I have approached the Tánaiste many times about Tipperary town. The Government set up a task force under Ms Alison Harvey. I am asking that it be expanded to include hard-working groups in the town's hinterland. The Great National Hotels group is selling off the golf course in Ballykisteen at Limerick Junction. The Tánaiste has often been in its hotel there. If the course goes, the hotel will go. It is a focal point and important infrastructure in the region. We have nothing else like it. Will the Tánaiste ask the …

I support amendment No. 59 from Deputy Boyd Barrett and his group. It is very important and relates to having a report to evaluate how the CRSS is working. We all know that these schemes were introduced in a hurry. There was not much time to devise them and the schemes are broadly based. However, there are certain cohorts that have not been embraced at all from the point of view of the scheme. I refer to publicans aged over 66, bus drivers, self-employed taxi drivers who own their taxis and those who have ready-mix…

I too will be as brief as I can. The cohort Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to, musicians, are such a vital part of our being and our entertainment and they have been excluded. I refer to the funding administered by the Departments of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Some groups got funding under two or three schemes, but 87% of single acts, double acts and small groups got nothing. They cannot live on the wind. We are not making this up. I do not like the Minister's attitude that we come in here an…

It is the same point. I support that point of order. It is extremely unfair on the colleagues who attending committees in Leinster House. It is the same every day - over and back to committees. It is very difficult. I would like to call a vote - I discussed this with Deputy Boyd Barrett - because it is such an issue and there is such a large cohort of people who are not getting a penny. The Minister will talk about what he gives them in supports but it is not getting to the people on the ground who need it. I do no…

I move amendment No. 62: In page 33, to delete lines 29 to 38, to delete page 34, and in page 35, to delete lines 1 to 17. This amendment addresses a huge issue and is consistent with our policy on the matter within the Rural Independent Group. We are not blindly saying that there is no climate change issue, but we are saying that the carbon tax proposal in the Bill is unacceptable. It is a denial of democracy. I have been in this House for 13 years and have been involved in debating 13 finance Bills. I might be a …

On a point of clarification, we are not going to get to the later amendments. This amendment is on a related matter and we are entitled to speak on the carbon tax provision. The Ceann Comhairle knows we are not going to get to all the amendments.

On a point of order, in fairness to the Deputies in Leinster House at committee meetings we are not calling a vote but that is the only reason we are not doing so and we want to register our strongest possible objections to this.

I too want to support this amendment wholeheartedly. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, and compliment him on his appointment and on this initiative, which he understands because he is a farmer. I am glad the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, embraced it and made efforts in terms of faster tax rebates and relief because the number of incidents and accidents on farms that result in loss of life and loss of limb is shocking and they bring trauma to wives, husbands and families as well as the entire farming communi…

This amendment is accepted with acclaim. I asked about farm inspections. I am not anti-inspections, but we cannot have inspectors upsetting people.

I am not talking about the Plains of Kildare, which the Ceann Comhairle and other Deputies are familiar with, but about the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains, the Comeragh Mountains, Slievenamon and other places where mountain and hill sheep can be found.

I move amendment No. 72: In page 47, to delete lines 32 to 40, to delete pages 48 to 50, and in page 51, to delete lines 1 to 30. We are moving this amendment because, in the period of the ten-year strategy, we will not have an opportunity to discuss these again. These are not our figures, but international figures. Somewhere between €3,000 and €9,000 will be paid by each member of society in this carbon tax. That is a great deal of money, especially in the middle of a pandemic, and in any case, without any proper …

Ní bheidh mé ach nóiméad amháin.

I will only take a minute or half a one. The lecture here from the Minister about being a party from the centre tells me that he is reading too many cartoons. He does not know what the centre is. His party is so far right it cannot see its left. With any proposal we have put forward here we have been treated with disdain and lecture and sometimes with pretty hostile and demonising language towards us. We are entitled to represent our people and he will not stop us doing so. I am calling a vote on this amendment No.…

Yes, but I will allow time to my colleagues.

He is riding two horses.

Pay them, then.

The double talk is amazing.

Is called "hypocrisy".

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this very important issue to be raised and I apologise on behalf of the Deputies who are not present. Some, including Deputy Fitzpatrick, pulled out to give us more time. The reactions of doctors who carry out late-term abortions in Ireland make for grim reading. One doctor described the carrying out of foeticide as "stabbing the baby in the heart". Others said it is brutal and awful, while one revealed: "I remember getting sick out in the corridors afterwards because I thou…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing us this important Topical Issue debate. It is a shame that the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, is not here. I met the Ministers of State, Deputies Butler and Rabbitte, wandering around downstairs. None of them would come in to answer it. This is shocking. What we want is a ban on late-term abortions, mandated care for any baby born after an induction, and pain relief for babies being aborted. That is a basic human requirement. It is barbaric, shocking and unbelievable wha…