I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this Topical Issue debate, which is a huge issue for the people of Cork South-West. The Minister of State will be well aware of the recent recommendation from the Mental Health Commission to reduce the number of beds in the Bantry Centre for Mental Health Care and Recovery from 18 to 11. This is a huge retrograde step for mental health services in the west Cork area and one to which I am vehemently opposed. I am disappointed that the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is not …

Despite costly inspectorial reports and recommendations, this centre has had no financial input over the years. The service is vital in catering for mental health care and recovery for a huge population, comprising over 180,000 people. I commend the staff in the unit, who must be working under pressure because there has been no investment in the centre. Now they are worried about their jobs and rightly so. I urgently request that the HSE appeals this proposal. The answer the Minister of State gave does not cut it w…

I am sorry but it is making people very angry. People are very angered over this in Cork South-West.

I might need Bantry hospital myself.

Every weekend my clinics, like those of all Deputies, are full of people looking for help with housing, including families who work hard but will never be able to afford to purchase a home of their own and families who do not qualify for any State help. These are the people falling between the cracks. The Government's Housing for All plan is nothing more than a rebranding of old Fine Gael policies and does nothing constructive to tackle pressures in the rental market in the short term or to address longer term supp…

Farmers are going through a most horrendous time in this country with crippling fertiliser costs as well as the price of green diesel going up €1 per litre due to carbon tax and VAT increases on fuel as the Government stands idly by. I met members of the IFA and other farm organisations in west Cork over the weekend. They told me of the mental stress farmers are going through as many are on the verge of losing their farms, livelihoods and homes. Another crisis that looks like being thrown at farmers by the Governme…

That is shocking.

There are costs.

What is the percentage?

Governments throughout Europe are taking emergency steps to shield their citizens from the worsening energy crisis. Even the Green Party coalition in Germany is preparing to reopen coal plants while other governments have moved to cut energy taxes. In Ireland, our Government has remained the outlier, doing either nothing or much too little. Even Frans Timmermans, the second most senior official in the EU, as Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, has now issued a stark warning to EU governments that h…

Carbon tax.

It is crucifying the people.

It is simply due to the failure to protect the ordinary people of this country that I will not be supporting the Government today. There are hard-working mothers and fathers who have little or nothing in their pockets after a hard week's work as fuel costs rise and rise. Families are being fleeced with the massive Government fuel tax take and carbon tax robbery as electric bills rise. At the same time, the Government takes millions in profits from its ownership of Electric Ireland. I do not have confidence in a Gov…

I am also glad to speak on this issue. AMIF was set up for the period from 2021 to 2027 and funding amounts to €9.9 billion. The fund aims to further boost national capacities and improve procedures for migration management, as well as enhance solidarity and responsibility sharing between member states, particularly those providing emergency assistance. Since 2017, nearly 100,000 men, women and children have been intercepted at sea by coastguard vessels supported by EU surveillance and forcibly returned to Libya, a…

I am in the Dáil since 2016 and, since then, I do not know how many times we have spoken about housing. I often think that if a couple of dozen houses were built every time we spoke about housing, there would not be a housing crisis in the country but, sadly, there has been a lot of talk with nothing happening afterwards. This motion is about Raise the Roof. I would like to talk about putting in foundations before we even get to the roof and that is a sad situation in which we find ourselves. Many young people who …

The Parkinson’s Association of Ireland is looking for proper care for people with Parkinson’s disease nationally in Ireland. With only a small number of specialised Parkinson’s nurses in Ireland, we are nationally falling way behind. There is a need for at least 20 specialised Parkinson’s nurses in Ireland. The very least that should happen in this budget is the Government should set aside funding for six this year. The Minister might be able to tell us his plans in relation to Parkinson’s sufferers in this budget.

I thank the Minister for his reply. I would like to also acknowledge Deputy Nolan who put this question together for me. We hosted the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland and the Minister met representatives from it outside the gates before they came into the audiovisual room. They were from Cork, Dublin and elsewhere in the country. We were told that there has been no Parkinson’s consultant in Cork University Hospital, CUH, since 2016. There has been a promise of replacement time after time for years, but still not…

I thank the Minister for his reply. Three weeks ago, I was invited to a house in my constituency to meet a person suffering from Parkinson's disease. When I got there, I found out that three people in that family have Parkinson's disease. The sad thing is that I could not advise them where to go. The only help I could offer them was Tony Wilkinson. I hope he is tuning in to these proceedings because he has done Trojan work on behalf of Parkinson's sufferers throughout the country. I think the Minister met him outsi…

Yesterday I hosted the Parkinson's Association of Ireland's briefing in the audiovisual room. We were told there has been no Parkinson's consultant in Cork University Hospital since 2016. There has been a promise of a replacement for years but still nothing. There have been no specialist Parkinson's nurses in Cork since 2021. The Parkinson's Association of Ireland is looking for proper care for people with Parkinson's disease and with only six specialised Parkinson's nurses in Ireland at present, we are falling way…

This is a very technical Bill. In my view, it needs a lot more time for discussion. I said in the Dáil last week that we need more time for Bills rather than rushing them through the Dáil. However, it looks like the way this Government works at present is to talk little, to push through everything and to give very little opportunity to people in the Opposition to scrutinise these Bills in the way they should be scrutinised. There are a number of issues with the Bill. Many Deputies have raised issues with planning. …