I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — inflationary pressures over the past number of years have significantly exacerbated financial pressures on both consumers and businesses, particularly within the food service sector, which has been severely impacted by the spiralling costs of energy, food produce, insurance, labour and supply chain disruptions; — food-serving hospitality businesses, and hospitality businesses more generally, were among the hardest hit by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, wi…

I thank Deputy Harkin. I thank the Minister of State and everyone else who spoke on the motion. I thank the Minister of State for his engagement on this. Everybody is entitled to their opinion and I acknowledge that Deputy Nash of the Labour Party has an amendment in. For people who go into business in their local areas, there seems to be a disconnect from what I would call the people in Departments who never took a risk in their lives, never had to see the letter from the bank manager, never had to make sure that …

The Minister knows that the agriculture committee is sitting at the moment and that some of its members will try to be over and back between the House and the committee. To be fair to the Minister and his staff, we went through the Bill in detail. The committee had no problem with it. We welcome that people can be over 70 years of age and still able to sit on the board. The committee went through all the parts relating to appeals. I said that they are pretty good. I have been involved in a fair few of them with far…

I welcome the opportunity to come back on more parts of the budget. Obviously, budgets for infrastructure are welcome. I have touched previously on the fact that Irish Water let 350 workers and subcontractors go because there was no work going on around the country. If we are talking about building houses, obviously, we have to make sure we have the infrastructure in place. Roads, sewers, water and electricity are ferociously important. The land management agency funding for affordable housing is welcome. However, …

I welcome that, if it is going to happen, because a lot of farmers have raised it today. I urge the Minister of State to try to do that if he can. One issue that has come out today, and the devil is always in the detail and things might be said that are right or wrong, is the €9 million for some sort of pouches for people to put their phones into in schools. I would like clarification on that. It is a while since I went to school, but we had a locker, and if people can throw the phone into the locker, they do not n…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the budget. Like most Deputies, I welcome the increases for carers and our elderly. Childcare supports and the €2,000 increase in the threshold before entering the higher tax bracket are also welcome. Nobody will be against these changes. The only problem is that today is a day when the Government has a lot of money. We did not have a fraction of it in 2013, 2014 or 2015. When you spend money, you need to spend it wisely. All the things I have mentioned needed money. I have gon…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. If anything was ever to be learned by people across this country or, indeed, across Europe, it was when there was a bit of an outage in technology a few months ago and nobody was able to use their phone set-up or card set-up. Sometimes people go down a road and it is the cool thing to have this card and swipe everywhere they go. That day, however, people who had a few quid in their pocket were able to buy food if they went into any of the main stores but people with …

I support this motion. A lot of nursing homes have closed. No one can put a value on the amount of help that people give in their own homes to help elderly or young people. I listened to "Today with Claire Byrne" this morning. A mother of a child with autism was on the show. She had a coffee shop which she had to close but because she and her husband worked hard and they had a few pound in the bank, they were entitled to €20 based on the means test. That is for somebody who closed their business and minded their ch…

A group of students in the west of Ireland who have qualified as psychiatric nurses have contacted me. They were previously told there would be full-time work for them. From what I understand, there are approximately 11 or 12 of them who will be taken on full time. At a time when we are employing huge numbers of agency nurses, what sort of mathematics goes on in the HSE? Do we want to actually start employing young people in this country? We have an opportunity to do it. Are we going to educate young people for Eng…

On a different matter, I welcome the Taoiseach's announcement the other day on Lough Funshinagh. An Bord Pleanála will get the application before Friday. I know it is three weeks late and I hope it can be expedited. I welcome it. This evening, we will debate the Apple tax and we are talking about fair sums of money in the budget. Money does not solve every problem. In late 2022, I met Kevin and Seán, a father and son. Seán is severely autistic and non-verbal. Unfortunately, he sleeps only for short intervals. He go…

The hospital in Galway said to bring him home because it did not have a bed. Is that the Ireland we have for treating people with disabilities? Are we going to change it and tell people they have a job to do and they must deliver? This is not about money; it is about delivery. It is scandalous what that father has gone through.

The problem appears to be that if a case is a difficult one, the provider can decide that it is too much hassle and throw the money back. That is what is going on. People need to start being responsible for the jobs they have at hand. The facts at the moment are that if someone is under 18 years of age there is really no place to go. We tried everything for that youngster. It is such a sad story. When that youngster became an adult, one of the choices that is facing parents at the moment is that they go to an accid…

First, if we are to build houses, we need infrastructure, water and sewerage, so money has to go towards that, probably a few billion euro. Second, at a meeting in Limerick, we discussed the designated maritime area plan, DMAP, for offshore wind but the Government had not done anything about it. If that is the opening to the huge potential of wind turbines 30 miles off our coast, we need a road along the coast to serve the infrastructure. We need to upgrade the M20, the road from Galway to Donegal, the Mullingar to…

Excuse me, but I believe I have eight minutes. I commend Deputy Cahill, the Chair of our committee. He has sunk his teeth into this. As Deputy Harkin said, Deputy Carthy is from Monaghan. I am from Roscommon-Galway. Dan Brennan does not live in our area. Deputy Cahill is from Tipperary. When Dan Brennan appeared before our committee, we knew that somebody does not keep something going for 20 years. This matters dates back to 2004. A person does not keep something going unless they feel there is a woeful injustice b…

I congratulate Deputy McNamara. I send my condolences to the Ó Muircheartaigh family. I commend Deputy Harkin on putting the motion forward. The same problem is in schools throughout the country, and in work and the price of work and so on. What no one understands is that over the past number of years, costs have gone up. Unfortunately, the likes of the capitation grant, and I have been on a board of management, is like loaves and fishes. People are trying to see how they can save money to keep schools going. I rem…

I wish the Minister, Deputy McGrath, well when he goes to Europe. I ask him to bat as hard as he can for this country. I know he has to do it for every country as a Commissioner but many crossroads are coming up for Ireland, such as the derogation and various pieces of legislation such as the nature restoration law and various other measures. I ask the Minister to be mindful of where he came from. I know he will and in fairness to him he has always been approachable. I have known the Minister of State, Deputy Chamb…

I join the Minister in congratulating Deputy Funchion. I wish her the best of luck. I thank the Minister for the engagement so far. I support Deputy Sherlock's amendment. It is reasonable. Every one of us here is trying to ensure that childminding is done right everywhere. As I said to the Minister last week, people have a fear of Tusla coming into their houses. On top of that, the Minister referred to the Scottish report, which I have read. It said there were problems in the rural areas once the new legislation wa…

I wish the Minister well in throwing his hat into the ring. As regards the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, while I had many a chat with him in the Chamber over the past number of years since 2016, I could talk to him very well. We get on sound. I might not agree with his policies, but I will draw a separate political line between the man and the ball, as we say in the country. I also wish him well. I listened to the Minister on the radio yesterday, when rural Ireland was referred to. He said that the Green Party had t…

I am opposed to this pact. This country is hell-bent on giving away powers we have. We hear so many people say day in, day out "well it's Europe that's doing this" and "Europe is doing that". I guarantee that in a few years' time, as the rules change, as the EU changes and as decisions are made, as we saw with the nature restoration law, we will blame Europe but when we had the chance to keep driving our own way and doing our own thing, we decided to hand it all away. I utterly oppose that. As has been highlighted,…

I welcome the motion. There are a few things to be said. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, have gone around Europe, where a lot of countries are kicking back at this law for the simple reason of the consequences it will have. It is bad legislation and should not be let in here. The Minister of State has spoken about it being voluntary. I will give him an example of what the Department of agriculture is going to do in August with a voluntary measure. If you have peaty type land wit…