I thank the Simon Communities of Ireland for all their good work on this legislation. I particularly thank the North West Simon Community for all its help to me in providing good information and background. This is a straightforward, practical proposal which does exactly what it says on the tin. Where the housing authority certifies that a tenant, who is under threat to quit, is at risk of homelessness, a three-month extension will be granted. There will be protections for landlords. This is not simply postponing t…

What financial arrangements are being put in place to ensure an effective LEADER programme that delivers for communities? I have heard the Minister's responses this evening and last week and have received her written response regarding the six-year tranche of funding of €250 million, about which she is quite correct. This level of funding, however, is at a standstill compared with the previous funding period and is a cut of more than 40% from the 2007 allocations. Taking inflation into account, the cut is 50%. Will…

The Minister and I agree that the LEADER programme supports community-led local development. It is unique. As an MEP, I was proud to see an EU Court of Auditors report in 2010 stating the Irish model was best practice. What has happened since then is we have significantly minimised the active role of the local community in the context of decision-making regarding funding decisions for LEADER, with the exception of a few independent LEADER companies, and we have cut the funding. I agree with the Minister on the fund…

The Minister is quite correct. LEADER is not the only show in town but it is the only one that is community led. I will come back to what the Minister asks LEADER companies to deliver in their transition programmes. The Minister asks them to support rural business, especially in the context of innovation, diversification, Covid and Brexit. That is crucial in Border counties. LEADER companies are asked to look at ensuring adequate resources not just for the companies themselves but for the LEADER companies that will…

That is another issue.

There are two family resource centres in Carrick-on-Shannon and Mohill in south Leitrim. I have been to both centres and was very impressed by the caring and inclusive way they respond to the needs of families in their communities. However, in the entire north of County Leitrim, a distance of 62 km from Drumshanbo to Tullaghan, families have no access to the supports and resources provided by family life centres. These centres are badly needed and I ask the Minister to ring-fence funding for such a centre in Manorh…

I thank the Minister. He said that the budget is not finalised yet. Both the Minister and I know that one of the most important aspects of family resource centres is that they are rooted in their communities, involve community participation and respond to the specific needs of families, especially in disadvantaged areas across the country. While the two centres in south Leitrim do really good work they are too far away and their focus is, rightly, on their communities. There are four electoral areas in County Sligo…

The Minister has given me a positive but a very general answer. He has said that sometimes Tusla provides supports without family support centres. The Minister and I know that a family support centre provides holistic resources and supports to families within a geographical area, which is hugely important. Sometimes disadvantage can be harder to see in rural areas. It is more dispersed and because of that it is less visible. However, we still have many families on low incomes, an ageing population and small farm ho…

I thank Deputy Paul Murphy and People Before Profit for bringing this Bill before the House. It is a practical, down-to-earth Bill that will achieve real progress. I am pleased to hear that the Government supports the Bill in principle. However, I hope to see real urgency in progressing it. Earlier, the Minister of State, Deputy English, mentioned that there may be some legal difficulties with the Bill. That may be the case but we all know that Covid waits for nobody. Therefore, there must be immediate movement on …

Yesterday an Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation protest at Sligo University Hospital was averted at the last minute because there is to be an emergency meeting of the Workplace Relations Commission and an independent assessment of staffing requirements. We should never have allowed this situation to fester to this point. Today's Trolley Watch figures show a total of 25 patients waiting for a bed at Sligo University Hospital. This is the third-highest number in the country, just behind Limerick and Letterkenny. …

Yes, we are. Tonight we are speaking of the value of community-led local development, of community knowledge, response and support to our long-term unemployed. The Minister’s proposal will undermine this community approach and replace it with a for-profit model that will not put the unemployed person at its core. This model will force the providers to provide inadequate services to those who so badly need good quality services with wrap-around supports that are tailor-made and services that facilitate their transit…

Apology accepted. In recent weeks, 50 townlands in or near Lough Melvin, County Leitrim and 69 townlands near Templehouse in the Ox Mountains, County Sligo, were finally officially designated special areas of conservation, SACs. That means there are approximately 37 different constraints on these lands. For example, they apply to any construction, alteration or removal of stone walls, hedgerows or fences; any widening or blocking of drains; any significant changes in livestock density or type; or any felling or pla…

I want to raise issues relating to the siting of wind farms, particularly on mountainsides and largely on peaty soil. I will begin with some general points about wind farms, their siting and how we do business in this regard. In addition, I will focus on two proposed wind farms, one at Dough Mountain near Lissinagroagh, Manorhamilton, County Leitrim, and the other close to the top of Corry Mountain, which is near Dromahair. The first point to make is that we are still awaiting the publication of the new wind energy…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. He said peatlands can be damaged. He and I know that peatlands will be damaged by wind turbines. The Minister of State saw peat stability and the side of Shass Mountain. We built homes on floodplains in this country, thinking that we had ways and means of directing the movement of water. We cannot. The same is true of peat on the sides of mountains. The Minister of State knows it and I know it. People who say otherwise are lying through their teeth. I am not referring…

I also extend good wishes to the Ceann Comhairle. Like many in this House, I have had countless emails and calls from school principals, parents, students and teachers, all of whom are extremely concerned about the issue of substitution for teachers who are sick or self-isolating due to Covid. It is important to say this is not a new or unexpected problem. Covid has exacerbated it, but it is still an issue. I raised this several times with the Minister for Education last year and she kept telling me about the suppl…

As the Taoiseach said, it is a once-in-a-century happening. He said that all stakeholders have to show flexibility. Has there been inflexibility and, if so, how does he believe we can get over this issue? I agree the Minister has given resources but the truth is they are not enough because it is a once-in-a-century happening - the Taoiseach said it himself. Therefore, in a situation like this, we have to make sure the resources we put in place will support the systems, like education, which the Taoiseach and all hi…

Climate change and how we deal with it is the defining issue of our generation, an issue that will impact forever, at least in human terms, on future generations. While we recognise and accept individual responsibility, as we must, we must also look to our Government to put systems and structures in place to facilitate us as citizens to play our role, not to absolve us from responsibility but to facilitate our engagement as mothers and grandmothers of the generations to come. The climate action plan promises much b…

I welcome the Minister back to the House. It is great to see her and I wish every happiness to her and her new family. She is straight back with a bang, so let us get down to work. An interesting aspect of the Bill is that very few of my constituents have contacted me about it specifically. While there are all the ongoing issues, I was surprised, given it will have such an impact on so many people, that more people have not contacted me about it. The truth is that the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 has b…

On behalf of the Independent Group, I wish to offer our sincere sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of the late Austin Currie and, in particular, to our colleague, Senator Emer Currie. I did not know Austin Currie personally, only by reputation, and he had a reputation of which any person would be proud. He was a man who had the strongest courage of his convictions and who took risks, both personal and political. He was a man of protest, a peacemaker, an activist and a politician. Many fine words have be…

I ask the Taoiseach how the current national development plan, NDP, can deliver balanced regional development where previous plans have failed. We have a long list of projects. The language around regional balance is there. We know from bitter experience that that has not worked beforehand and past performance is certainly a poor indicator of future success. Time and again, I have quoted the facts and figures that show the widening economic gap between the northern and western region and the rest of the country. Un…