I am delighted that this Bill will now make it to Committee Stage. I thank the Minister for supporting the Bill and for allowing it through this Stage. I also thank Deputies Canney and Grealish for helping to bring the Bill this distance. I thank Deputies Donnelly and Cronin for their positive words in favour of animal welfare. This is one of the issues which very much unites everybody in here in that the relationships we have with our own pets are key and important ones. It is also important that I put my own dog …

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle. Ba mhaith liom comhbhrón a dhéanamh freisin ar mo shon agus ar son Aontú agus an Ghrúpa Réigiúnaigh le clann agus le cairde Brian Hillery. Ba chailliúint ollmhór é agus don chlann, go háirithe. I express my deepest sympathies, and those of my party and of the Regional Group to the family of Brian Hillery. People who knew him personally knew him as a gentleman. A gentleman recognised by all sides in this Chamber is an unusual thing. It is also important to state that Profes…

The increase in tolls during the cost-of-living crisis is an absolute disgrace. The Government owns the M50 and the East-Link Bridge, and yet we see the tolls for these increase at a time when people are paying higher prices for cars and fuel and to service their cars. The research Aontú carried out shows the commuter has already paid €1.2 billion for the M50 toll in the past nine years. The commuter has paid for this infrastructure ten times over at this stage. The traffic congestion in our cities and towns is an …

All forms of discrimination are wrong and everybody who lives in this country and is a citizen of this country must have equal rights. A Republic is built on the idea that all citizens are equal. Aontú opposes all forms of discrimination and we oppose all incitements to violence. We believe that incitement to violence is wrong, that it is a criminal act and that it should be treated as such. Words do matter. Words matter a lot. Words can cast light, they can educate, they can build up and they can get to the truth.…

I thank my colleagues in the Regional Group, especially Deputy Naughten and Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, for the work they have done on preparing this important motion. Many individuals are contacting Deputies to express deep concern at an incredibly debilitating illness they have, one that is affecting all elements of their lives. Many people have indicated to me that it is similar to having a brain injury in terms of loss of cognition, chronic fatigue, heart palpitations and other cardiac issues. People are unable to work…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an gCeann Comhairle. Is deas é a fheiceáil ar ais anseo arís. I begin by reiterating my deepest sympathies to the people of Creeslough and the wider Donegal community. Most especially, I convey my deepest sympathies, and the sympathies of my colleagues in Aontú, to the families of Leona Harper, Robert Garwe, Shauna Flanagan Garwe, Jessica Gallagher, James O'Flaherty, Martina Martin, Hugh Kelly, Catherine O'Donnell, James Monaghan and Martin McGill. All of them were simply going about their norma…

Is deas an rud é a fheiceáil go bhfuil an tAire Stáit ar ais agus tá súil agam go bhfuil an tsláinte go maith aici. This year, we in Aontú have researched the number of people who are medically discharged from hospital but forced to stay there because of a lack of home care or step-down beds. The information we have received is incredible. The HSE told us that on a given day, there are 536 people in hospitals who have been discharged and have no need to be there but are forced to stay because there is no home care …

She is walking on water, is she?

The Minister’s policy is completely wrong. The Government is like a rich city government, chucking a few pennies up into the air and seeing rural communities scramble around to pick up the money. It is a recipe for parish pump politics and we can see Deputies smile and smirk regarding the grants that they have been involved in doling out to people. We need to make rural areas viable on their own basis rather than dependent on handouts from the State. That is what is happening in the country. Rural areas are depleti…

Deputies are smirking and smiling here about money that everybody has handed out to their people.

Where is the viability?

They are not viable.

Young people are moving out of rural Ireland.

You made process for them to assess-----

They want viable communities.

I will give the Minister one on the next question.

The reality of the situation is that Ireland is one of the most lopsided countries on the planet. We have a city that is radically overheating at the moment. We have a commuter belt that is sprawling into Ulster, Munster and Connacht, where people are travelling two and three hours into Dublin to go to work. Every year, we have rural areas where the population of young people is reducing. That is not a sustainable process and these are not viable communities. They do not have necessary investment into infrastructur…

I will give the Minister the evidence. I understand that the north and the west of this island have been downgraded to lagging region status under the Government. That is an incredible assessment from the European Union in relation to what the north and the west are undergoing at the moment. I am referring to the agreement that has unlocked funding through the bloc's cohesion policy. I have asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform whether he will confirm that the two regions have been downgraded or to r…

I ask the Minister to address the fact that these two areas have been downgraded to lagging region status. She should ignore the core performance indicator of her Government. It is not just or fair to citizens living in the counties in the western and northern parts of this country that we are having this conversation. The Minister is not going to admit that the European Union has downgraded those areas to 177th place out of 240. Only for the Business Post releasing this information, we would not know it. Will the …

It is a fact that people cannot get their kids into a school and they are stuck in traffic for hours every day. The driving force is that there is no quality of living because the city has become overheated; it is not that the Government is throwing a few bob here and there to the peasants in order that they can open a community centre or this, that or the other. That is the wrong way to proceed and it shows no respect for rural communities.