During the Covid pandemic, the health service came together and we used the private sector to very good effect. In this case, the big problem is with the assessments. We do not have enough child psychologists in the public sector. They are in the private sector and we should make a once-off effort to get them to combine and do whatever is necessary to reduce the backlog. There are young children waiting for two or three years for an assessment, which is simply unjust and unfair. It needs to be dealt with forthwith.…

The HSE currently has a plan to use the new community nursing home in Nenagh as a step-down facility to tackle overcrowding from University Hospital Limerick, UHL. This initiative is contentious and controversial as it denies the long-awaited opportunity for the transfer of patients from St. Conlon's community nursing unit, which is deemed by HIQA as unfit for purpose. After consultation with staff and the chairman of the unions, and in a bid to resolve the stand-off, a proposal was put to HSE management to conside…

People's confidence in the Government's handling of migration was low before they learned that newly-arrived asylum seekers to Ireland were escaping deportation from the UK to Rwanda. It was a shocking and worrying revelation that raises serious questions. People immediately wanted to know how suddenly this detailed information had become available. How do we determine the number of secondary arrivals from the UK? What will be the process of tracking and detecting arrivals from the UK? How long has this exodus from…

This measure makes no sense at all. It is unnecessary and foolish in the extreme. It is politically mad and counterproductive. The feedback I have got from organisations in my county is that they are absolutely amazed and cannot understand it. They are asking me if this is for real. They are asking if it is possible that this will get through the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is a highly contentious issue that needs to be addressed. It is as simple as that. All of us who work in rural Ireland and who understand how …

People are saying it did not come from the justice committee and that this measure was never intended to be a part of the Bill. In my county of Tipperary, there is a hospice movement. I was recently at a fundraising venture that raised something like €200,000. That would not have happened if this restriction was in place. It would be outside the law and could not happen. The work the hospice movement does in Tipperary is incredible in the amount of solace, comfort, support and love it gives to people at times of di…

The subsidised provision of fibre broadband across all regions of the country is critical to Ireland's economic and social progress. Despite being plagued by delays, National Broadband Ireland has stated it is confident that all 227 deployment areas will be completed by early 2028. While the broadband project may be almost four years away from its projected completion, existing commercial suppliers of broadband, such as Imagine, which services large parts of the country, now has an immediate and serious financial v…

I welcome that the Taoiseach acknowledges that we cannot have disruption and that it should be avoided. A myriad of issues threaten people if Imagine and the other broadband suppliers decide to leave the market in advance of the arrival of the national broadband roll-out. We must do everything possible to avoid that scenario but at the moment, we are drifting towards it. I will be here representing the 2,400 householders in Tipperary, as well as others from other counties if something is not done. I know that there…

Becoming a family carer can happen at any stage in life. It comes about as a result of need. It is undertaken as a result of love. While need and love are the driving forces behind one family member undertaking to attend to the needs of another, the long-term reality of what is involved can prove to be daunting. Neither the need nor the love diminish as time moves on. Until people stand in the shoes of a family carer, they can never hope to fully understand the reality of what it entails. Some 500,000 people in the…

This year will go down in living memory as the year that brought farmers across the country to their knees. Incessant rain has caused devastation across every county, leaving farmers and their families reeling in its wake. We have an estimated 6.9 million ha of land overall in Ireland and 64% of this land is suitable for agriculture. However, the Irish agricultural sector overall has changed in recent decades. There are now just 135,000 farms. That is down from 223,000 in 1980. The reduced availability of land is a…

I am very concerned. We have to protect charities, voluntary organisations and sporting organisations. Numerous charities and such bodies have contacted me expressing their reluctance and concern about this aspect of the Bill. In general, I believe that everybody supports the principle behind the Bill. If we have reduced services because the sponsors of those services are unable to fundraise to support them, however, it will create a problem. Several charities have told me that they are opposed to this, that they d…

