I am glad to get the opportunity to speak. I thank Deputy Boyd-Barrett for bringing this to our attention. We all agree that online safety for our youngsters is of paramount importance. Our youngsters are our future, and we need to protect our future by protecting our youngsters. This is so important. It is hard for young couples rearing children today to get them to crawl and to walk and all the things before them but this is really hard for many parents to understand. Like Deputy Dolan said, we did not have to go…

We received the local improvement scheme, LIS, allocation of €1.13 million last week. While we welcome the funding, we need a lot more. This funding will just about do for between somewhere between 20 and 25 roads. There are still over 550 roads on the list. We started out with 700 back in 2018. The local authority has signalled that it could deal with 100 or 120 applications each year if it receives the funding. However, these are not private roads. There is a perception out there that maybe they are, but they are…

Will the Government give more funding or what?

These people are entitled to a good road like everyone else.

This is important. It will take 20 to 24 years to complete.

Like every other Member, I appreciate our post office network. We are sad to think that so many post offices have closed around us over the years. I remember the previous postmasters in Kilgarvan, Denis P. O'Sullivan and his brother, John O'Sullivan. Before them were Bridie and James Cronin. She used to send her brother out with the telegrams. My uncles told me a story. They met him one day going up the road with a telegram. He asked them if he had much further to go and they asked him where he was going. He told t…

I am sorry that I cannot speak Irish fluently like all of the others here who have done so this evening. I have to tell Deputy Gould that I too have two daughters who are fluent Irish speakers. One of them, Theresa, trained in Dingle, An Daingean. I want to thank the Gaeltacht communities that we have in Kerry - Baile na Sceilge, Uíbh Ráthaigh, Daingean Uí Chúis and all those areas. We are really proud of our Gaeltacht areas because we see how they have survived over the centuries and brought their language - our o…

I want to thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion before us this evening. I welcome the gentlemen from the Gaeltacht here too this evening. I know housing is a serious issue in Dingle. I have people onto me nearly crying trying to source a house to rent. It is a fact that many people are going through this day after day. A lot of houses are taken up by tourists. The tourism sector is very important but I am telling the Minister that if we are serious about maintaining and preserving the Irish language, we need to …

I thank the Social Democrats for this very worthwhile motion. I also thank the Government for the large amount of funding that was provided for services in Kerry, including an ambulance depot for Cahersiveen, which is much needed. People there struggled in the past to get an ambulance. University Hospital Kerry received quite a lot of money to increase beds and services there. I very much welcome a minor injury unit for Killarney, where the population sometimes doubles and trebles in the summertime. The mind boggle…

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on this very serious and important topic. Every one of us knows that Ireland is surrounded by water. We should and do own our waters and I cannot understand for the life of me how the UK is entitled to fish in the coastal waters that obtain to the 26 Counties. All up the west belongs to Southern Ireland up as far as the tip of Donegal. We should be entitled to fish it. How have they a say on us having to shed 23,000 jobs? What are these fellas going to live in? Will they li…

I thank Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to talk about this very important matter. I welcome all the concerned people in the Gallery. I thank all of the SNA teachers, ordinary teachers and principals we have in Kerry for the wonderful work they have been doing for the past great number of years. We all rely on teachers and need them very much. I am glad the Government paused this case and problem that was raised among our schools in Kerry last week and, indeed, right around the country. A pause is not enough…

I have three minutes. These two people came into the school from the Department, talked and went around the classrooms. That is not right and it should not happen. The Minister and Minister of State have to take the blame and ensure that does not happen again. That is what I am asking them.

I am glad to get the opportunity to raise this problem at the Topical Issue forum today. I hope the Minister will take it seriously. I do not want to be laughed at like I was last week when I asked a question here. This is serious business for anyone who does not have a home and is trying to find a property to rent. In many instances, they can be hit with a traumatic event that they were never ready for. Since the Residential Tenancies Bill was mooted last year along with the idea that people would have to rent out…

I ask again about the tenant in situ scheme. The Minister of State said money has been allocated to it. Will he talk to Kerry County Council to see what is wrong and why it cannot operate the tenant in situ scheme? Elected members in Kerry have been asking the local authority to buy land banks to build local authority houses in small villages, such as Scotia's Glen, Gneeveguilla, Firies, Curragh, Currans and all these places. I hear the council is slow to buy these land banks because it will be hit with the residen…

The short-term places are not what I am talking about at all. It is the houses that are vacant and have nobody in them-----

We are glad to have this debate because it is vital. Many Irish farmers do not really understand the implications of this or how it spreads. We have been told it is caused by midges but I do not think any midges would survive coming from the North to Wexford. How did that happen? Simple questions like that need to be explained. If there is evidence of how it happened or may have spread, the Minister could provide a link to the country because we would like to know that. Farmers around me have asked me questions. Ar…

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak. I did not think my slot was coming up so soon. It is very tough for young couples now who are trying to purchase, build or hold onto a home. When it comes to building homes in Kerry, there are a lot of people who would build their home if they could get planning permission, but they cannot because of the strict rules with urban-generated pressure. Locals are being denied planning permission without ever coming out of a town. The urban-generated pressure rule was brought in…

I thank the Minister of State for being very hands-on and for coming to Kerry again recently. Back in 2018, he gave us funding to clear the Flesk river. For ten years before that, we were constantly being told that it would make no difference to clear the river, that it would only make 10 mm of a difference. The highest flood that has been there in the last eight years did not come within 8 ft of the road level and it used to be 3 ft on top of the road before that. They wanted to raise the road and do everything el…

I am glad there are rumours that the Government is going to dilute the short-term letting in the Bill and to increase the population of towns so that it will apply to towns with populations of over 20,000. However, I believe anybody who has been doing Airbnb for more than seven years is entitled to planning permission because they already have it. There are people who have been doing this for 20 years and more. Whatever the Government is bringing forward should allow the people who have been doing Airbnb to continu…

The other thing I want to say to the Taoiseach is that this is very urgent.