That is welcome. I thank the Minister.

As a rural Deputy, I thank Deputy O'Reilly for her advice on how I should spend my time. Notwithstanding her advice, I wish to raise the ongoing controversy regarding Shannon Heritage sites. There is a difficulty at a national level in that they fall between a number of different Departments. It seems to me that the issue of what is going to happen to them is being shuttled between various Departments, with very few concrete decisions having been made to date. If I am wrong on that, I would be delighted to receive …

GPs criticised the budgetary announcements around an increase in the number of GP visit cards, saying that this will result in more visits from the members of a certain cohort. I am not a doctor, but the Tánaiste is. There is a large cohort of people who never visit GPs during the year. By contrast, there is the treatment benefit scheme whereby people have annual access to dental, optical, aural and, I am told, non-surgical hair replacement treatment. Would there be a medical benefit to everybody seeing a doctor at…

I agree with some of the previous speakers from Fine Gael, in particular Deputies Colm Burke and Bruton. Given that Deputy Bruton was a Minister in the Department I urge the Minister of State to listen carefully to what he had to say. We are introducing seasonal work permits. People are coming here to pick a commodity but we must be very careful that they do not become a commodity or that they are not treated like a commodity because they are human beings with inalienable rights. According to the Judaeo-Christian p…

The Taoiseach has always maintained that the causes of the energy crisis are international and, therefore, the solutions will have to be international or at least pan-national. In that context, I was very surprised to read that Ireland was one of only two countries that did not apply for funding under the REPowerEU scheme. That scheme was particularly heralded by the biomethane sector in Ireland, which has the potential to have further benefits across the agricultural sector. I presume the Taoiseach has questioned …

I support the motion and thank my colleague, Deputy Pringle, for putting it before the House. The Green Party is heavily shaping Government policy. The mantra, of course, is that we should move to public transport. There has been a lot of discussion about penalising the use of cars through congestion charges, etc. Uniquely, we are talking about penalising people before alternatives are in place. I do not have a problem with trying to reduce congestion in Dublin, nor have I a problem with trying to get people to use…

Yesterday I asked the Taoiseach about the transfer of Shannon Heritage sites to Clare County Council. He said he had recently met the county manager. The Taoiseach continued: ... the manager basically identified that there was a funding gap from his perspective. I have spoken to the Minister about it and the Minister is working on this with all the stakeholders to try to get this resolved. This morning Clare county councillors were told that on budget day last week, Clare County Council had been informed by a very …

On the day the Taoiseach was elected and, indeed, in the days and weeks beforehand, I raised with him the issue of the Shannon Heritage sites. Clare County Council is willing to keep these important sites going and has carried out detailed due diligence on the capital investment required. Shannon Airport wants to concentrate on its core activities of aviation and commercial property but certainty is required most of all by the workers. They have lived with the uncertainty of the Shannon Heritage group since the Gov…

I was there myself.

They were walking beside the Taoiseach.

Is that an update, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle?

This issue goes back quite a while. The necessity to pursue the quarries, or at least investigate pursuing the quarries, has been obvious to every fair-minded person in the House and country for a long time. Nobody could but be moved by the plight of the mica homeowners and something clearly had to be done for them. One thing I took from my very limited meetings with them and their appearance before committees was their sense of injustice that they have suffered so much and there was apparently no attempt being mad…

Affordable housing schemes were introduced for the large and growing cohort of people who did not qualify for social housing but did not earn enough to buy a home or qualify for a mortgage. As I understand it, there are three different schemes. Two of them involve a loan that is essentially a top-up between the mortgage such people could raise on the open market and the price of a house. Only one of those schemes involves local authorities building houses to sell to people at an affordable rate. That is the local a…

Two of those schemes involve purchasers going into the private market, so they are involved in a bidding war. The local authority is only involved in building houses under one of those schemes. The Minister has confirmed that Clare has no plans at the moment to enter that scheme. That will come as a surprise to the many people in Clare who are struggling to get a home. Incomes vary slightly across the country but perhaps not to the same extent as housing costs. People in Clare are now being told they do not qualify…

Is the Minister saying that the local authority is building houses to sell to people under the affordable purchase scheme or is it not? That is a simple question. The local authority is either doing so or it is not.

Okay.

I am glad the Minister went to Mallow to see the houses that were going to be sold to people at an affordable rate. However, the people of Clare want houses and not ideas. The Minister told me initially that Clare did not qualify under the various criteria or that homes were deemed already to be affordable in comparison with other counties. It came as a surprise to me when I heard that this summer and it will come as a surprise to others. If the Minister is saying that the delay is on the part of Clare County Counc…

That is not what I am talking about. I am asking specifically about the scheme in Clare.

I welcome the steps the Minister has taken but I have a few follow-up questions. With regard to the top-up from €30,000 to €50,000 in the case of a derelict property, does the property have to be on the county's derelict sites register or can the council say that it missed it but accepts that it is derelict? That is the carrot side of things, which I greatly welcome, but will greater use be made of the Derelict Sites Act 1990 to put pressure on people who own derelict sites to sell? There are many people who want t…

What about the derelict sites register? That was my question.