The population is growing and our older people are living longer which is fantastic but there is cause for alarm as waiting lists are starting to creep back up and we are short of professional people. Other countries are coming to Ireland to try to take them away. We have to do something to keep them here. As I said, the Defence Forces are at their lowest numbers ever. Trying to get people to care for elderly people at home is difficult. There is something wrong there and the HSE will not engage them. They are havi…

As the Irish population is estimated to grow by 1 million by 2040, increased demand for homes, transport, education and employment will inevitably cause a continual housing and infrastructure crisis. Project Ireland 2040 estimates that 550,000 homes will be required over the next 20 years, and the national development plan commits €11.6 billion to provide 112,000 new social homes by 2027. The State training agency, SOLAS, found that more than 50,800 skilled workers will need to be recruited if the Government is to …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important topic and thank my colleagues in the Regional Group for raising this motion. We have learned many lessons during the pandemic. One is that concentrated care of our older people is far from ideal. These issues are predominant and are only going to get worse. Ireland has an ageing population. The number of people over 65 years of age increased in both urban and rural areas between 2011 and 2016 and such people now account for 15% of the population in rural areas. T…

Parents are doing their best to prepare their children for the new academic year and with so much pressure on household budgets due to the rising cost of living, by the time the bills are paid, they have little or nothing left to buy food, meaning that they are struggling to pay for schoolbooks and uniforms, as well as requested parent contributions. The bulk of announcements in last year’s education budget shared one key thing - easing the costs facing families and schools in the teeth of a cost-of-living crisis. …

The Government’s five-year policy aimed to deliver well-being for all in supporting an aligned approach to rural development, specifically in regard to access to good quality public services such as public transport, healthcare and housing provision. I acknowledge the tremendous work the Minister has undertaken in implementing this plan, providing a flexible approach using rural proofing and ensuring tailored responses to different requirements at local level. The provision and investment in rural public transport …

This Government promised in the programme for Government to make home ownership affordable and accessible again to an entire generation who are locked out of home ownership. Home ownership rates among young working adults in Ireland have collapsed in the face of rising house prices and, unfortunately, the myriad of issues impeding home purchase look unlikely to be resolved in the short to medium term. Ireland has the ninth lowest home ownership rate in the EU according to a National Economic and Social Council repo…

Previous governments promised to rectify the errors that resulted in the CervicalCheck scandal of 2018 involving several women, including Vicky Phelan, Eileen Rushe and Lynsey Bennett, receiving incorrect smear test results for cervical cancer. For reasons that must be obvious, many women in Ireland have lost confidence in the outsourcing of lab tests to the United States. Yet cervical screening, human papilloma virus, HPV, and cytology-sample processing at the State’s only lab, the recently opened national laborat…

We all know that not everyone who develops cervical cancer will have HPV found at screening.

Why then are we not testing for abnormal cells while we are testing for HPV? Is this a money-saving initiative?

Drogheda is the largest town in the State, with a growing and diverse population. The town, however, has faced significant challenges as a result of the actions of those involved in criminal activities, including activities linked to organised crime. This has severely affected the feeling of safety and security for members of the local community in recent years. Similarly, Dundalk faces significant challenges with criminal activity. This has been made worse by its close proximity to Newry. The impact on Drogheda of…

I receive calls weekly regarding planning permission rejections, with some people spending between €15,000 and €20,000 in the planning process before any works are done. This is not just hearsay. It was reported at the May meeting of Louth County Council that planning permission was refused for 40% of rural homes in Louth in 2022. This means that 70 out of the 177 planning applications for rural dwellings were rejected in 2022, affecting 70 families. From 2021, Louth’s planning permission requirements in rural area…

There is in County Louth

I live in County Louth and I know what is going on there. The refusal rate in rural County Louth was 40%. That equates to 70 families that have to live in mobile homes, live with friends or live wherever they can because they cannot get planning permission. The Government is instructing local authorities to build houses on local authority-owned land. However, our local authorities are refusing landowners and families to build on their land. That is a contradiction. There is a housing crisis at the moment. The Gover…

I know of a young girl who is married with two children. Her family has loads of land - 40 or 50 acres. What did the council tell her? It told her to build an extension onto the existing house of 50 sq. m. One cannot put a family into an extension measuring 50 sq. m.

The family already has the granny living in the house. I want the Tánaiste and the Minister to come to County Louth and have a look.

The refusal rate was 40%, meaning that 70 families were refused planning permission last year. It is not acceptable in a housing crisis. I am listening to gardaí on radio stations talking about this. We have a problem-----

Let us start looking after the people in the area. I know I will see the Tánaiste on Saturday in Navan but more importantly, I ask him to look after these families with their homes. That is all I am saying. He should come to County Louth with the Minister.

Give us a few penalties and the whole stadium will be happy.

Of 50 sq. m. One would not be able to get two horses in there.

Please come to County Louth and-----