I would be grateful if the Minister would let me know whether he plans to review the employment permits process during his term as Minister. The process of applying for a permit can be slow at times and I would like to know his plan to address this. Has the Department considered streamlining this process via the visa process?

I have assisted my constituents in applying and reapplying for employment permits in recent months. The process can sometimes be unnecessarily long, particularly in the case of employment permit appeals. At the moment appeals in respect of this permit take around five months via the Department, which is a very long time. The current system of people having to wait for their employment permit to be granted before they can apply for the visa is inefficient and causes unnecessary delays. It does not make sense for the…

With full employment, employers who are relying heavily on employment permits have found it increasingly difficult in recent years to find people to fill important roles. It is clear that an efficient system is required for employers to address the labour shortage to allow them to plan, recruit and maintain their business. Is the Department working with employers to ensure the current system is workable for them? Can the Department improve communications with employers regarding specific applications? Employers lac…

I fully support this motion and its calls for the Government to stop price hikes to petrol and diesel and to end the penalty imposed on people who cannot afford to pay motor tax in one single payment and the proposed toll increase planned for January 2026. It is an extremely expensive time to be a motorist, especially in rural areas like Donegal, where we are forced to drive due to the lack of public transport and where the only form of public transport we have is a bus. Anyone without a car in rural Ireland faces …

Yesterday, Engineers Ireland ran a training course for engineers on IS 465, a standard, as the Government knows, that is outdated, discredited and currently under review. I met with Damien Owens, the director general of Engineers Ireland, and spoke to engineers who did not even know the standard was being reviewed. They are being trained to use documents that Government-commissioned research from Geological Survey Ireland has proven to be scientifically wrong. The damage in these homes is caused by internal sulphat…

With respect, no amount of reassurance, avoidance or accountability can disguise these facts. Engineers are being trained on a standard that the State's own research has proven is wrong. The Housing Agency employs these engineers. They must use this training to make decisions about people's homes and people's lives. It is not a technical issue; it is an ethical and legal one. The direct effect is families living in unsafe homes. They are left to appeal and left in limbo. The Government cannot claim distance from En…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very important Bill. I fully support the Bill, which would mandate all schools to adopt a cost-conscious uniform policy. As a parent, I have seen the cost of school uniforms increase massively over the years. It used to be the case that not so long ago we would have been able to buy one or two branded items such as a school jumper or a school tie. Other items such as polo shirts, trousers or shoes could be bought at any shop if they were the right colour. This allowed mul…

It is hard not to feel completely hopeless about the fishing industry at the moment. What was once a prosperous industry is now facing complete collapse. It is utter devastation, as the Minister of State is well aware. The numbers have been outlined multiple times already, but it is important they are repeated until we get to grips with what we are facing and its potential impact. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea has advised the following cuts, starting next year: a 70% cut in mackerel, a 41…

When the original defective concrete blocks, DCB, scheme was in operation, apartments in multi-unit developments were eligible. Then, in 2022, eligibility was narrowed to dwelling houses, single ownerships excluding buildings with shared structural or common elements, apartments, duplexes and multi-unit blocks. These dwellings contain the same defective materials as a detached or semi-detached house. The exclusion demonstrates a serious failure in how the scheme is being managed. The Government's amendment to my mo…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — chartered engineers employed or contracted by the Housing Agency act as agents of the State, exercising statutory functions that determine the rights of homeowners, and that the Government remains legally and constitutionally accountable for their decisions, including unlawful downgrades from full to partial remediation; — appeals against such downgrades have been left unresolved for over two years, leaving families in unsafe homes, in breach of the State's duty to provide t…

I wish to address the remarks of the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, about how he has got this "to where it is today". I will clarify where it is today. We have a scheme right now that has 74 houses that are completed. Another 70 have received outer-leaf remediation work only and still retain the blockwork. This amounts to approximately 140 houses, half of which will have to be redone at great expense to the Exchequer. The Minister of State failed to mention that 300 houses that are on the scheme are commenc…

I am glad Charlie McConalogue is here in the Chamber because he is the man I want to talk to. Today across the country, particularly in Donegal, we have got a budget that is an absolute insult to working people - a nothing budget for people. What kind of message does it send out to working people when we have given them absolutely nothing? There are no measures to prevent homelessness in this budget. As we speak 16,353 people, including 5,000 children, are homeless in this country. In our own county, Donegal, poten…

When the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, presented this budget, he said we were "making the best possible use of the resources available to invest in our future and to strengthen our foundations." I did not know whether to laugh or cry at that. As the House can imagine, coming from Donegal, we are living with foundations and houses that are crumbling down around us. We are totally abandoned. How can the Government invest in the future when it has left Donegal so far behind, with a defective concrete crisis and a fishing …

The Government must abolish the concrete levy for families rebuilding their homes. This is a priority. Homeowners cannot be punished because it is not their fault. The level of injustice cannot be ignored, especially when we are faced with so many examples of Government overspend. The Government has handled this crisis in a completely fiscally irresponsible way. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, the Government persists in offering remediation when only a full demolition will do. If we go back to remediation…

Over 10,000 unpaid carers in Donegal are awaiting next week’s budget in the hope they will finally receive long overdue recognition for the difficult and important work they do every single day. The lack of respect for people who provide an essential service and save the State over €20 billion a year is staggering. Most of us, in our lifetime, will either become carers or be cared for. This is a reality we do not realise until we are faced with the unrelenting responsibility of becoming a carer. Nobody expects to b…

It is a disgrace that we now face into October and legislation regarding retrospective payments for homeowners under the defective concrete scheme still has not been published despite the Taoiseach's housing Minister in June saying it would be. I expect the funds will be made available in the Government's budget next week, and if the Government fails to properly address this crisis yet again it will have failed impacted homeowners once again. In July, I informed the Taoiseach that the houses in Elm Park, Buncrana, …

They just need a date.

It is shocking that in this day and age that there is still no significant investment in regional rail in the north west. People in Inishowen who travel to Letterkenny or Donegal town must travel by bus. I know an 82-year-old man who travels on a bus to Donegal town to see a relative. He is on the bus for the guts of two hours. Many of my constituents do this and are travelling long distances. It is outrageous. The lack of sufficient healthcare is not addressed. There is a lack of transport. There is a litany of ne…

Donegal is the only county in the whole of Ireland in which the rail network was removed. We are so far behind that it will take billions of euro to get us up to date. When the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, was Minister for housing, he turned his back to us. I ask him, as Minister for Transport, not to turn his back on Donegal again.

Will the lack of infrastructure investment in Donegal be addressed in any way in the budget next week?