There he goes again.

The Minister of State has not once dealt with the core issue. Should he stay or should he go?

Ah, for God's sake, cop yourself on.

You are only a codder. You are only bluffing and codding-----

All his time was taken up.

We are standing up for farmers.

So do people on this side of the House.

The Minister will know that the National Inshore Fishermen's Association has made a submission to all of us on an inshore fisheries income stabilisation and climate compensation scheme. Essentially, this would be a basic income scheme similar to that which was provided to artists in recent times. This is critical. As the Minister knows, in the past fishermen would have said, "We just want the fish; we do not want financial assistance." They need the latter now, and they will need it moving forward. I wish to engage…

As the Minister of State knows, the impact of Brexit hurt all fishermen, not just offshore fishermen. There was no tie-up scheme and no fuel subsidy for inshore fishermen. They have really struggled, and I have seen a big change. As I said at the outset, when I talked about a support scheme similar to what farmers have received for many years, the initial response from fishermen all around the coast was that they just wanted to fish. I absolutely respect that, but we have now got to the point where I think the like…

I welcome that. It is crucial that the likes of NIFA, NIFF, the regional inshore fisheries forums, RIFFs, and the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation, IIMRO, are at the table too. There are about 900 inshore fishermen, according to NIFA. Imagine if we could protect their livelihoods with a basic income scheme, which would mean that they would not have to go on the dole. It is economically sensible to do this, as we did with artists, but such a scheme would acknowledge that it is just not sustainable any more…

Was the Taoiseach at the committee?

Was the Taoiseach at the committee himself?

The deep frustration in my county in terms of key infrastructure projects concerns just how long they take. I want to talk about the Letterkenny relief road. Letterkenny is the beating heart of Donegal in terms of inward investment. It has multinational companies. Our university is there, along with our public services and our hospital. A huge volume of traffic goes through the town all the time. It is crucial to the county. Fifteen years ago, there was a business proposal from Donegal County Council for a Letterke…

The chairperson of Bord Bia has to resign. Every single farming organisation in this State has said it has no confidence in him and he has to go. How on earth can we have a chairperson at Bord Bia promoting Irish food abroad when the primary producers have no confidence in him and want him to go? This is a crazy situation. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, needs to sack him, simple as that, as called for by the farming organisations across this State. We need the Minister to come into the Chamber and account for this fa…

Not agreed.

I asked some of my councillor colleagues in Donegal to give me feedback about their involvement with Uisce Éireann and their perspectives. I have been speaking to quite a lot of people in Donegal since statements on the issues with Uisce Éireann last week. This issue of communication is universal. As I said to the Minister last week, and he must agree with this, it is absolutely unacceptable that there is not a list of phone numbers that a public representative can ring. If you are dealing with any other State agen…

Thousands of carers have received letters from Revenue saying they owe tax. They are not tax dodgers; they are people who save this State a fortune of money, literally billions of euro each year. We need the Minister, Deputy Calleary, to come into the Dáil this week. We need statements. We need to deal with this issue. We need the Government to present how it is going to resolve this issue. To be clear, again, these carers are not tax dodgers. They give a huge service to the State. It needs to be sorted out.

You would not get that in Fianna Fáil.

Ah Jesus, what has that got to do with Athenry?

I do not think the model that we currently see with Uisce Éireann, previously Irish Water, is an accident. I think it is by design, given the way that public representatives are treated by that organisation, created by this Government. When I send the Government a parliamentary question, it is ruled out of order because it is a matter for Uisce Éireann. The way it treats public representatives is outrageous. I will give the example of my home area of Buncrana in recent weeks. There was a water supply issue that kno…