I move: That Dáil Éireann: recognises: — that Ireland is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which places an onus on signatories to ensure the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement; — that the overarching goals of a housing…

I want to return to a few things mentioned by the Minister of State. We accept that increases have been given for grants but it is important to say that the increases do not reflect the increases in the costs. Second, the grant for housing adaptation is a maximum of €30,000. I have cases in my constituency where people have acquired injuries, whether they had an accident, a brain haemorrhage or tumour, and they are now confined to a wheelchair. They are trying to adapt their house to make it fit for independent liv…

I want to raise the issue of the rural social schemes, RSSs, and the Tús programmes that are running. Last Monday night in Athenry we had over 400 people present at a meeting, comprising of community groups, sporting organisations and RSS and Tús participants and supervisors. At the meeting the main issues of concern were that the RSS participant numbers are declining and will decline rapidly next year as the six-year rule will kick in for new participants in the scheme, leaving us short of a huge amount of people …

I welcome the opportunity to address the Minister of State in regard to apprenticeships. As a former lecturer at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, now the Atlantic Technological University, I have seen in my work in the private sector how apprenticeship courses, and apprenticeships as a facet of construction alone, are a vital component. Unfortunately, in the boom times, the apprenticeship ethic fell by the wayside. People were more inclined to work to make money without getting the formal qualifications require…

Most of the workload coming in to most Deputies' offices in recent weeks has comprised queries about passports. I thank the staff of both the Passport Service and the Department of Foreign Affairs for trying to deal with the applications. The aspects that are amiss are at a management level. There needs to be a better communication structure to deal with applications, as virtually every Deputy has noted. When somebody calls the office, the phone should be answered within ten or 15 minutes. People should not have to…

First, I want to associate myself with the remarks made on the atrocity that happened in Texas. I wish to raise an issue in relation to farmers. Last Monday at 7 p.m., I met with over 300 farmers at an event organised by the Galway Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, in my own parish in Corofin. It was organised by Mr. Stephen Canavan, chairman of the Galway IFA. The mood of farmers at the event was one of genuine concern and fear for the future of farming as a result of the unprecedented increase in input costs, such…

I thank the Minister for that reply and I acknowledge the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is working under great pressure to get the supports in place. Farmers have the problem that the announcements have been made over recent months but the call for the funding and the application process is still not in place and this is the biggest concern they have. In looking forward to the end of the year, we need to ensure as a matter of urgency that we have a detailed inventory on what fertiliser, feedstocks a…

First, I think we have to stand back from what has been said here. We have to stop blaming politicians and past decisions that were made. The biggest problem we have now is that we are giving money to developers. We should not be giving money to developers. Housing should not be developer-led; it should be development-led. If the €450 million in funding was made available in my constituency in County Galway, it would build the infrastructure for the wastewater treatment plants that we need in our towns and villages…

I wish to say a few words about this in the short time that I have. In my mind, just transition has been explained by Deputy Leddin and others as doing something in society that is correct and right to make sure that our communities grow and that there is enterprise in them. I agree with all of that. We should have more resilient communities but we need to transition to that and we cannot just do it overnight. There are some things we must take into account. Much has been spoken about the turf regulations that the …

I raise the decision by the ESB to decommission the wind farm in Derrybrien in my constituency. This is a terrible decision in light of what the Central Statistics Office, CSO, has published this week. A total of 40,000 houses have been getting wind energy from this project. It has also served to boost broadband and mobile telephone services in the area. It has been in operation since 2006, providing some €11 million per annum of electricity into the grid. We are talking about decommissioning it at a time when we n…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important motion this evening. It is important to reflect on what is happening right now. We have people in every constituency, including in my own constituency of Galway East, who cannot find a house to rent and people who want to buy a house but cannot find one to buy. We also have a situation whereby the social housing waiting list is growing and there is so much pressure. The housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme is not working as it should. People who have hous…

This morning at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters we heard presentations from people who have disability in their mind. AsIAm, WALK and other agencies were in attendance to explain what is happening in Ukraine to children and people with disabilities and what the challenges are when they come out of Ukraine and into Ireland or across Europe. The presentation from WALK describes how the organisation was: ... in touch with an organisation in Kyiv in Ukraine where they gave practical examples of how people wit…

I too opposed the Government's proposals last week in the motions because we all want to ensure that measures put in place are just. I will give a few examples of things that should be in place and alternatives that are not available. We all know the charging point infrastructure for electric vehicles is not in the country. I have a constituent who sold the electric car he bought eight months ago because he could not charge it at home owing to a problem with the ESB, nor could he do so in Tuam because there is only…

We have heard a lot about housing this evening. I would have liked the Minister to be here to listen to what I have to say. I have previously made statements about housing that may have fallen on deaf ears. I have just come from a meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight at which I raised an issue with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe. He does not agree with me that we should support first-time buyers or homeowners who want to buy second-hand or derelict houses. We might disagree but the Minister has…

I am sharing time with Deputy Fitzpatrick. There is increased resistance to the idea of imposing a carbon tax on people who are not seeing the benefit and will not see a benefit for the foreseeable future. I am very concerned this plan to transition us away from fossil fuels to green energy and the elimination of the fossil fuels is in tatters. I say that because there is no joined-up thinking and there is no plan where we can see the annual targets that may be achieved. We have something that will be achieved in t…

I am sharing time with Deputy Tóibín. I have been listening to what has been said. The first thing that comes to mind is the phrase “mining of turf”. I never heard that phrase before and wonder where it came from. The burning issue of the day is turf. What are we going to do about it? The proposal made by the Minister is that we stop the sale of turf. I live in the constituency of Galway East, where towns such as Tuam, Loughrea, Gort and Athenry have social housing. In the social houses are Stanley 8 ranges that he…

I compliment the Social Democrats on bringing forward this very important legislation. We still have such abhorrent, reckless and demeaning practices going on in our State in 2022 and do not have legislation to punish those engaging in them. I welcome the fact that the Government is not going to oppose this legislation but we need to make sure it is brought in as quickly as possible in order to send a clear message. I would like to bring into the debate the issue of what we have seen in this country since the destr…

I am delighted to be able to speak on this very important issue. As the Minister knows, I represent Galway East, which is predominantly rural. It has villages and towns and growth centres around Galway city but we have very little in terms of public transport or taxi services available to us. Those people who elected me to represent them here leave the east of the county and drive into Galway city to work every day. They can be stuck in traffic for maybe up to an hour, burning away very valuable fuel trying to do t…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter as it is very close to my heart and close to the hearts of many people in my constituency. I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward the Private Members' motion so that we can discuss it today. I acknowledge and commend a group called Grow Remote, a community-led enterprise that was working in this field long before Covid came into being. Grow Remote provides access to employers and employees to match up to work remotely, whereby firms and companies want people …

I take the opportunity to wish every female in this country and across the world the best of luck on International Women’s Day. I think, in particular, of the staff I have in my own office who do a great job when I am not there and I wish them well. On Ukraine and all that has been talked about here today, I wish to make a suggestion in the context of what we will be doing next week in celebrating St Patrick’s Day and week, when we will be showcasing Ireland globally as the small island nation that we are that has …