South Tipperary needs two additional driver testing centres, one at Carrick-on-Suir and one at Cashel. South Tipperary is particularly badly affected by the huge current backlog. The centres at Clonmel and Tipperary town have delays of 28 weeks, or seven months, which is simply not good enough. We have very poor public transport and there is no adequate transport serving major employers, schools and colleges in the area, like Abbott Ireland Vascular Division, Boston Scientific, Questum, Tipperary County Council, Ti…

Like the previous speaker, I support this Sinn Féin motion. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, in its report last October, stated that there are obvious areas where Ireland's infrastructure is much underdeveloped. The key areas to which it referred were housing, health, transport and electricity. It stated that when one compares Ireland's infrastructure with that of other high-income European countries, one discovers that our infrastructure is 25% lower than average for a high-income country. The world competitiven…

The Courts Service recently announced that with effect from 1 November, the court sittings will be transferred from Carrick-on-Suir and Cashel to Clonmel. The decision came completely out of the blue and without any local consultation whatsoever. There appears to be a policy of stripping towns and local communities of locally-based services. Youghal is also to lose its court service and, of course, Carrick-on-Suir has already lost its district hospital, which is a serious blow to the town and the local community. T…

Forty years ago, when I was first elected to Clonmel corporation, one of the first issues I dealt with was childcare. I said at the time that a public childcare service was the solution to what was even then a difficult issue. After more than 25 years involvement in community childcare services in Elm Park in Clonmel, I am more convinced than ever that the public system is the only solution. Over time, other agencies have come to a similar view, including the citizens’ assembly, the United Nations Committee on the …

This question relates to the IDA-owned site at Ballingarrane in Clonmel. Will the Minister outline the number of IDA-sponsored client visits to that site at Clonmel in 2023 and 2024? What steps will the IDA take to find an enterprise for the site?

Ballingarrane estate was purchased in 2001 by South Tipperary County Council, in what was a far-seeing decision, to provide a vital piece of infrastructure for industrial development, not just for Clonmel and south Tipperary, but also for the surrounding areas of west Waterford, east Limerick and west Kilkenny. It comprises 270 acres, 50 acres of which are owned by the IDA, as the Minister said. There is already a successful development on the site. Questum is an enterprise acceleration unit operated by the Technol…

I remind the Minister that south Tipperary is not in the mid-west region. The IDA must ramp up its marketing of the Ballingarrane site. I am not satisfied that it has done enough. It must do more. I ask the Minister to intervene with the IDA to ramp up that marketing. There are some very successful industries in the area, including flagship industries, such as Abbott Vascular and Boston Scientific in Clonmel town and MSD in nearby Ballydine. The success of these industries should assist the IDA in securing an indus…

The question of disability services for children with additional needs is now a very significant national issue. It is second only to the housing emergency. The State is failing these children every day. Over 14,000 are waiting for an assessment of need, which is in breach of the law. Some 41,000 are waiting for therapy services and well over 100 are waiting for school places. If we are honest, thousands of children are in inappropriate school places. Parents are at their wits' end and are completely frustrated in …

Any national planning framework will be a failure unless it is underpinned by real and serious consultation with communities and community representatives at local level in a bottom-up approach. Communities must have the opportunity to make representations to statutory, elected democratic bodies to ensure their voices are heard. The only way this will be achieved is by re-establishing local democracy in our towns, large and small, for instance, the re-establishment of borough corporations and town councils. Local d…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this very important debate on Children's Health Ireland. First, I want to acknowledge the 4,000 staff in the group who do outstanding work on a daily basis. However, the organisation itself is dysfunctional, it is in crisis, and it has experienced a litany of failures. This has led to a series of reviews and reports. The most recent HIQA report, a statutory report carried out under section 8 of the Health Act 2007, dealt with three areas: governance at the hospital group; …

Before I start, a Cheann Comhairle, you might allow me to congratulate Tina Marie Barrett on securing a school place for her child, Michael Joseph, for this coming September. Following 16 rejection letters and the matter being raised here a number of times, he has secured a place.

Thank you. There is a serious shortage of bus drivers in this country, yet we continue to insist on an ageist policy on this issue. Drivers over 70 years of age are not allowed to drive school buses, yet these same drivers can drive a bus to the school, pick up students and take them to a football match, a swimming lesson or a school tour. The policy makes no sense. Age is no barrier to employment, whether it be as a TD or a bus driver. I am 74 years of age, and my colleague on the Government benches, Deputy Pat th…

Irish Water should be abolished. Of course, it should never have been established. It is not fit for purpose and it is hiding from the public. It has no public offices. It refuses to meet elected representatives in open, democratic forums like county council meetings. Consumers cannot meet any Irish Water official face to face. People can report a problem to a call centre. They may get a report back in a week or a month or, more often, not at all. Irish Water has contempt for consumers and councillors alike. I had …

As a founding member of the Right2Water campaign, I strongly support this Bill, the aim of which is to scrap any prospect of the reintroduction of water charges. I am proud of all those who protested against water charges in every town and city across the country in a magnificent display of people power. Residents who stood against the installation of water meters and in front of diggers and JCBs were real leaders in their communities. Time and time again, thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life brought…

I am sure the Tánaiste will agree it is essential that the ambulance service should be staffed, funded and equipped properly and operate from bases that are fit for purpose. A new base is urgently required at Tipperary University Hospital in Clonmel. The existing base is a 25-year-old prefabricated building built to cater for ten all-male staff. There are now 22 staff using the base with a 50:50 male to female complement. Facilities, as the Tánaiste can imagine, are totally inadequate with small, limited showering,…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — a housing emergency exists in the State; and — housing is a human right as enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; further notes that: — 15,286 homeless people, including 4,603 children, were in emergency accommodation in January 2025; — the typical listed house price across the country is €346,080, 11.6 per cent higher than a year ago and 35 per cent higher than at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Dublin figure is …

The Government's response and amendment, while not unexpected, are nonetheless hugely disappointing, and even shocking, because there is absolutely no acceptance of the depth and breadth of what is an intolerable housing emergency. This emergency started with the privatisation of the local authority house building programme by a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, back in the early 2000s. Many of us warned then that would be the start of a huge housing crisis down the road. We were not listened to, of course, and …

The key to addressing the diversion of young people from criminality is the provision of services right across the whole spectrum including education, health, community, and recreation services and, of course, employment. Those services must be properly funded and staffed. As others have said, this is not cheap but society gets back in spades what it gives in funding for these services. These services are not just self-financing; society get back in spades what it puts into them. Talk of diverting at the teenage st…

The role of the Ceann Comhairle is to be the impartial Chairperson of the Dáil and to carry out that role with the confidence and trust of both Government and Opposition Deputies. The independence of the office was further emphasised in 2016 when a decision was made that the post would be filled by a secret ballot of TDs. However, in 2024, the independence and impartiality of the Office of Ceann Comhairle was seriously compromised by making it part of a Government deal at the insistence of the Regional Independent …

When is the Government going to stop failing children with additional needs? Over 14,000 children are waiting for a needs assessment and 41,000 children are waiting for therapies, including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. Hundreds of children have no school place for next September. Day and residential services for children transitioning to adulthood are almost non-existent. The Government is breaking the law every day of the week. Children with additional needs are entitled to …