I submitted a parliamentary question to the Minister on 20 January and his response did not provide a resolution. I thank him for the invitation to engage with him on the issue of south-east fishing on 11 May. As Deputy Cullinane has highlighted, this is a significant economic issue for Dunmore East. The travel time to Dunmore East for fishing vessels that access the fishing grounds known as the Smalls is five or six hours. However, they cannot access the port and are forced to go to either Castletownbere, which is…

I too welcome the Minister's statement. The one point I would make is that the comparison is not valid. If one looks at the size of Howth Harbour and the level of activity there and compares landings at Howth with those at Dunmore East, one will see that the landings are quite a lot more important to Dunmore East relatively. I ask the Minister to take that on board. Deputy Cullinane made a very good point about supporting and progressing commercial activity. We have had a lot of issues in the south and particularly…

I welcome the Bill, which largely tidies up the Mulcreevy judgment problem and ensures that the primary legislation complies with statutory instruments enacted. I also welcome the move of responsibility for heritage to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. As my colleague, Deputy Tóibín, has highlighted the issue of The O'Rahilly house and what happened there, it is beneficial that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage now has oversight in the area and that responsibility for …

Unlike the Tánaiste, I am not medically qualified although I spent a number of years in the healthcare area working around medical devices and medicines. I am not an expert so I talk to experts to try to inform myself of what is happening on the ground. When I say experts, I mean those who are at the front line of medicine, working with cutting edge medicines and dealing with Covid patients. On 4 April 2020 I issued a national statement calling for the use of face masks but this was not supported by NPHET until Aug…

I referred to Denmark's and Hungary's e-health systems rather than their mortality rates. The Tánaiste referenced PPS numbers. We have up to 20% more PPS numbers than population, which behoves us to come up with a new identifier number to manage our systems. As the Tánaiste is well aware, there have been issues for years in terms of hospital inpatient data, the hospital inpatient enquiry, HIPE, system. For years, University Hospital Waterford suffered from the under-reporting of cardiac activity in terms of the nat…

I join with other Deputies welcome the extension of CRSS and EWSS. We also need to acknowledge Revenue's forbearance on debt warehousing. We must also acknowledge that, as we open up the economy, many small to medium-sized enterprises will open with significant debt attached to their businesses. With regard to the EWSS, we know there needs to be a 30% reduction in turnover or unit orders from a six-month period in 2019. This can be very difficult for businesses to chart. Some businesses have tried to access the sch…

The Bill proposed by the Government seeks to chart Ireland's transition to climate neutrality by 2050. It will provide for future five-yearly carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings and shape and frame the future economic and social prosperity of our country. Global warming is now an accepted reality. All countries have a part to play in addressing climate change. Some developing countries, in particular those with increasing populations, are driving significant carbon generation and will do so for years to …

Yes, a couple. First, I thank the Government for following through on the proposition to build a second cath lab at University Hospital Waterford which was announced in recent days. I addressed this with the Taoiseach yesterday. I look forward to engaging with the Minister in coming months to ensure the recruitment of staff and to get the lab operational as soon as it is commissioned. The vaccine roll-out is the most topical issue at the moment. The Minister mentioned Israel. We could also look at Denmark and Eston…

In 2016, the Taoiseach stood in the grounds of University Hospital Waterford and pledged that he and his party would deliver 24-7 cardiac care to the people of the south east. In recent days, he and his Minister for Health took a significant step in honouring that pledge by committing funding to a cardiac cath lab at University Hospital Waterford. I thank the Taoiseach for that step, which he and I have discussed many times. Now I ask that he finish the journey. First, will he commit his office's oversight of and s…

I welcome the Bill. I thank Senators McDowell, Boyhan and Craughwell, as well as Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, for the amendments they have proposed and their work on the Bill. It will receive wide support from the House. This legislation will be very much welcomed, particularly by lobby groups, parents and survivors' groups. I commend the policy it seeks to implement. Many of us have heard news headlines about offences against or involving children where reporting restrictions were put in place. That was based on good i…

Rental tenancies have become a very emotive subject over the past 20 years in Ireland with the fallout of the Celtic tiger followed by an economic upswing, which failed to deliver a commensurate rise in new house building and residential property supply. Even before Covid, rents were on an upward trajectory requiring rent pressure zones in an effort to contain further price increases. The Irish residential letting sector has, largely, two broad categories of rental investor. The first is the REIT property hedge fun…

As a member of the Regional Group I am very happy to be in the House this evening to support this proposed amendment to the Civil Liability and Courts Act. I thank the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, for his work in the area during the previous Dáil. Many members of the public, and especially people in private industry, were shocked, in the past 12 months particularly, to hear insurance companies outline large-scale fraudulent personal injury claims, albeit without insurance companies making large-scale complaint…

I ask the Government to consider a new beef exceptional aid measures, BEAM, scheme to support beef finishers and beef farmers. They are facing catastrophic losses bringing their product to market because of falling prices at factory gates and reduced demand on the Continent due to Covid. In addition, they are dealing with rising input prices for fertiliser and meat supplements. A frozen pizza in a supermarket, by weight, sells for more than Irish beef cuts, which is a tragedy for beef farmers. Will the Minister ple…

Will it offset losses to farmers-----

It is no exaggeration to say that the population is becoming traumatised by the continuing effects of Covid-19. This is the last time we should ask the Irish people to continue with level 5 restrictions, albeit softening them slowly. There is no doubt that significant mental stress has resulted for many in the population. This has been particularly so for the education sector, especially special education and the many teachers, carers, parents and pupils. The latest announcements regarding the return to school are …

I wish to bring up three sectoral issues which fall under the Minister's agriculture portfolio and for which I believe immediate and clear action can alleviate significant economic and social hardship. First, I raise our suckler beef and beef finishing industry. Beef prices are on the floor and beef finishers are facing significant losses, and in some cases ruin, in bringing their beef product to market, which they must do after all. Farmers continue to engage in supplemental feeding and husbandry to deliver the pr…

Counterfeiting refers to something capable of "passing for a currency, note or coin of that description, or if it is a currency, note or coin which has been so altered that it is [...] capable of passing for a note or coin of some other description". That is a long way around of saying a fraudulent copy. Ireland is the last country to transpose this 2014 directive on the protection of the euro and other currencies against counterfeiting. The main planks of the directive call on member states to introduce criminal o…

Since 2011, three programmes for Government have pushed a technological university on the south east. I use the word "pushed" deliberately. Where is the Government's plan? IT Carlow and Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, have fundamentally different visions for education. IT Carlow is oriented around the greater Dublin area. It is positioned around the strong Dublin universities. WIT has filled the need for a university in the south east. It is the top institute of technology nationally, having been awarded in…

It is clear that in the past decade no planning was done by Government.

How can the Government ask anyone to sign up to the technological university without a realistic and honest plan for-----