I agree with the Minister on two fronts. Local authority staff in Cavan and Monaghan are doing a huge amount of work and are getting efficient use out of the funding that is allocated in terms of the road programme. The second area is that councillors across all political parties and all local Oireachtas Members agree that the funding in place is nowhere near sufficient in order to deal with the issues. There are a number of different problems. The road network deteriorated as a result of cutbacks following the fin…

No, but here is the difficulty. I have visited roads, including one that is close to the town of Ballybay and one close to Castleblayney, in recent weeks. The roads are in a terrible condition. From dealing with the local authority, the best it can do in the short term is patching work, which in many ways is economically crazy but it has to be done. The best-case scenario under the current trajectory is that it could take five or even six years before those roads will be properly restored. Here is the frustration o…

Not seven months later.

The ratification of the Mercosur trade deal represents the greatest failure of an Irish Government to protect Irish family farmers since we joined the EEC. It is a betrayal of Irish agriculture comparable to what the Common Fisheries Policy was to our fishing community. The roots of this betrayal, which is what it is, go way beyond the last week or so. The roots lie, in the first instance, in an Irish Government agreeing to a negotiating mandate at a European level. They lie in the Lisbon Treaty, which removed the …

The Minister of State may be aware that until last year, Monaghan had no respite facilities for children at all. The services it has currently are incredibly stretched. I ask the Minister of State to outline the proposals to provide additional respite capacity for both adults and children with disabilities in County Monaghan.

I welcome that progress is being made on a permanent respite centre for children in Monaghan. However, I am deeply concerned by what the Minister of State referenced in relation to Rainbow Lodge, which is an interim measure. The Minister of State indicated that its future is contingent on funding. It would be completely unacceptable if Rainbow Lodge were closed before the permanent centre opened. I appeal to the Minister of State to take a hands-on approach to this. Even the new centre with five bedrooms is going t…

The Minister of State said Rainbow Lodge is contingent on funding. She is the one who provides the funding. Has she allocated sufficient funding for Rainbow Lodge to operate throughout 2026? Second, Annalee View is a respite centre that operates one week for adults and one week for children. The truth of the matter is that there is a deficiency in respite places. As the Minister of State outlined, it can be a lengthy process to provide new respite services. If we have a respite centre that is up and running, and op…

I have raised on a number of occasions issues relating to rPET plastic recycling in this State. With the introduction of the return scheme, which imposes a deposit charge on consumers every time they buy a plastic bottle that they then need to recoup, we need to ensure there is full transparency when it comes to all plastic that is collected under the scheme. Will the Minister of State detail the statistics relating to the number of rPET pellets that are recycled and produced in this State?

The deposit return scheme means that ordinary people are charged an additional cost every time they buy a plastic bottle and then they have to go to what is often a huge inconvenience of gathering the bottles to retrieve their deposit. There have been a lot of unforeseen consequences. For example, people's household waste charges have increased because domestic collectors are not, as was previously the case, receiving plastic bottles when collecting waste. With schemes such as this, we need to be careful that consu…

The lack of information and movement coming from the Department in this respect are completely unacceptable. The Government was quick to impose this charge on consumers but it has refused point blank to impose a charge on the use of virgin plastic, for example, something that would put a burden on the companies that are using virgin plastic, which is non-recyclable plastic. There are companies in this country that have the ability to recycle this product but Re-Turn sells the plastic to the highest bidder, regardle…

The Government also needs to protect those Irish companies that are already recycling.

I take this opportunity to wish the Ceann Comhairle and all of the staff in the Houses of the Oireachtas, and even the Minister and his staff, a very happy Christmas and all the best for the new year. Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis labhairt faoin Bhille. Tá buntáistí agus rioscaí ag baint leis an méid atá fógartha. Ní mór dúinn an Bille seo a scrúdú go cúramach. An Garda Síochána has a challenging job to do. That job has been made much more difficult in recent years by the failure to tackle the recruitment and retenti…

Which legislation is the Minister referring to?

Okay. The one that is closest to passage at the moment is the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024, which the Minister does not agree with. There are over 30 justice and migration Bills on the legislative schedule. Announcements of Bills, as I said, are being made every other week but we have not got beyond the announcements, soundbites and press conferences to see real action in terms of legislative changes. In this final day before we break for the Christmas recess, I wish to say to the Minister that we are up for wo…

He is apologising in advance for next year as well.

I will be voting against this Bill, in line with Sinn Féin policy. I have heard the calls for a free vote but I remind people that Sinn Féin is a member-led, activist-based party. Our positions are determined democratically by our members at our Ard-Fheis. I suspect that if this were a different issue, or if Sinn Féin had a different position, those calling for a free vote now would take a very different view. As has been said, this issue has come up at successive Sinn Féin Ard-Fheiseanna and has been debated at le…

I would appreciate it if the Minister would inform the Dáil of the current numbers of personnel within each service of the Defence Forces, the current establishment figure and the number that will be required to meet level of ambition 2 under the commission on the future of the Defence Forces.

We use the term "level of ambition" about the future of the Defence Forces. However, the level of ambition from the Government is absolutely pathetic considering where we are starting from and the situation we have as a result of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael mismanagement. In December 2019, just prior to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coming together in the previous Government, the number of personnel in the Defence Forces was 8,700. We are supposed to celebrate that numbers are now a little over 7,700. There are 1,000 few…

The difficulty is that the Minister's speech reflects, virtually verbatim, what we heard this time last year from the then Minister. There is no issue with applications or expressions of interest. We have seen that time and again. People are interested in the prospect of joining the Defence Forces. The difficulty is bringing them to the point when they are inducted and ensuring they are retained within the Defence Forces. Across the board, the Government does not have the ambition at the start or the policies at th…

I extend a word of welcome to the Monaghan Women's Assembly and other guests, ach ba mhaith liom fáilte mór a chur roimh Cara Darmody, who is about to complete her 50-hour sleep-out to again raise the scandal of children waiting for assessment of need. Tá fáilte romhat, Cara. Since yesterday, the depth of public anger at the Government's decision to withdraw funding supports for blister pack medication has been laid bare. The reaction has been extraordinary. Pharmacists and carers have been inundated with messages …