Section 181(2A) of the principal Act enables a Minister to order that certain developments carried out on his or her behalf by the Office of Public Works, OPW, are not required to abide by planning. Everyone agrees with that in areas such as the River Shannon, where there is flooding, or where there is a threat to life or property. However, section 9 of the Bill refers to the inclusion of the statutory undertaker in section 181(2A) of the 2000 Act. A "statutory undertaker" is described in the principal Act as being…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill and I support it. It is good that we are shining a little light on small and medium sized businesses around the country. When a person decides to start up a small business in which only he or she or three, four or five other people are to be employed that person is taking a risk. Many people put their houses and their families at risk until such time as the business takes off. We hear a great deal about the supports available for small businesses. At the end of the da…

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on these Report Stage amendments. I support the LDA because anything we can do to speed up the development of housing is welcome. I ask the Minister to clarify a number of issues. I have received a great deal of phone calls today about stuff that is on Facebook and I ask the Minister to clarify matters on the record of the Dáil. It is being said that from next February in rural Ireland, if one's sole income is not from farming, one will not get planning permission. I would …

I worked in the construction sector for many years, be it in housing, pipework or whatever. Last Saturday night, I watched the news and the headline from the Fine Gael Ard-Fheis was the Tánaiste announcing that Fine Gael was committing to building 40,000 houses every year. That is great if the Tánaiste knows of a way to do this, but as someone who has worked in the sector for many years, I asked myself what cunning plan our Tánaiste has come up with. Besides the point of having even half of it as affordable or soci…

I thank the Tánaiste for his answer. The first thing that needs to be realised is that we need to get away the cycle of boom and bang. That is why people are reluctant to go into apprenticeships. While the Minister, Deputy Harris, is bringing stuff forward, and I welcome that, there does not seem to be a lot of movement in the wet trades. The other side of it is that there seems to be a ferocious focus on cities. If one were to look at the price of land in the smaller towns or villages, one would get better value f…

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. There is not a Deputy in the Dáil who would be against anything that can help the housing situation. That is the first thing that needs to be said. We have come up with a lot of reports, legislation and different ideas in the past few years but, the bottom line is, unfortunately, they are not helping the situation on the ground. The first thing we need to do is start joining heads together and get people thinking together. There is no plan for three to six years do…

I thank the Minister for being present and I wish to pay a compliment to Deputy Cahill. As well as bringing this Bill forward, he is Chairman of our committee. With Deputies Carthy and Martin Browne and the Senators on the committee, we might have disagreements but it is an enjoyable committee to be in, and I have been on three of them. Deputy Cahill is very constructive. He raps us on the knuckles when we need it but he is a fair Chairman so I want to compliment him on that. The first thing is that we need cattle …

The Minister might get someone to reply to these questions in writing because we do not have enough time. It is scandalous that we only have a few minutes to speak on an agricultural debate when others did not bother their arses turning up at all. The previous Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, stated that Ireland would top up these losses. Will we top up the CAP payment to make sure the budget is there? What are we going to provide in the carbon tax budget? The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications has…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on these amendments on the subject of a just transition. The Minister referred to retrofitting a great many houses in the midlands when he spoke about the just transition and that being a part of such a just transition. Funnily enough, Roscommon County Council is sending out letters to people, and elderly people first of all, who might be putting in windows, doing up a roof or fitting insulation. Letters are being sent out, one after another, to tell those people that the council'…

We need to acknowledge the people from counties Donegal and Mayo and other areas who came today. People power has spoken. It needs to be addressed straight away. Buying a house is probably one of the biggest investments in a person's life. To be paying a mortgage and then having to pay rent because one's house is falling apart is intolerable. There is an opportunity here for the Government, which should address the situation. I have seen this figure of €1 billion. The Government is not afraid to spend €3 billion in…

First, I want to make it clear that I cannot support this draconian legislation. Where is it going to end? Are we moving towards dictatorship in this country? It was always said that things would change once the most vulnerable were vaccinated. People in their 70s and over got their vaccines first and on it went down through those in their 60s and 50s. Now people in their 40s are being vaccinated. I saw a statistic today showing that chemotherapy appointments are down by 12%. Unfortunately, there are people sufferi…

The "Prime Time" programme about the loss of lives due to mental health issues would have brought a tear out of anyone's eye. Over the last 16 or 18 months during the Covid pandemic, many people have struggled with mental health. In Roscommon, the acute unit, which was once a 33-bed unit, was reduced to a 23-bed unit. Over recent years, the HSE in its great wisdom decided it would close day-care centres and, indeed, hostels in the likes of Ballaghaderreen and Athleague and, unfortunately, Renbrack house in Boyle wa…

It is good to hear that the Tánaiste is disturbed, given that he launched the service in question. I will tell him the reason. Those involved are saying that their budgets are gone. In one area, they bought pictures costing €250 each to put on the walls in order to make things look nice. Televisions have been put in. Painters are going everywhere in different places. Now, however, the HSE is saying that it has run out of money and that its budget is gone. It is good to know, and I do not doubt the Tánaiste in this …

I welcome this motion. Anybody who thinks an ombudsman - and I think the Government is looking that way - will solve anything is delusional. Every day, we all write letters to constituents telling them to go to the Ombudsman. What happens? Nothing. We need a regulator with teeth who can seize computers to find out what is happening. This time last year, beef was priced at 350 or 360 cent per kilogramme. Today, we have a deficit of 100,000 cattle. There is no four-movement rule at the moment. The authorities do not …

The traffic in Dublin nearly had me beaten. I welcome the Bill. There is one issue I would like the Minister of State to clarify. My office has been onto her's about it already. Will people who have been in nursing homes for three to five years so far be covered under the three-year rule straight away when the legislation comes in? Going by what she has said, they will have to be there three years starting now. That is a pity because many people in farming and business are financially stretched at the moment and th…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this Bill. Over the past number of months, I have heard the Minister, Deputy Ryan, talk about the number of houses that will be retrofitted over the next decade and what we can do, especially for older people. Today is Thursday. Earlier this week, I saw two letters issued by Roscommon County Council to elderly people regarding grant aid for older people for the installation of new windows or doors or upgrade work to roofs and so on to make houses more energy …

What happens the power system when there is no wind?

That is ten years away.

It is.

What will it be?