I congratulate Martin Hughes and he is very welcome here. I thank Martin Groves and Bridget Doody for their kindness when I was elected to the House a couple of months ago. I wish to bring up the issue of Irish Water. It is a big problem. I thank the Irish Water staff on the ground in County Donegal. They have been kind and courteous all summer, when there have been numerous problems, and have been very good to me. Parts of Carndonagh, Clonmany, Culdaff, Malin and Falcarragh had no water for most of the summer betw…

Today I want to raise the issue of Glenveagh National Park. We have a wonderful tourist attraction in Glenveagh Castle, located in Glenveagh National Park. We are now at the peak of the season but, unfortunately, the castle itself cannot accommodate visitors on Fridays and Mondays due to staff shortages. Approximately 200,000 people visit the castle every year and it is a vital part of the tourism plan for the national park. The problem is a lack of staff. We need more staff and this has been going on for the last …

That was on the other side. I was not going to let that go.

Now that I have Glenveagh covered, maybe the Leader could arrange for the national tolls to be done away with on Sunday for those travelling from Donegal. We have to pay for everything and it would be great if we could get through and down to Dublin without paying tolls. It is a costly day for every family and there will be four and five from every house travelling. I do not think there will be anybody left in Donegal. They will all be down. It is a proud day for Donegal and I am delighted that the team is in the f…

I want to raise an issue I brought up in the past but have got no feedback on it yet, namely, the issue of the benefit-in-kind scheme for the National Ambulance Service. The Minister, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, said she passed it on to the Minister for Finance. The Revenue Commissioners have to make the decision on this. It has been four months since first I brought it up in this House, which is plenty of time for them to make a decision on it. At the end of the day, do these people not understand rural Irel…

The Minister of State is welcome. I tabled a Commencement matter about this but I did not get it through yet. To add to what my fellow Senator said, the A5 is a big disappointment to us in Donegal. For decades, we have been waiting for it. We are really isolated in Donegal and we thought this was the way forward. I attended the football game a few Saturdays ago when Donegal and Tyrone were playing. I was inundated with people asking me what will we do and how we can fix the A5. From when I was a child, all I have h…

I express my sincere condolences to the family of Natalie and Ella McLaughlin who tragically lost their lives last week in County Donegal. I have met many wonderful community groups across Donegal and Ireland in the last few years. These groups do invaluable work caring for their loved ones day and night. One issue that keeps coming up is the cost of legal fees for people who have been diagnosed with dementia. People have enough to come to terms with when dealing with a diagnosis, telling their loved ones, consulti…

It was brought to my attention by Councillors Martin Harley, Jimmy Kavanagh and Michael Boyle that the funding for the apprenticeship programme for education and training boards, ETBs, nationally will be cut by €40 million this year. This means a large number of apprentices will not be in a position to go from phase 4 to phase 6. This is ridiculous at a time when the country has a massive shortage of skilled people. We need to address it quickly, even before the summer recess, because it means apprenticeships will …

I thank the Minister of State for coming in today and congratulate him on his appointment. It is long overdue. We have been 15 years without a junior Minister and the Government has shown that this is something that is a priority after so many years and that fishing and marine life are back on the agenda. It is great that the Minister of State has come in today, but the people looking in here who are at home in Killybegs and Castletownbere and all around the coast want answers. We have been too long waiting for ans…

I concur with my party colleagues. The Minister needs to reverse this. People are hard pressed the way things are with the cost of living. This really needs to be sorted. Another issue I will take up today is about Irish Water. North Inishowen, Malin and Carndonagh were without water for three to four days last week. Shops, hairdressers, businesses and households had no water for four days. If you try to get into contact with Irish Water, you get a phone number. When you get someone different in the call centre, th…

