Is the Minister speaking from experience?

Ireland's electricity grid is not fit for purpose. It is holding back housing delivery across the State. It is stalling renewable energy projects and limiting development in towns, villages and rural areas. It did not just happen by accident and it did not happen overnight. It is the result of years of underinvestment, poor planning and mismanagement by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. For too long, they have treated the national grid as something to be managed around rather than something to be bu…

Every year, families across the State face a financial cliff when the school term begins. Parents are being forced into debt. They are dipping into savings and turning to credit unions just to send their children to school. As we have just heard, they are going to money lenders, unscrupulous ones at that, and getting themselves into huge unsustainable debts. One of the biggest drivers of these costs is school uniforms. In Waterford, parents are telling me the same story each August and September. They are stretched…

My question relates to Scoil Garbháin, an Irish-medium school in Dungarvan, County Waterford. I am seeking an update on plans for the extension. The school got word in January this year that the long-awaited and much-needed extension had been approved. It was told in February that it would hear within six weeks from the technical team in the Department. Over nine months later, it has yet to hear despite frequent correspondence from me. I have also raised the matter with the Taoiseach. The school has raised it repea…

I have to say I am deeply disappointed, bemused and bewildered at the Minister of State's response. I got a copy-and-paste, generic response for half the time he was speaking and for the rest, I got a potted history of what I and others involved in the school and community know has happened. I did not get a straight answer. I do not know how the Minister of State's response tallies with the correspondence I have seen from the Department of education. Approval was granted in January. Correspondence, an email to the …

I thank the Minister of State. I will engage with him further on this matter, and in writing, because I am dumbfounded and none the wiser. As the Minister of State was speaking, I checked the website of Waterford City and County Council. Planning permission was finally granted on 7 February 2025. Planning permission is in place. The land is acquired. The application was submitted in good time and there was formal approval. I have seen the correspondence and have shared it with the Minister of State. I will share it…

I think so.

The Government gave them tax breaks

The Government gave tax breaks.

You would not let Bertie run but you are robbing his ideas.

Ireland is an island nation with a proud maritime tradition. Our coastal communities, fishing harbours and seafaring people have long sustained the life of this country in hard times and in a good. For too long, the fishing and seafood industry has been treated as an afterthought, a bargaining chip in European negotiations and a casualty of short-termism at home. Across every coastal county from Louth to Donegal, down to Waterford and Cork, fishers and processors now face the perfect storm of quota cuts, rising cos…

Why is Fine Gael undermining law and order?

The rural housing crisis is the biggest single issue impacting rural communities and the long-term sustainability of rural Ireland. Previously, I asked the Minister about his engagement with the Minister for housing on this issue. To be fair, it was a number of months ago, and at that point the Minister had not been in the job all that long. Meetings had not taken place, although he indicated that engagement would follow. We also discussed the need for housing to be the cornerstone of the new rural development poli…

Is iontach é sin a cloisteáil, i ndáiríre, mar bhí an bhuairt ann nach raibh cainteanna ag dul ar aghaidh. Mar sin, cuirim fáilte roimh sin, ar a laghad. It is great that those engagements have taken place and I thank the Minister of State for his answer and for detailing the level of engagement and the issues that have been discussed by the Minister with the Department of housing. There are two big pieces of work under way in the Minister's Department in the successor to Our Rural Future and the Government's housi…

Chun mo cheart a thabhairt dom féin, níl sé i mo nádúr a bheith soiniciúil ach tá sé deacair gan a bheith i bhfianaise an méid nár thit amach thar na blianta. Mar is eol don Aire, tá géarchéim tithíochta sna ceantair Ghaeltachta agus níor sholáthar an buiséad, in ainneoin an méid atá ráite ag an Aire anseo, an maoiniú breise nó na cumhachtaí breise atá riachtanach chun dul i ngleic leis an bhfadhb. Feictear dúinn nach bhfuil na cumhachtaí ná na hacmhainní ag an údarás chun tithe sóisialta, tithe inacmhainne, tithe …

I have been engaging with tillage farmers across Waterford over recent months. I spoke with the tillage chairman of Waterford IFA. The message from those farmers could not be clearer. They feel unheard, undervalued and let down. They believe the Government is doing absolutely nothing to address the crisis in their sector. Tillage farming is one of the most efficient, low-carbon and environmentally friendly forms of agriculture we have. It should be at the centre of any serious climate and food strategy yet it is be…

I must highlight once again to the Taoiseach across this Chamber the way in which the Minister for education, the Department and the Government as a whole are treating Scoil Gharbháin i nDún na Mainistreach, i gContae Phort Láirge, and other schools, particularly Gaelscoileanna, across the State. Dúirt an Roinn gur ceadaíodh dhá sheomra ranga riachtanais speisialta, ceithre sheomra ranga príomhshrutha agus trí sheomra teagaisc oideachais speisialta trí mheán na Gaeilge i mí Eanáir na bliana seo. The school received…

-----has shown the utter disregard of the Government for Gaeloideachas.

After months of delays, could we arrange to get an answer for Scoil Gharbháin?

Across Waterford city and county, the housing crisis is worsening by the day. We see it on the ground and in the statistics and the figures. We are witnessing the inevitable result of years of Government failure and a lack of political will to deliver homes for ordinary people. I met again in recent days with housing officials in Waterford City and County Council. To be fair, they are working hard within the constraints set by central government. The message is clear: we need a massive upturn in the delivery of soc…