Governments have to deal with the crises of the day and this Government has probably faced more crises than most. Regardless of the magnitude of those crises, governments must put in place a strategy for tomorrow. To borrow a phrase, some people look at the world as it is and ask "Why?"; others look at the world as it could be and ask, "Why not?". Unfortunately, the Government has done neither. We have reached the end of the era of hydrocarbons but we have no alternative in place. Exploration off our west coast has…

Given that the Government Front Bench looks like a Christmas reunion of health Ministers, I am going to focus on that topic. Various people have held the position of Minister for Health and there have been various CEOs of the HSE. When the HSE was established and CEOs were drafted in, there were many promises that it would make a big difference. More recent appointees have been on a very significant salary scale. There was a promise that such a structure would bring a new order to our health service. The current Se…

Can we have some detail on how that target is going to be met? We have a GP crisis which has been going on for a very long time. My predecessor from County Clare, Michael Harty, was elected to this House on the basis of the GP crisis and the fact that the number of rural GPs, in particular, was reducing. It would not be unfair to suggest that his experience here was somewhat frustrating and through no fault of his or no lack of effort on his part the situation was not any better when he left than it is now. We stil…

Freedom of the media is essential in a democracy and people are free to choose whatever medium they want to get their information from. In most villages of Ireland, people can get newspapers from whatever country they want to in these islands and they can certainly get television channels from wherever they want. People are concerned about rising prices but if newspaper prices go up, they can stop buying them and if a Sky or Virgin subscription goes up, they can stop paying it. What they cannot do is lawfully stop …

In return for what?

I am taking the Rural Independent Group slot. Deputy McAuliffe talked about the Fianna Fáil approach to housing. I grew up outside a town that very much benefited from that Fianna Fáil approach to housing. There were two council estates. They were called "estates" then and not "developments" but it is the same difference. They were very mixed. A large cross-section of society could live in those and the whole society benefited from it. It enabled people to get housing or stay at home. There was also a factory there…

Shannon Commercial Enterprises, the successor to Shannon Development, is selling 5 acres of land in the Quin Road, Ennis. What has that to do with the Minister? In one corner of that land and part of the sale is a sewage pumping station into which flows sewage from Celtic tiger estates which have been taken into charge. Then it is pumped on to a State-owned treatment facility. Shannon’s position is that after the sale, Irish Water will be free to engage with the purchaser but after the sale Irish Water will effecti…

I am happy to provide them.

I have written to them all and the silence is deafening. Will the Minister bring them together?

If there is a degree of confusion about what is not in this Bill and is in future Bills, it is a bit understandable, because there is a broad discussion going on about necessary reforms of An Bord Pleanála. I am the first to acknowledge that a lot of reforms are necessary. I have written to the Minister on many occasions calling for reforms around the timelines on decisions, in particular. Obviously, if we want faster decisions, we will need more resources, including human resources. I do not have a problem with an…

I appreciate that. I thank the Cathaoirleach for her latitude.

I previously raised the loss of income to farmers in the Burren and the Taoiseach said it was not good enough. They have since met the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Brendan Dunford, who established the Burren Life scheme, has resigned, saying he could not stand over it. If things continue as they are planned, farmers and the environment in the Burren will be poorer. The Taoiseach was correct when he said it is not good enough. What will be done to change that?

Fianna Fáil councillors on the ground are blaming the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan.

It would be a handy fallback.

I thank the Minister of State for her reply, which frankly contained a lot of jargon. What I would like to know is what concrete actions are happening, in particular in terms of interdepartmental efforts to investigate and move forward. One option is to develop wool as an insulation product. Insulating homes is a major priority of the Government, as it should be, although it might not be moving as quickly as I would like. No doubt the Minister of State will use Covid as the excuse, as it is used for every delay by …

I appreciate the progress the Department has made but the reality is that while there is an increase and it is an improvement, it is from a very low base which nobody could possibly defend. The question is whether the Department is meeting its targets. The last time I was in this Chamber with Deputy Fitzmaurice the Minister of State accused him of being very negative. People cannot be legitimately accused of being negative for pointing out the obvious. I very much welcome the new forestry programme and the addition…

The Minister talked about acting in conjunction with his EU counterparts. Previously in this Chamber, he expressed what I would call hope that there will be some joint action on fertilisers. Is he happy with the EU’s response on fertilisers? Did he advocate something greater than that which the EU ultimately decided to do or, rather, not do?

I ask the Minister to set out the purpose of the discrimination between the funding available to male and female applicants aged 41 to 55 years under the TAMS. What steps will he will take to enable all applicants to access the higher level of funding regardless of their gender? Will he make a statement on the matter?

Of course it is welcome that more female vets are coming out of the agricultural colleges, but the reality is that it is to do with the points system. When one looks at the very top achievers when it comes to third level entry points, one sees that they are often women rather than men. Just because a person has obtained an excellent number of points - regardless of being male or female - it does not mean that he or she will become an excellent vet or doctor. I do not want to digress. I am glad the Minister referred…

The first female Minister for agriculture.