Today, I want to talk about defibrillators. They are a key part of any local community. However, we have a slight flaw here. If people do not recognise where they are or if they are not well advertised, it is very hard to know where to get them. I will give a wee example. Last year, I got a phone call about a woman who had a heart attack and they were looking for a defibrillator. I went to two places where I thought there were defibrillators. They were not there. They were gone. They were taken away to be fixed or …

I welcome the Minister of State for coming to take this matter. I am standing here today to highlight the growing demand for TFI Local Link bus services in County Donegal, particularly in the villages of Ardara, Glenties and Portnoo and other areas like the Doorin Line in Mountcharles and Lough Eske by Lough Eske Castle. The current action plan expires at the end of 2025, and I hope a new action plan will include improved services for the area of Glenties, Portnoo and Ardara. That route is No. 994. I also hope a pl…

I thank the Minister of State. It is great to hear that he will come to Donegal. The model there is working. There are just wee pockets that have been left behind. If they could be taken into consideration, we would have a scheme that would work for everybody. I know of four elderly people in Mountcharles who have no vehicle or cannot drive. A service to bring them into Donegal town would be great. I appreciate the Minister of State coming to the House to answer my questions. I hope Ardara, Glenties and Portnoo wil…

I rise to call for a review of the hedge cutting policy. Rural roads are closing all around the rural counties of Ireland. The farmers are brilliant, with 99% of them cutting their hedges when they need to be cut and looking after them well. However, there are people who are not doing it. There are landowners who are away and others who just do not do it and we need to do something about that. I was elected in June last year and from June to September, I was inundated with phone calls about hedge cutting along road…

Many of the issues have been addressed by my colleagues. I thank the Fine Gael Party for pushing for this motion to be taken today. We definitely need more college places, more dentists, more dental nurses and more dental hygienists. A wee girl in Donegal applied three times to UCC to get onto a dental hygiene panel but was turned down because only ten places were available. Only ten places were available at Trinity College too. We need to set up more courses for the young people who want to study dentistry. This g…

Today I raise the issue of the A5, on which more than 50 people have been killed since 2006. It was a dark day in Donegal yesterday when we heard that the A5 project was not proceeding. Transportation and connectivity are crucial for a big county such as Donegal. For people living in rural areas, it is the single biggest solution to rural isolation. Donegal has been patiently waiting on the A5 for a number of decades now. This news was devastating for Donegal, to say the least. Will the Leader use his office to ask…

I congratulate Buncrana Tidy Towns on winning the best kept large town in Ireland. I also want to wish Donegal International Rally the very best this weekend. It is a major event in Donegal and I want those listening to stay safe, obey the marshals and, if gardaí are in attendance, to obey everything asked of them. I call on the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide further information under the multiannual water programme 2024-25, specifically that pertaining to a group water scheme in La…

I wish to express my concern about the lack of funding for festivals. Like other counties, Donegal has lost some festivals this year that are not going ahead. These include the Donegal food festival, the Sea Sessions festival in Bundoran and the Donegal town festival, to name a few. The Rory Gallagher Festival has been a part of Donegal and Ballyshannon for over two decades. The town was Rory Gallagher's birthplace. Two weeks ago the festival marked the 30th anniversary of his death. It is now existing on a knife-e…

I congratulate St. Naul's pipe band, which celebrated 80 years in Inver last Saturday. It was a very good occasion and something I will remember for a long time. I also congratulate St. Naul's school in Keeloges, which won the biodiversity school of the year. I am proud to announce we beat Mayo, with Senator Duffy in front of me. Well done to the Donegal team. I am standing here to highlight the growing demand for TFI Local Link bus services, particularly in local villages like Ardara and Glenties in County Donegal…

We have a new thatching school centre located in our community hall in Portnoo in County Donegal. The school in Donegal is inundated with interested people after an open day. They have had huge success, with a lot of people attending, and it is their hope to proceed with a new streamlined course to get people trained up. They are interested in setting up a course, similar to the one offered by the education and training board, ETB, in Carlow-Kilkenny, to train thatchers in County Donegal. As the Leader might be awa…