As the Minister of State is well aware, there are an awful lot of problems regarding the provision of home packages. One of the big issues that strikes me is the privatisation of it. At the moment, about 60% of the home care packages are provided by private companies. It used to be the opposite way around. It was 60% to 40%. A total of 60% or 70% of packages in years gone by were provided by the State through the HSE. That is still the way it should be done if possible. While this Bill is about regulation, one of t…

I raise the issue of home help hours across the country, but particularly in my constituency. We have serious problems with people who have been allocated home help hours on the recommendation of the district nurse. They are allocated three calls per day of half an hour or an hour each, seven days per week, but staff cannot be got. No one can get anyone to work in the service. Even those providing services through agencies cannot get staff but it is particularly the case for HSE. I understand that SIPTU is ballotin…

-----provide these services, we might have a chance of being able to provide it to people.

Yes, Leitrim, Sligo and Donegal.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: condemns: — in the strongest possible terms, the catastrophic failure of the Irish Government to prevent the advancement of the European Union (EU)-Mercosur Trade Agreement, despite many years of warnings, repeated opportunities to build a blocking minority, and repeated appeals from Irish farming organisations, environmental experts and Sinn Féin; and — the role of the Taoiseach, who not only failed to challenge the Mercosur process, but who previously led the charge in misleading the pu…

The Government did nothing. Zero.

As well as it did in fisheries. It did a great job there.

Do not mention the fisheries deal.

Was that a trade-off?

At the nub of this issue is the reality that everybody knows, across Europe and the world, that the standards we are expected to meet in Europe when it comes to food production and the standards that are expected in Brazil and other Mercosur countries are not the same. We all know that. They are decades behind when it comes to food quality standards. The Minister of State knows that, I know that and everybody knows that and yet that is set aside. Public health is set aside for what? For the profit of a certain numb…

It is as simple as that.

It is a contradiction if the Government says it wants to improve the deal but it is also saying to the same people it also wants to block it. The Government cannot do both and we all know that. We hear it back. We do not live in a vacuum. We hear what goes on in the country and we hear what goes on in Europe also. The truth is, on one side of the Minister of State's mouth over here he was saying he wants to block the deal but when he went out to Europe and European meetings were happening with Irish officials they …

I thank the proposers of the Bill for bringing it before the House. It is important to debate all these issues, even the issues that separate and divide us. Every year at the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis we have an opportunity to discuss various motions and set out our party policy. That is where our position on this comes from. For many years we have had motions before Ard-Fheiseanna where it has been discussed. What normally happens is that various cumainn around the country discuss the motions in advance and have their d…

We are in a very difficult situation for coastal communities around the whole Irish seaboard. The Fisheries Council has caused absolute devastation. That is all it can be described as. It is going to be catastrophic for the fishing industry over the next year and more. The betrayal of the fishing community has gone on for decades. That is the reality. It is what we hear when we talk to fishers around the coastline, particularly inshore fishers and the people who are struggling to make a living. They are fishing sus…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill this evening. It is clear that it is an essential part of what we need to put in place for spending for the coming year and the function has to be put through here. We understand that. I take the opportunity to speak about some issues in in my constituency and in the north west in general, particularly capital projects. Capital projects are certainly something we need to see greater investment in because the parts of the country that have been left behind the longest …

I thank Deputy Whitmore and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this legislation. It is an appropriate time to introduce it given the work being done by the stakeholder group to look at all of these issues. The Government is talking about kicking the can down the road, as it does with so many of the Bills that come before the House. We all need to recognise that we have a difficulty in Ireland when it comes to puppy farming. That said, my understanding is that there is considered to be a market in Ireland for…

I want to speak on this issue because it will affect dozens, if not hundreds, of people in my constituency, particularly in west Sligo where an awful lot of people are now coming to the realisation that their homes have been affected by defective building materials and concrete blocks and, indeed, other concrete products that went into their houses. This is not new, of course. Donegal, Mayo and other areas, all the way down to Clare, have suffered the same. The scheme the Minister is putting forward does not go far…

Much of CETA has already been implemented. However, the part of it that we are dealing with today relates to the investment court structures that have been set up as a consequence. Obviously, Ireland is late coming to the table to ratify this agreement and we are discussing it now, but many other countries also have serious concerns in regard to that. We have courts in this country, in Canada and in Europe. There are already more than enough legal structures in place to deal with whatever disputes that might possib…

There are three issues I wish to raise in regard to housing. The first is homelessness; something we see across the length and breadth of the country, particularly in urban areas. I come from a rural part of the country, Sligo–Leitrim. We have a homelessness crisis. We have a lot of people sleeping out in doorways, which we did not have before. We have many people staying with relatives or friends or in their cars. It is something we have noticed in the past couple of months that has come to the fore. Big efforts a…

As the Minister is aware, there is great concern about the Mercosur trade agreement. Even before it comes into place, tens of thousands of tonnes of Brazilian beef are being imported into the European Union. Much of this beef has been produced using hormones and antibiotics that are banned in the European Union and in Ireland. The Irish Farmers' Journal and the Irish Farmers Association did great work going out there to investigate this and they have reported on it. Have we done similar investigations in Ireland in…