It literally does.

Yesterday, we had a meeting in the north west, CHO 1, with the HSE. There were a lot of Members there from across the counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan. One of the points that came through it more than anything else was staffing shortages. I raised podiatry services in County Leitrim. The issue is that many elderly people, in particular those with diabetes, have to travel to Sligo for this service. This is because there is currently no service in Leitrim because there is nobody there to provid…

There is.

We have brought to the Minister a motion to ensure a level of fairness for people who are suffering the huge impact of the cost-of-living crisis, in particular, people living in rural areas who have to travel to work and often have long distances to travel because they have no other option. People are being burdened with increasing fuel prices. The two increases to come this year will push prices up well above what they are now. As the Minister knows, I live in a Border region. For many years, when I was a youngste…

The Government is proceeding with the Gambling Regulation Bill and it is due to pass through the House later today. Essentially, the difficulty is that it prohibits charities and sports clubs from advertising their draws and other vital fundraising initiatives if they have a prize fund in excess of €10,000. I am referring to organisations such as North West Hospice, which runs Ocean FM radio bingo, and Limerick Camogie, which is advertising a draw with a prize of a car that has a value greater than €10,000. In my o…

I apologise for missing my earlier speaking slot, but I was at a committee meeting. Everyone recognises the challenging weather we have had, not just this spring, but over the past eight or nine months of rain, particularly in our part of the world in the north west. I was on a farmyard with a farmer the other evening in Cloone, County Leitrim and he had just four bales of silage left, with the slatted house overflowing with cattle. He said that, even though the sun was shining, they would go to their knees if he l…

When we talk about road safety the first thing we have to remember is that many families have been adversely affected by the large number of deaths in tragedies on our roads over the past year. In the first quarter of this year, as the Minister of State acknowledged, the figures have gone up again. This is a serious issue that we need to deal with. Policing is central to that, as the Minister of State has also acknowledged. One of the difficulties in this regard is that the roads policing units have not been at or …

First, I commend Deputy Cullinane on tabling this motion. We always recognise that many people in our communities and families have had the devastating news of a cancer diagnosis and have experienced the trauma of that. There is no family across the country that is not touched by that. Of course, we recognise that great work is being done by many people in our health service to try to make things better and, in many cases, there are very good outcomes. We had a cancer strategy in 2017, and the then Government put i…

-----when the reality is in front of us. The Irish Cancer Society made it very clear; the reality is that the funding has not been put in place to deliver the cancer strategy that the Government - and the Minister of State supported the previous Government as well in 2017 - has put in place. We need to see this situation being resolved. Finally, we are calling on the Government to immediately reverse the health budget for 2024, and provide the funding that is needed to deliver on the national cancer strategy. That …

I raise the issue of the serious number of road deaths that are happening all the time, in addition to the serious number of collisions that are happening, especially at weekends, involving so many young people and tragic deaths. There was a 20% increase in road fatalities in 2023 and, for the first couple of months of this year, we have seen an increase even on that. While I understand some work is being done in respect of this issue, it is about enforcement of the legislation we have. That requires more adequate …

I thank the Minister. The key factors that made a difference in the past in reducing road deaths were around education and enforcement. Yet, these are the two areas where we do not seem to be getting action from the Government. One of the things I noticed over the weekend, which I heard about on the news this morning, was that the Garda introduced an enforcement campaign over St. Patrick's weekend, which referenced the number of people found speeding. One person was travelling at 142 km/h in a 60 km/h zone while an…

I am glad the Minister acknowledged that but the problem is the resources are not being put in place for An Garda Síochána. We do not see enforcement happening on the roads. I saw a GoSafe van on the N4 this morning, which is a road with a 100 km/h speed limit. That road was absolutely open with practically no traffic on it but that was where the van was sitting. That is the problem people have. On the dangerous parts of the road, the vans are not seen. We do not see any enforcement in the areas where we really nee…

I raise with the Minister the issue of the national aviation strategy and where we are going in respect of that. I had cause recently to visit both Dublin Airport and some regional airports. I am very much aware that the airports themselves are under pressure in some cases and, certainly, the regional airports are prepared to come up to the mark and to provide more services without huge investment in them. They would have an opportunity to do that if there was a strategy to make that happen. We also have the issues…

We recognise that there has been some investment in some of the airports but key issues are causing great difficulties. One of those is accessibility. We see, in particular, huge problems in Dublin, where there is not a proper public transport system in and out of airport, apart from a bus terminal. We have a similar situation in Shannon. Will the Government consider putting rail services into these airports, including running a rail line from Shannon back into Ennis? Will the Government consider running a heavy ra…

We will agree to disagree on that. A rail link to Dublin Airport from the city centre is something we should put in place because it can happen with speed and haste, whereas we have waited 20 years for the metro and nothing has happened. Even if we started it tomorrow, it would be at least another ten years before we would see it in place. That is an issue we can come back to. Another issue I raise with the Minister is the severance packages paid out to workers over the past number of years by Dublin Airport Author…

I want to ask about category W licences, about which there was some controversy in the past month or so. These are licences for work vehicles including tractors, agricultural vehicles and vehicles used in forestry. The licensing authority stated recently that these licences could no longer be used on building sites or other environments where they are widely used. This issue must be dealt with immediately. The Government has said it will be another six months before it is dealt with but we need to get clarity in re…

I appreciate that is the case now but the premature change announced on the website caused a lot of difficulties for many people, particularly those for employers whose employees use W category licences for the work they carry out. The driver licence directive which we expect to come into operation in September will mean that changes will have to be made. What I want to know is whether the Government has considered what those changes will be and what impact they will have. The tractors that many of us grew up with …

I welcome that response but I reiterate the point that we need to work out this in advance. When the EU directive is published it may contain changes which will be expected to be rolled out in every country in Europe. If those changes are going to have an impact on some of the people who drive vehicles of the aforementioned nature, they need to know in advance because it can take quite a long time to get tests and to put things in place to ensure they have the appropriate licence. Perhaps there will be no changes b…

I commend the committee on the work that has been done. It affects every public representative in this House and beyond. We continually deal with families who have issues and difficulties with a child awaiting a diagnosis or having difficulty accessing services. Trying to struggle and manage all of that has caused huge stress and anxiety for mothers and parents throughout the country. We continually have to deal with this issue where we find that when they go to the service to seek help, it is difficult to access i…

I raise an issue that is affecting primary schools, particularly St. Aidan's National School in Rossinver, County Leitrim. A small school with 37 pupils, it has serious problems with damp and poor-quality windows. The school applied for an emergency works scheme this year but was refused and directed to the summer works scheme. The first question is when will the summer works scheme open. That is one of the issues. The school has teak windows in some parts of the building and old aluminium windows in other parts. T…