I fully support the proposals being put forward to improve accommodation for the people living in the flat complexes in Dublin city. I have been to many of them over the years and I have seen at first hand the difficult conditions that people are living in. I will turn to private rental accommodation and apartments. In County Laois, there are 5,600 households who are living in private rented accommodation. A lot of them are flats and apartments. Some of the older private rented stock is in very bad condition. Tenan…

The programme for Government contains a commitment for the creation of more jobs in the regions outside Dublin. However, IDA Ireland and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment seem to have a blind spot when it comes to County Laois. Despite Portlaoise and Laois being located on the crossroads of Ireland at the N7, N8, N77, N80, the performance of IDA Ireland and the Department in Laois is dismal. There are just 156 IDA Ireland-backed jobs in the county. More than 12,000 workers commute out of the county…

What is being done to develop the 60-plus acres owned by IDA Ireland outside Portlaoise-----

-----and get industry onto those sites? Will the Tánaiste take this matter up with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and his Department and ask them to urge IDA Ireland to act quickly in respect of this matter?

Not in Laois.

I welcome this discussion on rural policy. The biggest issues relate to housing and services in rural areas. Often, people in rural areas do not have anything. Sustainable housing is the key in this regard. For that type of housing, we need infrastructure. Those engaged in agriculture, forestry and other rural employment must continue to be allowed to build one-off houses on family land or in appropriate locations. There also needs to be housing for a whole lot of people and their families who live in rural areas a…

I welcome the proposals in this motion. It is long past the time that collective bargaining and trade union representation were made mandatory. It is 113 years after James Connolly and James Larkin led the lockout in this city to seek basic rights for workers. This State is completely at odds with the rest of Europe in not recognising the right to trade union representation and collective bargaining. All that is in the programme for Government are vague commitments. Yes, we have a high level of employment but we al…

I welcome the very comprehensive motion that has been set out by Deputy O'Gorman. It is now accepted that we will miss our 2030 binding target of a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. At last, Ministers are accepting that. The Government has failed to develop offshore wind energy, anaerobic digestion and hydrogeneration, and it is only starting with solar. This means just not climate and environmental damage but also economic damage. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council e…

The ongoing problems with the National Ambulance Service are not being addressed. I raised the serious gaps in the ambulance service, particularly in County Laois, with the Taoiseach last year, and it is through no fault of the staff. The number of staff in the county has not increased in the past two decades, despite the explosion in its population. Five vehicles are based in the county, with just two available most of the time. That is five nights of the week. On Monday and Tuesday nights, just one vehicle is ava…

When we compare what we have to what Scotland, which has similar population and geography, has, it has 5,000 staff while we have just over 2,500. Scotland has 1,500 vehicles while we have 620, so I think the Taoiseach accepts there is ground to be made up. The spring economic statement that came out yesterday shows there are substantial resources there. I am not asking the Taoiseach to throw that money around like confetti. I do not want him to do that but I want the Government to make the ambulance service a key p…

I am glad the Minister and Minister of State are here. The latest figures in County Laois for the number of children with special needs and disabilities under the age of 14 is 2,302. All of us have a responsibility to ensure they get the best possible education. New classes have been announced for Laois, which is well and good and I welcome that. However, we also need physical space in schools. In St. Francis School in Portlaoise, demand continues to far outstrip the availability of classrooms. The Department has w…

What we have in Laois and Offaly in relation to services for children with special needs and autism is a black spot. There are roughly 900 children at any one time on a waiting list for assessment of needs. There is no occupational therapy, OT, in primary care for children and young adults in Laois, and the latest information I have is that there is no approval to recruit such an occupational therapist. Four OT posts are vacant in children and young people's services. I asked the HSE on 17 February to confirm if ap…

I ask that it be followed up.

This is the most serious fuel crisis since the 1970s. I contacted the Minister's office last week and spoke to his good secretary about this, and she passed my concerns on to the Minister. The level of preparedness has been shown to be awfully poor. The response and reaction has not been what was required. There is no mechanism to deal with price gouging. The CCPC needs to be abolished or given some powers because its report this week stated that controlling prices in a competitive market is outside the scope of co…

Four short months from now, the scramble for school bus places will start again. There is going to be a shortage of drivers, as has been the case over the past two years. I welcome the announcement by the Government over the Easter period that it will allow those aged up to 72 to drive eight-seater vehicles. I take that to mean that there will be eight seats plus the driver's. Some companies use such buses, particularly for children with special needs. I acknowledge that this is a small step in the right direction.…

We need to put in practical, sensible steps-----

-----and move two steps further.

The Government writes the cheque.

The Government's handling of the fuel price issue has been appalling. It refused to listen to the Opposition. Week after week we told it what was happening. It refused to listen to the representatives of the various sectors and various bodies. I wrote to the Tánaiste in March and told him that people I had met were running at a loss and could not continue to operate as things stood. Instead, the Government threatens ordinary working people who are trying to make a living. In Laois, it was not the far right. There w…

Instead of listening and working towards a solution with people-----