I know the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has been working very hard on the whole issue of delays in An Bord Pleanála, including providing extra funding and approval for more staff. The problem is that, despite all of this, appeals are still taking up to two years. The Minister is preparing a major piece of legislation but that will take time to go through the House. Will consideration be given by the Government to introducing a short piece of legislation to put statutory timelines on what is h…

The first thing we have to recognise is that one of the biggest causes of pollution is municipal wastewater systems that are totally inadequate. It is much easier to sell to a lot of people the idea of investing money over the ground than under the ground. However, we need to radically step up our investment in Uisce Éireann in order to upgrade our wastewater systems that are deficient and provide wastewater systems where we do not currently have them. A new system was put in in Clifden. Ordinarily, the system is m…

Tá áthas orm go bhfuil deis agam labhairt ar an ábhar seo agus gur éirigh liom deis mhaith a fháil laistigh de 11 nóiméad. The first thing I must say is that although I am only stating the obvious, throughout my life I have been opposed to violence no matter where it is used. I have always made my best endeavours to discourage people from seeing violence as the way forward. That is particularly relevant today because more and more states as well as individuals seem to be turning to violence as a solution to our pro…

I accept the mathematical formula put forward by the Deputy. I am interested in statistics to show the number of impacts at more than 30 km/h where people are complying with the speed limit of 50 km/h. I ask this because most people brake before an impact. We must be realistic about this. Are there statistics to show whether there is flagrant or increased disobedience with regard to speed limits when they are set too low? If they are set at levels people consider to be reasonable, depending on the road type, is it …

As the Minister of State is aware, the road from Curry to Collooney is highly dangerous. Does the Government have a policy, because policy is the remit of the Government not of TII, of directing urgent funding towards roads that are dangerous and substandard and do not comply with national standards for primary routes and secondary routes?

In support of my good colleague, who lives locally there, the demographic has to be taken into account when taking away bus stops. In other words, if there is a very old demographic, it is not the same as a much younger demographic. That is the first issue. The second issue is that, as I understand it, a housing estate was refused because there was no bus service. An Bord Pleanála should never refuse on that basis. The arrangement should be that, automatically, when new developments take place, this is dynamic and …

What was the carry forward or underspend of the Department last year? Does the Minister of State agree that if one is going to reallocate money, one must do it in July. Doing it in September, October, November is a total waste of time; it is too late.

Almost seven years ago, on 21 July 2016, the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill was published. It had passed through the Dáil and Seanad by January 2020. Three amendments were made in the Seanad. The Dáil, as the Minister will know, was dissolved, but it is a simple matter of recommiting a Bill. That has been clarified by the Ceann Comhairle. When will the three amendments passed in the Seanad be brought to this House for debate to finalise this Bill and make it law? It is disgraceful that this is taking so long. I have rai…

Will it be in the next term?

I was going to ask a question on behalf of Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan.

I will move to Question Nos. 79 and 85 instead. They are in my name.

There was a practice of naming naval ships after people in Irish mythology and giving them Irish names. Does the Tánaiste intend to revert to that practice for the two new ships purchased by the Naval Service?

On Tuesday, 13 June, a dental nurse was arrested at her place of work in Derry and questioned by the PSNI. She had no criminal record whatsoever. At 10.30 that morning, the PSNI arrived outside the dental service with two Land Rovers and two police cars and brought her to the Strand Road police station. She answered in full every question that was put to her. No evidence was referred to, nor was an allegation put to her. She was interviewed for 11 minutes in total and released at 2.08 p.m. Eighteen minutes later a …

The mountain access scheme was initially rolled out in the period 2008 to 2010, after a long examination of this issue by Comhairle na Tuaithe. The foundation of the scheme was based on permission being given by the landholder and mutual respect between the hillwalkers and the landholder. In the initial phase of the scheme, two pilot areas were selected, Binn Shléibhe or Mount Gable i nDúiche Sheoigheach, the Joyce Country, and Carrauntoohill in Kerry. The concept was that the farmers would give agreement to allow …

It tells us about the future. It keeps talking about the pilot scheme as if it existed. The Minister of State said there was talk about expanding it and all of these plans and so on, as if the pilot scheme existed. It says that insurance was put in place in 2021, as if the farmers knew about. Binn Shléibhe is the mountain at the back of my house and I happen to know the farmers who live around the mountain. The farmers do not seem to be aware whether they have given consent because some of the younger farmers were …

As regards the farming organisations, most farmers are not in these organisations.

The first thing we must recognise is there are growing rural areas near the towns, but there are still rapidly-declining rural areas away from the towns. Rural policy in recent years seems to be focused more on large towns than it is on the more remote, more challenging rural areas. All one need do is talk to people in the GAA clubs and local schools to understand there is a danger, in some places, of the schools closing completely and that in other cases it is impossible to put a team together. We need to recognis…

It is a pity this debate is so short because in three minutes we cannot deal with even a 50th of the issues we need to deal with.

The Minister is a man of many talents. Many people will not be aware that along the west coast, including a place in Deputy Dillon's constituency called An Ceann Ramhar, there are places where the tides come in, particularly at spring tides, or as they call them in Irish, rabharta. Nuair a bhíonn rabhartaí ann, they come in and the road becomes impassable. This could go on for three days at a time. At every high tide - morning or evening or whatever time the high tide comes - the road becomes impassible. It happens…

I thank the Minister for the answer. In regard to the leveraging of funding, I am broken-hearted that the Government does not see the merit in it. The biggest argument against investing in small, isolated pockets of rural Ireland is the cost-benefit analysis which dictates that if there is a certain amount of money, it will go to where the people are. The logic is that such an approach gives a better bang for the buck. A leveraged fund specifically for areas of low population - that is what CLÁR was founded on - co…