Does the Minister of State want a medal?

I support this amendment. People are confused. They welcome the reimbursement of three payments of €150 in the budget, as we all do, but the whole system is convoluted. We should be dealing with the price. The amendments tabled tonight are an effort to have more transparency and more accountability from these companies. The Minister of State reminded me earlier that the Government had a windfall tax since July. It has brought in €150 million and this tax will bring in €150 million. It is not small money but it is a…

No. It is the system.

I was talking about the amendment.

I support the amendment. We have often been told since the carbon tax was introduced that it is being ring-fenced to do retrofitting of homes and everything else, yet people are waiting 24 months and have to have €50,000 to spend upfront to get approved and they might get €25,000 back. Live, horse, and you will get grass. Why would the Government transpose every other part of the directive and not put this in to copperfasten the legislation? It is because it is not being fair or honest. It is playing games with peo…

We might as well retire from this place altogether. With all these European rules we cannot make any legislation here anymore. We will not be allowed to make butter or break wind for a finish.

I want to raise the serious situation in health. The ink was not dry on the budget when we heard on Friday evening about major freezes in the recruitment of junior doctors, home helps and in all those areas where people are needed at the front line to deal with the most basic needs. Where is the accountability and why do we not have questions with the Minister for Health and Mr. Watt, the Secretary General? This is an outrageous attack on ordinary people. Junior doctors run our hospitals and home helps keep people …

No, he has not.

He was very selective.

Who did he talk to?

They are not on the front line.

There are more managers.

They apply to junior doctors.

The Burncourt regional water scheme services almost 4,000 houses and businesses in Cahir town, Ballylooby, Clogheen, Burncourt and Ballyporeen. There was a great announcement six years ago when that scheme was opened at a cost of €15.3 million for it and the Fethard scheme. The two schemes were designed and built to operate. A boil water notice has been in place since July. It is a spanking new state-of-the-art scheme. Irish Water will be taking over the scheme from the operators who will hand it back in the next y…

It is wasted.

I, too, welcome Lucia and Jim and their daughters, and, indeed, brothers, and their little grandchild today. They should not have to be here. What kind of a cabal of a country are we running? That is all I can call it. I have been in this House for 16 years and I have seen a litany of injustices and cover-ups, from Whiddy Island, ever before I came in here, to the Fr. Niall Molloy killing in Offaly. We had two young men killed off Helvick Head, 11 years ago now, and the cover-ups there by the Marine Casualty Invest…

This month, my office received a response from the HSE in respect of a young child in my constituency, the parents of whom applied for an assessment to be carried out for disability services. The application for assessment was made in 2017 when the child was in senior infants. In September 2023, the mother of this child contacted me after her child had finished primary school and she could not find a suitable school placement for the child as he had not had the assessment. This issue has been ongoing for the entire…

That was the past three years.

There is a hedge in between them.

Fair play.