Yesterday I visited one of my local secondary schools, the Good Counsel College, New Ross, where a young man called Adam asked me about the rail review and where that currently stood. He wanted to know will a future Ireland for him consist of a high-speed rail network connecting Ireland's major cities. It must also be noted that while we await the review, there are significant projects in Wexford that have been completely shelved, namely the proposed greenway that would connect Rosslare to Waterford on the current …

I have several points to make. First, a number of constituents have raised with me the issue of benefit-in-kind adjustments. The writer of one email on the subject said: Dear Verona, I am writing to you about an issue which is going to affect my ability to feasibly do my job and whether or not I can continue in it. I am a sales rep. In the recent budget, the Government has proposed changes to be made on benefit-in-kind for those with a car provided by their employer. I cannot use a commercial van, so I am going to …

Thank you, Deputy. Next is Deputy Sherlock.

We move to the Rural Independent Group. I call Deputy Mattie McGrath.

Next is the Independent Group. Deputy Joan Collins is sharing time with Deputy Connolly.

Windmill Therapeutic and Training Unit, a section 39 service, provides much-needed day services to 59 users across three sites in Wexford town. Windmill has requested immediate additional funds. This week I want to acknowledge that it has received a commitment of €75,000. However, this falls more than €200,000 short of the required funds. It wrote to all its service users through the board of management. The 59 families in question have been informed that Windmill is now in a staffing crisis. This has significant n…

Due to a lack of carers, some 542 families in Wexford are waiting on the delivery of the home care support services that they have been granted by the HSE. Yesterday, the strategic workforce review group issued its report with 16 recommendations, among which were that recruitment issues should be solved by permit applications and pay and conditions, just to name two. In the absence of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, whom I wish well in her recovery, I ask the Taoiseach to make a commitment to the House that h…

I thank the Labour Party for bringing this motion forward. I welcome the opportunity to shine a light on the great work being done by those who work in our community sectors and to support them in their quest for a pay rise. I recently received correspondence from Maire Jackman who works alongside Darren Nolan. They run a large community employment scheme in south County Wexford. There are 40 participants and it covers: Wexford town, Clongeen, Foulksmills, Fethard-on-Sea, Duncannon, Campile, St. Leonard's, Ballymit…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on what I would consider to be a very important Bill. In my years as president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, I saw first-hand how many times the work permit situation caused major problems for companies when it came to hiring staff, particularly heavy goods vehicle, HGV, drivers. If we take the example of a driver from South Africa looking to take up employment in Ireland, one of the first steps would be to verify their licence with the Road Safety Authority. That is befo…

Well I wrote to three Departments and heard nothing back. It is just not good enough.

It is still not good enough one way or the other.

That is fine. I wrote to the Department. It may not have been to the Minister of State.

I appreciate that, but because it is a work permits scenario-----

I did say that the Minister of State answered me regarding one issue. I received a reply from him this morning. I will correct the record regarding the other matter. I may not have written to his Department.

Regardless of whether I wrote to the Minister of State, the situation has not changed. It is a ridiculous scenario. Inevitably, this nurse had to give up the job in Wexford. There was no job available to her that she could reach by means of public transport in Offaly, which is a sad state of affairs. We are not prepared to accommodate those who are here but we are prepared to give work permits to those who are not here. The system is not working. I ask that we concentrate on making jobs and permits available and as…

Barring any unexpected accidents, the Tánaiste is expected to become Taoiseach again in a few months. In the meantime, he retains responsibility for policy and legislative matters relating to enterprise, trade and employment. The welfare of businesses, industry and, most of all, consumers falls within his remit. Many Members have commented on the stark warnings from EirGrid indicating that the gap between electricity demand and supply will likely get worse. The CEO told RTÉ this morning that he cannot guarantee tha…

I would have thought the idea of all the regulators I mentioned was that we would not be catching up because they would outline the problems and foresee the issues. Instead, every body I mentioned states that they have been brought to their attention. That is the reality of where we are. We are constantly behind the curve. My group, the Regional Group, tabled a motion on energy, if the Government is concerned about blackouts. We asked that it would not deconstruct Derrybrien and that we pay the fine to the EU and c…

There are ten years left in them.

I am sure that was music to the Minister's ears. Deputy Gannon is next. He has three minutes.

I thank the Independent Group for tabling this motion. It allows me the opportunity to highlight some public transport difficulties that people in County Wexford are facing. I had occasion during the summer to write to Bus Éireann regarding the high number of cancellations on Wexford bus services. A good example of this serious disruption occurred in the period from 9 to 25 July when a total of 38 services to or from Wexford were cancelled, often at short notice. These cancellations caused significant disruption fo…