I welcome the Minister of State. I am standing in for Senator Lombard. Today's statements are based on a request submitted by the Senator several weeks ago in respect of the justifiable concerns we had concerning forestry. I refer to the absence of the figures for the new forestry programme. We were hearing talk of that information not being available until January. The Government has set a target to plant 8,000 ha in 2023, and yet we only reached 2,000 ha this year. In this regard, Glennon Brothers sawmill group i…

They have not been sufficient. When a planning application for a house is made, a reply must be received within a set period of three months at most. We still have not cleared up the issue of having three different licences in forestry. We need to create a system which allows that when a person applies for a forestry licence, thinning, roads and everything else is built into a single system. That would give people a bit more confidence and reduce the chances of people objecting to the planting of forests. We are se…

Ash dieback has to be burned but burning it in our power plants-----

Hear, hear.

I support the comments of Senators Lombard and Ahearn regarding a debate on schools, in particular, special schools. Yesterday, we held a public session of the Joint Committee on Autism. I thank the Leader for the support that she gave me while we were pushing to get the committee put in place. It is giving the opportunity to parents, in particular, and families to come in and talk about the challenges they have and put forward recommendations. Something that has come out, in particular, from the last number of mee…

My first point is slightly off topic, but I thank the Minister for the early announcement of €40 million in funding for the summer programme 2023. I am Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism and that is an issue we have highlighted. We passed a resolution at yesterday's meeting and will issue a report to both Houses. The funding has been put there by the Government for the programme, and we just want schools and principals to take up the scheme and ensure that all children will be able to avail of the…

I thank the Acting Chairperson and the Minister for taking this important Commencement matter. I am speaking on behalf of farmers in my local community in Longford-Westmeath. I have met the chair of the forestry committee of the Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, and individual landowners who are looking for certainty and want to plant in future. I have spoken to Glennon Brothers, one of the biggest companies in this country which also operates abroad. It provides timber products throughout Ireland and the UK and is …

Following on from Senator Lombard's comments, I am also concerned about this matter. We are hearing about job losses, a lack of confidence, no timelines and blockages. We need certainty, as do the people in this industry considering laying off employees and the landowners contemplating alternatives. Otherwise, we are not going to hit the ambitious targets we have set out for afforestation.

I concur with the comments and second the proposal from Senator Burke regarding taxis. The exact same problem exists in my own area in a number of towns, where a parent is not able to transfer the business to a son who is willing to run the business and where there is a shortage of taxis. The vehicles are wheelchair accessible but they cannot transfer the licence. As Senator Burke said, there is a proposal for longer opening hours in public houses. I have my own opinions on that and do not fully agree with it but r…

I support Senator Craughwell's remarks about local authority members. I spent 11 years on Longford County Council, and I have seen the difficulties members encounter in attending the large number of meetings, not just at council level but also at local level. I support the calls for a debate. I also support Senator Burke's calls for a debate on forestry. A number of us were at a meeting earlier with the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland, SEEFA, to highlight the concerns within that indu…

I welcome the Minister of State. It is important to acknowledge that the Fine Gael tourism spokesperson met the industry and it is thankful for the significant Covid supports that have been given to it. The Minister of State knows the figures; 230,000 livelihoods depend on the industry and the reality is there is an extremely grim outlook for the sector in the time ahead. You only have to look at the increases in bills with an average of a 300% increase in energy costs. We have a lot of economic uncertainty and we …

The Minister of State is very welcome. I also welcome Mr. Frank Hanlon from the Department. I want to compliment the Minister of State on the work she has done in her role in special education. I know from the numerous occasions we have spoken about it that this area of the summer programme is and has been a priority for the Minister of State. I am delighted with the announcement in the press release we received this morning that will give certainty to schools in 2023. One issue that came up when we met with many o…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am speaking today on behalf of families in County Longford, and indeed, all the families that have been affected by cancer. I want to take this opportunity to compliment everyone involved in Longford Hospice Homecare and all the community nurses who are based in Longford. Longford Hospice Homecare has been operating in my county for all of my lifetime. A tremendous amount of work and fundraising has been done. I want to compliment the work the organisation does. The i…

I thank the Minister of State for her response, which comprehensively states that we are going to have a second palliative bed. It is something that we have been looking for for many years. I thank the Minister of State for her proposal to set up a meeting. I will take her up on the offer to attend the meeting with my colleague, Councillor Peggy Nolan, who the Minister of State knows well, who has fought the fight for many years to ensure that we maintain and improve the services that we have in Longford, and in St…

I concur with the comments of Senator McGreehan. Our teaching of history is something I always have issues with. We learn more about the Boer War and the First World War than we do about Irish history. Unfortunately, the younger generation is learning about Irish history through social media rather than learning the facts. This is something that needs to be looked at and should have been looked at before now, especially during our decade of centenaries. We need to know and understand the facts of our history. I wil…

Like other Members, I congratulate the Irish ladies' team on its fantastic success last night. I was, however, very disappointed by videos that surfaced late last night and this morning of the chants of "Ooh, ah, up the 'RA". Senator McGahon has talked about projects to build co-operation in our country, and we have our shared island unit. What happened was not appropriate on what was a fantastic night for Irish sport. A very strong statement on it needs to come out from the FAI. It really took the gloss off the vi…

The Minister is very welcome to the House. I have a few points that it would be remiss of me not to mention. We spoke about the N4 upgrade last year and I will highlight it again. We got additional funding to bring the project to a certain stage but more funding is required in 2023 to bring it to the stage where it has full planning permission. This is the only region in the country that is not fully connected by a dual carriageway. There has been massive investment in cycling. I was involved in the development of …

I thank the Acting Chairperson for the warm welcome to Ciara. I am looking for debate, and possibly a joint debate with the Ministers of State, Deputies Rabbitte and Madigan, on the issue of summer provision. We have had numerous discussions on the subject at the Joint Committee on Autism. If we want to make changes for summer 2023, those changes need to be made now. We had a number of teachers' unions and representative bodies before the committee yesterday. They highlighted the lack of teachers who are taking par…

There are a couple of issues I wish to raise. I concur with the comments of Senator Kyne with regard to school transport. It is all well and fine to allocate the money but we need to see buses on the ground. From talking to people in the industry, that is not going to happen simply. The reality is we still do not have enough drivers. Unless we change the system that is in place at present, which is a Bus Éireann union matter, where no person over 70 years of age can drive a bus, that is not going to happen. We need…

I welcome this report. I thank the Minister for the work he has done and the commitment he has given to this report on behalf of the Government. I look forward to seeing its full implementation. The allocation that has been put into budget 2023 is a very strong starting point and sets out the commitment this Government has to our Defence Forces. Senator O'Loughlin spoke about the men and women of our Defence Forces, the real Óglaigh na hÉireann. I have mentioned this previously in this House. My cousin Captain Mari…