I was elected to Galway County Council in June 1999. One of the first items on the agenda at my first meeting was the proposed Galway city outer bypass. The initial plan for the bypass was published in October 1999, with a projected cost of £103.8 million or approximately €130 million. The intended route of the bypass would have entailed the demolition of eight houses. The following years saw major legal challenges in respect of the project. Despite An Bord Pleanála part-approving the project, the matter ended up g…

As I stated, 54 homeowners are about to lose their homes and many more landowners and farmers are directly affected by this project. The homeowners find themselves stuck in limbo, whereby they cannot sell their houses or downsize because nobody will buy them. They cannot build new houses because technically, they still have a home. They do not want to spend any significant money renovating or refurbishing because they do not know how much longer they will be living there. They could be stuck in this limbo for years…

I thank my colleagues and particularly Cáit, our administrator, for bringing forward this motion regarding Irish Water. I recall when Irish Water was set up it sparked off one of the most controversial debates we had in this House for many years. I sat on the committee established to try to find a solution and an all-party agreement on the best way to move forward with the establishment of Irish Water. The outcome of the committee’s deliberation was that there should be no water charges, which effectively left the …

Now, more than ever, things like the cost of insurance can tip the balance when businesses are trying to remain viable at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has already put many of them out of operation entirely and others are on the brink of closure. That is not even to mention the impact of Brexit. All of us have heard the stories from business owners whose insurance premiums have doubled, tripled and quadrupled in the space of a few years. At least part of the reason for high insurance premiums are the so-called …

With the roll-out of the vaccine against Covid-19 under way, plans have been put together for how and when people will be given the vaccine. Plans have also been drawn up so that schools can fully open in the very near future and for when restrictions on business and social interactions might be eased or lifted, but the plans that I have heard little about are those for how our health system will return to some kind of normality. Thousands of elective surgeries have been put back and cancer screening services disru…

The hospital with the highest number of people waiting for an outpatient appointment is Galway University Hospital with more than 54,000. It also has by far the highest number of inpatient or day cases waiting at 9,500 people. The biggest problem is the backlog of orthopaedic patients and people seeking help for painful hips and knees that need replacing are being told it could take up to three years before they are seen for initial assessment. I am glad to learn that work is to begin within weeks on the long-await…

On two occasions in the past year I have raised the scourge of illegal dumping, the damage it causes to the environment and water supplies and the fact that it is a blight on the landscape. Penalties for those caught in the act of illegal dumping are not strict enough. It is ridiculous that a person caught on CCTV in the act of illegal dumping cannot be brought to court. It was recently reported that illegal dumping is costing local authorities up to €90 million a year to clean up and this does not factor in the ti…

Under Project Ireland 2040, €550 million has been allocated up to 2022 for urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, applications. Newcastle is an area in Galway city with more than 6,000 residents and no community facilities. Under the chairmanship of Seamus Davey, the Newcastle Combined Community Association has submitted an application for funding towards the community centre and community facilities. The community has invested more than €200,000 in this project, which is shovel ready and crucially importan…

The commission's report is a reminder to us all of how vulnerable people are often removed from society. I grew up 20 miles from the home in Tuam, which Ms Catherine Corless told us about in 2014 and which prompted this investigation into the homes. These homes were scattered throughout the country, that is, all Thirty-two Counties. As the church did not see any borders, children were trafficked North to South and on to adoption in Catholic families. Children in Protestant homes in the State were treated equally ba…

The CRSS, which was announced by the Government in November, is designed as a targeted support for businesses that lost most of their trade as a result of the level 5 restrictions in order to ensure that they could remain viable and ready to reopen their doors when the restrictions are lifted. At the time, the Government estimated that the scheme would cost in the region of €18 million per week. Records that have been released show the scheme is costing considerably less than originally envisaged. One of the main r…

I am not Deputy Denis Naughten.

Over the past week, I have been contacted by many parents of children with severe disabilities because those children are at home and have no learning supports. The ongoing struggles faced by these families have been well documented over the past week, including learning loss, significant behavioural issues and serious regression. Will the Taoiseach outline the steps that are being taken by the Government to address outstanding issues in order to ensure that the relevant schools will be reopened? Will the staff at …

I spoke to Damien Carrick over the weekend. He informed me that the President, Paul Reid and the Taoiseach had called him to express their support to him. The Taoiseach told him that he would read into the record of the Dáil today an apology from him and the State, which meant a lot to him. He said the eight-minute phone call he had with the Taoiseach was a very important phone call, and he asked me to say that to the Taoiseach. I know this is a thing he would not want. He would love to have Trish with him to be a …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I also welcome the support for genuine tenants who will be protected from eviction at this difficult time. There are some excellent tenants and some excellent landlords who have been more than understanding of the loss of income and livelihoods as a result of this pandemic. Unfortunately, there are also rogue landlords and this Bill will help to provide their tenants with some protection. A number of cases have been brought to my attention over recent months and I wi…

I am sharing time with Deputy Fitzpatrick. I do not know if he is here yet. I thank my colleagues for bringing this motion before the House. I also thank Ms. Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh in our office for all the work she has done in putting this motion together. The local post office has long been the focal point of communities throughout Ireland. This is particularly true of rural areas but they have also played an important role in the social fabric of communities in many urban settings. The whole local post office networ…

I welcome many of the extensive measures announced in the budget on Tuesday, especially those aimed at helping SMEs that have suffered from the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, there are some aspects that I found lacking. Maybe these could be addressed before the publication of the finance Bill, which will give legal effect to most of the measures announced. When a vaccine against the virus arrives - I hope it will be sooner rather than later - we will need our airlines up and running without …

It has been a terrible year for people involved in the arts and the creative economy generally, with no end in sight to the suffering. It should have been an amazing year in Galway, showcasing the best of what the region has to offer, not just in culture and arts but in the tourism offering too. The Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture programme had been forecast to bring many tens of thousands of extra visitors and tourists from abroad to the west of Ireland and to pump many millions of extra euro into the loca…

We have a ridiculous situation in many parts of the country today whereby a person caught on CCTV cameras in the act of dumping illegally cannot be brought to court on the basis of that evidence. Illegal dumping has gotten completely out of control all over the country in the past few years and it will get worse unless drastic action is taken urgently. I sent pictures to the Taoiseach's office on Monday to show him what is happening in just one case on the outskirts of Galway city. I could send him hundreds of exam…

There was a case a number of years ago in Galway where they were able to use CCTV. One culprit was brought to court, but he was only fined €200 and he was seen a couple of days later dumping illegally. Strong legislation is needed. I firmly believe the only way we are going to hurt these individuals and get them to stop is to strengthen the legislation and to seize the vehicle there and then. We need to take the vehicle from them when it is observed they are dumping illegally and that is proven. Seizing the vehicle…

This penalty points issue is appearing before us at regular intervals and it fails to be fit for purpose each time when challenged. It is high time the Minister and his Department came up with a proper plan to deal with this. Council Regulation (EC) No. 1224/2009 of 20 November 2009 has been in place for more than ten years and the Department should have dealt with it properly a long time ago. None of the fishing organisations, big or small, is happy with the way this is written, so it looks like it will be challen…