Did the Taoiseach pay carbon tax on the fuel?

The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, is present. The Powerstown-Lisronagh community alert group from Tipperary are coming up to meet her today. It is fighting to save its community. There is a lack of Garda numbers. The local gardaí are doing their best. Save our Local Community in Tipperary came up to Dublin previously after a heinous robbery in Killenaule when a business family was nearly destroyed. It lobbied hard for electronic tagging. Electronic tagging started but only 151 persons - prisoners, those on …

What about electronic tagging?

What about tagging? The Minister did not answer the question.

The small towns and villages growth programme Irish Water plans to develop is in a chaotic state in Tipperary. More than seven villages in the county are on the list waiting for investment, including my village of Newcastle, Golden and Cloughjordan at the very north of the county. The lack of progress on wastewater treatment plants is holding up development. It is also causing huge pollution. The EPA and everybody else is ignoring it. There are regular boil water notices on the Galtee regional water scheme, as ther…

We are told the purpose of the Credit Guarantee (Amendment) Bill 2022 is to make amendments to the Credit Guarantee Act 2012 to support the needs of business to access additional finance. According to the Government, the creation of a Ukraine credit guarantee scheme is in response to economic difficulties resulting from the aggression by Russia against Ukraine. My goodness, what will we call it next? Will we change our name altogether? Instead of being Ireland will we become Ukraine? The last scheme did not work. T…

Does the Deputy know what I mean by it?

I, too, support Deputy Ó Broin's amendment. Not that I have fundamental hang-ups about referendums. I have a strong conviction that the men and women and local authority officials who have looked after water so well in all weathers and in the face of all challenges over the decades need to be respected and treated well. I do not know if naming a date for the referendum will do anything to help their cause of not transferring by consent by 1 January 2023. That is going apace and there is much unease and unhappiness.…

I am. I am nearly finished. They are entitled to be consulted too-----

----to pump it into leaky pipes in Dublin. I have nothing against the people in Dublin, in case someone would think I have, but there is 50% of the water leaking in Dublin. When it leaks out, when there are outages and everything else, obviously, other commodities leak back in. Some of them are very unsavoury. I have a bit of experience in this work and I know what I am talking about. It is not very nice. I am shocked at the Green Party having put this project to bed because of the runaway costs there will be and b…

No.

We are happy.

I was there at the start of it.

It is not agreed.

My colleague, Deputy Carol Nolan, outlined the chronic situation with the National Ambulance Service. On behalf of my group, I want to raise the need for an urgent debate and urgent action regarding the HSE and its inability to serve the people and carry out its job. Front-line staff are doing a sterling job but there are not enough of them and we are being told we will have to accept delays of 24 hours in accident and emergency departments. Cork University Hospital, CUH, which the Minister will know, had the highe…

We need a serious debate on this matter and, more important, we need action. We are continuously asking for this situation to be rectified and it gets worse by the day.

I raise the urgent case of a 14-year-old child in Tipperary with severe additional needs and the absolute neglect he and his family are receiving at the hands of the HSE. Despite having severe needs, being an acute priority and requiring, at a minimum, weekly respite, the child has received just three hours of respite since last May and just one overnight stay. It is appalling. The children's disability network team, CDNT, and disability services are failing him. Respite services are practically non-existent and hi…

If there is any humanity at all, the situation should not be allowed to continue like this. It is appalling.

There is no doubt that everybody is still trying to come to terms with what happened in Creeslough on that fateful evening. We have to salute each and every person in the vicinity of the shop, passers-by, neighbours, first responders, An Garda Síochána, ambulance crews, the fire brigade, council workers, hospital staff from the North and South and everybody else who tried to help. There was a real sense of the meitheal. They are normally organised but on this occasion in Creeslough it was spontaneous. The late Brid…

Go on then.