The Minister's answer is, to an extent, an admission that farming, in comparison with other income streams, is falling. He said that because the income in farming is now lower than in much of the rest of the economy, people are getting out of farming. Why is income lower in farming? Why do we have a food sector that is phenomenally profitable but where the profit lands in the factory and supermarket and not in the farms? It is because the structure of the market is an oligopoly, which has been allowed to happen by …

The Minister supported that legislation when he was in opposition.

May I come back at that? That is a shocking thing to say.

Education is the great leveller. Education should be an opportunity to give every child the ability to reach his or her potential. It is so important that, as a country, we make sure we have equality within the education system for pupils themselves and for parents. The information that I am getting back from a large number of schools at the moment is that there is a crisis first of all in being able to access teachers in general because of a shortage of teachers in a number of different areas, but my understanding…

With respect, that is the theory. The practice, unfortunately, is different. I understand that Ministers will be told by their senior civil servants that everything is grand, but the fact is that we are being told by people on the ground that it is not grand. I will give an example of the theory and the practice colliding. A principal sent me a letter they received from the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS. In that letter, NEPS congratulates them and says it continues to recruit, in this case, addit…

One in eight people in Ireland currently provides unpaid care. First, I thank the Regional Group, and especially Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, for their work in producing this motion. I thank them for all of the work that they have done with the organisations that represent carers in this country. It is an incredible that one in eight people is tasked with this particular role. It is tremendous work. It is really important work. The care they provide is borne out of love for their families. It is really important that we rec…

Farming as we know it is being significantly run down by the Government. I believe farming has been made the fall guy of climate change. This is bizarre and absolutely false. It is incredible that we live in a country where the level of air travel and the number of data centres are still increasing, yet the finger is being pointed by the Government and the political establishment at farmers as if they are the threat in terms of climate change. Farming is also being sacrificed by the Government in terms of preservin…

The country is cursed with a number of scandals in relation to overspends on public projects. Aontú is fully in support of public projects. We believe in public delivery, but the biggest threat to the confidence in public delivery has been a Government that has allowed such glacial movement in terms of infrastructural projects but also massive costs in terms of the delivery. The Government is in many ways incinerating taxpayers' money on so many projects. Vital projects are spending years in planning and delivery. …

I have a list of projects that have gone over budget but I will use them in the second part.

I have a list of projects that I will tell the Minister about in my own time.

The Minister mentioned accountability. I am not aware of anybody in the senior levels of the Civil Service who has ever lost his or her job because a project went over budget. I am not aware of anybody who has even been moved sideways. I will give a couple of examples. We had a farce here where €2 million was spent on a Dáil printer nobody could fit in the door. We have the national children's hospital, which was promised for 2020 at a cost of €700 million, barring an asteroid hitting the planet. We do not have an …

Aontú wants to give people confidence in the delivery of public infrastructure. This confidence has been radically eroded by the lack of Government prudence and the lack of Government ability to hold the system to account. A Minister tasked a civil servant with creating a tender for the national children's hospital. There are people who are responsible for the spending disaster that has happened. Some €300 million has been spent on the metro north system and there has not been even a shovel put into the ground. Dow…

A person would lose their job-----

If it was a private company there would be loss of jobs.

Deflect.

Ones that would have worked.

But not accountability.

The State does things. The Government is not doing it.

This again relates to flood defences. It is a very serious issue. I was down with Mona Stromsoe, who is the chair of the Midleton flood defence campaign, last Friday. I got to visit the location where floods did enormous damage. The water literally pulled cars out of driveways, knocked walls and did enormous damage. That town is still living with a significant fear of those floods happening again.

I cannot overstate the damage that has been done in Midleton and how this is a threat to human lives. I saw the buildings children were being lifted out of and the flow was so strong people could not stand in those situations, so this is very serious. The Minister mentioned earlier there are things outside of the Government's control and mentioned planning and the courts system. The Government is actually in control of those spaces because it is in control of the employment of planners. Right now there is a serious…