I welcome the defective concrete blocks social scheme 2026. This is the first opportunity for those who have been living in affected council houses in recent years. They did not have an opportunity to have remedial works carried out to their houses, so it is a welcome development. Officials from my county and other counties met the Minister's officials and members of the council in recent months. It is obvious that the views of local authority members and officials were taken into consideration when the scheme was …

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting my Topical Issue. I did not think last time I raised this matter in the House that I would have to come back again. It is not one of the major problems in the Department, which has more to deal with. However, whether it is the Department, the Minister of State or the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, they are unable to resolve this. I will make the charge immediately and explain it: it is total discrimination against the people I represent in Burtonport. When Deputy…

I am disappointed to learn that a business case has to be made to open Burtonport for a few hours. When looking at the map of Donegal, there is no designated port from Greencastle to Killybegs where fishermen can land on Saturdays. It is putting people's lives of risks and depriving them of accessing the Chinese market. It makes no sense at all. It makes no sense to have Burtonport linked to Greencastle, which is an hour and a half away, whereas it should be linked to Killybegs, which is 48 km and 45 minutes away. …

I sincerely hope that I will not have to come into this House again to make the case.

I thank the Minister of State.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise this important issue. My colleague Deputy Doherty has outlined how it is affecting two families in Donegal. The European Medicines Agency has approved this drug for DMD last year. Now, together with, I am sure, all colleagues in the House, I am anxious that the Department would exert pressure on the HSE to make this drug available to these children. An example of the success of this drug is that Nathan O'Sullivan, who Deputy Doherty mentioned, has been on this drug for …

What is difficult to understand is that givinostat is available in most EU countries. Whatever is going to be decided now must be fast-tracked. The Minister of State referred to the receipt of a commercial offer on Friday, 8 May. In the next few weeks, a decision must be taken. The ironic thing about this is that Aaron's family lives in Laghy, close to the Border and the O'Sullivan family lives in Ballybofey, close to the Border. The children on the other side of the Border, in Fermanagh, Tyrone or wherever are ava…

Sorry Chair, time is ticking. It is an important issue.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss the issue of side-by-side housing within the defective concrete blocks remediation scheme, particularly in light of where we now stand with the legislation having been progressed. We had amendments towards the end of last year. We had regulations on the increase from €420,000 to €462,000 and the extension of time to 130 weeks but, lo and behold, there were no regulations to deal with side-by-side buildings. What is that? It is not simply an optional extra, it is an es…

I thank the Minister for the response but all that is new in it is that the regulations are in the final stages of drafting and will be available to the Minister to sign within the next couple of weeks. Back in committee last year, I was told completion would be in quarter 1, but it is now quarter 2. I was told completion would be in the middle of April. This is not what my constituents want to hear. I want something definite. I appreciate that officials will be drafting but all hands have to be on deck over the ne…

I want to again raise the issue of Aer Lingus taking a unilateral decision to insist that those travelling from the Republic to mainland Great Britain must have a passport. This is creating all sorts of problems for Irish people. There is a presumption that everybody has a passport. I know many people in my county who do not have passports but travel to the UK regularly. To take a practical example, if some of those people have a relative who dies in the UK, they have to get a passport. As the Taoiseach knows, peop…

It is not the UK; it is Aer Lingus.

And people in Cork.

There are practical reasons.

I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on the fishing sector. As we debate this today we look at the state of the fishing sector in Ireland due to the policies of various EU Commissions since Brexit. As a result of the Brexit deal, we lost 26% of the value of our quotas overnight in December 2020. For that we cannot point a finger at the Commission in total, but I can point a finger at former Commissioner Barnier, who came into this House. I have said this before, and I repeat it. He looked me strai…

-----who told me many times that they did not want to exceed the quotas because then they were selling black fish, which brings down the price of the others. They are honourable people who get very little funding from the State when they go out to buy their boats and provide employment. It is so sad to look at the ports where I worked and processed fish. I processed fish in ports from Clogherhead to Dunmore East to Cobh to Castletownbere and up the coast to Rossaveal, Killybegs and Burtonport and on the Isle of Man…

Is the Taoiseach aware of the requirement that will come into place from 25 February whereby Irish nationals arriving by boat, plane or otherwise into the UK will be obliged to present a valid Irish passport? Heretofore, all that was necessary was an ID card. This may not be a matter for the Government of the UK; I think it is Aer Lingus that is involved. It is sharp practice to introduce this on 25 February, which is only days away, when many of our people do not have passports but go to the UK frequently. Could t…

No. It relates to those travelling to mainland Britain with Aer Lingus.

I recognise in the Gallery the representatives of the sector, including the Irish Fish Producers Organisation, IFPO; the Irish South and East Fish Producers Organisation, ISEFPO; and the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, IFPEA. They are here this evening and that is significant. They are extremely concerned. They spent most of last week in Brussels. They were there when the Minister of State met with them prior to the Council and during the Council to brief them fully. I want to clear up this one. As…

I feel I must intervene in this debate. I am quite sure there was no reflection on me when it was suggested that there are those who say that it is working and it only needs tweaking at the edges. It is not working and it needs a lot more than tweaking at the edges. I said in the debate on Second Stage that I had the honour of representing this country in the United States a number of years ago as Minister of State. I went to New Orleans and I remember the catastrophic, severe flooding the city had when buildings f…