The Minister is talking about €4 million for improvements but that is for pothole repairs. That is what he is saying. Those are the facts. I would like him to visit the roads of west Cork. He perhaps knows west Cork better than most Ministers. I can show him some of the roads that are in appalling condition. I took the former Minister, Shane Ross, down there. I should have taken Shep the dog down to west Cork because Shep the dog would have barked whereas Shane Ross did nothing for us. I do not want to be saying th…

We have had a series of health crises in west Cork. During the summer, Bantry General Hospital closed for 16 days with no admissions. We also had a crisis in regard to ambulance services, where an ambulance is no longer in west Cork any night when four ambulances are meant to be. There is a new crisis at the doorstep of the people of west Cork. For the past two weeks, the people of Castletownbere have had no SouthDoc service due to the retirement of a locum, leaving Adrigole, Ardgroom, Allihies, Glengarriff and eve…

The Bill seeks to provide the legislative framework for a new streamlined development consent process for activities in the maritime area, including offshore renewable energy. The Bill also provides for the establishment of a new agency, the maritime area regulatory authority, to undertake certain consenting and enforcement functions in the new regime. Types of projects or activities that would fall under the new MAC system under the marine planning and development management Bill include offshore renewable energy …

The Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Custodial Sentences) Bill 2021 was published on 29 July and comprises 58 sections. The purpose of the Bill is to implement EU Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments in criminal matters imposing custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation of liberty for the purpose of their enforcement in the European Union. While we are talking about criminal justice and law, I wish to raise the extensive mu…

No one here can take the moral high ground in Irish politics, including me. In my time in the Dáil I have fought against Minister after Minister for fairness in politics, which is greatly lacking. Ministers are so often involved in nod-and-wink style politics and looking after their own back yard and not the country, like they should. I have always supported the Minister, Deputy Coveney, in so many ways as he is a leader with top qualities but that has been completely overshadowed in this case as I read the texts Z…

We are not allowed to have a question today. We certainly would have one if we were allowed.

Our names are not on that list.

Deputy O'Donoghue is on the way. I hope he will arrive on time as the debate is running slightly ahead of time. The Rural Independent Group welcomes the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Retail Credit and Credit Servicing Firms) Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to extend the Central Bank's "authorisation requirements to persons carrying on hire-purchase or consumer-hire business or providing credit indirectly and persons carrying on business relating to hire-purchase or consumer-hire agreements or the indirect pro…

I thank our staff for putting together this motion. It is a very thoughtful motion and one that is led by the will of the people in this country. I have yet to receive an email or other form communication from anybody in which there is any kind of agreement on what the Government is trying to do. What it is doing is a shambolic mess and that could be seen yesterday at various press conferences. Members of the Government do not have a clue about what they are putting forward, unfortunately, and that will again be to…

This Bill is nothing short of farce. It reminds me of a sketch from "Killinaskully", but it is not funny as it is destroying people's livelihoods. It is mainly an attack on the young people of Ireland. If it was a sketch from "Killinaskully", people might laugh, but it is reality. Some 260,000 jobs are being affected. Between €5 billion and €7 billion has been lost to the economy. Most of these businesses have been closed for 400 days. Imagine closing a business for 400 days and trying to survive with the door shut…

I will be brief because other Members need to get in. I commend the Minister of State on bringing this Bill as far as it has come. During the lifetime of the previous Government, it was raised many times in the Dáil and it just seemed to have stalled somewhere along the line and never got to where it was meant to go, even though promises were made. I am concerned that this debate is to be guillotined despite the number of amendments that have been tabled. The debate will finish before 7.20 p.m., only 45 minutes aft…

I will be brief. I said earlier I am against the Bill and this amendment is talking about a three-month review. We should be reviewing it in two weeks. If that means the return of the Dáil, so be it. We have to understand that people's livelihoods, and their whole lives for that matter, are at risk. This is completely unworkable. Common sense will tell you that. There will be legal challenges to it straight away. It is causing a massive division in our country already. It is something on which we were all meant to …

I will try to be brief. There is something that I cannot understand. I will stand corrected, but I believe that more than 200 amendments had been tabled to the Bill in the Dáil and that none of them was accepted. The Government voted for this and was jumping for joy that it had passed the Dáil. Even in my constituency, the Government was telling people that it was a fabulous Bill. We now have amendments, though. Is there a problem within the Government parties already? Why were they jumping for joy and claiming tha…

It is the truth.

You said that this Bill would not go far enough.

It is not going far enough. That is what was said.

I support amendments Nos. 2 and 3. We have been speaking about the fishing industry in the House more of late than at any other period because it has gone through a horrific time, particularly over the past 12 months. It is hard to believe the situation could get any worse than what it was but it certainly has done in the past 12 months, with penalty points being imposed on fishermen, a disastrous Brexit deal, the horrendous weighing crisis and the attempted ramming off Castletownbere of a Castletownbere-registered…

I support this amendment from the Rural Independent Group. As my colleague has said, when the local property tax was set up, a promise was made to people that improvements in services would be made. It now looks to me that they will be paying much more than what they paid initially and they do not have improved services. In rural areas they certainly have not benefitted from the local property tax; perhaps they have in urban areas but that is something people from urban areas can talk about. I can only speak about …

I move amendment No. 3: In page 6, line 27, after “shall” to insert “not”.

I move amendment No. 4: In page 6, to delete lines 29 to 35.