I welcome the opportunity to support the passage of the Bill. Institutional reform and restructuring of aviation policy is probably well overdue in this country. I was a member of the Covid committee and we spent quite a number of modules hearing from the aviation sector. We know the crisis in the sector due to Covid and it does not look like there will be any resolution of it soon. I know the Department is probably focused on this and I echo the calls of all Deputies seeking funding and additional grant aid for th…

Previously, I highlighted that University Hospital Waterford, UHW, has the lowest budget and lowest staff-to-bed ratio of all nine model 4 hospitals in the country. Parity of esteem is not extended to this hospital by the South/South West Hospital Group. UHW has just passed the tragic milestone of 40 patient deaths from Covid-19 in one week. Additional emergency morgue capacity has had to be sought. It now has one of the highest numbers of Covid-19 inpatients in the country while continuing to have the lowest numbe…

I do not understand why the question of the Technological University of the South-East, TUSE, headquarters is at issue. WIT took in €21 million in research last year while Carlow IT took in about €1.2 million. Delaying a discussion on that matter has made this a very difficult and fraught process and it should not have to be that way. We should recognise where the competencies lie. It is always different for Waterford as regards any political delivery. We have seen it with the catheterisation laboratory build, whic…

We can all agree that we have a terrible vista at the moment in hospitals and nursing homes with cross infection in all our hospitals and a large number of our nursing homes. The Taoiseach is well aware that I brought antigen testing to NPHET last April. I am an advocate for these tests. Despite NPHET's resistance to them, they are being used informally in hospitals. I know of a respiratory consultant in Dublin who is using them to look after his own staff and his bed allocation. He has done over 50 antigen tests a…

The Regional Group certainly supports the extension of the scheme because we see it is as very important in providing liquidity and in softening costs on business owners. As a payroll support, we also see it as helping to keep up payments on social welfare contributions, which are very important for those looking at pension entitlements later in life. On balance, the scheme is relatively straightforward. This seems to be the reaction of many businesses, although I would point out that Revenue can appear to be overb…

The CRSS was designed to bring some certainty to businesses in these uncertain times. For those businesses that have applied and qualified for the CRSS, it has obviously proved a valuable lifeline. It must be stated, however, that tying eligibility to apply to the scheme to the operation of a business premises has excluded many SMEs and service sector businesses. Many have great difficulty in accessing other forms of Government support outside of wage supports, which are obviously not fully applicable if a business…

As a Member of the Irish Parliament, I would like to congratulate Joe Biden today on his investiture as President of the United States of America. I hope he will continue to foster and promote the strong relationship and ties between Ireland and the US. After four years of intense discussion and political posturing, a negotiated future trade agreement between the EU and the UK is very welcome. The major issues with respect to Ireland's trading and political relationship with the UK appear to have been largely settl…

I gather that higher education cost the State approximately €2 billion last year. To quote the late American Senator, Everett Dirksen: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money". At a cool €2 billion, the sector costs real money and requires real and meaningful oversight and a thoughtful strategy. I appreciate that appointing a Minister for the sector is a form of recognition that something must be done about higher education. As regards funding, it is hard to figure out where the …

For many months now, at various stages of the coronavirus pandemic, the Government, the Department of Heath and the HSE have continually been asked what is the plan. It is fair to say that the master plan often appears to be hidden and the perception is that Government health policy and leadership have been reacting to events. One recent decision that could be so described is the announced pending appointment of a new Secretary General of the Department of Health. The decision to award an almost 50% salary hike for…

On behalf of myself and the Regional Group, I would like to wish the staff of Leinster House and the Ceann Comhairle a happy Christmas and new year. Just over a year ago, as a political outsider, I stood outside Leinster House with Hand on Heart campaigners. We delivered thousands of petitions to the Tánaiste's then office as Taoiseach on the funding issues around University Hospital Waterford, most especially the lack of 24-7 cardiac care for the south-east region. The problems in service delivery at University Ho…

As I said, the Taoiseach said in recent days that this was not a resourcing issue but that this was to do with academic allegiances, reviews and all of that. I am saying to the Tánaiste that this is a political issue. We have six cardiac rescue centres in the country, two of them in Dublin. The only one to serve the 600,000 people of the south east is constrained to a 39-hour working week. Sometime next year in a phased operation we will get to seven days, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. This is not good enough in the Ireland of …

The Minister referred to the importance of having this Bill passed before the end of the year. I am sure he will receive widespread support in that regard but not without reservation from many of us in the House. He highlighted the scale of spending this year and the facility to provide €10.8 billion in capital expenditure in 2021. That is a mind-boggling figure when one thinks of the past number of years when the State was trying to close the budget deficit gap from a couple of billion euro down to €1 billion or s…

Two of the issues that faced the European Council in recent days must go down as seismic events in recent European history. I refer to Covid and Brexit. It is not unfair to say that the Union was already challenged with defending the impacts of Brexit before the body blow of Covid arrived. The Covid story is probably taking centre stage now, given the upheaval it has created both economically and socially for the bloc of 27 member states. All countries are in the pendulum swing of lockdown and feeling the economic …

Approximately €1.7 billion has been spent on the university sector and less than 1% has been delivered to the south east, which accounts for 10% of the student population, in the past 20 years. The south east has suffered a pronounced decline during that period. Is the Minister satisfied that capital allocations are fully fair, transparent and equitable?

I thank the Minister for his reply. I acknowledge that we have met on this issue and I look forward to doing so again. There has been an almost 40% growth in the university sector over a 20-year period. Much of that was financed by the European Investment Bank, EIB, to the national universities, funding of which the institutes of technology cannot avail. The Minister mentioned capital structures to be built in Waterford. These are PPPs that have been bundled into a later phase in 2021 and will probably not be deliv…

I remind the Minister once again that WIT is the top-performing institute of technology in the country, with three of the top-performing gateways garnering the most EU research funding within the sector. The Minister will understand our frustration. I assure him that I certainly would welcome his political patronage on this issue, as would all the people of the south east. The most important issue is that, at the end of process he is proposing, we have a university of scale and one fit for purpose. It must rival th…

From one Waterford representative to another, I would like to remind the Minister of State that the Government accepted the recent Regional Group motion on mental health. One of the key requests called for a national lead on mental health issues. I hope the Minister of State can implement that as soon as possible. I also wish to highlight the significant deficiencies in mental health services in University Hospital Waterford, of which the Minister of State will be aware. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I hope the Government will be generous in reciprocating what Deputy Mattie McGrath is proposing. This is an issue that needs to be aired. Sulky racing is seen as a cultural activity for many. It is important we do not conflate the difference between trotting ponies and people who keep ponies for recreational use, drawing carts and sulky racing. Sulky racing revolves around horse trading, there is quite a bit of gambling involved and there are certainly animal welfare…

The Government's response to Covid-19 to date has been nothing short of seismic as Ireland borrows billions of euro to protect against the worst outcomes of the pandemic. Recent positive news regarding the development of a vaccine is pointing the way to an exit from the coronavirus but the lessons of lockdown and its resulting effects will last for a very long time. Our social fabric has suffered intense change and damage, which can be seen in current and future challenges to business, health access, livelihoods an…

My question relates to Sláintecare policy, specifically in regard to resource deficiencies at University Hospital Waterford, which is a regional hospital serving 600,000 people. I received correspondence earlier this week from a medical professional who described how an immediate family member died in April at 49 years of age due to a heart attack. The catheterisation laboratory in Waterford was not accessible because it happened on the weekend. In recent weeks, a second immediate family member suffered a heart att…