This is completely disingenuous.

The other Deputy took the time when he was not supposed to.

This is too serious a matter.

For God's sake.

Biodiversity is compatible with what needs to be done here. Stop playing games with people. Stop it.

I wish to raise the two streams of ACRES - corporation and general. This was generally done correctly but some of them were wrongly allocated. Many of those wrongly allocated were put into the right allocation, which was the corporation applications, but some of them are still outstanding. It is particularly affecting situations where holdings are designated as special areas of conservation are not scored or paid in ACRES. This has been picked up recently. Is it possible for these holdings that were wrongly classif…

The Minister is washing his hands of rural water and Irish Water is becoming more unaccountable. As we speak some communities in Mayo are going without a reliable supply of drinking water, communities like Downpatrick Head, Aghinish, Murrisk, Clearagh, and Enagh Beg. Uisce Éireann is just not co-operating with the local authorities. The sureties are being wrongly charged. Other community water schemes have been left in limbo for years, such as Aghadoon, Carn, Crimlin-Ross, Foxpoint, Lecarrow, Pullathomish, Newtownw…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill, which will give effect to the tax measures of budget 2024. It is important to set the budget in terms of the commentary. I was really struck by Social Justice Ireland's analysis that from April 2024 onwards, the gains accruing to welfare-dependent households as a result of this budget will fall by between 35% and 46%. These budget 2024 decisions have skewed resources in favour of higher incomes for individuals and households. Consequently, the Government's presentatio…

There are more than 880,000 patients on hospital waiting lists. Records are being broken every year for the number of patients left on trolleys. Average waiting times in some emergency departments have reached over 27 hours. Some 9,000 people every month leave emergency departments without even being seen. These figures do not do justice to the hardship and turmoil this has caused patients and staff. Mayo University Hospital has one of the worst ambulance turnaround times in the State. Half of all the ambulances th…

I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this important motion. Imagine being a young person growing up in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and being unable to afford to get a place to live or unable to get a driving licence. Is this really how we are treating young people? Is it any wonder they are emigrating in their droves? I completely acknowledge that the Minister of State was handed a ball of chaos, but we have had 13 years of Fine Gael in government. Putting Covid-19 aside and all…

I ask the Taoiseach to do the direct opposite with regard to the western rail corridor and the line from Claremorris to Collooney. I am a very big advocate of greenways, absolutely 100%, but there are many places we can have greenways. It is not everywhere we can have railways. The infrastructure of a railway both from Athenry to Claremorris and Claremorris to Collooney is absolutely vital to the Atlantic economic corridor and the development of the western seaboard. I ask that this line be protected and not used a…

I welcome the service providers to the Gallery this evening and thank them for the great job they do. I thank my colleague, Deputy Tully, for bringing this motion forward. I refer to all the wrongdoing and the wrongs in the budget. This is a really important one and we would not be discussing it this evening if it was not for Deputy Tully. Budget 2024 failed people with disabilities. It failed to recognise the cost of disabilities. There are people watching this evening who cannot afford things and the Minister of …

Addressing the Ministers present, I first want to welcome the fact that the Government has finally re-profiled the funding from TBESS that has not been drawn down. It is too complicated and did not have enough businesses which needed it. Other such businesses which rely on LPG were completely excluded from this. Will the Ministers provide a scheme for business users of LPG given that they were not eligible fuels under TBESS, as was previously committed to? We still have the problem with LPG.

I thank the Minister and let me be helpful to him because what he is saying does not tie up with what I know and, as the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, is here, he will know this also. First, on 21 March, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, assured me that a grant would be put in place for LPG-reliant businesses. Last month, rural businesses went from being an afterthought to being completely forgotten and the grant scheme was quietly dropped. The senior Minister stated in a written response to me that the…

I would still ask the Minister to ask the Department to have a look at the data because sometimes things can be got wrong and I think it has been got wrong in this situation. The issue here is not just that the businesses were hit hard by the high energy costs but they were misled by the Government twice, first when TBESS was announced and then when the grant scheme was appointed. Also, businesses make the decision such as taking on debt to back that announcement. The other thing is that manufacturing was also excl…

It is not.

Never has it taken so long for Ministers to say so little of significance. The budget the Ministers have outlined has a wider context, involving international events and economic forces beyond their control. There is another context for the budget, however, one for which they are responsible, namely, the years of successive Governments failing to address the biggest issues people face. One of the Ministers said that these policies did not happen by accident. He is absolutely right. These policies have constructed t…

-----so that they can protect Irish neutrality and sovereignty. That will not happen without investment-----

-----and clearly it will not happen with either Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

We turn then to Irish unity. It seems like everyone is preparing for the reunification of our country except the Government. This budget again allocates no money for preparation for reunification. We have seen the success of citizens' assemblies in addressing the big challenges and opportunities this State is faced with. Setting up a citizens' assembly to look at all aspects of Irish unity is a no-brainer. To present a budget without provision for a citizens' assembly on reunification demonstrates how far this Gove…