This question is on the horticulture industry. There is a ban proposed on the harvesting of peat for horticultural purposes and plans for it are very much advanced. There has been a conflation of peat extraction for this purpose and its extraction for energy purposes. They are two different worlds. What does the Government plan to do on this, particularly where the mushroom sector, which is incredibly important in my own constituency, is concerned?

Current Government policy means there will be no mushroom industry in Ireland. I am asking for consideration to be given to this and for a bit of common sense in the approach. The working group the Minister of State references has one fatal flaw: it includes in its terms of reference the ceasing of the use of horticultural peat. The mushroom industry has been looking at alternatives for the past ten years. The Department keeps telling it there are alternatives. There are not. This is a fundamentally difficult point…

I fully agree on that last point and there are areas to work on there. What we need, however, is an open mind. I have put this to three different Ministers, namely, Deputies Noonan and Ryan and Senator Hackett. They all have one thing in common, that is, a party that is not very much trusted by the people involved in this or many other sectors in the community I come from. It is important we put this in context because people, obviously, are conscious that we need to protect our peatlands. To give an example, in 19…

I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for tabling this question. I commend and welcome the rollover provisions in respect of GLAS next year, but as Deputy Ó Cuív said, it gives rise to as many questions as answers. My question is in respect of the programme for Government commitment that €1.5 billion - the headline figure for agriculture - would be allocated to a new REP-type scheme. Some €79 million of that has been allocated for the REPS-style pilot scheme plus the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, roll-over. That …

The Bill essentially asks the Dáil to give the Government licence to introduce a broad variety of fines for individuals. It asks for powers that could only and should only be granted to a Government that has substantial levels of trust and confidence among the population. I regret to say that this Government does not have that trust or confidence. It absolutely should have. Arguably it had it, but it squandered it. The Government has abused much of the goodwill the Irish people invested in the collective efforts to…

A Cheann Comhairle, you will recall that earlier today I asked for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to come to the House and make a statement on the emerging news regarding ViraPro. We have been told the Minister will come to the House during this debate. However, I am disappointed that he has left it to almost the last Government speaking slot, when there is no opportunity for Sinn Féin or other Opposition parties to respond. The questions that were put on the record still stand. I hope the Minist…

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine kindly made a statement. Will the speech be circulated? It is not on the Department's website. It has not been circulated to Members. The Minister seemed to indicate that concerns around the product in question were first raised by the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, with the Department in September. It would be useful if we had the written text to get written confirmation of that.

I wish to put on the record that we still do not have the Minister of State's speech. I would appreciate, a Cheann Comhairle, if your office would contact all Departments for speeches in future. At this stage, it appears we will be able to get it from the Oireachtas website because it seems our staff are much more efficient than those in the Department. I do not know how hard it would be to just email it to Members. Perhaps I missed it, but I asked some colleagues and nobody appears to have it.

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle. I commend Deputy Martin Kenny on the work he has done on this issue. Make no mistake, he represents the views of the people of not only County Leitrim but many other communities. That has been well and fairly articulated by his constituency colleague, Deputy Harkin, tonight. The Minister of State is new to the job and I know she has an interest in this area, but she appears to have made the same mistake that many Ministers make when they arrive in a new Department. She believes the of…

The Taoiseach may be aware that in many counties, predominantly rural ones, school transport remains a very vexed issue. There are particular issues with trying to secure concessionary bus passes with children. There are numerous families - I am dealing with over a dozen of them - whose children are eligible for transport but cannot get on the school bus. In many instances, this is because the parents were late in getting their payment in before the 4 August deadline. I know of some parents who were aware of the de…

I am referring to the reduced capacity on school buses of 50%, or perhaps even lower. These private operators are driving full school buses. The most important issue is getting children to school. I accept that and I also accept that we need to be flexible in that regard. Will the Taoiseach and the Minister for Education and Skills ensure every child who is eligible for school transport gets a seat on a school bus?

"After being freed from Bessborough, my life was made up of continual suicide attempts ... I could not accept how my baby had been allowed to die without any medical care." Those are the words of a survivor. Many Irish women were deeply, physically and mentally hurt by the abuse suffered in the mother and baby homes. It is hard to believe that such injustice could ever have been so ingrained in society that it was perpetuated for decades on end. It is a stain on our society and we should use every opportunity to at…

It is hard to believe that we are edging towards the cliff edge of a no-deal Brexit and yet it is not the main talking point in either this House or the wider community. Previously Members will recall that when a no-deal Brexit was arguably a vague concept, the previous Government had hosted information roadshows as part of an extensive PR exercise that also included engagement with businesses, communities and other affected sectors such as farmers. Yet now, here we are with a no-deal scenario as a live prospect, w…

I commend Deputy Ó Broin on bringing this Bill before the House and on his work in presenting a different, better and fairer vision of housing to the Irish people. Nothing exposes the difference in Sinn Féin's vision and the approach adopted by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael than the stark statistic we heard tonight that there are currently planning applications for more than 5,000 co-living units, several multiples of the corresponding figures for affordable and social dwellings. Sinn Féin believes in the right to hous…

Hear, hear.

I commend Deputy Cahill on raising this matter and allowing me an opportunity to contribute. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his latitude in this matter. I raised this matter previously with the Minister of State's party leader, the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his answer in respect of the job losses that would be caused to the Monaghan mushroom industry and the associated peat extraction industry was that they will need to diversify. He spoke about solar panels as be…

This budget was an opportunity to deliver a new vision, particularly for our farming and rural communities. The Government did not take that opportunity. Instead, we have got more of the same failed policies. Those people who need their cars to get to work, including virtually every family in my constituency, will notice little change after this budget except that they will have less money in their pockets as a result of the carbon tax hike. For those renting accommodation and facing increased rents, this budget of…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue matter for debate. This matter is of great concern to tens of thousands of people. I am glad the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Noonan, is here. He will recall that we discussed this proposed EU regulation in a Topical Issue debate on 16 July. During that debate, I requested that the Minister of State consult those who would be affected by the regulation, which proposes to ban the use of lead of gunsh…

That is bizarre. The Minister of State spent the bulk of his contribution reiterating the exact comments that he made during our previous debate, which outlined the concerns and challenges involved, then said that we will face down those challenges at a different stage. He mentioned the consultation with some of the organisations that have an interest in this. He did not state that the conversation took place after the vote, which is incredibly disappointing. The Green Party spent some time at its online conference…

I have a substantive question but I am somewhat perplexed by the Minister's apparent lack of understanding of exactly what happened across families and communities from Sunday night until Monday night after the news broke at 9 p.m. that NPHET proposed to move to level 5. The reaction, the briefing against NPHET that culminated in the outright attack on it by the Tánaiste on Monday night, created a level of anxiety, frustration and concern that we have not seen since the initial outbreak of the virus. That is why th…