I congratulate the Minister of State on her new role. The opportunity to speak about artificial intelligence is apt at this point in time. At no age in our society has technology had a bigger role, particularly considering social media and the impact that has had on so many people across the globe, particularly across Ireland. It is clear that there is significant power in all of that. The previous speaker spoke of the power that AI has. The difficulty with it is that people have to make decisions as to how that po…

That is why we must have firm regulation. That is why we have to ensure regulation is in place. Even the heroes of capitalism recognise the difficulty with it and the flaw in it, which is that the most powerful can use it for the negative and for their own benefit. That is why we have to ensure that artificial intelligence is used in a way that will be positive for people. That can only happen if Government, the people in these Houses, and particularly in the European Union - a lot of it will be governed from there…

I commend Deputy O'Rourke on bringing forward this motion this evening. Like every other Deputy in this House, I have been inundated with people and families who face a terrible situation. They have children who need a special class or accommodation but cannot get it anywhere. Everywhere I go across the whole west of Ireland, Leitrim, Sligo and Donegal, I come across children who are travelling from one end of the country to the other. Children are going from County Cavan to County Leitrim and from County Leitrim t…

The Minister will be aware that we have a large volume of forestry in County Leitrim. We probably have the highest amount of forestry in the country per head of population or for the land area. That brought huge devastation when the power lines that go through the forests came down. The main issue we have is that the trees are planted too close to the lines. It is as simple as that. ESB Networks has the job of protecting critical infrastructure and it has not done so. That has been the key failure of this entire sa…

-----that they could not get any power for weeks on end. We cannot see a repeat of this in the future.

I congratulate all of the Ministers on their appointments. We certainly feel there are too many Ministers and we would not like to see the Government's replication of what was there in the past because we have seen many failures in it. As I rise to speak on the programme for Government, it strikes me that, in my part of the world, we have seen everything on which people depend shook to its very core by the storm. Thousands of people are still without power. We still have schools closed and major problems. People ar…

When I got up this morning the first thing I had to do was go out and get a five-gallon drum and a drop of petrol to put it in the generator. For the last three days we have had a generator that I borrowed from somebody else when their power came back. The network said the power would be back today but now it is saying that it will be next Sunday before it will be back for the five or six houses around me. This is the case for hundreds and thousands of people across my constituency and the whole north west who are …

Many carers are finding it very difficult to manage and survive. As was said by my colleagues, they are doing a job that cannot be done by anyone else, in many cases. People come to me who have somebody with profound disabilities and have had serious problems for many years. They may get some home help from the HSE but when they look for additional home help, they are told they will have to hire that privately. When they look for it, it simply is not there because the staff are not there to do it. It is not as if t…

I will raise a few issues. The first relates to carers. I have been contacted by several people who applied for the carer's allowance over the past year or 18 months. They found it difficult because their lives have been dominated by a person in their home to whom they need to give almost 24-hour care, yet they get nothing. They have not a hope of getting anything because another person in the household works and has an income. It is unfair. They made very strong points about the amount of care they provide. In one…

I ask about capital funding for new library buildings. I understand approximately €100 million was to be allocated over five years. Unfortunately my colleague, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, cannot be here this morning. I am taking the question on his behalf. He has a particular interest in a proposed library in the Mahon area in Cork. Capital funding was announced last year. When will it be provided? In that case it is a larger complex than just a library. It is an area with a large number of people, particularly young fa…

We understand that work is being done as we see it in many places around the country. I understand that 33 smaller projects are happening and the fear is that when they are all funded, there will not be enough left for the larger capital projects that are required. The one in Mahon is an example of that. It is an entire district without any library facility and we need to get one built there. Of course, it will require a large capital investment. It is a service that every community across the State needs. It is no…

From the notes I have, I am aware that a site has been identified and the preliminary application has been placed with the Department. I understand that more work remains to be done. We need to see movement with haste on Mahon. At locations around the country library buildings are in poor repair and also need investment. A commitment to that would be a commitment to the communities in rural areas throughout the country which have been left behind. Many urban areas also have poor facilities and need better investmen…

I wish to raise with the Minister of State the issue of rural proofing. It is something I understand the Minister said last year would be published. The question refers to the "published guidelines" but I understand that they are not yet published and are still in draft form. I have had a read through them. We have many areas of the country where there is a decline in population and rural parishes under pressure. We need investment and to ensure that with regard to anything that is being done by the State, and any …

I welcome that. We need to see progress on all of this. There are many areas where we can see problems with rural areas being left behind and not getting the kind of investment they require. The glaring example, for those of us who live in the west of Ireland, is certainly the western rail corridor. For years, we have been told it is going to be developed and yet, they continually look at population areas quite close to the rail line and not a broader area. I live quite near Dromad in County Leitrim. There is a rai…

On the issues of planning, and the Minister of State mentioned the big infrastructure projects, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has said he will not build the western rail corridor from Sligo and Collooney right the way down to Galway. That is a huge problem, and this is a Green Minister telling us he wants to invest in rural Ireland. It is not happening. It is not happening in our road infrastructure either or in many other areas. I was at the ploughing earlier this year, and many came in to talk to us in the ten…

I ask for an update on the Department's plans to address dereliction and vacancy in our rural towns and villages. When we travel around the country, we see that many rural towns have a lot of buildings that are closed, including old shops, bars and once-thriving businesses. A lot of houses are also closed up, many of which are derelict. We have an unusual situation whereby there is a housing crisis not just in urban Ireland but in rural Ireland as well. I would like to know what more will be done to ensure we bring…

I thank the Minister of State. Much work is happening in towns and villages where new footpaths and public areas and so forth are being provided, which is all welcome and positive. People cannot live on footpaths or in regenerated areas; they need homes in which to live. Many of the houses and old buildings in the towns are privately owned. While the Croí Cónaithe scheme certainly helps, it does not go anywhere near the distance it needs to go to get many of these buildings regenerated and brought back to life. The…

We know and appreciate that some advances are happening in many of these areas and that is very welcome. We are still in a situation where we do not have people living in these areas. I appreciate that derelict site notices are up and that is a help. It is the big stick with which to beat people to try to force them to do something. However, there need to be more initiatives on the other side to create some kind of fund to assist people to try to do something with many of these properties, or at least a system to m…

I want to get an update on the strategy for Gaeltacht and island communities. Deputy Ó Laoghaire tabled this question because a lot of people who live on the islands are that bit apart from the rest and certainly need extra investment, especially with communications, transport facilities and ways of making sure they are connected and have opportunities equal to those who live on the mainland. Many of our Gaeltacht communities are also under huge stress. We are looking forward to the publication of the planning guid…

Income is an issue for people living on many of the islands. They must have an opportunity to make an income. They are surrounded by the sea and, for many of them, fishing is one of the few ways they have to get an income. Many of the small fishing communities that live on the islands have great problems in getting quota, in particular for the inshore sector. There must be a focus on that to ensure they can get a fair share and get an income. That issue also relates to infrastructure and piers. The Minister of Stat…