I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this subject, which has gripped every community, with everyone discussing the arson attacks. I condemn such acts outright. No one who has respect for this country, law and order, gardaí, the people coming to our country and his or her community, in which those in question are destroying vital infrastructure, supports them. All of these acts are unnecessary. I listened to the earlier contributions from my office. It was mentioned that 100,000 people had come to this country…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this important issue. In my constituency of Galway East, parents are coming to my office with serious concerns about their children and the lack of CAMHS. I am baffled by something. When a Bill is published, we can all say that it is not perfect and we can pick holes in it, but addressing that is what Committee Stage is for. It is a bit rich and cynical that this Bill would be deferred for nine months in what will probably be the last year of this Dáil. Time is of the esse…

Question No. 15, in the name of Deputy Bruton, will be taken by Deputy Durkan.

I, too, wish to be associated with the vote of sympathy to Deputy Michael Collins and his family on the passing of his nephew. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion, whose subject matter is close to my heart for the simple reason that, in Galway East, which is predominantly rural, people trying to find a GP contact my constituency office weekly. This is not an issue in rural areas alone because it is also happening in Tuam, the largest town in the county. Mothers come to my office distressed because the…

I hope not. My two colleagues are here; I will restrain them as best I can. I am interested in a particular issue that has arisen over recent weeks. It relates to special education training hours for national schools. The Department has issued a circular which has caused fear and anxiety among school principals, boards of management and parents. It relates to the criteria by which children will be assessed for these hours. The biggest problem with this is that the criteria are not based on the specific or complex n…

I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, on this and welcome the fact that there will be a review and that schools will be able to look for a review in order to try to get the problems that are there sorted out. The worst thing for schools is that while the support hours are based on a three particular criteria, a school is then asked to look at how it will allocate its special educational teaching hours based on the complex needs of the children. There is an anomaly there that needs to be l…

I received a letter last week from a developer in Galway city and I believe it was a copy of a letter he had sent to the Taoiseach regarding An Bord Pleanála. He submitted an application for planning under the strategic housing development forum back in August 2022. The inspector prepared his report on the application, submitted it to the board in January 2023, and here we are in February 2024 and the board has still not made a decision. This is a development of 170 houses and the developer wants to know if An Bord…

I welcome this Bill. The Regional Group has been campaigning for the rent-a-room relief. It made a proposal to the Government in this regard and, as a direct result, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, moved swiftly to implement the relief for social welfare beneficiaries. This is notable. The agreement facilitated the extension within one month, marking a significant policy shift. For a period of two years following the amendment, individuals leasing out rooms in their homes to non-employees or n…

I thank the Minister. We will go back to Question No. 7 from Deputy Connolly.

No.

I am giving the Deputy bonus time.

We will take a supplementary question. My apologies, Minister.

I call Deputy Ó Murchú, on a brief supplementary.

I want to raise the issue of wind farms and the proposals to build them across rural Ireland. It has come to County Galway, where, right now, surrounding Tuam, there are four proposed wind farms. There are lots of issues with the wind farms. The turbines have become larger and higher. When the guidelines were introduced in 2006, the span of the blades was 50 m; now it is 186 m, and we still have the same distance from a house for the same type of turbine. Draft guidelines are in place but they do not have to be adh…

Nobody can deny that we need to move away from fossil fuels. We have the opportunity to do so by using solar on our roofs, which is less obtrusive and does not affect communities at large. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, described it as a roof revolution which would meet many of our targets. Offshore energy is another area where we are lagging behind. We have the potential to become the new sheikhs of energy in the world by using the Atlantic, but we are lagging behind in trying to do that. Setting up task forces and al…

I welcome that this Bill has been brought forward to Second Stage. As a former lecturer in what is now ATU but formerly was GMIT, in Galway, it is important that we all support this Bill to make sure the opportunities are there for our young people in innovation and research, and that we provide opportunities for companies and small businesses in order that they can get supports to carry out research themselves. I had the honour last week to give a keynote address at the International Congress on Architectural Tech…

I raise the issue of housing adaptation grants. I note the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, is present. There is a review under way of the whole programme, which is successful and provides funding for people who need to adapt their houses due to mobility issues or for older people who need to do improvements on their houses. The problem is that with the construction inflation we have had over the past number of years, the level of grants have not been increased and the threshold for the income has not risen. I …

I welcome the opportunity to speak. The figures the Minister, Deputy Coveney, gave in respect of work permits and all of that need to be out there. I did not know that information until I heard it from him. Perhaps it is on some website but we need that positive information about what is happening as opposed to the mystery of not knowing what is going on and giving people an opportunity to use what is going on. I thank the Minister for that information. As a Galway man, I want to condemn outright what happened at R…

The Select Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has completed its consideration of the following Revised Estimate for Public Services for the year ending 31 December 2024: Vote 40. The Select Committee on Justice has completed its consideration of the following Revised Estimate for Public Services for the year ending 31 December 2024: Votes 20, 21, 22, 24, 25 and 41.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this subject. I have listened to the debate since it commenced and it is horrific that in 2024, we are talking about between 8,000 and 10,000 children being killed and over 20,000 people in total being killed in Palestine. What is it all about? We can talk about how it started with the attack on Israel. The consequence is that men, women and, above all, children have been killed. We do not know the extent to which many people have been maimed, physically and mentally, as a resu…