County Tipperary, despite its size, has only one vacant homes officer to cover the county in identifying vacant houses and assessing applications under Croí Cónaithe and the repair and leasing scheme. As the Taoiseach knows, there is significant interest, thankfully, in these grants from the public. For a county the size of Tipperary, I ask that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage find some budget to appoint a second officer so that the grants can be turned around pretty quickly, vacant houses …

Does the Taoiseach accept that Ireland's energy security policies are failing Ireland and they are more in tune with the green agenda of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and others? Does he acknowledge that the policies are driving up the costs of food, electricity, petrol and diesel and gach rud mar sin for Irish citizens? While governments around the world are granting new oil and gas exploration licences to ensure cheaper energy for their citizens, Ireland's Minist…

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le gach éinne ar na boird ar fud na tíre agus ar fud Thiobraid Árann. I would like to pay my richest and fullest compliments to the volunteers, the board members, the staff, and the management teams at every credit union in County Tipperary, from Carrick-on -Suir, to Clonmel, to Cahir and Tipperary town and the suboffices in Bansha, Ardfinnan, Hollyford, Thurles and in all of the towns in north Tipperary as well, for the work they do. Banks literally do not want people inside them…

There was a strong delegation from the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA, outside the Dáil today. Many of the Taoiseach's backbenchers came to meet them. They are being crucified by increased input costs, and the price of lamb paid to them has never been lower. It has dropped consistently over the past four months, despite what the housewife or houseperson pays for a leg of lamb in the shops or the butchers. There is very significant gouging going on here and then there are all the input costs, for f…

I raise the issue of MotorCycling Ireland’s insurance cover. I believe it wrote to the Taoiseach. I have seen copies of letters it wrote. A number of cycling clubs in Ireland lost the ability to obtain insurance for this season. The governing body, Offroad Motorsport UK, informed staff in 2022 that no insurance company would cover any of the Twenty-six Counties. The Taoiseach and I know that very many valuable and entertaining races are held all over the country. What is the difference between horse racing, greyhou…

The implementation of the new restrictive measures has shown the complexity of identifying assets owned by those subject to sanctions who hide their assets across different jurisdictions through complex means and financial structures. Those who wish to conceal assets are helped by existing legal loopholes as the criminal law provisions relating to the breach of EU sanctions vary between member states. This is the problem. We are now a full 12 months into the war and I understand eight different sets of sanctions ha…

I, too, am in favour of this motion. This situation has gone from bad to worse. A paramedic told me at a retirement do one night a number of years ago that he left the service because of the disgraceful call-outs and the utter confusion and ridiculousness involved. He was called out one day to leave Clonmel and head for Carrick-on-Suir. When he reached Carrick-on-Suir, he was told to head on to Waterford. When he got to Waterford, he was told to carry on to New Ross and when he reached New Ross, he was told to driv…

The south Tipperary children's disability network team is in total disarray. The disability network manager has recently resigned, as has the network social worker. There is a senior occupational therapist vacancy, a speech and language therapist vacancy and a psychologist vacancy. What is going on? There are five whole-time equivalent vacancies in the network. Children with disabilities are being placed on waiting lists with ever-increasing delays. That is not acceptable to anyone in this day and age. It is simply…

There are 50,000 waiting.

When?

The question arises what court records are held by the National Archives. The majority of court records held by the National Archives date from the foundation of the modern Irish State in 1922, although sometimes you would have to wonder how modern it is. These include records relating to all courts, including the District Court, the Circuit Court, the High Court, the Central Criminal Court, the Court of Criminal Appeal and the Supreme Court. Some earlier court records were destroyed in 1922. The Civil War was ment…

The complaints body of An Garda Síochána, GSOC, will be renamed the office of the policing ombudsman, with redesigned processes and greater financial independence. The body itself will be restructured and the current three-person commission will be replaced with an ombudsman and a deputy ombudsman. Glossy Bills are not going to fix the serious problem we have in this country. Ar an gcéad dul síos ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil do na ghardaí go léir. I want to thank the vast majority of the members of the Ga…

He missed it. He is asleep at the wheel.

Go raibh maith agat-----

Is the Government trying to address the cost-of-living crisis or is it trying to bankrupt the public? As far as I and most people can see, it is the latter. The facts, which have been confirmed to me in reply to a parliamentary question to the Minister for Finance, show that the Government collected a record €3.75 billion in energy taxes last year. Meanwhile, during that same period, the Government gave out minimal energy relief to people. The Government's decision yesterday to extend the minimum excise relief is l…

I do welcome the new TBESS because the first one was way too restrictive. A person on anything other than town gas could not claim for it. I welcome the VAT rate for hospitality; of course I do. I do not welcome the fact the Government will start taking off the excise exemptions after June and will be charging people extra for fuel. The Government is playing a three card trick here. The wholesale cost of oil is lower than it was in the pre-war period. The war is blamed for everything. It should stop the blame game …

Can we not use our own gas?

They really feel for them.

I missed the Business Committee meeting last Thursday but the account I heard was that the matter would be discussed at this week's meeting, with the hope of getting unanimous agreement on it. This is the first I or our group have heard of this, with it being presented on the floor of the House like this, and I object to that.

In fairness to the secretariat of the Business Committee, they ring us all the time, but they obviously did not have time today. Why was it not put on to the Order of Business? We got numerous calls from the secretariat with regard to the Order of Business yesterday. There were at least three changes. This is a sleight of hand by the Government. Our group will certainly not support this now. We need a bit of respect and time, as an Opposition group, to see the motion and get some understanding of it, or have dialog…