Senator Gavan knows as well as I do how important this particular issue is. This is a project which was committed to by previous governments and my understanding of the programme for Government is very clear, in that any project that has been committed to would proceed. Where has the change happened in the programme for Government? We need clarity on that fairly urgently. The other issue I wish to raise with the acting Leader is the plight of the farmers on the Burren in County Clare, who essentially are the custod…

Hear, hear.

The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is very welcome to the House. I acknowledge the Minister of State's endeavours are genuine and I commend him on the work that he does. It is important to point out that nearly 100,000 houses have been built since 2011. That is a fairly significant number. Absolutely it is not enough. Clearly it is not enough but it is 100,000 families and people who are now in a home, many of which are social houses. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, visited Clare two weeks ago, where he op…

It is also important to point out that people have been assisted in building houses, with 36,000 in receipt of the Rebuilding Ireland grant and 1,600 being assisted through the new scheme with the local authorities. These are very important incremental steps in the right direction. Yes, the targets are ambitious. They probably should be more ambitious but we must be realistic as well and we have to be able to deliver as close as possible to the targets. Unfortunately, we are looking at a situation in Ireland, which…

I again raise Shannon Heritage and the matter of what exactly is happening with it and with the funding requested by Clare County Council. It has been going on and on and there are many workers in Shannon Heritage who are very uncertain of what their future holds. There should be some way of having a debate or even statements on the future of Shannon Heritage because of its importance to the tourism offering in County Clare. There is major potential for growth. All that is required is the financial commitment from …

I congratulate the Minister on what was an excellent budget and on being candid and blunt with the Irish Hotels Federation about its members' price gouging when he met its representatives. I would love to know if something can be done, from a legislative perspective, to try to prevent this type of thing happening. I do not know how you could go about it but it is totally unfair to the thousands of people all over the country who are struggling to run businesses. It was put simply to me by a man who established a ne…

Go raibh maith agat, Acting Chairperson. I fully agree with your sentiments in welcoming Finola to the Public Gallery. Finola is the spokesperson for the Irish Thalidomide Association and it is fitting and appropriate that she should be in the House today to hear the response from the Minister. Two weeks ago tomorrow in Dáil Éireann, the Lower House, the Taoiseach responded to a question from Deputy Bacik based on the "Scannal" documentary which had been broadcast the night before. It laid bare the facts of the eff…

I know the Minister of State is going to meet Ms Finola Cassidy after this Commencement matter. I appreciate that and thank him for doing so. I also thank him for his reply. There is no time here. Six of the women who took this drug are in their 90s. These people, sadly, do not have an enormous amount of time left. I know what is involved in organising a State apology. It needs to happen soon. There needs to be an acknowledgement that the State was wrong and acted in an inappropriate way by not removing the drug. T…

On education, there was some good and some not-so-good news in the past 24 hours. The not-so-good news is the delay in publishing the junior certificate results. Many students did not go into transition year but went on to start the leaving certificate cycle. They will have been three to four months into the first year of a two-year cycle before they have the results of the junior certificate. We have heard the excuses and the reasons but they are still not good enough. For young people to do an exam in early June …

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is important to acknowledge that the Minister of State initiated the summer programme, which is something that needed to be done a long time ago but now is done. I thank her for that. It is a programme that is very important and one that is evolving and improving every year. Before I talk about the summer programme, I want to sincerely thank the Minister of State for the work she has done to make next year's leaving certificate papers digitally accessible to people w…

No worries.

I welcome the announcement about the community centres. For too long, community centres have struggled. They play a vital role in our community as hubs for people to gather, social areas for people to hang out in and places for young people to play sport. They have struggled, particularly during the pandemic, to keep their centres heated and maintained. The announcement by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, of a small grant will go a long way towards helping community centres. We should acknowledge the work done by th…

On behalf of the Fine Gael group, I express our sympathies regarding the ten people who lost their lives in County Donegal. Their families, communities, neighbours and friends and the people of Donegal have suffered considerably. This loss will be felt for generations. We stand in solidarity with them. We commend the bravery of the local people, the emergency services, the first responders, GPs, those working in the hospitals and the wider health services, and everyone else who was on the ground saving many lives f…

I would like to raise the issue of the victims of thalidomide, the effect it has had on their lives and the fact that they have never received an apology or compensation from the State. This is one of the scandals that will eventually be dealt with, but the sad reality is that the community which has been affected is getting smaller and smaller all the time. These are people who were born to women who took the drug during pregnancy. There are two tragedies. The first is the women who took the drug and the guilt the…

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. A number of the issues have been outlined, specifically the issue of people with disability using our footpaths. As has been said, there are enough obstacles on footpaths. I was abroad over the summer and found it horrific to see scooters literally abandoned in the middle of the footpath. There has to be some way of forcing them off footpaths. Technology will have to be used to make that happen. Last summer I was standing at a set of traffic lights at Grand Canal Dock and …

It was.

On what date?

Okay. I thank the Minister.

What about the early-morning train to Cork?

Not really. It would be difficult. The green bus between Dublin and Ennis is a great service. Mr. John O'Sullivan deserves great praise for what he has achieved with that. There is no green bus service from Ennis to Cork, however. The issue I raised affects people in places like Thurles and Portlaoise as well because many people are working in the Civil Service in Cork and so on. The option should be there. It should have been there years ago, to be honest with the Minister.