The county of Wexford is no exception when it comes to fly-tipping and illegal dumping. It is destroying our beautiful Model County’s landscape from Gorey to Enniscorthy, and New Ross to Wexford. Our county council does what it can but is being hamstrung by GDPR legislation preventing it from using CCTV footage in many instances where it wishes to bring a prosecution for enforcement. What legislative proposals are being brought by Government to assist county councils to bring forward prosecutions under the Waste Ma…

I do not have questions to be answered. I would like to make a broader statement because of the Minister's senior Cabinet position and her broader knowledge based on her previous experience in the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. I am sure that, like myself, both Ministers have been inundated with calls and queries from worried retailers at various stages over the last year or so. We must now look at how to support these retailers to remain open in the medium to long term and to keep as many peopl…

Having been involved in the Brexit process from the start, the Minister is only too well aware of the detrimental impact of Brexit on the island of Ireland. Indeed, both he and I attended many a Brexit forum detailing to larger audiences throughout the country just how bad it would be with tariffs. The deal, as we will call it, may have avoided tariffs and, to the Minister’s mind, solved the problem but I can tell him it did not. We have exactly what I warned we would have: Ireland’s enforcement agencies doing what…

I am slightly lost for words, which the Ceann Comhairle knows is not my style. I have heard it all and everybody has heard it. I do not believe for a minute that either the Minister or Minister of State has turned a deaf ear or do not feel what is being said or have not done their best. Equally, I do not believe our schoolteachers or special needs assistants have done so. I have never dealt with the teachers' unions but I do not believe they are there for any reason other than to come to a proper solution that sees…

As it is our first day back, I wish everybody a happy new year. As the important issue of the mother and baby homes is being raised later, rather than labour the point, I want to raise another issue of national importance. Utter disruption has ensued since 1 January at ports, within businesses and the supply chain. Does the Taoiseach intend to allow the disruption to continue to the detriment of Ireland? Food is being destroyed. Businesses are failing. Jobs are and will be lost. The consumer will pay a hefty price …

What the Taoiseach needs to understand is that the only reality people will face with Brexit is a 50% increase in the cost of a shopping basket, particularly low-income earners. The Taoiseach tells me we have an increased capacity in direct ferry services, which he said was not required when he endorsed an Irish Maritime Development Office report. That report was categorically held up by every Minister in the House to state no more capacity in the direct service was required, only that I had input to the service to…

What about Enterprise Ireland giving money to the people who wanted to-----

They did not get it.

I said local-----

I had a very disturbing conversation with a young man ten days ago. He has 20 friends in a social circle and he told me that 18 of them are using drugs. Unfortunately, the two in the group who do not use drugs are struggling with their mental health because they are being ostracised for not joining in. His younger brother has the same problem. When he tries to join his friends, they just turn their backs on him as if to say he is a spoilsport or self-righteous. It is equally stressful for the parents involved, seei…

I thank the Minister of State for her co-operation on yesterday's Private Members' business. It was greatly appreciated. This is a very serious matter and it can be difficult to leave a group of friends or to stand up to peer pressure. It is a stressful situation for those directly involved, as well as their parents. It is alarming that of one social group of 20 young people, 18 are regular drug users. It is hard to imagine the scale of the mental health issues caused by drug use across the country. We might be abl…

I will diverge from my question slightly to read a letter on some of the issues relating to maternity services: I am writing to you in regard to the refusal to allow birth partners into the hospital until the labour has progressed to certain levels and the limitations placed on visitation rights after birth. There is also the issue with not having a partner there when receiving bad news. [...] The evidence to date from the World Health Organisation states that birthing people need birthing partners as a part of the…

The programme for Government mentions fisheries and the protection of fisheries 12 times between page 7 and page 106. It pledges to: Ensure protection of the interests of the Irish Fishing industry by insisting that a Fisheries Agreement with the UK is concluded as an integral part of an overall EU Free Trade Agreement with the UK ... Seek EU Commission contingency supports and market-disturbance funding for the fisheries sector to mitigate against the impact of ... Brexit. Our fishing industry in Killybegs, Howth,…

I am pleased to have an opportunity to contribute on such an important motion. It is undeniable that Covid-19 has had an impact on the mental health of many people, and this has taken many different forms, including loneliness, social isolation, stress, financial pressures, anxiety. These are just some examples. My colleagues and I, in the Regional Group, are very pleased that the Government agrees that we need to ensure that mental health is an essential part of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The response …

I thank both sides of the House for what seems to be great co-operation, which I have not seen much of in my nine months here. All Deputies can recognise how difficult it is for victims of domestic abuse to deal with and escape from their abusers. Not only must they deal with the abuse as it is occurring, which must be a devastating experience, but they must also get the help they require, which is far easier said than done. While doing some research on the topic, I was alarmed by the prevalence of domestic abuse a…

The Minister stated that, effectively, the carbon cost was €1.50 per tank of fuel of €60. He should multiply that tenfold or even more for a truck. It is wrong to say that that is all it is costing the person who fills the car because the reality is that there is a diesel rebate system that rebates the money back to the haulier but because the floor is not low enough, the haulier does not get it. Therefore the €30 that the carbon tax adds to the haulier multiplied by 50 is €1,500 a year, and that will be passed bac…

I want to ask the Minister-----

Deputy Fitzpatrick is first.

I was one of the first Deputies to highlight the issue of contact tracing. I was concerned to hear the Minister for Health say that there were 231 contact tracers mid-September, at a time when we had 255 cases daily. At that time, I questioned the Tánaiste and he informed us that there were 400 contact tracers and that we would have to bring in the Army should we need any more. Last week, the previous Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, called for the Army to be brought in and to allow those in other essential serv…

Page 75 of the programme for Government commits to: Examine options for a pension solution for carers the majority of whom are women, particularly those of incapacitated children in recognition of the enormous value of the work carried out by them. They do Trojan work and make great sacrifices. However, many carers cannot afford to set money aside for a pension fund. I welcome the fact that a pension solution has been committed to in the programme for Government, but we need to see those words turned into actions. …