Last night, there was a huge public meeting in Tyrone of a grassroots campaign, Enough is Enough, led by Tyrone GAA and the families of people who have lost their lives on the A5. As the Taoiseach knows, the project has been bedevilled by legal objections, but now there is huge momentum to make this happen. The then Government had committed to equally co-funding the road. When the Taoiseach was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, he withdrew that offer of €400 million. Will he now recommit, on behalf of the …

Here we go again.

That is disgraceful.

You are an absolute disgrace.

The history of the regulation of construction and quarries in Ireland is really appalling and counties like Donegal are paying a profound price for that. I live in Buncrana, the epicentre of the defective blocks crisis. Not a day goes by that I do not talk to a family whose lives are utterly destroyed by the fact that their homes are falling apart. It is about not just the cost of fixing it but also the mental health effects and the utter devastation. This is not just about defective blocks either. It is about defe…

The Good Friday Agreement rightly and deservedly stands apart, is internationally respected and is a milestone in terms of what is possible when people mired in and plagued by conflict not only aspire to peace, but are committed to moving beyond conflict. Oftentimes, and perhaps most often, speaking of such agreements or processes is within the context of constitutional issues, ideology or national aspirations. These are by their very nature crucial and important matters, deserving of respect in terms of the genuin…

Given the seriousness of this issue for so many families throughout the State, I ask under Standing Order 83(3)(b) that the vote be taken by other than electronic means.

This is now the second time that the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, will come in to make a statement on a matter of serious public concern. This is about our planning legislation regarding the sale of lands by local authorities applying to all citizens equally. It could not be more serious. There cannot be a situation where he comes in, like he did the last time, at the close of business when there was no opportunity for the Opposition to have questions and answers. There is precedent now and I include th…

I ask the Minister to meet his responsibilities under Article 17 of the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP. There are representations to the Minister from the National Inshore Fishermen's Association, the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation and environmental organisations asking him to examine how quotas, which are a public resource in Ireland, are allocated and how he is going to pull all of the organisations together to discuss and negotiate this issue.

I have two points. The inshore sector has been denied access to traditional salmon fisheries for quite a while and has been asked to make a living almost entirely from crab and lobster fisheries. It has been struggling. There is talk that a quota may be introduced around the area of crab. I am aware that studies by the Marine Institute are ongoing. The inshore sector needs a reasonable share of the likes of mackerel, herring and spurdog. I am also conscious that the pelagic industry in Ireland suffered a serious hi…

The Minister may be surprised to hear that I welcome the change in approach on the part of some of his Department officials and his efforts to work with the industry around the blue whiting issue. The industry united and put in a tremendous effort. It was constantly out in Europe making the case for more fish and for fairness. I went to some of those meetings; it is asking for fairness. That is it. It is asking for the principles of the CFP to be respected. I ask the Minister to continue to fight with the industry …

The area of vacant homes is a shocking failure by the Government. I want to share with the Minister the situation in Donegal just to illustrate the madness of the way the Government approaches housing. We have well over 7,000 vacant homes in Donegal. Those are not holiday homes but vacant homes and this is at a time when we have a profound housing crisis. There are 2,500 families on the social housing list and the delivery of social housing by the Government in Donegal is appalling. We have the defective block scan…

Could the Leas-Cheann Comhairle ask both sides that, in fairness?

On both sides.

I will give a number of examples from Donegal in which the decision to refer these projects to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform has caused real anger and genuine concern. The Minister for Education will be aware that a range of schools across Donegal have waited for many years for badly needed improvements and new school projects. I will start with Moville Community College. It is a tremendous school. Students have a tremendous experience there. It has tremendous t…

The Taoiseach might have to fight as well.

Rockall is a traditional fishing ground for Irish fishermen, in particular Donegal fishermen. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has assessed the loss to be in the millions of euro. In the case of the likes of Greencastle, as much as 25% to 30% of the income could be lost. It is outrageous and has no basis in international law. Two years later, what is the Government doing about this?

This is outrageous. There is no basis in international law for putting a nautical mile limit around an uninhabited rock. There is no basis for this under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS. It is absolute nonsense. How on earth is the Government tolerating this? How is it not being taken to international arbitration? Why did the Government sign off on the Maritime Jurisdiction Act on access for the British Government to and control of the area at a time when it is negotiating to reinstate o…

Under Brexit, the British Government and fishermen around the coast of Britain regained 70% of what are now territorial waters. We lost about 15% of the overall value. In areas like pelagic fishing, nephrops and prawns, we were badly walloped. This industry in Ireland is currently being decommissioned. The whitefish sector in Ireland is about a third of what it was 15 years ago. This is the reality of the Irish fishing sector. We have tolerated a situation whereby we are being excluded from our traditional fishing …

The Chief Medical Officer, in recent days, has talked about older people getting back to normal after the pandemic to regain their lives and part of that is this issue of being able to pay with cash. Not everybody is able to go online and operate like that with credit cards. There is a section of people who will be excluded if this is the way we proceed. I am glad that Deputy Gould mentioned AIB because what it had proposed was outrageous. They were essentially to close access to cash facilities, including ATMs, at…