The only ship that is turning is the Titanic .

It could not be getting better.

We have 14,400 people who are homeless. We have 4,419 children who are homeless. Is this not some legacy to leave just before the Government members knock on the doors of the people of this country to tell them what a good job they have done? My God, they have failed the Irish people miserably. If it comes down to the people in the cities, yes, but look at the people in the country areas. Every weekend, my clinics are full of people who cannot get planning permission. They want to make a start in life but they cann…

I thank the Acting Chair. First, I think Deputy Fitzmaurice and the Independent Group of Deputies for putting forward this very worthy motion at this time. The Minister of State should remember one thing which is that all of these restaurants, cafés, pubs and hairdressers are small businesses. That is why the Government has them crushed. It is trying to crush them out of business. Why did the Minister of State not attend the protest yesterday? If he did not, he should have been there to listen to what is going on o…

They came up yesterday. In one minute I will give the Minister of State time to talk and I will not interrupt his talking. They came up here yesterday out of their goodwill and took another few pounds out of their pockets. They were brought up here a couple of days before the budget, the VAT 9 group, and were codded to their eyeball by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. The Minister of State's Minister was down in west Cork promising, promising, promising. He left a legacy of closures after him and that is what is happenin…

In many parts of our country, infrastructure is greatly lacking, leaving many towns and villages dying a death and nowhere is this more evident than in west Cork. A complete lack of investment by successive Governments has left two bypasses promised to the people of Bandon unfinished, one bypass in Inishannon, not only unfinished but not even started, and a promised bypass for Bantry not even started. Not one passing bay has been built in decades, limiting car drivers to tractor and lorry pace on all of the main ro…

I thank the Minister. What is wrong with Uisce Éireann? The Minister is saying the Government is pouring money in it. Even if it was moving at a snail's pace, some of these towns would have their wastewater treatment plants built, but it is not even moving at that pace. It cannot be money as in some of the towns I mentioned, we have offered co-funding to speed up the process and get the plants built but it makes no difference. For far too long, this Government has pointed the finger of blame at farmers as the culpr…

It is.

No hope to these towns. Some have been waiting for 27 years.

Accountability.

We have been waiting for 27 years.

When it comes to the Bill and when we look at where money has gone in this country, I tried to get that conversation going today with the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, and he, of course, was not happy either because the Government has no accountability for quite a good deal of the money that is out there. There is a lot of money out there and there is no point in my saying that there is not. My God, the Government has thrown money into health, the OPW and Uisce Éireann and that there is no accountability. That …

On carers, and it already has been mentioned to the Minister numerous times, there is no point in getting up to say the budget was all bad. That is wrong. The problem is that while there is a lot of money out there, it is pegged everywhere and there is no accountability as to where it ends up. The real bonanza is in the Minister's Department with all of the social welfare payments out there. Other Departments are pegging money at the OPW, at Uisce Éireann and at health. It is all going all over the place but there …

The proposed legislation aims to limit An Taisce's influence in Ireland's planning and development process, especially in rural areas. It seeks to remove An Taisce as a prescribed authority under the Planning and Development Acts to address delays caused by its objections which have impacted housing and economic growth. The goal is to streamline the planning process, reduce bureaucratic delays and ensure taxpayer funding is not used for legal challenges that delay projects. The legislation encourages the public to …

We did not interfere when you were speaking.

Sit down and have manners.

I am not going to stand here and say people will not welcome the rebate for energy costs. Of course, they will welcome it in very difficult times with the rising costs of energy, which are sky-rocketing to an extraordinary level. Without the Government tackling the energy companies as to where they can make savings, I know people can make savings by ringing around. I contacted a telephone company today and saved about €150 per month just by picking up the phone and ringing. Electricity companies have overcharged or…

We have been talking about housing since I came into the Dáil and it has not got any better. It has got worse under the Government’s leadership. Instead of a clear light going forward it is more difficult. Talking about young people, especially in my own constituency, rural planning is savage. It is a horrible issue for a lot of young people. The disappointment, hurt and money they have spent on not getting planning permission fills my clinics every weekend. These are people with very difficult stories who have spe…

The complete waste of money is appalling, about which there is an outcry the Government is ignoring. It is quite adamant this pouch scheme is going to work. It knows as well as I do that no phone is going to go into that pouch. It is only codding us. I would like to know who is making these pouches. We need a bit more information about this because it seems the Government is determined to go ahead with a nonsensical idea. I have been on a board of management for more than 20 years and have seen how difficult it is …

One of the best reports today was in one of the newspapers, that "Budget 2025 delivers vast spending – but a dire lack of vision stores up disaster for the country". That was true, in my view, on so many fronts. I look at the roads budget. I spoke quite a lot about other issues last night and I will not touch on them today. The VAT rate, at 13.5%, was one of the biggest mistakes the Government could ever make and it turned its back completely on small businesses. On roads funding, I would like to know where will th…