I ask the Minister his views on the challenges with ACRES and the repayments farmers are being requested to make. Go raibh maith agat.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. I appreciate, and I believe a lot of farmers appreciate, that there has been a huge uptake on ACRES and that this would have caused difficulties. At this point, however, they are frustrated and their patience has waned. I will give a bit of context. I recently met with members of the IFA in my office in Clare. They outlined their full discontent at this situation and especially about the repayments. For context, in County Clare agriculture contributes over €1 billion to the local econ…

I believe that an appeals process will be beneficial. I hope those meetings will result in a resolution for everybody involved. In the latter half of year 2 the scorecards are only coming out. For the farmers themselves, the repayments and all of that issue was based on the scorecards but they could not access their own scorecards. That was an issue. Family farms are struggling. I know myself that when one is struggling financially any delays in payments, or any repayments where one must pay money back, have a detr…

What are the views of the Minister on the recently announced ash dieback scheme? Will the Minister of State make a statement on the matter?

I appreciate the information. This has been a long-standing issue that I have raised with the Minister of State and through committees. The IFA farmers in particular were hoping for a grant of some sort to ensure the local authority would head up the removal of the roadside trees. The current issue is that the farmer is liable if the tree were to fall or any such incident. The farmers have said it would be most appropriate if there was a scheme in place for the local authority to identify the trees and take them ou…

I appreciate the clarification on the information the Minister of State has provided. I agree that there does need to be an interdepartmental action on this. As far as the IFA is concerned, the solution or the pathway is there. The local authority would be the best placed body to remove the roadside ash trees in a safe manner. That is taking everybody's best interests into consideration. Yes, the IFA has criticised the Department of agriculture because it believes that it is an unfair amount of pressure to place on…

I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward this motion. I acknowledge the fantastic efforts of Vicky and Fiona from Family Carers Ireland Mid-West, who took part in the Hell and Back fundraiser and raised €2,000. I raised this matter with the Minister yesterday evening and want to respond to comments on the abolition of the means test and abuse. Family Carers Ireland believes that the requirements to satisfy strict medical eligibility criteria and that applicants provide full-time care are sufficient to protec…

I welcome this Bill and the opportunity to contribute. I might be a little cheeky and say that it is great to have more than two minutes or even a shared minute to be able to contribute to such an important Bill. I heard the Minister's opening statement. While it is welcome, as this has been desperately required for the last number of years and we all know that has been the case, the reality is that we have been laggards on this important legislation, which is necessary for a fully functioning health service. It is…

From reading this motion, one thing is absolutely clear: an election is coming. There is a clear omission of the usual Government rhetoric of requiring clinical advice. What happened? Have those on all sides of this House finally conceded that the writing is on the wall or is it the case that, as the saying goes, even the dogs in the street know that the mid-west needs an additional emergency department and that the statistics speak for themselves? Attendance at UHL is up 7.2% compared with last year. It has also b…

No, I am after that.

Will the Minister consider the abolition in the upcoming budget of the means test for carer's allowance?

I acknowledge the Minister's work. As she has pointed out, she was one of the first Ministers to make changes in this area for many years. As she knows, however, this is a matter that is close to my heart. I have been working with Family Carers Ireland. It has refuted the statistics she has given, in particular relating to the cost. It has estimated that the total cost of abolishing the carer's allowance means test would be approximately €389.4 million. That is much lower than what the Minister has estimated. She h…

I appreciate that and, again, I acknowledge the work the Minister has done. It is not about this term, however. It is about the fact that the carers are coming from a very low bar. Some 69% who took part in the Family Carers Ireland survey find it difficult to make ends meet. There is an issue with loneliness as well. The long-standing issues and the challenges that carers face, are down to what I and Family Carers Ireland call casualties of policies. They have to fight for so much support and so many services thro…

The Minister of State has pointed to a reduction in other counties. That is not the case in Clare, which has a huge vacancy rate. Shannon, once again, had the highest rate of commercial vacancy in the county at 29.8%, which is the highest in Munster and the third highest nationwide. It is unchanged again for a second year in Kilrush at 24.5%. There is no hotel there and has not been for many years. GeoDirectory shows that both towns are well above average when it comes to empty industrial buildings. Shannon and Dub…

With regard to the tenant in situ scheme, my experience with Clare County Council is that for most properties that are eligible, the council tells me that the homeowner is looking for more than the market value and so the council has not been very successful in this. This relates to a number of properties in County Clare. I will address a different aspect of the conversation. We have hidden homelessness in this country. We are missing legislation to recognise that and it causes issues for those who are in overcrowd…

I have to raise the disastrous roll-out of the defunct pilot school transport scheme in County Clare. I hope it is not replicated in other rural areas. There has been a cluster of serious safety concerns. All I have received in response from the Minister is reference to another review. There had to be major backwards and forwards with the parents and Bus Éireann. I thank all of the parents for their huge work in this area. Inappropriate locations have been chosen for bus stops. We had 280 children at a stop in a pu…

I pay tribute to Councillor PJ Kelly. Everyone would say he had a mighty way with words. From every political determination, that is something they could at least agree on. I will never forget his words that you may put a gate at Lissycasey because there is nothing else past that in terms of funding and resources from Government. For that, he will always be remembered. I express my deepest sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues. One in two people in Ireland will experience a mental health difficulty direc…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach. I welcome the motion put forward by People Before Profit-Solidarity on this very important issue. I have been raising the waiting lists, specifically in Clare, for the last number of months, and I have the numbers of the first contact and those waiting on the initial contact. There are still 36 children in care who are waiting for that initial contact. As we know, that is the very basics of support and services that can be put in place so it is very important that …

I appeal to Government to consider a ban on no-fault evictions. I have looked at the research on rental markets. I heard the Tánaiste say there is fear that this would shrink the rental market but the evidence indicates that it would help to grow the rental market. That fear is unfounded. There were only 35 exits from homelessness in County Clare in the period from 15 June to 22 August. There are huge capacity issues and the local authority is saying that demand for accommodation in the county is too high. Over 100…

Before this House rose for the summer recess, Members, including me, raised the urgent need for statements on University Hospital Limerick, UHL, particularly overcrowding and the number of patients on trolleys on a daily basis. As the Taoiseach knows, the mid-west is the only region with a model 4 hospital that does not have a supporting model 3 hospital with an emergency department. The Taoiseach stated at the time that he would prefer to wait for the results from the HIQA review but now we know that this is not l…