He is saying the Government is going to bring in this draconian law about change of use. Change of use has always been there.
On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 509 of 516 decisive votes (0 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| FF | Fianna Fáil | 19,180 | 2020-02-20 – 2026-09-30 |
Membership spells on record: FF 1989-06-15–1992-11-05 · FF 1992-11-25–1997-05-15 · FF 1997-06-06–2002-04-25 · FF 2002-05-17–2007-04-30 · FF 2007-05-24–2011-02-01 · FF 2011-02-25–2016-03-09 · FF 2016-03-10–2020-01-14 · FF 2020-02-08–2024-11-08 · FF 2024-11-29–present
He is saying the Government is going to bring in this draconian law about change of use. Change of use has always been there.
We are very conscious, and have been, of the need to protect regional tourism, rural Ireland and the jobs that go there. That is why we took the population threshold of 20,000. We will be back to the Deputy.
Is the Deputy against Deputy Collins's position?
First, 7,860 children who have applied for special placements in our schools. That is more than twice the number who did so ahead of the current school year. Please acknowledge that. It is because of the earlier date being forward. Six thousand are already enrolled in schools-----
-----and a further 1,400 are preschool-age children. To be very clear, the Government is absolutely committed to meeting the needs of every one of those children. The €646 million approved by the Government is additional to the Estimate that was agreed at budget time. This money is largely to cater for the additionality that has arisen as a result of the change in the system that we brought in with the early date in October. The investment in special education has been enormous, and rightly so. In the context of al…
My understanding is that a new regulation has been introduced by the Minister in respect of this in recent months. It is shocking that this would occur. I presume the matter has been referred to the Garda in terms of any fraudulent activity here, because it is absolutely unacceptable that would occur to any student. The Minister has acted on that, but I am sure he would be willing to engage with the Deputy’s representatives in order to provide an update on where we are on it and to take on board any constructive su…
Online fraud is an enormous issue and has been for quite some time. There are regulatory frameworks governing this and obligations governing the companies as well. There is an issue with some of the revenue models of some of the companies in respect of advertising that defames people, for example. There is revenue in that and there is also revenue in the shocking case the Deputy outlined with a young couple being defrauded to the tune of €2,000 in respect of a villa. At both European and national levels, we will ke…
The Deputy loves creating a narrative about every initiative of Government. It is nothing to do with Progress Ireland or anything like that but it is to do with supply. I will be straight-up.
It is not its idea.
Deputies all over this House were advocating for this long before Progress Ireland was ever established. There have been cases in rural Ireland where people have had difficulties with extensions and buildings in their back gardens, fields, or whatever they were attached to, including farmhouses and so on. There is a balance here. The Deputy has opposed every single measure to do with supply of housing that we have introduced. You name it. It includes any of the housing Acts, and everything else. I do not know what …
The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, is working on this, and is making progress. We recently signed an agreement with Moldova for truck drivers to be able to come and work here automatically. It is needed for the diaspora. There is no question about that. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, is making progress on it.
I will raise the issue with the Minister for Health. There may be other aspects to this as well. We do not want any anxiety in any location around this. I will talk to the Minister in respect of it.
I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. General practice is one of the cornerstones of our health service. Forty-three percent of the population now has access to free GP care and Government investment has significantly increased. We spend in excess of €1 billion annually on general practice to support patients. There is a strategic review of general practice under way. The Minister for higher education has increased the places for medicine training to have more output and throughput of GPs t…
I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of Carrabane National School. If the tenders were issued in January 2024, it is difficult to comprehend why it did not get the green light soon after that. I certainly will engage with the Department of education on this and more broadly in terms of capital allocation to education. We have invested a lot in school buildings in the last number of years but it is vital to the quality of the learning environment for the children concerned. I will take up the matter.
Is that the Office of Public Works, OPW?
I will talk to the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, in respect of this fascinating location and site. It is very historic, so obviously we would like to have it reopened, but I will have to get the timeline for the Deputy.
It has obviously gone on the open market. I will talk to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, who has responsibility for the National Parks and Wildlife Service, but these are issues it pursues. We do not normally talk about land sales but obviously it is out there. I will see what its position on it is.
I applaud the Deputy's very precise and accurate recollection of what I said last year in respect of the-----
Absolutely, and I repeat and endorse everything I said. As I said at the time, the review has not been brought to Cabinet but it is complete. I would not hold my breath and have some disappointment with the review in terms of its lack of focus on urban councils. There is a focus on municipal area districts. We will examine it and bring it to the House for debate. I believe we need to look at some urban areas to begin the restoration of urban councils. That is a view I have but the system has a different view. We ar…
We will examine it. Again, obviously, the market has to operate as well. I am just making a general point. We will certainly examine the legislation, constructively and in an engaging way, and we will see if we can-----