I echo the comments of Senator O'Loughlin. We, too, support the Garda but in any discussion everybody needs to be at the table to discuss matters. To be honest, it is disappointing to hear those comments. I welcome the announcement today by the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, of multimillion euro funding for local improvement schemes throughout the country. Those of us from rural areas and counties, including the Leader, know the benefit of these schemes. There is a significant increase in the budget for them t…

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Burke, to the Chamber. It is an honour for me, as a constituency colleague of his in Longford-Westmeath and on behalf of all the members of Fine Gael in Longford-Westmeath, to welcome him and congratulate him on his new role on this his first time in the Seanad. It is well deserved and I wish him every success and luck with the role. It is important to acknowledge the work of the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, over the past 12 months in his role and the recognition he had of the diff…

I congratulate the Minister of State on his new role. It is well deserved. I wish him luck. I will be short and to the point. There is a shortage of primary care centres within my home county of Longford. There has been a great deal of discussion and many promises have been made. However, we are no further on with those promises. When will we see construction in order to provide much-needed upgraded primary care centres for towns in the county? I refer to three towns in particular. Ballymahon is located in south Lo…

I thank the Minister of State for saying the Government is committed to the development of the three centres. I ask that we progress all of them, particularly the one in Granard in respect of which the Minister of State said there seems to be change from what was initially planned for, namely, an operational lease model, and that they are looking to purchase a site. Will the Minister of State tell me which location this is planned for? This seems to have deviated from what was originally planned and my understandin…

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I concur with the sympathies that have been passed on to the families of Councillor Gerard Murphy and former councillor, Senator and TD, Dick Dowling of Kilkenny. An issue close to my heart and to our local area of Longford-Westmeath are the paediatric diabetes services located in Mullingar General Hospital, which covers the Longford and Westmeath area. We have up to 145 attending the service but in recent times parents have been notified about disruption to the service due to a difficult…

I welcome Senator O'Hara. I am delighted he was looking at the Fine Gael Ard-Fheis and our new Taoiseach's speech, but I point out climate formed part of that speech. It opened up with "The world is changing, and we need to work together on climate action" and finished with "Fine Gael wants to support you to make the change in your home, in your farm, in your business". I take the opportunity to congratulate my Longford-Westmeath colleague, Deputy Burke, on his elevation to the role of Minister for Enterprise, Trad…

I thank the Chair. I also welcome the Minister of State. This matter relates to the current funding situation at St. Christopher's Services, which is a special school in Longford that was built by the people of Longford and has been funded by them for more than 40 years. The school is close to the hearts of all of us in Longford. However, there is currently a significant deficit of €250,000 per month. This will decrease to €140,000 per month when the 8% increase for section 39 organisations that was agreed prior to…

I apologise. There were mistruths. The facts need to be put out there. We must ensure that this organisation that looks after the vulnerable in our community is properly funded into the future and that it is placed on a firm footing. We need to ensure that we will not have a situation where a voluntary board of directors makes a decision to pay increased wages - and rightly so - to a significant number of staff in order to keep them on board to look after our vulnerable people to then be left in a situation where t…

I thank the Minister and I welcome the commitment to ensure that there is going to be appropriate funding. Within the reply, there was a reference to the flow of information for the next six to eight weeks to ensure that the HSE can respond but we need to know for the next number of years; key to that we are looking at a deficit of €4.4 million in the organisation at the end of the year, a deficit of more than I thought of €2.4 million for the current year alone. That is not sustainable for an organisation going in…

It would be remiss of me not to say something about the shock news of the resignation of the Taoiseach. He is someone I am extremely proud to have served under, both as Taoiseach and as leader of our party. He is also someone who has sacrificed much for public life and public service. He has served the country well and with distinction. That will be the legacy he will leave behind. I am very proud to have served as a Member of the Oireachtas and as a member of the party under his leadership. We have heard in recent…

I am very grateful to the Dáil Business Committee for selecting the final report of the joint committee for debate this afternoon. I am also grateful for the opportunity to speak here as Chairperson of the former committee. I thank Deputy Tully for moving the motion and I thank all my fellow members of the joint committee, whose hard work is reflected in this very comprehensive report. I also thank my fellow members of the all-party parliamentary group, who have continued the work of the joint committee by advocati…

I thank all of the Deputies for their contributions this evening in what is an important debate. Deputy Martin Kenny mentioned reports being left on the shelf. One commitment I have given, as have the members of the committee, which is why we have an all-party parliamentary group on autism, is that so long as all of us are in these Houses the report will not sit on a shelf. I have to work towards it but I want to stay here to make sure this is fully implemented. It needs to happen. I want to put on record my thanks…

I support the comments of Senator Gallagher and pay tribute to Senator McGreehan on her work. I met with the IFA sheep committee in Longford approximately 12 months ago about this. We need to strengthen the fines. Each local authority needs to step up to the mark, particularly with dog wardens. I saw a survey recently where a significant number of local authorities issue no fines at all. They do not seem to be too active on the ground in implementing what is already there, so I urge that would happen. I wish to spe…

It is disappointing that this motion on the private rental sector includes no recognition of the introduction of the rent tax credit, which allows a couple to claim a credit of €1,000 for 2022 and 2023 and €1,500 for 2024 and 2025 in respect of rents paid. Indeed, I see no mention of the credit on the Sinn Féin website. It is disappointing that this scheme for people in the private rental market is not being promoted by that political party. We all know the reasons for that. A number of Members referred to the opin…

I concur with the comments welcoming the report on school transport. While I welcome that we are extending eligibility to more people, we are still going to have the same issues, including a shortage of people to drive buses. We have the simple issue of people - because tickets are free in some cases - applying for tickets even when they are not being used, and then we are leaving other kids on the side of the road unable to access the transport they needed. Much more thinking needs to be done in respect of the sch…

The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber today to take my Commencement matter. To put it simply, we are looking for extra capacity within the special schools in Longford to cater for kids who have that need. While I welcome the significant investment by Government, particularly over the last number of years through the Department of Education and the roll-out of extra special classes in both the primary and post-primary system within the county, there are still those kids who have a greater need. We hav…

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. It is very positive to know that there is capacity. I will be delighted to bring back that news to the parents. I look forward to any further correspondence from the Department regarding when those places will be available for the parents and kids.

I raise an issue I have been made aware of with respect to mental health services in my home county of Longford. I have been told that the HSE plans to close a five-bed unit at Hillcrest House in Longford, reducing the number of beds available from 15 to ten. No correspondence has been sent to any of the Oireachtas Members. We are hearing about this without warning. I do not think it is acceptable that people are going to have to travel to outside counties to avail of support. That is unacceptable. I ask for corres…

I pass on my sympathies to Finola and the family and our colleague, Richard, on the sad passing of a former colleague of ours. One line I saw written stated that John Bruton did his country a great service. That is something he did and it is something that all of us involved in political life strive for to be said about our service to our country, and we will hopefully be in political life and the Houses of the Oireachtas for that number of years. He was well respected throughout Europe and very pro-EU. That was ac…

I support the comments made by Senator Keogan. It is my home area, so I think she is right in saying we should let Ann, Patricia and all the family rest in peace. The survey of the top ten towns in Ireland from a work-life balance perspective was mentioned earlier. I note the top two towns on the list are Castlebar and Ballina in County Mayo. Third on the list is Longford, in my home county. We get knocked in the press too often, to be quite honest. Even our own local media have been knocking our county town, in pa…