I thank the Acting Chairperson, Senator Warfield, and congratulate him on taking the Chair. I thank Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, for taking on my Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. This matter is about the provision of funding under the rural regeneration and development fund for the Drumlish go green centre application in Longford. First, I acknowledge that it was Fine Gael in government that introduced this fund during the last term to help stimulate rural economies. There …

The Minister of State is well aware of this issue. As he said, his colleague, Councillor Brady, started work on it a number of years ago. He has been driving a large number of projects in the area. As I said, I am aware that the process of assessing this project is ongoing. I point out, however, that it aligns with national, regional and local policy and fully delivers on the policy priorities of the current funding calls in terms of economic development and addressing climate change. That is what makes the project…

I want to raise a number of issues. There has been recent notification from AIB and Bank of Ireland that they plan to charge negative interest on client accounts. This is money which people have saved and on which they have already paid tax. This includes client accounts in solicitors' practices. If my solicitor draws down a loan from the bank because I have purchased a property I immediately start paying my mortgage interest on that money but now I will also be paying between 0.5% and 0.65% interest on the money u…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English. I fully support this motion and thank Senator Currie for the work she has done on this important issue. It is important to acknowledge that the national broadband plan was signed off on by Fine Gael despite opposition from all sides at the time. It is impossible to envisage any vibrant future for Ireland without broadband at its heart. Our vision as a party at the time was to enable new ways of working and to exploit the significant benefits that remote working offer…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and thank her for her work in the role so far. I know that she is passionate about it and making significant improvements. I have to express my annoyance, which is probably an understatement, at the situation over the last four weeks. Unfortunately, the voice of the unions was louder than the voice of those in our community who are vulnerable. We have a responsibility to parents and to children, the vast majority of whom are regressing and losing previously developed…

I congratulate the local gardaí in Longford who recently broke up an illegal gathering held by a national party at a famed War of Independence site. The 100th anniversary of events there actually takes place tomorrow. A full review of the CLÁR programme by NUI Maynooth was initiated by the Department. It will examine the patterns across the country on the basis of the 2016 census. That review has not been published to date. When will it be published? Will it take into account Clondra and Stonepark, three to five mi…

I welcome the Minister of State. I thank all healthcare staff for their work on the front line on behalf of all our citizens. These staff work long hours in difficult circumstances and have made huge sacrifices in their private lives to ensure they are in a position to continue to look after those in need. I welcome that by Sunday last, 143,000 people had received the vaccine, all of our nursing homes had completed the first series of vaccinations and we had started on the second dose in those homes. This will be a…

I echo the comments of Senator Ahearn and wish everyone a very healthy and happy Christmas. I thank everyone for their work. Staff from across the House have been good to me and to all elected representatives and I thank them for the courtesy they have shown to us since we were elected. I wish them well and hope they have a happy Christmas. I wish to raise a number of issues this morning, the first of which is the upcoming announcement relating to the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, which is expected…

I commend Senators Hoey and Ruane. I listened to the debate today and last night and the way they spoke on the issues makes me honoured to serve with both of the Senators. I just wanted to say well done. My wife, my family and I have also suffered harassment from a person, and we had to go the full way to court on it because of the effect it was having on our young kids and family. I am delighted to say that it was successful. I commend the Labour Party, Jackie Fox and her family, and the Minister for Justice, Depu…

Like my colleagues, I too have a query on why the entire section dealing with harassment has been removed from the Bill. The Title of the Bill includes the word "harassment". I speak as one whose family suffered harassment and had to go the Garda. Luckily, the Director of Public Prosecutions took a case and it was successful. The person in question is not harassing my family anymore. Public representatives regularly get harassed online and offline because of our political allegiances. What plans are there for legis…

I raise an issue that has been raised by a number of other Senators, namely, the issue of fathers being at natal appointments and the birth of their children. In early December, it was announced that women attending their 20-week scan will now be able to be accompanied by their birth partners within Covid-19 restrictions. That is a good start but more is needed. Birth partners being allowed for other scans or antenatal appointments is important and its lack is disappointing. All over the country, different maternit…

I welcome the Minister to the House. I support what Senator Craughwell is proposing but I do not think a debate on the Social Welfare Bill is the right time for his proposal. Everyone said the last day that this was a fantastic Bill for the people, particularly during Covid. The Senator's proposal has sparked a real debate on the pay and conditions of councillors. A large number of us are former members of local authorities. Senator Lombard gave the numbers in Cork. By 2019, 10% of councillors elected in 2014 had r…

I wish to discuss the disabled drivers and passengers scheme, which has effectively been put on hold for new applications because primary medical certificates are no longer being issued following a decision of the Supreme Court in July. The scheme is for people who have to get their cars adapted and entitles them to have their vehicle registration tax returned, not to have to pay road tax, etc. I understand that an amendment to the Finance Bill is needed to give legislative effect to the medical criteria for primar…

I welcome the Minister of State. I support the comments of Senators Casey and Crowe regarding the CRSS. There is an issue if businesses are supposed to open at a certain level but there is no business to sustain them or not enough to prevent them making losses, for example, in the tourism sector. Will this matter be examined? Valid points have been made. A continued support, be it at a 50% or 75% sliding scale, needs to be considered.

The Minister is very welcome. I wish to speak about the upcoming urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, funding for Longford. An application was submitted under category B in 2018 for a specific area of Longford town, addressing the infrastructural deficits on open lands from the Camlin river northwards for residential development. The application did not receive approval which allowed for subsequent detailed analysis of the area under the Camlin quarter urban framework. This study advocated a co-ordinated …

I thank the Minister. I note that she said that 76 proposals are under consideration, which include one from Longford County Council. If the Government is looking for balanced regional development, we need to balance where funding is given and at least one application from each local authority should be successful. As I have said, Longford County Council has only submitted one application. It relates to a major project for our county town. Anyone who knows the town will know that lower Main Street has been ravaged …

I wish to raise the issue of insurance. All Senators are well aware of the big problem it is for many people and businesses across the country. I welcome the new action plan for insurance reform published by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, but I wish to highlight some things I believe need to be changed. I wish to put on record that we should compliment Deputy Kieran O'Donnell, a former Senator, who brought many of these issues to the fore. He has not received the me…

I welcome the Minister. One positive that came from the Covid lockdowns was that people walked and cycled in their local areas, thus leading to a greater appreciation for the current infrastructure. That is why I welcome the significant investment that has been put in place to continue and develop more cycleways and walkways. I welcome the recent midlands retrofitting programme that provided a significant €3 million investment in my own county of Longford. Starting in the second week of January, 47 homes in my loca…

I concur with Senator Fitzpatrick's comments. We need to value our nurses, and I believe we do. It is important that the Minister for Health should come before the House to deal with that. The demand for a €100 registration fee, which was sent out to nurses in recent days, is another issue. It is only correct that this be waived for this year, at least. The Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act was recently before the House. There is a crisis caused by the lack of delivery by the forestry division in the Departme…

The Minister of State is very welcome. I will keep my comments brief. Senator Casey has said it far more passionately than I could. I have been the chairman of the County Longford Tourism Committee for many years in a voluntary capacity. We are trying to build an industry from a very low ebb in order to bring people into our county. Now Covid-19 has brought us back to zero. I cannot understand why we are introducing this threshold when we should be trying to bring people into our country in any way we can. As has b…