I thank Sinn Féin very much for bringing this very important motion before the House. In recent years I have been working closely with the parents of the children who, by the HSE's own admission, were significantly harmed. It was an extremely damning report. We had interim reports recently and we are now starting to examine the service in north Kerry, following on from the results of the investigation and its outcome in south Kerry. This is a worrying time. I acknowledge the good work that was done by sound people,…

This mudslinging is called-----

I thank the National Inshore Fishermen's Association, Michael Desmond and the inshore fishermen in County Kerry who I have consulted with about this matter over the past number of months. I thank our group, under Deputy Mattie McGrath. I was glad to propose this as our motion for today because of its importance. Hundreds of inshore fishermen have no income today. I am very interested in the speech the Minister made earlier. He blamed those of us in opposition for not raising the issue of inshore fishermen enough. W…

It was a feasibility study that the money was sought for and the Minister did not give it.

I would give time to the Minister to answer that specific case because it will not take long. I will stop in time to allow the Minister to come in and answer that charge. Did his Department receive an application? If it did, why did it not provide the €300,000 required?

Give me one more minute. I promise I will give the Minister the time.

I will give the Minister the time. I promise I will stop in time. The Minister boasted about the money he gave for piers in Donegal. There have been applications from County Kerry. A very small amount of money for our piers would help our fishermen to keep going. Kerry County Council put forward excellent proposal after proposal, but we have not received funding. I ask the Minister to support them. The main thrust of the argument today is to ask the Minister to not let us down and put us in a situation whereby we h…

Ceann Comhairle, the-----

The Minister never answered the question. Is he going to give the money or not? Is it "Yes" or "No"?

He had the time. All we want is a "Yes" or "No"-----

-----but all we get is silence.

Ceann Comhairle, can I speak please? I will give clarity on the matter. It is our motion. We are obviously supporting our own motion and we are putting it before the Dáil-----

I am sorry but I was trying to intervene and you would not let me. I asked the Minister to give us a straight answer as to whether he was going to give the money or not and he would not say "Yes" or "No", so we will take that as a "No". We are supporting our motion.

How many people are in the market to buy?

It is upsetting when consumers have to resort to approaching ComReg to sort out their issues and problems. Anything in the Bill that will improve the lot of consumers is something I would welcome. As the owner of a small rural post office, I see at first hand the importance of our local post office and the good work post offices do. Supporting that network is very important. The Government, to much fanfare, announced it would support post offices. This is a very important point. It said it would compensate them by …

On a point of order, Ceann Comhairle. Is there a possibility we could have a short adjournment now and that the business that is scheduled could be brought forward? I am not saying we should roll straight into it. It is only a humble suggestion.

We would all agree to that.

If we had an adjournment for a short length of time to allow that to happen-----

It makes sense.

Before you do that, a Cheann Comhairle, could I ask one other mild question?