It could be amended to be specific to these types of cases.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for enabling the House to commemorate the life and work of the late Vicky Phelan. It is much appreciated. The budget provided for a once-off €500 payment for certain categories of social welfare recipients. All those social welfare recipients can do training courses, short courses lasting three or four months, under the aegis of SOLAS to enable their reintegration into the workforce while at the same time continuing to receive their social welfare. Based on a reply dated 25 October…

Ireland has a very high level of unaddressed hearing loss. Almost one in ten of the adult population has significant hearing loss and needs audiology intervention. In 2021, the World Health Organization recommended that national governments in each country establish a national hearing plan for their populations and demonstrated in its report that this would represent excellent value for money. Does the Government intend to accept that recommendation and put a plan in place for the audiology service which is cohesiv…

This is substantial legislation. I welcome the Finance Bill, of course, which is a detailed and substantial piece of legislation. I will not get to say much about it in my allotted three minutes. I am sympathetic to the remarks made on various sides of the House about the benefit-in-kind scheme. I do not know if that has been properly thought through. I urge the Minister to look at it again while there is still an opportunity to do so. I welcome the improvements in the employment incentive investment scheme and the…

As the Taoiseach will be aware, this country has a long and honourable tradition of military neutrality. It is a policy enshrined in the Constitution and it has served the country well, particularly in the context of the regard and respect that Irish peacekeeping troops enjoy all over the world. It is also important from a diplomatic point of view as the country is seen as an honest broker that is not militarily aligned to any side. Does the Government propose to ask the Irish people to jettison that policy to enab…

The Taoiseach will be aware that, during the Covid-19 period, certain businesses were allowed to defer payment of certain tax liabilities for a certain period, which has now expired. The period was set before the Ukrainian war, which could not have been anticipated but which has caused a raft of difficulties for those businesses. Will the Government revisit the question of warehousing tax for those businesses? The Government has been forced to step in to assist them again in the budget and it seems contradictory to…

Up to a few minutes ago, I had four complaints today already – now the number is up to five – about people interacting with University Hospital Limerick. The Taoiseach indicated in previous replies to me that he had some sympathy with the notion of an elective-only hospital for the mid-west along with the hospitals in Galway, Cork and Dublin. The cause of the problem is the shortage of beds. The number in University Hospital Limerick is insufficient to meet the needs of the population. I want to find out whether th…

There is a ritualistic element to the debate. I have seen many of these debates over the years and you have to be for or against. Those who are for or against make speeches against one another and in many cases read speeches against one another. However, the difference is that in the old days, we got a much longer opportunity to speak. I regret the change and now we all seem to be confined to four, five or six minutes. With the few minutes available to me I do not have the opportunity to go into all the different a…

The Taoiseach will be aware of the recent HIQA report on University Hospital Limerick, which makes for grim reading. The bad news is that the situation has deteriorated further since the report was published. The Taoiseach did indicate to me here, on 1 February, that he was in principle very much in favour of the idea of an elective-only hospital in the region to alleviate the situation. Has the Government taken any decision on that yet? If not, when will a decision be taken? We are suffering from discrimination in…

Just four months ago, an English career criminal, Logan Jackson, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of young man in Limerick. That young man had an outstanding sporting background and had a great future ahead of him. It now transpires Mr. Jackson has sought permission to be relocated to the United Kingdom to serve the balance of his sentence. The family of the victim are traumatised and scandalised by this development and the very thought this request could be acceded to, when the guy is only four mo…

I welcome the Bill and congratulate the Minister of State and his staff on bringing it forward. I remember studying a subject grandly entitled "personal property" in UCD about a hundred years ago or so. At that time, the basic legislation in this area was the Sale of Goods Act 1893. That Act provided that goods had to be of merchantable quality and-or fit for the purpose required. There was, of course, subsequent legislation in 1980 and a European influence through directives in 1982 and 1983 which seem to me to ha…

What I have noticed is that if a person wants to purchase a product, he or she checks out where it can be sourced and then, because the supplier is unfamiliar to the person, he or she goes on Google. Lo and behold, the person finds that Tricky Dick, the supplier, has loads of testimonials as evidence of his being the most honest guy ever to walk the face of the Earth. It is small wonder he has so many testimonies, given that he probably wrote them himself. This type of thing is rampant on the Internet, with actors …

It has generally been accepted that Ireland's response to the recent pandemic has been one of the most successful. At present, a WHO global pandemic treaty is being negotiated. My understanding is that the states which become signatories to this treaty will be ceding power to deal with any future pandemics entirely to the WHO and that the local government will be completely excluded from the situation. This is a very significant development. Has the advice of the Attorney General been sought as to whether the Gover…

Following on from this morning's debate, Ukrainian families have been housed in a number of hotels in the Limerick area and a number of schools have been in touch with me that are prepared to accommodate the children of those families as pupils. Some of the schools with vacancies are a long distance from the hotels. How will they access the schools? Will a separate system of transport be provided? As demonstrated by my colleague, Deputy Cathal Crowe, the present school transport system will not do the job. Second, …

Yes.

That is not my information.

School transportation.

Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to intervene on behalf of 60 families - 150 people in all - who are tenants of the Shannon Arms housing complex in Henry Street, Limerick? Even though those people have taken their case to the Residential Tenancies Board, the landlords of those apartments are employing intimidatory and illegal tactics to force them to leave their homes. The tactics include sending in heavies to change the locks unilaterally and ordering people to get the…

As a consequence of the appointment of a receiver to a company called Roadbridge, work has ceased on a number of vital projects on the north side of Limerick. I ask the Tánaiste for a commitment that those projects will be completed and that work will recommence as soon as possible. The specific projects I have in mind are the northern distributor road and the Peter McVerry Trust housing project in Moyross.

The Taoiseach recently agreed with me about the desirability of establishing an elective-only hospital in the mid-west region, which I welcome. During the course of the consideration of that issue, careful consideration must also be given to the suitability of the site at St. John's Hospital, Limerick, which has the space, expertise and track record to make this an outstanding success. Does the Taoiseach agree that the provision of a State hospital, provided by the State on State lands, is infinitely preferable to …