The extension of this Act will allow the hospitality sector to continue to provide for the sale or supply of intoxicating liquor in outdoor seating areas. The Act was introduced in July 2021. There is an ongoing demand for provisions that allow businesses to provide outdoor dining services with clarity and certainty in relation to the law. Therefore, that appears to be the rationale for the extension of the Act. Ireland’s pubs, restaurants and nightclubs have been heavily impacted by Covid-19-related restrictions f…

One of my constituents contracted Covid in January 2021. This is one of many stories. He was diagnosed with long Covid three weeks ago. His symptoms have been present all this time and have made it impossible for him to carry out the simplest of tasks, such as driving, going to the local shops and even walking short distances. He has had to give up sports such as hurling, football, soccer and golf. His life is no longer the same because of this. He was due to fly to Australia in August 2021 but had to cancel all hi…

Irish Water has had quite a lot of issues. Deputy McGrath mentioned Cork County Council workers and employees who are having their rights completely changed. Perhaps they have worked their whole lives for Cork County Council, having initially agreed their terms and conditions, and now they are changing. It is a huge issue for a lot of people. It is raised with me quite often in west Cork. People need to step back and look at the rights of the employees. We also have a massive crisis in Clonakilty in west Cork where…

All across the country, SME owners are worried and struggling as we head into the winter due to rising costs, higher interest rates and waning consumer confidence. While the Government cites the war in Ukraine as the rationale for this Bill, many other factors are also to blame. The Government's ongoing dysfunctional energy policies, for example, mean Irish consumers are paying much higher prices than almost any other European citizens for petrol, diesel, home heating oil and electricity. Yes, the war on Ukraine is…

The State has announced the sale of 8% of the majority stake in AIB in one go. The track record of AIB with its customers can, at least, be questioned. When AIB closed its Schull branch many years ago, the people of Schull and the Mizen Peninsula were promised a mobile bank but AIB is now using every excuse to avoid showing its face in the town. A few months ago, AIB decided to make a huge number of its branches, including those in Castletownbere, Dunmanway and Kinsale, cashless. I am looking for a straight "Yes" o…

In the west Cork region and nationwide a severe shortage of carers is leaving many elderly people with no option but to go into long-term residential care in nursing homes. This is not their choice or the choice of their families. I am aware of many elderly constituents who are in hospital awaiting discharge but because no home care package has been put in place and due to a shortage of home care staff, they are forced to stay in hospital. This in turn puts a strain on the hospital system, creating a shortage of ur…

My questions are the same as Deputy Carey's question. It is a hugely important issue in each constituency, as the Taoiseach is aware. The early childhood care and education programme was introduced in 2010 at €64.50 capitation grant per week per child. By 2018 it had increased to €69, where it stands today. If capitation had kept pace with inflation, it should be at €76 per child. The approach has been to leave capitation where it has been for years and early years service providers are absorbing the rise in inflat…

As several colleagues mentioned, it is important to look at this issue from both sides. We cannot talk about housing without talking about the plight of some landlords. They are not all unscrupulous. In fact, many of them are being very fair. In looking at the housing crisis, we must reverse back to where the mistakes were made and the fact is there were a shocking number of mistakes. There are issues with what was done with planning permissions, with rooms in towns and villages and the doing away with village nucl…

The proposals here today are quite shocking, to be quite honest with the Minister. As far as I can see, some of these generators are going to be run on fossil fuels, apparently railroading all planning guidelines, waiving pre-legislative scrutiny and guillotining the debate. These are the most important values in any democracy. We must give the people the right to speak. The opportunities this country has are phenomenal. We are surrounded by sea and wind. We have fabulous opportunities with the floating LNG termina…

The budget was a missed opportunity for many young people who are in a middle road-type situation. Fuel is hitting them very hard. They will see very little increases after the budget, only certain pain. When the Minister was announcing the budget here in the House and when I first looked at the document, to the naked eye the Minister was going to give a decrease in the cost of fuel, but all he did was to continue something he had done earlier. The pain has grown and grown and, like previous speakers have said, the…

Affordable and reliable public transport is a lovely idea and a lovely dream but it is not happening in rural Ireland. I have had many debates with the Minister for Transport as to why it is not and he says that he does not have the money but suggests that something from Castletownbere into Bantry and Kilcrohane in west Cork might be possible. It is a matter of kicking the can down the road. I keep pushing for that to happen and I hope it will happen along the Durrus line. He is also talking about services from Ski…

The Minister stated publicly that the task force he set up resulted in the industry asking him for a third Irish decommissioning scheme. Could he tell me how many families are giving up because the Government has failed to deliver? Is it 50 or 60 families losing their right to catch Irish fish in Irish waters? Could he answer exactly how many?

As the Minister is aware, I did not support this decommissioning because I always felt there were enough Irish fish in Irish waters for Irish fishermen to fish. They wanted to fish their way out of the problems they had. All they ever asked for was a fair share of the quota, which has been denied to Irish fishermen for many years, not just recently. The Minister publicly welcomed the EU Commission’s approval of the scheme submitted to it to see if it would be okay under state-aid rules. In hindsight, were the Minis…

I will never support a scheme that takes Irish fishermen out of Irish waters. I could not do that. It would not be right of any Irish politician to do anything like that. The Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation was opposed to this as well, and it is a fishing organisation. I spoke to the Minister at the committee meeting on energy costs and fuel costs. The fishermen who are fishing at the moment are seriously concerned. They do not have the supports from the Government, perhaps not the Minister persona…

I am, because I know what will happen. They are walking away from fishing. They have no choice. I am not supporting it.

Is there enough-----

It is important to bring forward this motion today. On 16 November 2021, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth published details of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme. At the time, the Minister stated that the legislation underpinning the scheme would be developed by the Department as a matter of priority. The Bill was eventually published on Monday of this week, 17 October 2022, almost one year on. This legislation will allow for the establishment of an independent exe…

I agree with the remarks of Deputy Mattie McGrath regarding the Government attacking Irish neutrality. It is obvious what is going on. There are many issues that need to be raised at European level, such as why each member state has sat back while energy bills have spiralled out of control or how the price of a barrel of oil is spiralling downwards yet at the same time it has never been as high in Ireland as it is now. It was €2.05 a litre at the pumps in west Cork last weekend. The Government takes 50% of that and…

I thank the Acting Chair for giving us the opportunity even though our time had gone. I appreciate that. The introduction of the individual accountability framework is supposed to help build on the reforms that have taken place in the regulation of the financial sector in Ireland since the financial crisis and introduce new financial regulation with an emphasis on individual and personal accountability and responsibility. I will tell the Minister of State about a constituent I have. She has spent the past 14 years …

I do not think I have named anybody here yet, thank God.