The single biggest barrier to developing offshore wind in places such as Mayo is the grid infrastructure. Successive Governments have failed Mayo on the western economic corridor on the issue of renewable energy. There has been much talk about wind potential, yet no meaningful planning or preparation has been done. I heard the Minister refer earlier to our being in a race and I wondered whether he was referring to a slow bicycle race, given the Grid25 strategy was prepared in 2008, 15 years ago. It clearly identifi…

I too thank the Independent Group for tabling this motion and giving us a chance to debate it in the House. I want to concentrate specifically on Mayo University Hospital because what is happening there is really dire. It is getting worse day by day. Some 212 appointments were cancelled in just the first three months of this year. This is an increase of 136 compared with the same period last year. A couple of weeks ago, more than 170 patients attended the emergency department, which is 30% higher than the average a…

The dental treatment services scheme was meant to entitle those who needed free public dental services as needed but this is an empty entitlement if the services simply are not available. They simply are not available in Mayo and other counties. We saw the vote of no confidence in the Minister, passed by the Irish Dental Association last week. The Minister for Health admitted that the State had a blind spot when it comes to dentistry and oral health. It is not good enough for people on medical cards to pay the pric…

I have been raising the issue of the impact of domestic turf-cutting on agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, eligibility and scoring for farmers with commonage land for weeks. I have spoken to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, about it, as well as writing to him. The Minister of State will know there has been significant uptake of ACRES among farmers in County Mayo and along the western seaboard and the amount of money received by farmers will largely be determined by t…

I appreciate that. Obviously, it is results based. However, when the Minister of State says that everyone will be eligible, the fact is that if the parcels were marked out of seven and they cannot achieve a score of four or more, they would be eligible but they would not get any payment. I want to let the Minister of State expand on what she says "we are now proposing that non-turbary and turbary areas are scored independently of each other". Does that mean it will be similar to the other scheme, the wild Atlantic …

I want to ask the Minister of State the reason the north west has been allocated less funding under the ERDF programme despite the purpose of the fund being to address regional inequality and the north west being the only region in the State not classified as a more developed region. The European Regional Development Fund is specifically intended to address regional imbalances between and within countries.

Ireland was allocated €396 million in the EU funding for the ERDF programme. When the national co-financing is included, it allows spending and investment of more than €850 million across the State. The northern and western region is classified as disadvantaged compared with the southern region or the eastern and midlands region. The north west is the only region of the State not to be classified as more developed. This reflects the regional inequality in the State. The fund is supposed to address those inequalitie…

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome the PEACEPLUS programme and look forward to it opening so it can be availed of. The west and north west of Ireland has been downgraded to a lagging region by the European Commission after becoming significantly poorer relative to the European average. The region's GDP per head of population has fallen from 82% of the EU average between 2015 and 2017 to an estimated 71%. The region, which covers Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo, Donegal, Monaghan and Mayo, was downgrad…

What steps is the Minister State taking to expedite the flood relief schemes to protect residents, businesses and local communities at risk? The people of Crossmolina in particular and in Ballina are still waiting. The people in Crossmolina are waiting for the River Deel flood relief scheme. When will the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, sign off on this scheme? I believe it is on his desk and ready to be signed off.

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome the fact that he spoke about projects in Westport, Ballina and Crossmolina going ahead. I want to ask about Crossmolina in particular. The people there have been told that money has been ring-fenced for the work to go ahead. This week I was informed by the Minister that all work on environmental assessments and review is due to be completed in the coming weeks. If the Minister then makes an order confirming the scheme, how long until we see the work commencing? Is the projec…

I thank the Minister of State and I welcome this. I want to ask about Ballina and Westport. I know the Minister of State will agree that projects take a very long time. Is there some way they can be streamlined? I know everything has to go through environmental impact assessments but people's lives are being left on hold while all of these things are happening. There cannot be development in the town. There is a real opportunity cost here in terms of developments not being able to go ahead, businesses not being abl…

I ask the Minister of State to outline the planned reforms to the public spending code and explain how these reforms will achieve greater speed and efficiency. In November 2021, the then Department of Public Expenditure and Reform introduced an external assurance process, EAP, for major public capital projects. There is a mandatory requirement for funding Departments to participate in the EAP for Exchequer-funded projects with an estimated capital cost of more than €100 million, which has now been increased to €200…

As the Minister of State knows, the new process consists of independent expert reviews. These reviews have replaced the technical reviews previously conducted by the Department for business cases. Independent reviewers seems to mean consulting firms, and for large EAP contracts this seems to mean the large, generalist consultancy firms. What I am concerned about is that these consultancy firms would actually be driving Government policy. Does the move towards an EAP represent an outsourcing of a process previously …

I would appreciate it if the Department would provide a note indicating exactly where the IMF made the recommendations for the change. It remains unclear if these reforms will make any substantial difference to the speed of project delivery, and this is what concerns me. The then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, stated in January 2022 that the timelines associated with public spending code compliance "are a fraction of the time required for compliance with the range of statutory r…

When will the capital works management framework be published? It began in March 2019. It is beyond urgent that it be published to bring clarity to much of what we are talking about.

When will the school transport review be published? One of the reasons I ask is that there are 250 students, rising to 300 next September, attending Sancta Maria College in Louisburgh. As it stands, it costs €850 for one child, €1,452 for two children and €1,800 for three children to get to school. Parents want to send their children to the nearest co-educational school, which is that school. We need flexibility around school transport. We need the recommendations made in the review to be implemented this year. The…

I commend my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, not only on all the work he has put into this Private Members' motion but also on trying to combat energy poverty and deprivation over the past months. For more than five months now I have been highlighting the need to tax electricity companies for the obscene profits and to put that money towards reducing people's bills. Sinn Féin has been warning that since the electricity price system is broken, and it has been broken since November 2021 or even before that, households ha…

I commend my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, not only on all the work he has put into this Private Members' motion but also on trying to combat energy poverty and deprivation over the past months. For more than five months now I have been highlighting the need to tax electricity companies for the obscene profits and to put that money towards reducing people's bills. Sinn Féin has been warning that since the electricity price system is broken, and it has been broken since November 2021 or even before that, households ha…

People in Crossmolina in County Mayo are still waiting for the River Deel flood relief scheme. It needs to happen now.

The River Deel. The people there have had surveying and ground-testing into oblivion. This has been going on for months and years and the people in the town are still living in fear. No developments can take place there until this scheme happens. The people there have been told the money is ring-fenced. When will the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, confirm the scheme so that the work can start? I cannot talk about Crossmolina without acknowledg…