Road safety is a really important issue. We must punish reckless and dangerous drivers but the speed limit review is not the solution. It ignores the biggest issues of road safety around enforcement and the fact that the Garda traffic corps has fallen by over 40% since 2009. It ignores dangerous junctions and the lack of right-turning lanes that I have been campaigning on for some years such as the lack of traffic-calming measures, road condition and hedge cutting. While I accept to a degree that the limit on many …

I welcome the motion. We in Aontú support the motion on housing. It is important that we seek to hold this Government to account on housing, particularly in light of the former Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the electioneering and misinformation that went on in respect of housing by the previous Government. In October last year, one month before the election, the Minister said in this House: I have consistently said we will exceed that target. I still confidently predict ... that it will be the high 30,000s …

The Government has announced a huge St. Patrick's Day delegation to the United States in recent days. The Tánaiste has been outlining the importance of these trips to his Cabinet. They are very important and the Cabinet should undergo an intense level of diplomatic training. In previous years, there were a significant number of mistakes. The former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, snubbed a high-level executive meeting with business people who have invested billions of euro in the Irish economy. I am not sure if that was b…

I mean politicians.

What about the "gowl" comment?

It is still difficult to believe we are now almost three weeks into the aftermath of the storm and there are still people across the west who do not have power. While I do accept that the Government cannot control the weather, it can of course control, for example, forestry, protecting the ESB network and the distance between trees and the ESB and NBI network as well. It is of course the responsibility of the Government to take account of the slow and very sluggish response in the aftermath of the storm. The truth …

They were never contacted. They are just some of my ideas. I do not have time to discuss all of them.

We hope the Minister will take them on board.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the programme for Government. I am a new, young TD and I am eager to get to work and deliver for my constituency and this great country, but I am very disappointed with the length of time it has taken to produce this programme for Government and form a Government. The Dáil has sat only five of the past 70 days since my election on 29 November. The culture of breaks and holidays in this House needs to end. This House needs to show the urgency that the Government and the …

The level of frustration in Mayo and right across the west is really palpable. Many thousands of people in Mayo are still without power. That is 13 days without being able to heat their homes or cook for themselves. What has happened in recent days has been really shocking. Elderly people are shivering in their beds. Sick and isolated people in rural areas are unable to contact their GP. Today, elderly people and people in isolated areas are still unable to make contact with emergency services and their GP, yet thi…

It is nearly two months since the people of this country went to the polls. I stand here today humbled by the trust and faith the people of Mayo have put in me. Thousands of people elected me to speak for them and yet today is my first opportunity to do so. It took two months to form a Government when it is effectively the same Government. There has been no real change of Government. It was voted today that there would be another break of two weeks. TDs, it seems, get more holidays than junior infants. While Irelan…