First, I express condolences to Michael and the Collins family at this heartbreaking time. I thank the Rural Independents for bringing forward this motion. Rural communities face unique barriers to healthcare. We have one of the lowest rates of GPs in Europe. I commend the people of Lahardane this morning on what they have done to retain the GP service within their community. They are an example to communities across this country but they should not have had to do that. Those problems are even more acute in rural a…

Since 2019, the Government has been preparing a national security strategy which is supposed to shape our approach to cybersecurity. A lack of urgency and priority from the Government is increasing our vulnerability as global volatility increases. The HSE attack, which was hugely disruptive for patients and staff, is estimated to have cost €144 million. Many smaller but harmful attacks happen regularly as well. In my own group water scheme in County Mayo, the digital board was hacked, disrupting the water supplies.…

Last year, the EU Commission published guidelines on biodiversity and friendly afforestation. It provided recommendations on biodiversity and friendly afforestation projects at a local level. Forestry should deliver for the environment, economy and local communities. The response to the inability to meet afforestation targets has been to invite in investment firms with solely commercial interests. Last year, we saw the disastrous deal between Coillte and a British investment firm. Craggagh community, between Kiltim…

With the Executive now up and running, it is crucial that east–west and North–South bodies be established under the Good Friday Agreement and robustly fulfil their remit. The Taoiseach will know that, having been starved of adequate public funding by the Tories for years, public services are now at breaking point. This will be a priority for Sinn Féin in the new Executive, with finance Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, having described a recent offer by the Tories as not providing a sustainable solution and involving fu…

I really have to note how much Fine Gael cares about fishing when not one of its Members can even be here to speak on this really important subject, particularly the Fine Gael TDs from coastal communities. I want to talk about the inshore sector, which provides more than 50% of employment in Ireland in the seafood industry. Everyone is aware of the unfair division of quotas and distribution at an EU level. However, what is even more difficult to understand or justify is how quotas are divided among the Irish fishin…

I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward this motion. It is important. It is timely that we are speaking on it this morning. I, like all other TDs and my colleagues, live in a community in which businesses are struggling. I cannot remember a time when so many businesses were concerned about escalating costs which they just cannot manage. Many are family-owned businesses that employ two, three or four people. They cannot even take a wage themselves at the end of the week. Something is drastically wrong. There…

That is great. I could talk all day about this subject, so I am fine. My colleagues are not here. The first thing I want to do is congratulate Michelle O'Neill and acknowledge how historic it was to have my own colleague become a republican First Minister. I wish her and Emma Little-Pengelly, both of their teams and the other MLAs the best of luck in the really hard work that they have to do in the months ahead. We are acutely conscious of the deficit that has to be made up. It was rightly referred to as Tory auste…

The drop-off in people paying the television licence fee did not just happen by accident. It is a form of protest. Regardless of whether one agrees with them, people are having their say. It is a protest against the insider culture and unaccountability of the top brass in RTÉ. Even after the story broke and the public anger was clear, those at the top of RTÉ still did not get it. I remember watching as they were questioned by TDs. At one point, a senior executive interrupted a question to say it was not public mone…

Will the Minister outline the procedure involved in ensuring that the findings of the recently published Economic and Social Research Council, ESRI, report, The National Development Plan in 2023: Priorities and Capacity, will be incorporated and ultimately change the current NDP ceilings so we know we are investing enough in housing and making sure that the construction activity is directed where it is most needed to provide residential homes?

That is an answer but it does not answer my questions. The ESRI report was with the Minister's Department before the budget last year and an early draft was with the Department as early as June last year. This report makes it clear that there is need to increase housing targets. Sinn Féin has spent the last four years warning that housing targets were too low. Finally the expertise of the ESRI was sought to examine the capital investment, as the Minister has said. The report states that existing targets for housing…

When it comes to the State building social and affordable homes it is very clear now that the targets for 2023 are not going to be met in counties like Mayo. Indeed not a single house was delivered in Mayo in the first nine months of 2023. Another crucial finding of the ESRI report is about the workforce and the need and potential use of the taxation system to redirect construction work. The report outlines how taxation can be used to move construction workers and companies away from activity such as office space, …

Has the Minister engaged with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the potential of the State auditor to cover semi-State bodies that receive public money but engage in commercial activity? I refer to a dual audit capacity. The public would be surprised that the Government does not require this already. Will the Minister consider changing the State auditor's remit to ensure greater oversight of and accountability for public money?

I really think it is time the Government looked at this collectively rather than waiting for individual Ministers. The Minister gave the usual reason of commercial operations and private auditors, but there seems to be an inconsistent approach to when public oversight is used. Just across the road, more than 50% of Trinity College's revenue is not from the State, yet every year the books are analysed with full transparency by the State auditor. Why is it the same standard and expectations are not extended to all or…

I referenced those organisations to highlight the inconsistency of approach. The outrageous scandal in RTÉ brought this to the public's attention. How do we know there are not any other RTÉs? A small commercial operation is used to hide from public accountability. The current system, whereby oversight is conducted by the board of RTÉ by commissioning the audit of accounts, is clearly unsatisfactory. Too many private auditors are not revealing layers of dysfunction and lack of proper governance. They are hired direc…

Anglo Irish Bank and Carillion.

As the Department of expenditure is the planning authority for flood relief schemes, the OPW issued that Department with a report that addressed the supplementary information it required. The OPW is still awaiting a response from the Department. Will the Minister please tell the people of Crossmolina when its scheme will start? He will know this has been going on since 2015.

That is the crux of the problem. When is the Minister expecting information from the consultants to which the Department has given supplementary information for them to assess whether it is sufficient and significant? Will he assure me at this stage that we will not need to go to a third public consultation process once the Department responds to the information given last November? That is the real concern. I know the Minister has to adhere to the law. I would not ask him not to but, my goodness, we should not hav…

I thank the Minister. I think people would ask that he does absolutely everything in his power to ensure that the sign-off time for the phase the project is currently at be cut as short as possible. The Minister can get it through to the consultants that this is an absolute priority scheme. He is right about Deputies Calleary and Dillon. There has been cross-party support and concern in equal measure for years on the need to deliver this scheme as quickly as possible for businesses and residents in Crossmolina.

I have already discussed the recently published ESRI report and some of the important findings therein. However, the report ignored the elephant in the room, namely, inflation. The national development plan is at risk if the Government does not get serious about the impact of inflation. If the intention of the report was to inform decisions on the NDP ceilings, why did the Minister not instruct the ESRI to examine the impact that inflation has had on the NDP?

We know of some projects that have been delayed, but my main concern is that we do not know the extent of those. Last September, Ministers warned that there would be a €14 billion deficit. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council then stated that it would be €19 billion and that €2.7 billion extra would be needed each year to meet the existing capital plans. I know that €250 million was allocated but that is only 10% of what is needed. Two years of record inflation means that the level of funding is nowhere near sufficien…