I wish to raise serious concerns about childcare in my area. There is no doubt that childcare has become like a second mortgage for families. It is crippling many young families. While there are significant issues throughout the country, I will raise an issue in my area of Mayo. Claremorris is a town with fewer than 4,000 people. Such is the lack of childcare places that one childcare provider alone has more than 100 children on its waiting list. These are families where parents have obtained job offers and, in man…

The legacy Act gives an amnesty to murderers and blocks the families of murdered civilians from achieving justice. It is the son and heir of the cover-up by the British Army and RUC for some of the most heinous crimes in the North. It is unilateral action that actually undermines human law and human justice. It turns Britain into an outlier and indeed a rogue state. It is heaping more pain and suffering on so many families, who have already suffered so terribly under the hands of the British state. Today is the one…

I welcome the Minister's comments on the nutritional review of the school meals programme. I acknowledge and commend the great work of the companies right across the country, including in Mayo, in delivering school meals. Companies like Steak Out catering, for example, are delivering high-quality nutritional meals to hundreds of children across east and south Mayo, in particular. My question concerns the one-parent family payment and a half-rate carer's allowance. There are many concerns over these very vulnerable …

I am sure the Minister will acknowledge that lone parents are vulnerable and have a difficult time. According to the ESRI, there is a huge risk of economic vulnerability. We should do everything we can. I will certainly work with him on any of those families who may be at risk and who fall in that gap in terms of the payment. I welcome what the Minister said to Deputy O'Reilly on child maintenance and the means test. The programme for Government commits to supporting lone parents and I look forward to working with …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and I welcome the parents here in the Public Gallery. They are the warriors who have been fighting so hard. They have been fighting, taking legal action and pitching tents outside Leinster House. What are they fighting for? They are fighting for their basic rights and their constitutionally enshrined rights for access to education. I was at a fair in Mayo over the Easter holidays and I met a beautiful family. The mother was nearly in tears because her child has no p…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the national planning framework. I welcome any attempts to future-proof infrastructure in this country. I am very disappointed, however, in reading the report. It is high on vision but it is almost like the report is detached from reality. I do not have long but I will give just one example. The report references the value and importance of the serviced sites scheme. I put it to the Minister of State that there is no serviced sites scheme in Mayo. Despite several attempts by ma…

The framework rather. There is not even a mention, or hardly a mention, of it. That is hardly progress. We need real delivery. I do not have any longer but could go on to speak about a litany of things in relation to this. I ask the Minister of State to focus on the delivery.

You promised to enact the occupied territories Bill before the election.

The new policing model is not working. One of the main aims of the model was to increase community policing. In fact, the opposite has happened. One of the main reasons for that is manpower. The regular units have been depleted. In many stations across Mayo, the regular units are half what they were a number of years ago. Internal competitions are pulling from regular units and, because there are no new recruits to An Garda Síochána in Mayo, for example, there is nobody to replace them. Mayo has received just one n…

Go raibh maith agat.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I first want to acknowledge the pain and heartbreak that this has brought to so many families and children, particularly children who went through unnecessary and needless surgery. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that those families have gone through. We think of medical professionals as people we can trust and we entrust our children to their hands, yet we see such a failure for so many families. A protected disclosure to the Department of Health happened …

The programme for Government clearly states that the Government will build 300,000 houses over a five-year period. The truth is that Uisce Éireann cannot produce 50,000 connections in a year. If we consider the funding allocation, Uisce Éireann has €10 billion for the next ten years, but €5 billion of that will go into meeting EU regulations and €3 billion will go into the Shannon pipeline. That means that only €2 billion, or 20%, is committed to the roll-out of new connections. In a housing crisis, I am concerned …

Newport is a beautiful town on the west coast of Mayo, nestled in the stunning Clew Bay. However, Newport has no wastewater treatment plant and, as a result, raw sewage is being pumped into Clew Bay on a daily basis. It is affecting the ecosystem and fish stocks. It is creating foul odour and preventing housing development, economic development and, of course, recreational activities for the town. The lack of a wastewater treatment plant has robbed the town of its potential over decades - the potential for housing …

I appreciate that Uisce Éireann has made progress nationally. There is no question about that, but my question is specific to Newport. That is why I am raising this issue. What I really want to know is whether the Minister will engage with Uisce Éireann to provide regular updates in relation to it? As I said, we cannot arrive at a situation in 2030 where no progress has been made. This is really important. As of yet, Uisce Éireann has no licence for this. When is that decision due? Will the Minister commit to ensur…

As I rise to speak on this motion today, I want to thank the Aontú team behind the scenes, who put so much work into this motion, our leader, Deputy Peadar Tóibín, and Senator Sarah O'Reilly. It is an historic day, in that we have moved our first Private Members' motion in the Dáil this morning. The issue of tariffs is one of the number one concerns to the public at the moment. The actions of the US Administration are unprecedented and could have huge ramifications for the global economy but particularly for Irelan…

We are trying to protect these jobs. It is incredible that today is the first day the Minister of State has spoken about this issue.

Be honest. The Government has neglected the indigenous SME sector.

Newport is a beautiful town on the west coast of Mayo that is nestled in the stunning Clew Bay. Newport has no wastewater treatment plant and, as a result, raw sewage is being pumped into Clew Bay. This is affecting fish stocks and the ecosystem, with a foul odour in the town. Indeed, it is robbing the town of its potential in terms of economic development, housing development, tourism and recreational activities for the community. This facility has been promised for decades, but it keeps getting pushed back and ba…

This is in Newport, County Mayo.

We need regular updates on this.