There was a sharp increase in excess deaths in Ireland in 2022, continuing in 2023, with our excess mortality rate the fourth highest in the EU. Ireland's excess mortality used typically to be below the EU average. Ireland's excess rate is currently up 25%, which is a shocking figure. We are all approached on a daily basis by people concerned about this. On 1 February last, the Taoiseach told the Dáil he would ask the Chief Medical Officer for her opinion on this. Has she expressed an opinion yet? Will she come bac…

What about my question?

I am glad the Minister for Justice is present. Clonmel has been waiting 64 years for a new Garda station. Superintendent Ruane and his team there, and the public, need a fit-for-purpose building, which they do not have. There have been statements today by a backbencher that we have decoupled the situation regarding the Children Court building from the two Garda stations involved in the public-private partnership, PPP. I hope that has happened and I have asked for it to happen. This should never have been allowed to…

I am delighted to have time to speak on this Bill. The legislation aims to prevent the NTMA from investing in businesses that operate in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. It requires the NTMA to ensure that no assets from the ISIF are invested in such businesses and, if it becomes aware that the ISIF has invested in such businesses, it must divest these assets from the investment. The purpose of this legislation is to prevent Ireland from being involved in illegal Israeli activities and to end the op…

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Alan Dillon - to discuss Government's role under the Broadcasting Act 2009 in protecting our national cultural and sporting events. Deputy Thomas Pringle - to discuss the implementation of the recommendations of the Brandon report. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan - to discuss when the new elective hospital in Cork will go to tender and when construction will…

It is happening all the time.

I received a letter from Ms Margaret Egan, the secretary of Ardfinnan Community Council. The bridge over the River Suir at Ardfinnan has operated under a one-way system since October 2015. The Fianna Fáil party leader, then Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, went to Ardfinnan two years ago in a blaze of glory and promised money, possibly under the active travel scheme or similar. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has now rejected a comprehensive report that was done looking for an independent walk bridge that w…

That is what it was. Fanfare.

It has refused.

It is still standing.

And Indians.

I thank former Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill and Ms Mairéad McGrath in my office team for putting this motion together. We are disappointed with the Government but we are not surprised. Before I get into the substance of the motion, I have a couple of questions and points of clarification for the Minister of State. He might answer these points. He mentioned the grant for first-time buyers in his address. That grant is only available for new houses. It does not apply to second-hand houses. It must be a new house.

I am.

That was not what I understood from the Minister of State. Deputy O'Donoghue asked me to ask the Minister of State about log cabins with a timber finish in his county of Limerick. Under the Limerick area plan, such timber-finished properties are not allowed. Buildings must be finished with mortar, plaster, slate or something else.

We are looking at everything. The Minister has fled the Chamber. It is most disappointing from our point of view as a small group, grúpa beag, that the Minister never waits to reply. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State but Deputy Darragh O'Brien is the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. He makes announcement after announcement. I attended the annual general meeting of the Irish Council for Social Housing last week in a hotel near Heuston Station. Did the Minister attend? He did not. He w…

No, I am not. It was fadó fadó. One of them was Cathy and one was Kitty. They are all gone to their eternal reward. None of them turned up that night so he said: "I have neither kitty nor a cat tonight. I have nobody but myself." TII wants everything. It will not build the roads. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is welcome. I will talk to Mary Lou. She will know some of the folklore from Tipperary, her mother being from there as well. TII will not build the roads. It sterilised a 5 km wide area of it, and you canno…

Why would it not, because the Government had nought and zero interest in them?

The members of the Government are elected representatives, but they are more interested in representing global politics now, not the people of rural Ireland.

I commend the motion, which I will push to a vote.

Children with disabilities in south Tipperary and across the country are suffering greatly, especially children with special and complex needs. I have a lot of examples of children who were receiving therapies from primary care teams and have been discharged from that primary care team because they are deemed to have more complex needs that are more appropriate to the children's disability network teams, CDNTs, but the CDNTs do not have the appropriate therapists and the child is left with no place to go. Where a c…