I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important legislation. Although I understand the constitutional requirement for this Bill, to provide legal authorisation for all of the expenditure that has occurred this year on the basis of the Estimates voted on by the Dáil and to provide a legal basis for spending to continue into next year in the period before the Dáil votes on the 2023 Estimates, I do not fully support the content of this legislation. There are many reasons for this, the main one being that …

Our health service is at breaking point and if this Government does not do something very drastic very soon, it will only deteriorate further. I have been continually raising concerns regarding Letterkenny University Hospital and the seemingly continuous scaling back of essential services there. The staff at the hospital are expected to work under severe pressure constantly and it is not sustainable or acceptable. This is the main reason so many healthcare workers from Donegal are choosing to leave the county and c…

This is a very big piece of legislation and there is an awful lot of detail in it. I agree with what has been said by, I think, every Member so far, that this is too rushed. That is what the Government uses December and July for. They seem to be the only months it can do legislation in. It rushes it through here so there is no discussion and debate on it. That is obviously what the Government wants. There are 12 months in the year and we sit for 11 of those months. There is plenty time for debating legislation. How…

I was left swimming on my own and I was without any life jacket. Had I known, I could have been a wee bit more prepared and I would have been able to do it.

I thank the Chair for the opportunity to speak on this important motion, which I fully support. We are facing a serious teacher shortage issue, with the education of our children at stake. The fact that 91% of our secondary schools are experiencing teacher recruitment issues is concerning. The TUI survey, which is mentioned in the motion, revealed that 71% of schools that advertised jobs in recent months had not got a single applicant. That is unbelievable. There is not a single area in the country that is not affe…

Due to the delay in processing applications for the defective concrete blocks grant scheme homeowners have been told by Revenue they are not eligible for the exemption from local property tax because their applications have not yet been processed. Homeowners were assured they would be exempt from local property tax if their home was affected by mica. It is through no fault of their own that the processing of applications has come to a standstill. Homeowners have been left in limbo and are expected to pay tax on hom…

I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this important legislation. Despite the fact that this legislation is important and lengthy, the Government has decided, yet again, to publish it at the last minute. The general scheme was published more than a year ago and the Joint Committee on Justice, which I am a member of, launched its pre-legislative scrutiny report in May. The Government has no excuse for only publishing the final Bill, which is 170 pages long, in the past few …

It is very apparent as to who the winners and losers of the Celtic tiger are. We are sadly reminded of it over and over again through issues such as building defects. Sadly, the public is still paying the cost today, more than a decade later. It will continue to do so long into the future under a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government. There has been continuous fall-out from the reckless boom during the Celtic tiger years. Unsurprisingly, the public did not get a cut of the astronomical profits made by developers, invest…

Today's meeting has been organised to celebrate 50 years of our membership of the European Union. I welcome President von der Leyen for this discussion. As a representative of a fishing community in Ireland, this is a sad commemoration because that was the start of the decline of our fishing communities. It was a combination of Government incompetence and the European Union taking advantage of it that has meant we have seen the decline of our fishing across the board. I express solidarity with the Members who have …

Today's meeting has been organised to celebrate 50 years of our membership of the European Union. I welcome President von der Leyen for this discussion. As a representative of a fishing community in Ireland, this is a sad commemoration because that was the start of the decline of our fishing communities. It was a combination of Government incompetence and the European Union taking advantage of it that has meant we have seen the decline of our fishing across the board. I express solidarity with the Members who have …

I have been in contact with the Department of Health and the HSE on the closure of Dunkineely health centre in Donegal. The HSE has still not responded. The response from the Department referred me to the HSE, which has not responded. My constituents are, understandably, very worried about the future of the health centre and of their town. Dunkineely has seen closure after closure in recent years, including the post office and the Garda station, so the town is understandably anxious about the sudden closure of yet …

The mica action committee held a protest in Lifford yesterday regarding the inaction of Donegal County Council in rolling out a scheme that many homeowners could buy into. It seems that the council is simply waiting for the Department to make a decision in terms of putting the scheme together. Something needs to happen very quickly to provide accommodation for families who have had to leave their homes because they are being destroyed by mica. They cannot wait for a remediation scheme. The council should be putting…

I fully support this Private Members' motion. I pay tribute to Deputy Connolly, who drafted and presented it. Galway needs to be the test case for carrying out a model of transport that is different and where alternatives to the car are modelled and looked at. It is interesting that the OECD report, Redesigning Ireland’s Transport for Net Zero: Towards Systems that Work for the People and Planet, states: Ireland's national transport models project continued growth in car ownership based on income and demographic pr…

I have long been raising my concerns regarding staff retention and recruitment issues and the continuous scaling back of essential services in Letterkenny University Hospital. I raised this concern in February and this week we are seeing yet another resignation of a consultant in Letterkenny due, in his words, to "impossible working conditions". He is a consultant urologist who is known for his excellent quality of care. He has resigned from his post due to a lack of resources, reactive policies and impractical and…

In her opening speech, the Minister stated the measures in the budget were designed to reach the people who need them most. I could not disagree more with this statement. Unfortunately, the budget was clearly not designed to target those most in need. This was very clearly proven in the decision to give everyone in the country, including Deputies, a €600 energy credit. This is far from a targeted approach. The Minister was correct, however, when she said the Government compiled a budget that puts money in people's …

This question is to ascertain what actual support is being given on the ground from other Departments to the Minister’s Department to provide for the urgent housing needs of Ukrainian refugees and for refugees seeking international protection, who I also should have mentioned in this question, because that is vitally important.

That is a nice high-level overview of the situation but does not relate significantly to the reality on the ground. There are big problems. For example, in Ballybofey, the asylum seekers being housed there have no GP services available to them because they have no PPS numbers. There were moved up to Donegal without these numbers having been applied for, which means that they are using hospital and ambulance services because are no doctors available. That is a shocking situation for them to be in. This is also happe…

I understand that there will be pressures because of the unprecedented situation but there are also pressures for people trying to live in the areas and it is very difficult for international protection residents and Ukrainians who are coming here. A basic thing like a PPS number allows them to get a medical card and GP services in an area. This is very basic and nobody should end up in an area who does not have a PPS number. Surely, with computerisation and everything else, PPS numbers can be issued to people reas…

I am not questioning the policy here.

It has been reported that the Government is one of the leading voices seeking to exempt financial asset managers and institutional investors from the scope of the corporate sustainability and due diligence directive under discussion by the EU. This is highly significant because financial institutions, assets and institutional investments have some of the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the world. If the reports are true, this would be a retrograde step by the Government in a week when its Ministers are at COP27…