nos. 113 and 357, I will lend a word of support to some of the arguments made by Deputy Matthews, especially in respect of transport infrastructure. If we are moving to a model of transport-oriented development, we need to understand that transport in a way that is much more flexible and sustainable than just car-orientated development, which is how many of our suburbs and one-off housing across the countryside developed. People in rural Ireland will often be heard saying, quite truthfu…