It goes against the advice of the council.

The Deputy is correct.

It is not agreed. I would like a proper debate on this.

There is a huge backlog of passports waiting to be processed and printed. I have heard from people all over my constituency who have had their travel plans destroyed recently. We, as Oireachtas Members, were given a telephone number the week before last so we could have direct contact with the Passport Office. Yesterday, my office was open at 9 a.m. and by 11.30 a.m. we had made five calls about passports. We were then told we could make no further calls until next week. I do not know who came up with the number fi…

The extension of these extraordinary powers for a further three months will impact gravely the normal conduct of life in society. It will also impact the fundamental civil rights of every citizen in 2022, with no guarantee the Government will not move to introduce new laws at that stage to extend the curtailment even further. When the Government introduced these emergency powers, we were told they would be subject to ongoing review and would be repealed if circumstances allowed and when the vaccination rates exceed…

Nurses and midwives are the cornerstone of our public healthcare system. Therefore, urgent action is needed to resolve this gigantic crisis situation. We are told by nurses who contact us that occupational health services are simply not available nationwide. Nurses report that there are long waiting times for appointments. This situation is a clear indication that our public healthcare system is under-resourced in regard to staffing. We need an urgent and planned funding allocation for the implementation of safe st…

I ask the Minister of State to outline the number of jobs that have been created in the last 12 months in the constituency of Cork South-West. I would appreciate it if he could provide me with a breakdown of the figures and the geographical spread of those jobs. It is a huge constituency that spans all the way from Inishannon and Kinsale to Dursey Island, Mizen Head and Sheep's Head. Employment and the provision of good, decent jobs is a huge concern in the constituency. I would appreciate it if the Minister of Sta…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The Minister of State said that 2,702 jobs were created, but that figure relates to the whole south-west region, including counties Kerry and Cork. I am particularly interested in the west Cork figures, because the specific question I asked relates to that area. Unfortunately, the Minister of State does not have figures for 2021, when we are at the latter stages of the year. He stated that 97 jobs were created in 2019 and ten jobs were created in 2020. We are feeling the…

I look forward to working with the Minister of State on that. However, to create jobs in rural Ireland, we must focus on the seriousness of the situation regarding the collapse of the fishing industry and what looks like the future collapse of the farming industry in this country. We need to look at issues like the provision of broadband in rural areas. Broadband has not come to rural areas such as west Cork. It was promised, five years, six years, seven years ahead. I looked at the local newspaper, the Southern St…

The SouthDoc overnight service in Castletownbere, which serves the people of Ardgroom, Eyeries, Allihies, Adrigole and Glengarriff, as well as Lauragh in south Kerry, has been non-existent for the past six weeks. In spite of numerous communications received from the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, during these weeks indicating that the issue had been resolved, the truth on the ground is that last night there was no out-of-hours doctor service in Castletownbere. It seems the people of the Beara Peninsu…

I am delighted to get the opportunity to speak on the 36th annual breast cancer awareness month. It is a major issue throughout the country. Many people have spoken today about the breast screening programme falling behind. I feel there is always a way around these things if we make the effort. As early detection is of such importance, one way of speeding this up might be to consider a 24-hour service, seven days a week to see if we can catch up and clear the backlog. I commend the very good cancer services we have…

I thank the medical staff who have been at the forefront and worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic in community hospitals and general hospitals. I commend them on their bravery despite the difficulties they have experienced. While these people are professionals, what they have seen must have been terribly traumatic for them. Often, they were away from their families and it must have been difficult. We can only say, "Thanks", but sometimes thanks is just not enough. The pandemic has exposed what is wrong in our …

Children with autism have suffered enough. Every Deputy is contacted by local schools seeking SNAs for children with autism and other disabilities. A school that rang me last week was seeking three SNAs for children with serious autism and various disabilities. It was offered just one part-time SNA. I was interested in what was said about a lack of action on the part of special educational needs organisers. I respect that but special educational needs organisers are to be held accountable. Who can hold them to acco…

I am seriously concerned about the ambulance service in west Cork. West Cork has four ambulances assigned to the area. One is in Castletownbere but is in Kerry all of the time, one is in Clonakilty and is dubbed the Cork city ambulance and two more are in the Bantry area but spend almost every day in every part of County Cork except west Cork, pushing great ambulance staff to the limit. In the past number of weeks, a man in Castletownbere was hit by a car and was left for two hours and 45 minutes on the roadside as…

I have great concerns about this EU-Singapore agreement, which is meant to build along the lines of a friendship with the Asians and intends to grow co-operation across many areas where a free trade agreement has been drawn up since November 2019. There are many human rights issues with regard to Singapore and its government in comparison with our country. We are a neutral country, which is different from what Singapore stands for. We have freedom of the press, even though it is sometimes stifled a bit, but it is a…

I wish to share time with Deputy Michael Healy-Rae.

I am happy to have an opportunity to speak on this issue. Pursuant to Article 32a of the fifth anti-money laundering directive, member states are to put in place national centralised and automated mechanisms, such as central registers, and central electronic data retrieval systems that allow for the timely identification of any natural or legal person holding or controlling payments, accounts or safe deposit boxes. All sorts of financial crimes are taking place at this time, with people getting telephone calls day …

Rents have gone crazy for those who are trying to rent, as if the Minister of State does not know already. It traps people who are renting. They will not be able to afford to buy a home for themselves. The national average rent is €1,352. If a family or couple is trying to rent a property at €1,352, they will never be able to own their own home. They are tied into and trapped into this terrible system. People have lost their homes due to unscrupulous banks, which have been unwilling to work with them. Vulture funds…

This has been an anti-rural Ireland budget with nothing for the fishing industry, little for the farmers and a carbon tax attack on the people of rural Ireland alone. One of the few shining lights in the budget was a 50% reduction in fares for students travelling on public transport but the devil is in the detail here too as it exempts those who are not on public service obligation routes. That means most of the people in rural Ireland will not benefit from the 50% reduction. The big winners among students as a res…

It is travel. Do something about that.