My question is slightly different from Deputy Munster's question.

We live in a great country and we have great people, but we are not doing ourselves any justice. While at the same time it is not fair for me to comment on everyone with the same brush, the facts speak for themselves. The price of hotel accommodation and the costs of car rental, parking, food and everything else are going totally out of control. During the pandemic the country had an opportunity to put itself back on the map. The Minister referred earlier to spending €80 million on Tourism Ireland, which is welcome…

As I said earlier, it is a great country. Ireland is known as a great sporting country. We do very well with the GAA, soccer and rugby. It is also great to see that our soccer teams and our rugby teams are looking to bring world cup, European cup and UEFA cup competitions to Ireland, which is fantastic. There are also plenty of concerts in the Aviva Stadium and Croke Park, with all of the superstars coming in. Ireland has always been known for having fantastic restaurants, especially with our fish, and so on. Howev…

A child's right to education is enshrined in our Constitution and under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. All children, including children with disabilities and children with special needs, have the right to free primary education up to the age of 16. What defines a person with special needs? A person has special educational needs if his or her capacity to participate in and benefit from education is restricted due to an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or learning disability. W…

I have a saying that your health is your wealth. The communication between the Minister for Health and the HSE about the future of the emergency department in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is deplorable. The HSE has announced that the hospital does not meet the safe clinical standards for some patients. The emergency department was closed and will be replaced by general practitioner referrals, a 24-hour medical assessment unit and an injury unit. The intensive care beds will close. On my local radio station this mor…

I am asking for time this week for the Minister-----

Over the last ten or 15 years, the people of Meath have been made promises. Gerry McEntee came onto the local radio station and spoke on behalf of the HSE. Will the Taoiseach make time this week for the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to come in and tell the people of Navan and the surrounding areas exactly what is happening in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital?

It is important that DkIT becomes a TU. It has been left behind for far too long. The Minister said a couple of weeks ago, during his visit to Dundalk, that he feels that DkIT has a great future. Ireland's fifth TU, the Technological University of the South East, was established a few weeks ago. I congratulate Waterford Institute of Technology and Carlow Institute of Technology on coming together. On many occasions, the Minister has announced his frustration with the lack of progress on DkIT becoming a TU. It is im…

A housing adaptation grant is for older people and people with disability. It is available from the local authorities for people who need to make changes to their homes to make them more suitable for those with a physical, sensory or intellectual disability or mental health difficulties. Not a day passes when there is not a queue in my office of people looking for help to fill in the application form to see what is available. The biggest problem we have at the moment is the increase in construction costs and materi…

Budget 2022 contained an announcement regarding free GP cards for the under-sevens. Some 80,000 children will be able to avail of the scheme. The problem for my constituents is that not all GPs are accepting these cards. People are being told that if GPs are not going to accept the card or are not taking on any more patients, they have to find other GPs who are doing so. Families are familiar with their own GPs. When can we expect these GP cards for the under-sevens? How will the parents of these children get GPs t…

People trust PayPal. Millions of people give PayPal their bank account numbers, credit card numbers and debit card numbers to serve an account so they can purchase online. In return, they are promised by PayPal that this is done in a safe and secure manner. Last Tuesday, PayPal announced 307 job losses - 172 in Dundalk in my constituency and 135 in Blanchardstown in the Tánaiste's constituency. On top of this, in April 2021 there were 131 job losses, again in Dundalk and Dublin. In 13 months, 438 jobs were lost out…

I agree with the Tánaiste that the most important thing here is communication. I welcome that PayPal is going to engage with its workers today. Rumours of these jobs being transferred to India do not help at all. The Tánaiste knows more than most people the amount of money the Government and the Industrial Development Agency, IDA, invested into PayPal coming here. It is very important that the 2,000 workers who remain in PayPal are looked after as well because they are looking for some type of security. Losing 438 …

What is happening with passport applications is unacceptable. There is bad communication, people are not answering the phone and applicants are sometimes waiting for hours with no reply. I rang the office myself last week. Someone on the phone says you are number five on the list, then number four and then all of a sudden you are number 40. It is crazy what is happening. People think this is just about people going on holidays but it is not. There many people who have medical emergencies, deaths abroad or family me…

A new living wage rate has been set at €12.90 per hour. This is the basic amount found to be necessary to cover workers' needs. This is €2.40 above the minimum wage of €10.50 per hour. This higher rate is due to hikes in rent, transport and energy costs. Rents are increasing daily and it is nearly impossible to find a rental property in some areas. In my own town of Dundalk, a three-bedroom house now costs a minimum of €1,600 per month. In the last 12 months alone, the cost of transport has rocketed. This time last…

Every day the National Ambulance Service, NAS, deploys approximately 160 to 180 emergency ambulances, an average of 22 rapid response vehicles and in excess of 50 officer response vehicles operating in over 100 locations across the country. Life-threatening calls are split into two categories, namely, delta, which are non-cardiac and non-respiratory calls, and echo, which are life-threatening cardiac and respiratory calls. Echo and delta calls account for approximately 45% of all 112 and 999 calls. Why is it taking…

In recent years, I have raised the rising cost of rent and property and the lack of rental properties. Trying to find a property in my area is like looking for hen's teeth. The problem is countrywide and affects every county. In my home town of Dundalk the rental cost of a standard three-bedroom house is between €1,200 and €1,600 a month. It is much more that someone would have to pay for a mortgage for the same property. Why are the tenants paying these rents not able to get a mortgage for the same property? This …

I welcome the opportunity to speak. I thank Deputies from the Rural Independent Group for tabling this motion. We are in extremely difficult times and face many challenges following the many restrictions imposed on us by Covid and with the rapidly rising cost of living, which is affecting everybody. I fully believe that climate change is a problem that needs to be addressed. It cannot be ignored anymore and we need to act now. We need to put in place necessary measures to reduce or eliminate climate change. Carbon …

Today I will raise the question of housing again with the Taoiseach. I have raised it with him and his colleagues in the Government many times and to be honest, it seems we are only paying lip service at this stage. We are in the middle of a housing crisis. We hear from the Government about the many thousands of new homes that will be built every year but we are still are no better off when it comes to the number of people requiring houses or homes. The war in Ukraine has had a devastating effect on the people of U…

I have already put on the record my complete support for all the efforts that are being made to find accommodation for the refugees. That is not the problem. The problem I am talking about is with the local authorities. The vacant house to which I referred was left in perfect condition last October. It is now six or seven months later. A year ago, if I had asked the council what the problem was, it would have said it had no money. Now it is saying the problem is resources. Personally, I think the local authorities …

I am just saying we have problems in our own country. I ask that the Government help the Irish people as well.