First, on behalf of the Fine Gael group, I express my sympathies to the Minister of State, Deputy O’Sullivan, and his family on the loss of his sister. As Fine Gael’s spokesperson for biodiversity, I am delighted to speak on the merits of biodiversity week. I am grateful to my party leader and the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, for appointing me to this position as spokesperson for biodiversity in the Seanad. One of the reasons I first entered politics many years ago was because of my love of the Irish countryside,…

I thank the Minister for coming to the Seanad. I am happy to fully support the motion introduced by my colleagues, Senators Kennelly and Cathal Byrne. As someone who has worked on the ground for many years in both the construction and agricultural sectors, I am very much encouraged by the inclusion in the motion of the promotion of driver education at secondary school. The vast majority of young people who live in rural Ireland have no alternative to driving as a means of getting to work and college. In the state o…

I thank the Minister of State for joining us. What we have before us in this revised national planning framework is a document that holds the potential to transform our nation's landscape, economy and communities for generations to come. We must consider our fundamental duty to the citizens of the entire country, focusing not only on those who wish to live in an urban setting but also those who choose to live in the many rural towns, villages and farms in this country. This framework is an opportunity to create a s…

I wish the Minister of State a happy birthday. Although stated by my colleague Senator Rabbitte, I am indeed here to speak about the south Galway and Gort lowlands flood relief scheme and the painstakingly slow pace of progress on this project since the engineering consultants were first appointed in December 2017. That is over eight years ago. This project is critically important. The large-scale flood relief scheme still has not reached the planning submission stage. Since the inception stage, more than €4 millio…

I congratulate the Minister on his appointment and thank him for coming to the Seanad to discuss the current housing situation. As the Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson for housing, I raise the issue of wastewater infrastructure across rural Ireland. I will use my own local electoral area of Gort-Kinvarra in south County Galway as the perfect example of a district where the building of houses is at a virtual standstill due to the lack of wastewater infrastructure. Within the district, there are 14 recognised towns and …

I congratulate Deputy Heydon on his appointment to his Ministry. I have no doubt he will do a very fine job. I welcome this opportunity to discuss the CAP strategic plan. I will first speak about farm succession and the collaborative farming grant. We must learn from the mistakes in the previous farm retirement scheme in the nineties and early noughties where farmers were required to step away completely from activities on the family farm for fear of loss of payment. That was a most regrettable part of that scheme.…

I raise the issue of funding or lack thereof for traditional music festivals in our towns and villages which will take place from now and throughout the summer and into the autumn. I include in this the county Comhaltas competitions, for example, the Galway County Comhaltas which will be held in my local town of Gort in May. Approximately 6,000 people will attend and perform over the weekend and the cost of hosting the weekend is estimated to be approximately €25,000. Despite having made applications for funding th…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and thank him for his attendance today. I congratulate him on his appointment. I take this opportunity to raise the subject of the largely forgotten Irish diaspora in Argentina. Between 1820 and 1920, and assisted in no small way by the Galway and Loughrea man, Fr. Anthony Fahy, more than 100,000 Irish migrants left for Argentina, predominantly from the midlands, Wexford and many parts of the west. Irish migrants have been pioneers in the development of agriculture,…

Five weeks on from Storm Éowyn, I wish to raise the extent of the damage that was done to our built heritage in the west of Ireland by that storm. Between the counties of Galway, Clare, Mayo and Roscommon, it is estimated that we have approximately 400,000 km of dry stone walls on our roadsides and around our fields. That is enough wall to run the length of the equator ten times over. It is by a long way the largest stone wall network in the world. In kilometre terms, it consists of about nine times more wall than …

I welcome my niece and a great canvasser, Una Fahy, to the Seanad, and my sister, Charlotte, who is always a great support to me politically. They are very welcome. It is nice to see them here.

This is my first time to speak in the Chamber since I was elected. I thank everyone who put their faith in me by electing me to this office. I thank my supporters and friends in Ardrahan and south Galway. I especially thank my parents and family who have been a massive support to me throughout my political career to date. I want to address the lack of critical infrastructure, which is greatly restricting the building of homes in the south Galway area. The Gort-Kinvara local electoral area, which I represented on Ga…