The Minister of State said that adding duplication or additions would further delay the process and make it more expensive. I am most interested in her notion that planning departments in local authorities throughout the country would be swamped and unable to cope. In my parish in County Leitrim, only two houses have been built in the past ten years. The planning units will have absolutely no problem coping with the workload. The last time the Green Party was in government, it worked hand in glove with Fianna Fáil …

What are the Minister's plans for implementing the Parole Act 2019 and when does she intend to establish the parole board on a statutory footing?

I appreciate that work is being done on this but it is quite ironic that the Minister's answer is almost identical to the answer her predecessor gave more than one year ago on the work that had to be done, that the board had to be set up, that a chief executive had to be put in place, there were technical issues to be dealt with, funding had to be put in place and so on. At the same time, people who are the victims of very serious crime are fearful that the perpetrators who caused huge damage and destroyed their li…

I appreciate that. I expect it would be advanced as quickly as possible. As I said earlier, it is a very serious matter for many people. We really need to get this done and completed. I hope it will be in place before the spring or summer is out and that the anxiety and worry of the many people who have been victims of serious crime will be laid at ease.

With regard to people who apply for Irish citizenship, we are aware there are record numbers trying to do this at the moment. Brexit has had an impact on this and is probably the biggest single factor in more people wanting to apply for Irish citizenship. Many of these are people who moved to Ireland from England, Scotland or other parts of the UK and they are now seeking to get Irish citizenship. Many have lived and worked here for years but when they look to get citizenship there is an exorbitant cost involved. T…

I thank the Minister of State for his answer. I accept and recognise the costs involved in this regard. The initial fee of €175 is not onerous and is not too much to expect people to pay but most of us will accept that the €950 fee is quite a high charge to place on people, particularly people who have lived and worked in Ireland, in some cases for decades. Many of these people are married to Irish citizens and have been living here for a long time. When they seek citizenship, they expect the fee to be reasonable a…

I understand that they are being kept under constant review but I am asking for a particular emphasis to be put on people who have lived and worked here for a considerable time and for this to be reflected in the fee they must pay. That is basically what I am asking for. It is not too much to expect that people who have worked and paid taxes here for ten or 15 years or more would have this recognised in the fee charged in respect of citizenship. Most of them consider themselves Irish. Many of them have been here si…

I wish to raise the issue of the local authority veterinary service. There is currently a dispute between the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and local authorities regarding the funding of the service. That has a significant knock-on effect, particularly for small food businesses around the country such as small abattoirs and other businesses that process food of animal origin. On 30 November, the service will be withdrawn, which will put in jeopardy many people's livelihoods, particularly in rural areas where the…

This motion and the preceding one deal with far-reaching laws that restrict people's liberty and freedoms in many ways. They would be totally inappropriate in normal times but are being introduced for very good reason because we are not living in normal times. These are very different times that nobody expected. Where we have legislation of this nature, it is important that it be reviewed as regularly as possible to ensure we learn from what is happening in communities and from people's lived experiences. Other Dep…

As I was coming up the steps earlier, it struck me that I was going into the place that most people probably consider to be the most powerful place in the country to talk about the most powerless people who have been in Ireland for a long time. I was thinking of the documentary that was done many years ago about Christine Buckley and what happened at the orphanage in Goldenbridge. I was reminded of her sense of powerlessness as a child and that of the others around her at that time. During the 2016 election campaig…

The Tánaiste is aware of the situation with the Be On Call for Ireland programme through which an awful lot of people volunteered to go back to work and assist. It is something that everybody thought was a wonderful idea but, unfortunately, the experience of many people called up has been very negative. A healthcare professional in my constituency signed a contract for a number of months but received only intermittent work and since October has had no work. She has had to go onto jobseeker's allowance, which means …

I absolutely understand and appreciate, as all of us do, that this budget comes at a time of crisis in the country. It comes at a time when governments, not just in Ireland but in most countries in Europe and around the world, must become an income provider of last resort. That is absolutely appropriate and it needs to happen. The European Central Bank is providing the funds for this to happen at a negative interest rate. In that context, everything done with the budget is to sustain our community and the economy i…

I thank the sponsors of this motion for bringing it forward. This is a serious issue for people across the whole country. Everywhere we went we came across families, even before there was a pandemic, who were living on the verge of poverty. They are the working poor and they got up every day early in the morning, went to work and worked hard. Yet, the level of remuneration they received from that work kept them just above the breadline and that was the case for many people. When this pandemic came and they went on …

The Judicial Council Bill 2019 was passed through the Houses of the Oireachtas. One of the major parts of the Bill was to establish a judicial conduct committee and that has been set up. In its most recent report of 29 September the drafting of guidelines on ethics and conduct were only in place and the drafting of procedures for making complaints about the Judiciary was only being put in place. This comes, of course, in the context of the situation that has developed in the last couple of weeks. I and I am sure mo…

I was simply going to suggest that the Taoiseach write-----

As the Minister of State will be aware, my constituency is a very rural one. In recent years, even Sligo County Council has been unable to help people out and pay housing grants that are normally supplied in most councils because it has no discretionary fund in place. Leitrim County Council is in a similar position and is under serious pressure, as are all rural local authorities. The reality is that 80% of the fund the Government gives to local authorities must be used for items that are already earmarked. Therefo…

I noted the Minister of State indicated the Department was working closely with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to face up to these financial challenges. I understand the pressure that always has to be put on to try get the money in place for the local authorities. However, the reality for many people, as well as the workers and executives in the local authorities, is that they are trying to do their best to manage with a budget which is inadequate. To say it will be up to public representatives and…

I represent the Border constituency of Sligo-Leitrim, including south Donegal and north Roscommon. Business in that area is always somewhat hampered by the Border. In every area across Europe, it is recognised that a border corridor is a disadvantage and problem. Particular disadvantages exist when the border in question is totally unnatural, as is the case in Ireland. Much of the economics and commerce that goes on across the Border, which has thankfully, by and large, disappeared over the past 20 years, runs over…

I will share a few minutes with Deputy Shortall at the end. The Dying with Dignity Bill clearly comes from a place of compassion. We all recognise this. There is no sinister agenda or malice behind it. There are, of course, moral and emotional minefields to be negotiated to arrive at a consensus between two ends of a spectrum of opinion. One is that the taking of life is always wrong and assisting in taking a life is even more wrong. The other opinion is that everyone has the right to do with his or her life what h…

There are many amendments to this legislation. It is quite unusual to see them running into the hundreds, and many of them are sensible and are trying to improve the Bill. The forestry appeals committee does not just deal with clear felling and it also deals with the issues of plantation of timber. Many of the objections come from people in my community who have a problem with so much land being planted that they cannot get that land to farm it, and there are issues in that regard. However, we are dealing with the …