It is a fact. The facts hurt.

It is about getting admission to the hospital.

Next you will tell me it was not closed at all.

The Taoiseach was nowhere to be seen.

I agree.

The US military departed Afghanistan on 30 August, a day ahead of schedule, ending a 20-year occupation and leaving Afghanistan in the Taliban's hands. We all saw the news clips of the days of chaos at Kabul Airport, which were punctuated by a suicide attack on 26 August that killed as many as 180 people, including 13 American troops. It was one of the deadliest attacks of the war. The troops killed were the first American service members to die in the country since February 2020. President Biden stated that after …

I am sharing time with Deputy Mattie McGrath. I sincerely hope this plan will, as its name suggests, deliver housing for all. Such delivery is badly needed in this country. We have a housing crisis throughout our cities and we certainly have a massive crisis in west Cork. Last Friday, 12 people came into my clinic in Bandon, seven of whom have a housing issue. Two of them are homeless. This new thing of couch-surfing is very popular now in west Cork. I only heard about it in the past six or seven months. Although h…

We have massive waiting lists in this country. There is no point in my saying any different because that is quite evident. The lists are, unfortunately, growing. People are waiting for four or five years for a 20- to 25-minute cataract procedure. That cannot be allowed to happen because those people will go blind if some solution is not found. Waiting lists for knee and hip treatments are two to three years. The waiting lists for orthodontic treatment for children go back to 2017. The lists go on and on. I could be…

I appreciate that. It is a good solution if that is happening today. If that is the best I can pull out of the Minister, I appreciate it and thank him.

All front-line health workers who worked through the Covid-19 crisis should be given an extra two weeks' annual leave or the option to receive two weeks' extra pay instead. Will the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform set aside the money for these healthcare workers to show them the respect they deserve?

I thank the Minister for his reply. The healthcare workers gave so much in a very difficult time and continue to do so. Other than a clap here in the Dáil and a few nice words, they have got nothing. Even in regard to the smallest thing, the nurses had to pay their registration fees last year. That little bit of acknowledgement could have been given so that we could at least have been seen to be caring. It has been a terribly difficult time for everybody and certainly for people on the front line. Many of these peo…

I understand the costs might be significant, but the value of these workers must be acknowledged by the country. I know the budget needs to be stretched considerably. The cross-border health initiative has not been properly discussed. The Minister has said the HSE is looking into this, which concerns me particularly when I consider how admissions were closed for 16 or 17 days at Bantry General Hospital, and how South Doc has been withdrawn from the people in Castletownbere. If we leave things to the HSE, we could b…

On 26 June, I raised the issue of the crisis the West Cork Development Partnership finds itself in with the walks programme, which benefits more than 600 farmers in west Cork. The Sheep's Head Way and the Beara Way are among some of the stunning walks covered by this scheme, bringing in €14 million in walking tourism revenue to west Cork. For the past few years, west Cork has had two part-time recreation officers to oversee the payments and visits to 600 farmers, while other parts of the country with 25 farming par…

This Bill supports tenants and I give a cautious welcome to that because many tenants are in difficult circumstances. I notice this from week to week in my office when people come in who have been evicted from their homes and have very little recourse. If this Bill helps in some way, I will support it but we must also have respect with regard to landlords. I do not mean those who have 50 or 100 houses. I am often contacted by landlords who have a couple of houses and but find it very difficult to survive given the …

I suppose the reason many of the Deputies are missing is because the debate is about fishing. It is the fishermen of Ireland who will be affected by the decisions the Government is going to make today. I heard what Deputy Leddin had to say and I am disappointed that he does not fully realise the suffering fishermen are experiencing. Stocks are falling throughout the world because we are giving away our quota continuously. The Deputy is happy to stand idly by and accept that by praising this Bill. It will be an asto…

I, too, have great reservations about the new divisional structures. I need to see that they will not dilute services on the ground to the people of west Cork who have seen a dilution of services in recent years. Some years ago, we had the closure of many Garda stations under the then Fine Gael-led Government. This led to the decimation of rural Ireland and started a flood of closures of local businesses, post offices and so on. The local Garda station at the time, whether it was in Goleen, Ballinacarrig or Adrigol…

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment published the general scheme of what has become the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill on 4 December 2018. This measure was proposed by the Government in November 2017, as part of a series of measures intended to address white collar crime. The principle measure to be addressed in the Bill is the establishment of a new corporate enforcement authority as an independent company law compliance and enforcement agency. This body will replace th…

I will be supporting this Bill and I welcome it today. We have been in this House speaking about social housing, council housing and whatever else we used to call it since I was elected to the Dáil in 2016 and before that, to the council in 2014. To be honest, nothing has progressed but it has got worse and worse. An unmerciful influx of people have been coming into my office every weekend, and presumably into the offices of every other Deputy here, pleading with me to get them council houses. Some of them have bee…

Will the Minister tell me the date work will commence on the Innishannon bypass? Will he also give the start date for the long-awaited completion of the Bandon southern bypass and start dates for the full northern relief road in Bandon and the Bantry bypass? Will he also tell us whether there are any plans to insert passing bays on the N71 from Ballydehob to Bandon or the R586 from Bantry to Bandon via Dunmanway roads? The people of west Cork have had announcement after announcement about these projects for decades…

The Minister is talking about eight to 13 years. That is a hell of a long time. This has been going on much longer than that for the people of Bandon who require the southern bypass to be completed and the northern bypass to be started. It the same with the Innishannon bypass, as I said. This is appalling. I hear nothing I can go back to the people of west Cork with and say that these projects are going to progress, other than reports upon reports that have been going on for decade after decade. The lack of moneys …