Ó tharla go bhfuil an tAire Stáit anseo, labhróidh mé i nGaeilge.

Glacaim leis go bhfuil an freagra scríofa i mBéarla.

Tuigim é sin. Ní raibh aon choinne agam gur an tAire Stáit a bheadh ann. Ní raibh a fhios agam gur mar sin a bheadh. Mar is eol dó, tá na dúnta ar na hOileáin Árann cáiliúil. Tá siad ar Inis Oírr, Inis Meáin agus Inis Mór. Tá go leor acu ann ach is é an ceann is cáiliúla ná Dún Aonghasa. Tá sé os cionn 3,000 bliain d'aois. Is áit an-ársa ar fad é. Tagann na mílte turasóirí as chuile chearn den domhan. Má théann tú go dtí an chéibh i gCill Rónáin, feiceann tú daoine ón tSeapáin, ó Mheiriceá, ó chuile thír san Eoraip…

Tuigim an fhadhb.

D'fhág mé 50 soicind aige ar aon chaoi. Tá mé ag díriú ar an ábhar deireanach, is é sin an rud seo faoin pháirceáil, mar tá an obair eile ar bun, rud atá mé an-sásta faoi mar tá dul chun cinn ann. Is í an áit a bhfuil an chontúirt agus an fhadhb ná leis an bpáirceáil. An féidir leis an Aire Stáit a shamhlú, ó tharla gurb as Contae na Mí dó, mura mbeadh aon pháirceáil ag an OPW ag Brú na Bóinne? An féidir leis a shamhlú go gcaithfí páirceáil ar an tsráid agus go mbeadh cóistí capall, rothair – tá an t-uafás daoine a…

Ní bheidh mise ar ais.

Seo í an uair dheireanach a labhróidh mé sa Dáil. Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle agus an fhoireann uile atá sa Teach seo as ucht na hoibre ar fad a dhéanann siad agus an bealach ina gcaitheann siad linn i gcónaí. Tá siad go deas réchúiseach, tuisceanach agus stuama. Mar is eol don Tánaiste, níor aontaigh mé riamh leis an gcinneadh a rinneadh sa bhliain 2012 fáil réidh le hionadaíocht thofa ar bhord Údarás na Gaeltachta. Cuireadh ann é den chéad uair in 1979. Tá a fhios agam go ndearna an tAire Airgeadais…

Ach an oiread le go leor daoine eile, tá seans ann gurb é seo mo sheans deiridh, cé go mbeidh mé ag caint sa Dáil arís amárach má shuíonn sí. Tá rún istigh agam a thagann faoi Roinn an Aire féin. I join in the thanks for all the staff in the House here. I will not start listing the different groups of people who have been so helpful over all the years. They have not only been helpful, but have become good friends of all of us and have been so kind to all the visitors we have brought in and so accommodating to every…

I will come back to the whole question of a wealth tax. It is an interesting question but it is a little more complex than Deputy Boyd Barrett thinks. The same applies to corporation tax. One thing I hate in any tax proposal is the situation where if a person moves above a certain figure, he or she goes back to square one and pays from there. As a modest proposal, how much would it cost to not charge any USC on the first €13,000 of earnings? At the moment, the tax applies when one earns €14,000. People tell me that…

Tá áthas orm gurb é an tAire atá anseo inniu, and the reason I am so pleased he is here is that I have raised time and again in this house the issue of Travellers living in caravans, or trailers, as they prefer to call them. Many of these are old and many of them are freezing cold in the winter, and as we come into another winter, this problem is not solved. The Joint Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community has just agreed a short report with 12 specific, very practical recommendations that once a…

There are surely. I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue. Anyone who goes to the north and west, which consists of Connacht and the parts of Ulster within the Republic of Ireland, is more than aware, just by driving through it, of the lack of infrastructure. In fact, there are no motorways in Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Mayo or Roscommon. There might be a small bit of motorway in Ballinasloe that is in Roscommon, but if there is, it is very short. The …

God forbid the day anyone would ask for the same list for the eastern region. We would be here for a week. The reality is 9.9%. That is what the Minister of State read out. Where is the missing 9%? We always get small projects, but big things are needed. Taking projects in excess of €20 million, we are missing 12%. The population of the region is 17% and we have only 5% of the investment, so we would nearly need to treble the input of projects. Looking at rail investment, for example, despite the fact that there wa…

I beg the tolerance of the Ceann Comhairle. I started off when it took me a year and a half to get one telephone line. In certain ways, relatively speaking, we have not progressed since.

We got that into Transport 2020 way back in the day, and by dad it was needed, and a lot more to go with it.

This scheme is a great idea. The Minister knows I am a big supporter of it. The number of applications is satisfactory. It will bring a lot of houses back to life. I noticed the scheme seems to be much more successful in rural areas, which highlights an ongoing physical difficulty of doing up terraced houses. The Minister said 930 applications have been paid out, which is approximately 10%. That seems low. The Minister also said an extension to 13 months is also possible. People are coming to me who are hitting the…

Is that the city or the county?

When people talk about reviews of schemes that are working, I always worry that someone will have a rush of blood to the head and suspend a particular scheme while a review is being carried out. This scheme is successful. Why break something that is working successfully? The Minister referred to approximately 10,000 applications. Allowing that some will be rejected, if 9,000 houses were done and paid for, that would be a massive increase in the housing stock in situ . That would be major progress. If the rate of re…

I am glad the Minister made reference to quick wins. In my view they could have been done in the past four years without any rail strategy. They include passing loops. Throughout the system we are getting caught with bottlenecks because trains cannot pass each other and we cannot increase the frequency. It does not take any great eye strain to work out these things must be dealt with and should have been dealt with. We spend too much time cogitating about things and too little time just doing them. Is the Minister …

It did.

Compared to the processes in place between 2000 and 2010 when we built a lot of basic infrastructure such as rail lines, roads, etc., those in place now seem to have become forever processes. I support Deputy Leddin in saying that some things are so obvious that we are wasting time just putting paper together, filling out forms and doing studies that do not need to be done. I could never understand the system delaying over the obvious. Does the Minister agree that the biggest inflator of costs is not a lack of proc…