I have never seen such anger as is among the general public in our country at this time. The simple truth that families, businesses and ordinary people are telling me is that this Government is grinding the country to a halt and we must get it out. The Rural Independent Group raised the crisis with the cost of fuel in the Dáil well before the Ukrainian war and with a broad smile on their faces the Government heaped carbon tax on the innocent, good and hardworking people of Ireland. Even after yesterday’s pathetic d…

I thank the Minister for his reply but it alarms me on so many fronts. His Department is anti-rural as it refuses to give this 20% to rural bus operators to pass on to their customers. I also have worries on other fronts. In addition to the plight of our fishermen and farmers and the state of our health sector, I have consistently raised the issue of the security of our national energy supplies in the Oireachtas in recent years. Tragically, all of the dangers I have raised and warned the Minister about have come to…

I am not talking to the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, but to the Minister. I am well able to talk to him and I do not need any lecture from the Deputy.

I am talking to the Minister.

Talk through the Chair.

I can make my point without any interference from the Deputy. I did not interfere with her.

Approval was granted for the proposed building of a new fire station for Clonakilty town, which was announced by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in 2020. This fire station was supposed to coincide with the building of Kanturk and Macroom fire stations, which are at this stage nearly finished. The town of Clonakilty had to wait for years for approval of this fire station. It serves a huge population in Clonakilty, Timoleague, Barryroe and Courtmacsherry on one side and Pike and Rosscarbery on the other. The pe…

Remote and flexible working can offer renewed vigour to Ireland's rural development plan. It is crucial to attract workers to rural Ireland after the pandemic with new job opportunities, remote working hubs and supports for those working from home. Without remote working, rural decline will continue beyond its current trajectory. The Government's five-year strategy, Our Rural Future, promises to invest in rural regions after the pandemic, with a particular focus on enabling remote working in rural communities, revi…

There has been a sharp rise in hate speech and hate crime across Europe, and Ireland is no different in this regard. It has become a particularly worrying and serious phenomenon both online and offline. Hate crimes are existing crimes motivated by hatred against people because of their actual or perceived membership of a particular group. They are message crimes intended to frighten, intimidate and silence entire communities. Hatred comes in all shapes and sizes across the world, even in our own country. We see the…

Scandalous.

A disgrace.

I welcome any help for businesses through the EWSS and the CRSS. Businesses suffered greatly through the Covid crisis, not knowing from one moment to the next what restrictions were being put in place or when they would be enacted. The Government kept us all hanging in this regard, although it leaked any announcements to the press days before they were made. We have gone from Brexit to the Covid crisis and now to a war and, again, the Government is coming out with all kinds of rubbish. Last week, our group put in a…

I have never felt so ashamed for the public as when I heard today about this announcement of a paltry decrease of just 15 cent and 20 cent for fuel, something that was swallowed up overnight in most of the filling stations, and just 2 cent for tractor diesel. My telephone is blocked with voice messages and text messages from men and women who cannot take any more. To take many over the edge, there will not be any decrease in the cost of home heating oil for many suffering families. This is shameful. The Government …

Today we celebrate International Women's Day. No disrespect to the Minister of State but throughout the debate there has been a gentleman on the Government side instead of a lady. It would have been more appropriate that a female Minister was here, no disrespect to the Minister of State. International Women's Day gives us all a chance to recognise the extraordinary contribution of women in Ireland and throughout the world. We should all be proud of the extraordinary achievements of women. Many women who are by our …

No parent child expects their child to have a disability. In many cases, it is the parents who first notice that their baby may not be reaching its developmental milestones. The parents may notice that their baby appears different in some way to its peers. When this undefined worry becomes a reality, it is reasonable for any parent to expect that he or she will be able to access services which will enable him or her to make the right decision about the care, education and health of his or her child. However, recent…

I thank Deputy McNamara and his colleagues for bringing forward the motion. The fact that local NDLS centres are not accessible to many people who need to get a licence if they do not have a public services card is nothing short of our joke. Many Deputies have said the same thing. If it was not broken, why fix it? The Government has a habit of doing such things. It tampers with something that is good and that delivers and ends up making a mess of it. It was the same with the reverse last night by the Fianna Fáil, F…

This motion, which I support, is very much to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. We have heard and seen so much in the past few days about Ukraine and the terrible way its people are being treated in their own country by Russia, a move sanctioned by the Russian Government but which may not be supported by the majority of its Russian people. In the past few days, we have heard some politicians in this country make wild statements about expelling the Russian ambassador. This might sound lik…

I wish to share time with Deputy Danny Healy-Rae. I am delighted to speak on this motion and I thank Sinn Féin for tabling it. We have had a waiting list crisis in this country for as many years as I have been in the Dáil and long before that. The stress this is causing staff in hospitals is beyond words. I see at first hand the crisis in accident and emergency in Cork University Hospital, CUH, when I visit. I often wonder how staff work in such conditions. Much of the pressure could be avoided if facilities in hos…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — rural communities and Irish farmers are facing crippling costs for feeds, fertiliser and fuel, which has the potential to wipe out many viable farmers; — the current cost-of-living crisis places crippling financial pressures on all lower income earners, including pensioners, struggling mortgage holders, unemployed, rural residents and farmers, all of whom are feeling the deep impact of spiraling prices creep up over the last year; — governments in France, Poland, Germany, Be…

It is the Government that is putting the tax on them.