Yesterday in the Seanad, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, endorsed the CEO. He regaled us with great stories of his skills as CEO of Wexford County Council. The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, might want to read this week's edition of the Wexford People . He might also need to stop listening to the civil servants who are feeding him yet another "Yes, Minister" moment. The EPA has come out with what is an abject failure of managerial oversight and, yet, we have a Minister of State endorsing the CEO who pr…

-----and they will still receive their pensions on retirement. They may even be promoted.

In short, there is no accountability in the public service. Until there is, we cannot be certain that issues such as this will not come up again. I will raise this matter again and again.

Sorry, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle-----

It is relevant, Leas-Cheann Comhairle, because 52 people are sick.

The main purpose of this legislation is to enshrine European regulations into Irish law. The Irish fishing community must shudder with dread when it hears the phrase "new EU regulations". There have been many EU regulations placed on the fishing community and very rarely have they been introduced with the intention of making it easier to make a living from fishing. The first thing to catch my eye in this Bill was the Irish fishing master register. The Bill contains details of all the information to be kept on each …

I have spoken many times in the House on the areas of fishing and the marine and some of the issues I have raised highlight the need for better marine planning, so I am pleased to be speaking on the Bill. I will first address maritime spatial plans in chapter 2. We will have to wait and see how these spatial plans work in practice but progress in the area is welcome. The Bill states: (2) The objectives of a [maritime spatial plan] shall be— (a) to analyse and organise maritime usages in the maritime area for the pu…

I am again raising an issue that I put to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on the floor of the House some 12 months ago. It relates to the provisions that are being made by the HSE, together with the education sector, to recruit staff, and whether there is consultation and communication in that regard. I refer to the home care support packages that are not being delivered. The hours are there but the staff are not. I am incredulous that when people contact the HSE, the service provider will say it can give t…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply but I have to say it is more spin. This Government is going to spin itself out of existence. There is not a word about delivery in his reply. He talked about challenges. The challenge here seems to be to rein in the HSE in some shape or form such that money can be spent where it is required. We cannot accept that €81 million just got thrown into the atmosphere without any cognisance of what that means for people's health. It means we do not recruit healthcare workers and …

Where would we be without the Rural Independent Group and the Regional Group? The Consumer Protection (Regulation of Retail Credit and Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2021 brings in a number of different consumer protections which we broadly welcome. The first protection I will highlight is the setting of the maximum annual percentage rate for credit agreements and hire purchase agreements at 23%. Crucially, the Bill states that it is the responsibility of the lender to ensure compliance with this provision. Not all c…

I will read into the record two representations made to me. Dear Verona, You will be aware from previous correspondence that I am a full time family carer to my sons Evan (21), who is non verbal and has diagnosis [of] ASD, ID, ADHD, Keracatonus and complex medical needs, and Daniel (17), who has a diagnosis of ASD. Like so many family carers across Wexford and the entire country, Covid and the necessary restrictions imposed during lockdowns were...[a] challenging time for families like mine. The challenge was no gr…

I mean no disrespect to the Minister, whom I thank for coming to the Chamber to respond to the matter I have raised, but we all have to work towards something that is better. Nothing he said fills me with hope and it most certainly will not fill with hope those I am representing. It is unacceptable for someone with complex medical needs, who is non-verbal and has been taken in on an emergency appointment basis, to be told the waiting time is three years. Nothing is improving in this regard. I appreciate everything …

Will the Minister detail the current capacity of our Covid-19 test, trace and isolate system, state what number of contact tracers are place and give us details on these matters?

I thank the Minister. On 8 May 2020 I requested from the Tánaiste a road map for testing and tracing. He was acting Taoiseach at that time and said he would indeed ask the HSE to produce a road map and on 14 May we saw the road map. He said: Our mission is to get people back to work, get businesses open again and get the economy humming so that we have the resources we need to build a better society... [W]e will maintain an intense focus on the virus and follow four guiding principles: isolate, test, trace and trea…

The issue is capacity when the numbers start to grow. We have had an average of approximately 600 cases per day over the past week. When we had 234 contact tracers, we were seeing 1,200 cases per day. I appreciate that officials were able to handle what happened in Dungarvan with the test, trace and isolate system. I am asking about what happens in future, when we get above 1,200 cases per day, as that was the level at which it collapsed last year. What will be our capacity to deal with this when we come under pres…

I thank Sinn Féin for moving this motion, which gives us the opportunity to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on nursing homes. There has been repeated reference in recent months to the nursing homes scandal, which became evident during our response to Covid-19. We have heard the number of deaths and, as Deputies have stated, over 2,000 nursing home residents are considered to be in the Covid-19 death category, and that is approximately 40% of all Covid-related deaths in Ireland. We do not seem to have any specific de…

The introduction of the property tax and its predecessor, the household charge, has been controversial; most obviously, around the time of their respective introductions. It perhaps ranks alongside the universal social charge as the most controversial of taxation measure in recent times. Those things were introduced in a time of financial crisis. Unfortunately, we may be at the beginning of yet another financial crisis and this time as a result of our Covid-19 measures. I understand the proposals presented before u…

What level of funding has the Minister’s Department secured to support the establishment of a County Wexford campus for the technological university for the south east of Ireland?

I thank the Minister. This is a matter that is very close to my heart. I commend the Minister on the progress he has made as Minister responsible for higher education based on moving along the project for the technological university of south-east Ireland, TUSEI. It has been difficult. There have been differences between WIT and IT Carlow but everybody's interventions helped, and all the stakeholders eventually got it together. This week, the international board is meeting WIT and IT Carlow to assess them. I am awa…

I thank the Minister for his commitment to engage with the council or IT Carlow, either during the recess or beforehand online, before we all take off on our holidays. I appreciate that greatly. I am a graduate of the Wexford campus of IT Carlow. Had I not been able to attend night classes at the age of 35, I might never have had a law degree. There are many people like me in the south east, including Wexford. Wexford has been left behind by IDA Ireland. A part of the community feels this is because a significant c…