I am glad to speak on this motion. Before taking office, the Minister spent four or five years alongside me on the housing committee in the last Dáil. We talked so much that we could have built castles out of talk. There are logjams and blockages in the system and, as previous speakers referred to, a lack of infrastructure. Any scheme that will help with those problems is welcome, but I want it to focus on rejuvenating our rural villages and towns. In my constituency, I am talking about the centres of Clommel, Tipp…

On behalf of the Rural Independent Group, I ask the Taoiseach to provide time to discuss what is going on in banking, including the complete abandonment of rural Ireland and many areas of urban Ireland, not to mention what went on with Davy stockbrokers. There is simply no appetite in this or the previous Government for legislation around banking to address what banks are doing and the way they are treating the people.

The bank bailout has to date cost taxpayers €60 billion including interest. The Government has dissolved the bank levy, of which the banks have paid only €1.2 billion. What is happening with Bank of Ireland? Three branches in County Tipperary, in Cahir, Cashel and Templemore, are closing. All over the country, banks are exiting rural Ireland. EBS are leaving Tipperary town and we have seen what is happening with Ulster Bank. When is the Government going to get real? We have a 14% share in Bank of Ireland. Exercise …

Déanfaidh mé mo dhícheall an chuid Ghaeilge bhriste atá agam a úsáid. Bhí mo sheanathair i gcónaí i gCaisleán Nua agus ní raibh aon Bhéarla aige. Fuair sé bás sna 1950idí. Bhí breac-Ghaeltacht sa Chaisleán Nua ag an am sin. Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis na daoine a dhéanann sárobair chun an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn - daoine ar nós Labhrás Ó Murchú agus a bhean chéile, Úna, i gComhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann agus daoine eile i nGlór na nGael agus Conradh na Gaeilge, srl. Tá Gaelscoileanna sa Chaisleán Nu…

I am pleased to be able to speak on the Bill. It is something that should have been done back in April 2020. On behalf of the Rural Independents I attended the briefings with the then Taoiseach and Dr. Holohan and others. I sympathise with Dr. Holohan on his recent bereavement. Every time we met, I asked why we were not closing the borders. The response I got is that we could not because we are Europeans. When I pointed to what was happening in Poland and Hungary I was told to stop. We are punishing the ordinary pe…

I thank the Minister for meeting with the Tipperary groups last Friday night. It was a meaningful meeting with Jobs4Tipp, March4Tipp, Councillor Anne Marie Ryan and indeed the Tipperary Town Chamber of Commerce. They really appreciated it. I hope the Minister continues the collaboration in an effort to get the trucks out of the town with a ring road. We have had bad weather in the last ten days in Tipperary. Areas of Tipperary, Cahir, Cashel, the Knockmealdowns and the Galtees were badly hit. I salute the outdoor s…

I too rise to support the Labour Party amendment and the associated amendments in this grouping. We in the Rural Independent Group have tabled a number of amendments and I thank Brian Ó Domhnaill in our office for assisting us in producing them. They are quite detailed and also quite rushed because we did not have a lot of time. There is not enough time allocated to discuss this Bill. By the looks of things, we will not reach many of the amendments. We are only on an chéad cheann and if we are still discussing this…

Yes, I am sorry but this is factual.

I am not dog-whistling. I am telling the truth that people are relaying to me. They are highly frustrated that they cannot go to services of any denomination and they see that other people can do what they like. That is the basic nutshell of it. The Government has not dealt with that and will not deal with it. This legislation cannot deal with it either because it is not foolproof or thought-through. Amendments will not be accepted because we will not get to them. Would they be accepted anyway? Some have been ruled…

I support the Social Democrats motion. I am a bit perplexed by the actions of the Government. We know there were rumblings on the backbenches about opposing this motion and some Members were uneasy about that but now we seem to have a typical split decision as the Government is not opposing the motion but is not extending the time for the commission either. I was interested to hear Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness, a retired judge, explain yesterday on the radio how members of the commission should have no issue c…

On behalf of the Rural Independent Group, I must object to rushing this legislation. Rushed legislation is normally bad legislation. We do not have enough time to debate it. I am unsure as to how many Deputies will be present to vote. The Taoiseach has stopped briefing Opposition leaders, including me. Contrary to what he told the House last week, we have not had a briefing since November. He will hide from accountability by having no Taoiseach's questions or a proper debate. We expect the little people - I mean th…

I spoke on this earlier and I alluded to the fact that it is very strange that the Government is not extending the life of the commission, yet it accepted the motion. This is playing politics at a very cynical level. It might look good for the Government and get it off the hook with its backbenchers, but it sends a distressing message to the victims, their families and their advocates. We are playing games here with people's lives and it is just unacceptable.

Community employment, CE, and community involvement schemes are a vital part of our community. The caring sector, Tidy Towns associations, sports clubs, schools and so on are having major difficulty in terms of their sponsors and sub-sponsors due to Covid-19. They cannot fundraise and are ending up with deficits. They have to pay insurance costs, bank charges, IT costs, payroll and all the other charges even though some of them are not currently operational. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister in charge to give the…

I am delighted to speak on this today. I salute the architects of the Good Friday Agreement and the peace that we now enjoy. I look forward to the New Decade, New Approach agreement. I happened to be in the residence of the British ambassador in Washington two years ago, on the day before St. Patrick's Day. The most senior civil servant in Northern Ireland at the time, whose name eludes me but I am sure the Minister knows him, had to take the stage instead of the First Minister or deputy First Minister, who were th…

There are almost 30,000 families, homes, businesses and schools waiting for broadband in Tipperary, according to National Broadband Ireland, NBI. A recent response I got to a parliamentary question told me that there were 8,000 surveyed in Tipperary, which means that 21,000 were not surveyed. These people are trying to work, do business, get education, pursue leisure and do everything, so when will the roll-out of broadband be accelerated? The Tánaiste mentioned the banks and so on doing business online now, but th…

I want to ask the Minister a number of questions and I ask for the replies in writing. Last week, I raised the issue of the importation of cars and other goods, and the major delays at ports which are shocking. Duty and VRT has to be paid. Another issue has now arisen, namely, the three-year-old goods relief being allowed by Revenue for cars re-entering the EU from 31 December 2020 back to 1 January 2018. There was no problem for the first two years of the scheme, but Revenue is now demanding a copy of an importati…

I am glad to have an opportunity to speak in this debate. When the Bill was first introduced, I thought it might be a good idea. However, having looked at the proposals in it, I think it will be a disaster. As previous speakers said, it will suit the developers. A huge hoarding of land has gone on since the last housing crisis and economic bust and that is all there. I want to speak about Tipperary. We have lost everything in Tipperary. We have lost all our town councils, including the members who served there, som…

I compliment Deputy Doherty on his gallant and heroic efforts to deal with the insurance companies. It is an immoral and indecent racket that is not justified in any way, shape or form. I have been in business for 39 years; 40 years next year. I am talking about myself but the same issues apply to all others, whether small business people, clubs in communities, hillwalking clubs or whatever they are. We are all trying to do our best for the country but insurance companies keep ripping us off. Why would they not whe…

We in the Rural Independent Group try to be constructive at Business Committee meetings. We know how challenging these times are, but the Government is hiding behind shorter sittings and not enough debate on issues such as the Land Development Agency Bill 2021, the management or mismanagement of the Covid situation, the manipulation of figures and the situation with our schools, hospitals and front-line workers. It is not good enough. Surely, given the size of the convention centre and the cost in terms of Dáil sit…

By way of clarification, the Taoiseach has not met the groups or the leaders of the groups since last November. That is the fact of it.