I, too, thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. I will say my few words on it. Carers have been abandoned, especially during the Covid pandemic but also since then. They expected something meaningful this year in that they would be linked to other extra payments. They did not get that linkage. They got their once-off payment but that will not bring them very far. The Indecon report said enough. It stated that people with disabilities, as we all know and did not need an Indecon report to tell us, have many extra co…

I thank the Minister for Education for attending but I am disappointed the Minister for Justice is not here. I know it is late but it is not good enough that she is not prepared to take this Topical Issue matter. I attended a meeting last Thursday night in Moyle Rovers GAA Club, Clonmel. I thank the caretaker, Mr. O'Connor. More than 500 people came from far and near in fear and trepidation. Many of these wonderful people provided a community centre and provide for their families and community in the excellent pari…

That is a shocking reply. The Minister for Justice needs to take heed. She is accountable to this House. I am sick and tired of Ministers coming in here to refer to the Garda Commissioner, head of the HSE and all these people. They are not elected or accountable to the people. We are supposed to have a Government here. We are celebrating 100 years of our freedom, having set up our Republic. The response is shocking. The Minister for Education can read out all the figures she likes. What about retirements? What abou…

I call on the Minister to respond.

We are over time.

It appears they are grouped.

I thank the Deputy. For clarification, we can group priority questions, but a priority question cannot be grouped with an ordinary question.

Go raibh maith agat.

We are over time.

The Tánaiste is Minister for business and industry and everything else. Businesses, especially small businesses, were never under as much pressure as they are under now. In Clonmel, a number of them closed this week with more to go. The same is true in villages as well. It is very hard to restart a business or get a new business in. We have a huge issue here. The budget did very little for small businesses. The Government needs to do something with the charges for the gas and electricity. It has piled on more taxes…

I too welcome this Bill. As the previous speaker mentioned, ComReg and the different aspects to this area are something that people struggle with. It is a sad indictment on our country that we meet people in our clinics who mention problems with Eir, which is a complete disaster. People in rural and isolated areas depend for safety and security on pendant alarms and their Eir lines might be down for one, two, three or, sometimes, six months and they cannot get through or navigate the system, especially elderly peop…

Last week I raised the issue of drug dealing and intimidation in Clonmel town centre. Clonmel is a fine town with fine people. There was an incident on Friday night when a young farmer who was going to his homeplace was confronted by a gang, beaten to the ground, kicked underneath his van and left. It could have been a fatality. Will the Taoiseach do something to support the Garda in Clonmel? The numbers are appalling. The ones who are there do their best but the management is leaving a lot to answer for. Gardaí ar…

Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis an Aire Stáit. Tá fáilte roimhe ar ais san áit seo. I welcome the Minister of State back. He was always a very engaging Minister and always did his best to meet with Deputies from the Opposition and everywhere else. I wish him luck. I advise him to avoid the golf classics. I say that only in jest. I know he was there for a perfectly good reason, to pay tribute to his late colleague and his late father's good colleague, the late Mark Killilea. I welcome the legislation. W…

Your friends.

Muinteoir anseo.

We have another damning report from Deloitte on the University Limerick Hospitals Group and University Hospital Limerick, UHL but it is going to gather dust on some desk or in some pigeonhole. There is chaos in UHL on a daily basis since the closure of the emergency department in Nenagh Hospital as well St John's Hospital in Limerick and Ennis Hospital. We were told last week quite glaringly of the lack of redeployment and re-engagement of specialist nurses and a group of other people in that hospital. It is crying…

The Minister is a reasonable man, as I know from discussions with him. We are going around in circles and the housing situation is appalling. I met the Simon Community last Thursday and I want to salute it for the work it does. It told me something I had a fair idea was already happening, namely that there was a 100% increase in the number of homeless people in Tipperary between July 2021 and July 2022. We know that. I want to thank Kathy and Máirín in my office who are inundated on an hourly and daily basis with p…

I also support this motion. What about the perpetrators of the crisis, the quarries and concrete plants? This industrial sector is dominated and controlled by CRH plc, Ireland's largest company, which is number one in the US and the UK and is the world's third largest manufacturer of construction materials. CRH plc settled a price-fixing, market-sharing case taken in the state of Virginia for $101 million in October 2020. An Garda Síochána will not investigate CRH plc and neither will the Competition and Consumer P…

Deputy, please.

Deputy, please.