Last Friday, a landmark judgment in the case of Cork County Council v . the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Attorney General and the Planning Regulator laid bare the rot that exists at the heart of the planning system. I preface my remarks by saying that this is not a criticism of the Office of the Planning Regulator as distinct from the manner in which the current officeholder has made recommendations to the Minister's office, which displays a fundamental lack of understanding of the relev…

One of the headlines when the Mahon tribunal was completed and the creation of the Office of the Planning Regulator was announced was, "New regulator will restore confidence in planning system". I prefaced my opening remarks by saying that this is not a criticism of the Office of the Planning Regulator, as distinct from the manner in which the current officeholder is discharging his duties. There was a basic failure by the Planning Regulator and the Minister of State's office to properly consider the established la…

The Minister of State is despicable and his answer is despicable. He is spending the taxpayers' money frivolously.

I have had contact with many disgruntled constituents who are wondering why we did not open on 22 October as was planned. I share many of their concerns. There seems to be an attitude from the Government to try to extend its power with these restrictions under the guise of being precautionary, yet as soon as they are passed they are being used as a matter of course rather than as an emergency power. I also have another major concern which needs to be met head-on. Why are Government Members and policies being design…

-----over the past few weeks when talking about the unvaccinated has been very discriminatory and sinister.

Thank you, Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

The clock-----

There is nothing anti-vax about some of the constituents contacting me.

They are contacting me and telling me they are unable to take a vaccine. It is stupid to tell people they can attend weddings without certificates-----

-----if the same people cannot then go out to a restaurant the next day because they are being labelled as unvaccinated.

There is a lot in the Minister's policies that leave much to be desired.

Sorry, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I am now a little disjointed, as they say. Last year I called for the introduction of antigen tests. The Minister will hardly have as much to say about the antigen testing we have all been calling for for over 12 months. He has had Deputy Shanahan tell him that it has been rolled out for over eight months in the UK. Imagine sending out antigen tests in the post. No disrespect to An Post, but the reality is that every other country has seen fit to send a pack of at least ten antigen t…

He does.

The Minister can see the ridiculousness of it then. He can see just how ridiculous it is-----

-----to put a rapid antigen test into the post and expect that the PCR test will be slower. It makes no sense.

The Government needs to have a system in place.

Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I think we all know there is a percentage chance of not just the antigen test being wrong but equally the PCR test being wrong. Surely it is better to have a slightly lower accuracy level but with an immediate result, which would be more effective at identifying infectious cases, and containment as opposed to what we are seeing, which is 3,000 cases a day for the want of being able to roll out PCR testing and then testing, tracing and isolating, as we should now, two years into t…

Hear, hear.

The Minister interrupted me.

I understand it is unprecedented but I feel the need-----