A total of 16 people lost their lives on roads in Tipperary last year. This was more than double the number who died on the county's roads the previous year, making Tipperary the county with the highest number of road fatalities in 2023. Nationally, fatalities occurred across all categories of road users, including drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, pedal cyclists and pedestrians. Sadly, this year is already revealing grim statistics, with a high proportion of fatalities in the under-30 age group. In response, fin…

Family carers play a crucial and irreplaceable role in homes across our country. Without them there would be a catastrophic crisis in care for people of all ages. Family carers are ordinary men and women who are motivated by love. This love drives them to put a family member's needs before their own. They sacrifice their own plans and desires because a family member needs their care. This enables their loved one to be cared for while continuing to live in the home. When it comes to rewarding them for their vital ro…

I will be supporting the nomination of Simon Harris as Taoiseach. I could join in the sound bite populist chorus of negativity. I could contend that everything in the country is a disaster and demand a general election. That might make better headlines but that is not my style of politics. There is no denying we have serious problems in housing, in health, particularly at University Hospital Limerick, in the disability sector and for family carers, agriculture and small businesses. Many issues require urgent attent…

What are the current waiting times for driving tests in County Tipperary in all its test centres? What is the number for those waiting in each test centre? What is the reason for the extended delays in each test centre? What steps is the Minister taking to address driving test delays? These matters require immediate attention and swift action to alleviate the distress and inconvenience caused to numerous people throughout Tipperary who are waiting for a long period to complete their driving tests.

I thank the Minister for that information. While there is an obvious and steady improvement, too many people are still waiting a prolonged period for a test, which is causing a great deal of stress, strain and inconvenience. The facts and the figures there regarding all of the centres in Tipperary are above the service level agreement. On the SLA, are there penalties and what kind of monitoring is done on this? When a threshold is not reached by the provider of the service agreement, what kind of sanctions are take…

The following would be helpful to all of us as elected representatives. Some months ago I engaged with the chief operations officer of the National Driver Licence Service, NDLS. Among a number of matters, I strongly criticised its issuing of generic letters to elected representatives. Part of the reason there is this suspicion by public representatives of the information they are getting is that the NDLS is too slow to give us information and it is unwilling to openly engage and issue facts. Today, the Minister has…

Farming across every sector is struggling. Bureaucracy is smothering farmers. Farmers have become so bogged down in adhering to a myriad of directives and tackling mountains of paperwork that the actual pleasure and satisfaction of farming is slipping from their grasp. Farmers throughout Ireland are facing changes and challenges unlike anything ever witnessed. Reduced sale prices, rising costs, heavy regulation, serious debt, climate change demands and cheap imports are threatening the livelihood of farmers in my c…

Another issue is the shambolic management of Ireland's forestry policy, which has led to farmers losing complete confidence in the forestry sector. That is compounded by the refusal of the Department to provide appropriate recompense for farmers impacted by ash dieback. The total amount of land planted for forestry in 2023 was 1,650 ha. That corresponds with the lowest volume in the history of the State. The last time we planted as low as that was in 1946. Somebody needs to take control of that Department and sort …

I welcome the Government's decision to review and revise the regulation on eligibility for school transport. The bus pass travel scheme has been a shambles for years. The scheme is not fit for purpose and needs a radical overhaul. From my experience across Tipperary, the scheme is riddled with anomalies and inconsistencies. The rigid interpretation of rules and regulations has deprived hundreds of children of access to school transport. Refusal to grant a bus pass causes embarrassment and inconvenience and places a…

It came as no surprise to hear on Tuesday night that new laws to overhaul the country's existing mental health legislation would be brought forward before the summer recess. Considering the legislation has been in draft form since 2016 and has taken eight long years to reach this stage, it certainly cannot be deemed to have been rushed. As I mention that legislation, I thank the Minister of State who I know has a personal, as well as a ministerial, interest in this area. I compliment her on her commitment and, abov…