I thank the Minister of State for his response. I know he is as committed to the airport and the region as I am. As I have said, it is probably the most important bit of infrastructure that we have in rural Ireland. We all need to work together and pull together. We all need to make sure this high-profile meeting will take place with the stakeholders, IDA Ireland, and whatever State agencies have to come. The time has come. The land is there, the zoning is there and the commitment is there. What we need now is to g…

I welcome anything that will move on housing in this country. I will make just a few observations. First, as for the board, the chairman of the board and the way the board will be picked, I greatly resent that we always look for public servants in this regard. I tabled a number of parliamentary questions over recent weeks and went to every single Department and State agency. I do not know how public servants, health board officials or county managers can do their jobs because every second one of them is on boards, …

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for selecting this matter for discussion. Earlier this year I raised this issue with the Minister. Since then, a file has been given to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and to the Secretary General of the Department. Very serious allegations have been made in that file. This is a long-serving employee who has worked for IFI for many years. His father before him and his family gave great service to this State. He was accused of using a tractor, he was suspended from the company and …

I am not happy with that reply. When I raised this in the Dáil last year the Department had to write to me afterwards because I made allegations that there were vehicles in Donegal that were not insured. The record of the Dáil should be corrected because the Department wrote to me to tell me that I was quite correct and that some vehicles were not insured at the time. You cannot believe anything that is coming out from that board and that is why an independent inquiry needs to be held on this immediately. An innoce…

First of all, I thank the Minister and compliment her for the tremendous job that she has done since she went into the Department of Social Protection. As somebody along with others who was putting pressure on the Government and the Minister to respond in this budget to people who were finding it very difficult out there, I thought that the Minister did a very good job. Of course, people are finding it difficult, but the Minister did a superb job going into Government and fighting for the money that we needed to ge…

I do not like to raise issues such as this one but I am very concerned about what is going on with Inland Fisheries Ireland, in particular in regard to the Department and the CEO. The amazing thing is allegations were made of 16 uninsured vehicles, one which was in a crash and was not insured; locally arranged leasing of Aasleagh Lodge to a member of the staff as a guest house with no transparency, no process or no financial arrangements and inappropriate disbursement of Dormant Accounts Fund money to a club that d…

Deputy Eamon Ryan was not coming anyway.

Meaning no disrespect, I do not accept what the Minister of State, Deputy English, has said. I accept one point. Like many other Ministers in this Government run by the Civil Service, the Secretary Generals and officials within the Department, I reject what is in that. In fact, I will refer this to the Standing in Public Office Commission for investigation because it needs to be done. I may even send it to the Garda Síochána to get it to investigate the matter because I am not happy with the reply here tonight. I w…

No, they have not. I want to put that on record. It is a good board. What the Minister of State is saying tonight is wrong and it will have to be corrected elsewhere.

That will not happen.

I have two questions for the Minister. The former Senator Feargal Quinn brought legislation to the Seanad a number of years ago on subcontractors. Has the Government any proposals to bring that Bill to the Dáil in order to protect subcontractors? Major contracts now have to be given to major companies with major turnover, so all the small contractors have been left out and cannot apply for these big jobs. The Minister has seen what happens when there are big contractors like Roadbridge involved. Almost €11 million …

It saddens me tonight to have to raise this matter in the Topical Issue debate. It is outrageous that a major company such as Roadbridge would leave so many people without work. I want to speak about the subcontractors. In Mayo alone, anything up to €13 million may be owed by Roadbridge. It really annoys me that the ESB and Bord na Móna are involved in a big job in north Mayo. I am disappointed that no one from the Department is here to listen to the concerns raised. They need not think they are going to bring in a…

I will have to raise this matter again tomorrow, a Cheann Comhairle, because this is not good enough.

I represent a lot of people who are hurt, out of pocket and will lose their jobs.

The people of Mayo supported many of the projects Roadbridge was involved in. They thought it was going to create jobs. Little did they think they would be taking away jobs from established businesses. I will put on the record that this is wrong. Businesses that have been in operation, some of them for 30 or 40 years, and family businesses that have been in operation for 70 or 80 years, will now be put out of business by a company like this. The Government has to step in. I again say to the receiver, and it was in …

I agree with all the previous speakers. The one common denominator in all contributions has been consistency with planners. What we have done in this country is not the Minister's fault. I blame fellas like Deputy Boyd Barrett and the Green Party, who come down to Mayo, Cork and Kerry wanting to build a holiday home but the minute they build it they do not want anyone beside them and they object. We had objections from Dún Laoghaire, Wicklow and Germany to local people building homes. This week, this State is 100 y…

I have been in this House nearly 26 years. I have a question for the Ceann Comhairle and the Minister. Have they ever seen a public servant sacked or disciplined? Do they know what is done with them? They are rewarded and given a bigger office just to get rid of them if they are causing trouble. There has to be accountability. If these people were working for the private sector they would be accountable. There is no accountability in the public service. There are fellas here who will lick the county managers and th…

When the Army Council is on one corner and the public servants are in the other corner then it is going to be hard luck for this country so it is.

I will tell the Deputy-----

Do Members not remember? When the Treaty was signed, it was-----