As I have said, the Spanish Government has announced €68 million in direct aid to be granted in the form of discounts of 20 cent per litre of diesel for three months at least; deferments in the payment of social security contributions; credit lines in the Spanish official credit institute and the Spanish state agricultural society; and €50 million from FEMPA, which is linked to Article 26. There is a whole range of interventions to assist the fishing industry in Spain. I just do not see the same detail here. I say …

No doubt this funding announcement was very welcome. I met with the fishermen there on numerous occasions over the years, including in recent times, and they were completely disillusioned with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. There was a sense that they were the poor relation between the major ports of Killybegs and Castletownbere and they had been left behind. It is important, as Deputy Ó Cuív said, that we focus on delivering this project. One concern I have is that there is talk, of course, ab…

The success of the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation, IIMRO, in obtaining producer status was welcome. Deputy Ó Cuív made a good, practical and important proposal. Any of us who engage with the IIMRO knows that it is an impressive representative and advocate. This is a critical matter. Speaking as Sinn Féin's fisheries spokesperson, that fishing is central to island communities is the basis on which we engage in the matter. If we can engage with the IIMRO, its plans will be exciting. This is a practical an…

Ireland's position of military neutrality is an honourable tradition. As we speak in this Chamber, we are surrounded by the busts of the heroes of 1916, who took their stand in the midst of the First World War. In that awful war, tens of thousands of Irish nationalists and unionists were slaughtered. That has been burned into the minds of the Irish people ever since, such that when we achieved independence for 26 of our 32 counties, we would be separated from imperialism and empire and we would have our own, indepe…

I raised this issue with the Tánaiste last week. University Hospital Letterkenny has a serious crisis. The representatives of nurses, doctors and paramedics have spoken about the impossible conditions they are being asked to work in. There is one nurse for every 20 patients. Some patients have been waiting between ten and 14 hours in ambulances outside the emergency department, including recently a 77-year-old man in a very serious condition. I am asking the Taoiseach, as I asked the Tánaiste, to ensure that the Mi…

It will be no surprise to the Minister that this issue is being raised by three Donegal Deputies. It is a particular issue for our county. How are we supposed to attract investment into what are called the gateways of Derry and Letterkenny? Thousands of people travel across what is, thankfully, a seamless Border every day for work and education. That is how our Border region functions. This is an attack by a Tory Government that has given no thought to and has no regard for our Border communities. It has repeatedly…

I consider this to be repugnant to the Good Friday Agreement and an attack on that agreement. The peace process was underpinned by the seamless Border on the island and the free movement of goods, people and capital on the island of Ireland. I am thankful that we continue to be a member of the European Union and that the North of Ireland, for all intents and purposes, is still within the Union. It is absolutely repugnant to suggest European citizens, whatever about those from the US and other countries, would be tr…

On Sunday, a 77-year-old man in a serious condition was taken from his home in north Donegal by ambulance to Letterkenny University Hospital. He spent more than nine hours in the ambulance waiting to be attended to. The Tánaiste will agree that this was utterly unacceptable. We have a profound crisis in our health system across Donegal from NoWDOC to primary care and from community hospitals to our acute hospital in Letterkenny. It has been neglected for far too long. Will the Tánaiste ask the Minister for Health, …

Ireland’s tradition of military neutrality is an honourable one. Unfortunately, too many governments have missed the opportunity it provides. Despite the huge respect our UN peacekeepers, the blue helmets, have attained across the world, and despite the role in conflict resolution those of us in Ireland have played in Sri Lanka, Colombia, the Middle East and the Basque Country, the opportunity has been repeatedly wasted. We have had a half-hearted approach to military neutrality from the parties that sit across the…

The job of every Deputy is to come to the Dáil Chamber and tell the story of what their constituents are going through. It is about representing the real-life experience of their constituents. In Donegal, at least two thirds of the homes have home heating oil as their fuel source for domestic heating. The Government has no proposal to reduce those costs. A year ago, people could get 1,000 litres of oil to fill a tank for approximately €600. Today, it is at least double that. An oil tank has to be filled up a number…

In the 1980s, the Irish people led the way in confronting the South African apartheid regime. We think of the heroic Dunnes Stores workers who refused to handle the South African goods. They took that stand and inspired the rest of the Irish people and the then Government. Ireland led the way internationally in confronting that regime. How can we stand here in 2022 when there is overwhelming evidence of apartheid, as internationally defined in law, taking place in Israel and Palestine? B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch …

Additional time has rightly been added to the schedule today for those Deputies who want to contribute to the debate on the motion in regard to the invasion of Ukraine but there is also very serious concern in this House about the situation in Palestine. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have defined this as an apartheid state. It is a very damning report. There has been a reasonable request for additional speaking time and, today, a number of us emailed that time should be set aside on Thursday. Th…

Two for the Opposition.

At Letterkenny University Hospital today, there were ten ambulances backed up at the emergency department. There is an unprecedented crisis in that department in terms of staffing, with morale extremely low. This is the outcome of a build-up of failures, for far too many years, to invest in beds, nurses and doctors in the hospital. Letterkenny is the major acute hospital in Donegal and the sixth largest hospital in the State, with more than 23,000 inpatients every year. However, it is 13th or 14th in the country in…

The ongoing failure to tackle effectively the issue of derelict properties and vacant properties in our town centres and across the State is unacceptable when we have a housing crisis. Let me talk about north Donegal. It is not that long ago that people could have rented a family home in the towns of north Donegal for €600 per month but now they would be lucky if they got it for less than €1,100 or €1,200 a month, and that happened within a very short period of time. This is due to the policy of not building public…

The last time I spoke on this, I invited the Minister and Department officials to have a serious look at the Operation Greenwich report and I referred to the shocking case of "Person K". Person K was clearly a mass murderer. He was a key suspect in 17 murders and seven attempted murders. The report of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland states that in 2016 the senior investigating officer for Operation Greenwich passed on a file about Person K to the PSNI. Six years on, we are not aware of where that investig…

I am sure the Minister is familiar with the efforts of those who contributed to the committee in pre-legislative scrutiny. I refer in particular to Michael Kingston, who is also a bereaved family member in relation to Whiddy Island. The catalogue of repeated failures is disturbing. The Whiddy Island disaster in 1979 should have focused minds. The Herald of Free Enterprise disaster was in 1987, when the independent marine accident investigation unit was set up. That template emerged there. In 1998, the report of the…

For the second week in a row, the Government has refused to agree to any statements whatsoever requested by the Opposition. This week, the Government has about 12 hours of time available and none of it has been allocated to statements from the Opposition. This is not sustainable, and it cannot continue. This has been the Taoiseach's position week after week. I seek a commitment from him on the matter now. For example, last week he committed to statements on two ombudsman's reports that came from the North, but that…

There are two. The other one is not for the Opposition only. It is for Government and Opposition.

The Minister will be acutely aware of the impact of the outrageous blocking of access for Irish fishermen to the fisheries around Rockall by the British Government. As I understand it, this cost our fishermen more than €7 million last year. What are he and the Minister for Foreign Affairs doing about this absolute outrage?