What cost would the Minister of State put on life? That is the question. If it was in different circumstances and the Minister of State needed something, what cost would he put on his own life? When it comes to our search and rescue personnel, all I can say is "Thank you." They are absolutely unbelievable in what they do. If they work for 24 hours, that must be recognised. The Government is brilliant at putting in place regulations for different people. If people are driving trucks, the Government will tell them ho…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: acknowledges that: — the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended, was enacted to give effect to the European Union's Whistleblowing Directive and to protect persons who, in good faith, report wrongdoing in the public interest; — despite these statutory protections, numerous whistleblowers have faced retaliation, career destruction, delay or suppression of their disclosures through misuse of process, non-investigation, or coercive confidentiality agreements; — the persistent failure of …

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle.

Before I start off, I thank John Campbell, Mark Nolan, Emma Corrigan, my colleagues here in Independent Ireland and, most of all, the whistleblowers who gave us the details and information on this to make sure that we could bring a Private Members' Bill to the Government on which it is after delivering 20 minutes of waffle outside of what we were talking about. I want to make quite clear what we are looking for is a review of the statutory protections afforded to civil servants and - this is where the Deputies from…

A letter was sent from Revenue's VAT interpretation and litigation branch of its taxes policy and legislation division to the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, stating that broiler-house chickens must be registered for VAT this year. Revenue is now saying they do not have to be registered but the Department of Finance is saying they do. A total of 83% of broiler-house chickens are on farms that are subject to zero VAT. If their owners register for VAT as another identity, that cannot be done under the one tax number.…

Yes.

I will send the Taoiseach the details.

I will start with a headline from the Irish Examiner that ran "HSE warns it cannot fill vacancies even with agencies as staff shortage crisis deepens". We are talking about health insurance and the rising cost of it. Why do we have such a shortage in the HSE? Why are private hospitals being built and providing a service efficiently, with efficient staffing? We see the 96-bed unit open in Limerick, which I welcomed. Then we see we had a strategic policy to look at options. Option A was another 96-bed unit, option B …

I have employees. If I was in any other county, including Donegal, I would get paid an awful lot more for doing what I was doing than I am paid for doing what I do here. The reason I am here is to protect people. It is not about money. It is about protection and putting in place procedures using the experience I have as a taxpayer and an employer who has had employees all his life. We are here to protect people and to give the Government our experience and the tools to stop Departments wasting money. It helps Gover…

You should not because I had seven minutes as well. I will have to teach the Chair how to read the clock.

Exactly but that is what I do. I am sorry. Seven and seven is 14. I think that leaves me about two minutes.

I will conclude on this. I am offering the Government assistance. I am offering to simplify and to allow the Government to spend money with accountability to deliver services so that it can help the vulnerable people in this country.

In November 2021, I brought a truck in here to Leinster House for the same reason we are talking on this today, for the road hauliers. At a time of crisis in this country, they travelled the roads to make sure that we had food and energy in this country. I have a letter from Martin Ryan & Sons Transport, a big haulage company in Cappamore in County Limerick and I will give a small piece of it. It contains a summary of a table outlining the key cost increases imposed by Government policy in recent years. It states t…

They are now driving down the middle of the road. There is plenty of room for biodiversity inside the ditches around the fields. It is the law that anyone in this country should be able to travel in it safely. Today, we are looking at somebody in the Chair who has driven trucks and was part of the haulage industry. For God's sake, the Minister of State is partly responsible for the costs of truckers and his Government is the cause of inflation in this country through taxes.

The Minister came to Limerick and we opened the 96 beds. I welcomed it. We now have options A, B and C, which we were looking for in Limerick for the care of the people of the mid-west. Developers have come to us saying that if the State does not have the money to build the facilities, they will build them for it and sell them back for €1 after 35 years. The reason I am saying this is that I hope our new Minister for Finance, who was in the position of the current Minister for Health and failed in it in areas where…

When people came here from Ukraine, the Irish people opened their houses and their hearts to help them. Many people from Ukraine have actually integrated and are staying here. They are working, contributing and paying tax here. Many people of different nationalities have immigrated into this country from Poland and other countries. They are now part of our workforce. They are now working here. They came here through a process, with documentation and everything, and they are working. They are seeing other nationalit…

I am going to start with the auto-enrolment pension scheme. A pension scheme is good if it is introduced at the right time. To get down to brass tacks, for those who do not know, auto-enrolment means 1.5% for an employer and 1.5% for an employee. After six months, the employee can opt out of the 1.5% if he or she does not want to pay it. Is there any extra benefit for somebody in their 40s, 50s or 60s? What about people who are coming up to 64, 65 or 66? Is there any extra benefit for them in their pension if they …

Hear, hear.

I will start with insurance and insurance fraud. Insurance fraud is being paid for by all the rest of the people who are trying to get insured. Let us say a person is trying to insure their vehicle in Limerick, Tipperary, Cork or Clare. If we look at the same vehicle across the different counties, it seems to be the insurance rates are higher where the cities are. We did a small synopsis with a Toyota Corolla. We took the same vehicle with a 1.4 litre petrol engine and looked for insurance for the same person acros…

At the outset, I am not against wind energy. I am against the health implications of wind energy. Will the Minister acknowledge that the High Court has now ruled in multiple cases that wind turbine noise can constitute a nuisance, even where developments are compliant with planning conditions, and confirm the specific advice the Department received from the Office of the Attorney General in March 2024 regarding this matter? What are his plans to implement that advice to ensure that Ireland’s regulatory framework ad…