In the first instance, I want to acknowledge the commitment of the Government to the local improvement scheme, LIS, which has made a real difference to the lives of rural dwellers since its reintroduction in 2017. This is a really important scheme for households, farmers and community amenities in the context of the maintenance and enhancement of access. The funding provided is not meeting the level of demand, however. Following a recent meeting with the area engineer in the Birr municipal district, Brian Keenaghan…

I would like to raise the whole area of commercial rates for County Offaly and the funding of it. In December 2020, a planning application for Shannonbridge power station - the Taoiseach recently visited Shannonbridge - was refused. It would have been a transition to biomass. It left a serious void in the local revenue of the county council of €1.7 million. In fairness to the Government, it stepped into the breach and we have seen its support every year for the past six years. This support is about to finish at the…

I met with Bord na Móna and Amazon at the official launch of Derrinlough with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on Monday to see a €150 million investment that will deliver a €12 million community benefit fund and multiples of that in commercial rates. What I am looking for here is not a hand out but a hand up as we continue with that transition. We are on an exciting trajectory. We have the energy in place. We are now looking to pursue that whole digital and tech sector. I have no doubt that with the vision of Offaly …

Disgraceful.

I welcome these statements. Football can be a cornerstone of our lives and memories. It can bring the goodwill to bring communities together. I think back as far as Italia 90 and the heartbreak caused by the likes of Schillaci and so on, and what they did to bring a nation to a stop and then break our hearts. More recently, in Prague, we thought we were on the cusp of achieving World Cup qualification. Some 1.6 million viewers tuned in for that game. That just shows how much interest there is in our national team. …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill as a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery. I welcome some of the initiatives the Minister has taken such as the introduction of an accelerating infrastructure task force and the work it is doing to try to ensure we highlight this at every single level. It is important we hold every public body to account on this and that there is co-operation. It is a major cultural shift, however, and I hope we ca…

I thank the Minister for taking this question. I ask him to provide an update on Offaly projects since the introduction of the LEADER programme.

I have seen at first hand, through applicants and through involvement in the LCDC how this initiative is so important to developing a county. I acknowledge Offaly Local Development Company for the work it has done to ensure the effectiveness of the programme. Offaly is one of the most counties in relation to LEADER. I also acknowledge both the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, for their visits this year to Moneygall Development Association and the Offaly Volunteer Centre where they saw the progre…

I thank the Minister. Previous speakers have mentioned the likes of town and village renewal and rural recreation development funds. In many cases it requires an input from the local authority and the community. The likes of the local development company also need to get involved to fund the initial feasibility plans or design plans to ensure the projects are ready to progress to the next stage. We need to ensure we try to protect LEADER as much as possible. We probably need to look at exploring how we can identify…

I thank the Minister for his time here today. I welcome this legislation - the National Oil Reserves Agency (Amendment) Bill - and its important and timely measures. It is being introduced in a moment of real pressure on households, businesses and our wider community, when we need a measured response. In recent months, as other speakers have alluded to, global energy markets have been significantly disrupted by conflict in the Middle East and the Gulf, a conflict I hope can be brought to an end. That is fundamental…

This morning I would like to ask for an update for a position regarding any analysis or action plan currently being considered in terms of additional healthcare capacity in Offaly and the midlands, particularly in relation to elective care capacity.

I thank the Minister. It is welcome news that we are looking at new elective capacity in the midlands. It is something I have raised here in the past in this Chamber. We have a situation where patients and carers are travelling to every corner of the country rather than the midlands for that surgery and medical care. It will assist in relation to providing better care and local care but also with congestion, not just on roads but in facilities in the likes of Dublin, where patients have had to come for so long. Tha…

I appreciate the Minister’s support in this regard. The objective is to get to a stage where there will be a call for expressions of interest and follow-through of this plan in order that surgical procedures will happen in Tullamore or elsewhere in the midlands. That is what we all have to aspire to. I acknowledge the Minister’s recent visit to the midlands regarding ongoing facility works, such as the hospice in Tullamore and the primary care centres in Tullamore and Banagher. Edenderry primary care centre is also…

Last week I submitted a paper to the Department of Tourism, Enterprise and Employment to protect customers, an equal playing field for businesses, to address bid rigging and to dismantle cartels. We saw the conflict that is taking over the Middle East at the weekend. We have seen the price of brent crude oil increase by 26% in global markets over the last 90 days and we have seen the same increase domestically of 50% to 60%. I welcome the expansion of the fuel allowance but despite that, there is economic anxiety a…

This is a very important issue for rural Ireland in particular. In October 2024, in my own local village of Kinnitty, which has a few hundred people living there and a thousand-odd people in the parish, news broke that the postmistress, Breda Byrne, was retiring. We had a public meeting to try to see if somebody could take it on. We tried to get a shop to take it on, but there was a very deep wound we could not heal. A scar is going to be there for many years to come and it is leaving a void in local communities th…

I concur with Deputy Kelly in relation to roads and the condition they are currently in. Roads have taken an absolute pounding in recent months as a result of relentless bad weather. We received funding last week, which is very much welcome, but the pace of the provision of funding and the pace of deterioration are at two very different levels. Will the Government consider a special supplementary allocation in light of the level of damage that has been done? Damage has been done to roads the like of which I have ne…

I will start by acknowledging the commitment of the Government to SNAs. Over €3 billion has been provided this year and there is a commitment to reach 26,000 SNAs by September. I also acknowledge all the other services and supports for education such as books, transport, uniforms or meals. The role of the SNA has evolved so much in recent years and now comes with a level of complexity around behavioural, emotional and social care needs. In reality, they go above and beyond every day, are vital in the running of the…

My question this morning is about referrals to children’s disability network teams, CDNTs. Will the Minister of State provide updates on staffing levels and vacancy rates across teams and how they are affecting services access for children?

I congratulate the Minister of State on her new Ministry and I wish her the best of luck with it. I agree with her on the need for early intervention. At the end of the day, we need results. Children and their families cannot wait and critical windows of intervention can be missed, which ends up with complex cases becoming more complex. My concern relates to with families, who have seen a child diagnosed and put on a list. They are waiting for a CDNT and they are not getting that support. The longer that goes on, t…

I thank the Minister of State for that update. Where they are being assessed and availing of a service within the CDNT, generally the feedback is positive but where they are not, they are ending up in a private system and having to pay. Alternatively, they are ending up in the primary care system. Where there is complexity of need, more often than not the facilities and services they need with regard to the specialities may not be available through primary care. That ends up putting additional burden on the primary…