This afternoon, I would like to raise the issue of the European Commissioner for the environment, who will be visiting Ireland on 23 November. This is a really significant visit. He is coming here to Ireland to speak and engage with the Irish community about the issues regarding the nitrates action plan. This is a really significant issue for the agricultural community. Unless we get some major changes and leniency in the next few days and weeks, more than 40,000 cows will potentially be slaughtered, and the majori…

The Cathaoirleach is a favourite with the kids. I would like to raise an issue that the Cathaoirleach is very much aware of. I was talking to Councillor Marie O'Sullivan in Kinsale this morning about the issue of Desmond Castle in Kinsale. It is a unique structure that is a really important and significant part of our tourism trade in Kinsale. It has been closed since 2018. It is a part of our tourism legacy. It is a castle that dates back to the 1500s. It was a former prison and, at one stage, it was a wine museum…

How will we deal with rural transportation going forward? There is a lack of taxis, in particular. People on a night out are unable to go home. Uber needs to be rolled out in Ireland. Medium and small rural towns have no taxi service at the weekend. People cannot go home so nights out are totally prohibited. Christmas trade will be affected again. The bus service in rural Ireland does not work for what I am talking about. The taxi service issue has been totally abandoned in recent years. People are running from the…

I raise the issue of Summercove National School. The Minister of State is very much aware that Summercove is a school in Kinsale that needs a little extra attention to make sure it reaches its full potential regarding a new building. This is an issue on which Councillor Marie O'Sullivan and I have been working for a long time to make sure we could deliver this new building. There has been significant movement in school complexes in Kinsale over the past few years. Last Friday morning, I attended the ten-year annive…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I acknowledge that there has been progress since I last put down the Commencement matter, which is helpful. It is a positive statement for the principal, the chair of the board of management and the 217 kids going to the school. We now need timelines. Perhaps the Minister of State could go back to the Department and give an indication of the timeline and when, where and how this will be delivered on the ground. It is important that the design team carries out this ass…

The weekend is approaching. We will have the bizarre scenario, which happens every year, when we will change the time. It is an issue that frustrates me on a continuous basis. We are going back to a law about changing the time that was passed in 1918. The world has moved on but we have not with regard to summer time. It beggars belief when we look at mental health issues and people wanting to get out and be active in the evening, that an hour will be taken away. We all get up early in the morning. Having an extra h…

I wish to raise the issue of the dairy industry and where we are at the moment regarding the nitrates derogation. The nitrates derogation was clarified in the past few months. The EPA published a map on 1 July which puts Ireland in two different zones regarding organic manure, one zone in 250 kg N/ha and one in 220 kg N/ha. The knock-on implication is that those in the 220 kg N/ha zone must now make sure their stock rate is appropriate to that zone. The majority of dairy farmers, in fact all of them, will have fini…

The Minister of State is more than welcome. My Commencement matter calls on the Minister for Health to provide an assurance that the HSE will give permission to continue to approve and reimburse new medicines from next January onwards. This is a very significant issue. Over the past three years €100 million was provided for new medicines and such expenditure has been greatly needed in this changing world. The new medicines budget over the past three years gave people hope but, unfortunately, that hope has now been …

Generic medicines are a real issue in a certain setting. However, in regard to the new medicines, that cutting-edge technology, I refer back towards 2007 when Interferon cost €5,000 a shot for Ger, at the time. He got it every month for 12 months. That was the kind of expenditure required to actually give Ger the life he had. I argue this is not about generic medicines. This is about the poor people I am talking about, such as the 322 who effectively could be losing their actual potential to get better care and bet…

The past few days have been somewhat traumatic in my part of the world. We have seen nearly 50 mm of rainfall. The storm which has hit the south-west coast is absolutely frightening. Looking at social media this morning, it strikes me that the floods in some parts of Cork and Kerry are something we have not seen since 2009. It seems that 50 mm of rain will fall in a 26-hour or 27-hour period. We are seeing flooding of roads which have not flooded since 2009. It is appropriate that we should be looking at some kind …

We have received several emails about this issue in the past few days. It does not appear to be looked upon by the bus service itself. How are we going to ensure vaping is banned on school buses? The children who have emailed me this morning will not get a school bus until we stop the actual-----

I think it was two, Chair.

How did I get-----

I had two seconds left there.

Can I get back the time that-----

-----the Chair took off me? I did not manage-----

Can I finish, Chair?

The issue is that children will not get on the school bus because other children are vaping on it. This issue needs to be looked at. We need to have a debate with the representatives of either the Department of Health or the Department of Education about this issue.

There were two issues, not three.

I think he is losing the ability to count.