He will build it, I suppose.

I am disappointed with the Bill. The Bill has a massive volume but there are gaping discrepancies in it. With regard to rural housing, the rural planning guidelines introduced in 2005 have proved excessively restrictive, especially with regard to the urban influence. They are obstructing young families from realising their dream of building a house on their own land and in their own countryside. The Minister of State represents an area that has some rural areas in it and he should know this. It denies young people …

It is Limerick Junction but it is known as Tipperary Racecourse now. It has a great board, team and supporters club. They put together a massive €40 million development plan. There was a house for the race manager fadó fadó. He is long gone and the current occupants of the house have lodged a complaint to An Bord Pleanála. They have put in an objection. That was almost two years ago. This is vital infrastructure and development and we want to develop it into a state-of-the-art facility. There is community involveme…

He is from the Minister of State's party. He is a fine, decent man. We had many a sparring match. We went Sumo wrestling one night for a function. We had a good interaction there as well.

It is related, given the input and work of Councillor Fitzgerald on the county development plans over the decades.

He is much bigger than me but I knocked him over, thank God, and I was able to handle him then when he was down. It is easy to climb a tall tree that is knocked over. Going back to the county development plans, I note the input and work that Councillor Fitzgerald put in. He was the whip of his party over the years. I wish him, his wife, Mary, and his family well on his retirement.

He has given sterling service for 45 years.

Councillor Fitzgerald replaced his late dad on the council, so the service in the family goes back even longer. I wish his mum, who is in her 95th year, well too. I have minor concerns about the ten-year cycle for the development plans. It is very long. I know the plans can be amended but they seldom are and it is an arduous task. We will be submitting amendments on these issues. Confidence in An Bord Pleanála is at an all-time low. I do not think changing the name in Gaeilge will do much to help it. There will cer…

Yes.

To be fair, I did not say they were not.

It is a nuisance.

Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom mo chomhghairdeas a ghabháil leis an Teachta Shanahan ó Phort Láirge. I commend and congratulate Deputy Shanahan from my neighbouring constituency on this very insightful, thoughtful and necessary legislation. Our group is wholeheartedly supporting it. We have a litany of issues. It is probably repetitive at this stage. We have lost the competency to develop major projects. When I look back at the inception of the State, we had the great late TK Whitaker and visionaries like him…

There is now a chronic situation in the Department of Health and the HSE with many families waiting for crucial appointments and procedures. We now have a situation going on for ten weeks where the Fórsa trade union is on a kind of work-to-rule. We cannot get answers to parliamentary questions or to our representations so that the public out there are being left bewildered. We cannot get answers. This is not good enough. Will somebody in the HSE or in the Department of Health please resolve this issue? It was bad e…

I thank the Government for this funding for this vital industry and fully support it. Both industries are so vital but I will speak today about the horse industry and the prowess we have had in Tipperary, all over the world and in other parts of Ireland. I want to make remarks on the greyhound industry because it is vital. It used to be a cottage industry. Every small farmer in south Tipperary had greyhounds. That has now greatly diminished but I salute them because they mind their dogs and their welfare is the top…

They are getting ready for Government. They call that getting ready for Government.

On the basis of the Taoiseach's replies during Leaders' Questions, I call once again for a reasonable and rational debate on inward migration, including on illegal and undocumented people coming here. I do not want any lectures from the liberal left here. I have been asking for this reasonable debate for months at meetings of the Business Committee. If we are to really examine issues, we have to have a debate. As the Taoiseach said, he is debating this with everybody. We have to have a debate in here; this is not a…

There is a very thin line between anarchy and good living. I support gardaí in their efforts always and, indeed, last Thursday night. Shamefully, however, the numbers of gardaí in my county have dropped to an appalling level. Carrick-On-Suir, with 5,000 in its town and hinterland, has four gardaí and two sergeants. Its complement is 14 gardaí and four sergeants. Up in Clonmel, it is almost as bad, and there is Cahir, Cashel station, which has been closed and there is no night service, right up to Roscrea, Thurles a…

The brutal and unprovoked stabbings of innocent children, two girls aged five and six and a boy aged five, and the innocent crèche worker, Leanne Flynn, who used her body as a human shield outside Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire last week, are shocking. Our thoughts and prayers are with the five-year-old girl who remains in a critical condition in the hospital and the care worker who was critically injured. We can say all we like, but knife attacks on children lining up outside their school and young women going out for…

The Tánaiste announced a consultative forum last week. He and his cabals of NGOs are getting away with so much, and he wants to set up another in the form of a citizens' assembly. Is citizens' assembly é an Teach seo. We are elected to a citizens' assembly. The Tánaiste is subverting democracy by trying to do what he is doing instead of backing up our Army. I was here one Thursday evening some years ago when the Tánaiste came in here and slipped in and out. He changed his stance on the repeal of the eighth amendmen…

The Government claims to be pro-business. It rushed through and guillotined the Finance Bill last night. Many measures, the Government said, are pro-business. I have an ESB bill here from a family business in Tipperary. It is a respected and well-run business, a public house. The bill is for €3,208 for the period from the middle of August to the end of September, when the weather was not too bad or cold. The charges are coming out. The bill includes a new charge of €451 for an I-SEM trading charge. It totals €451. …