I welcome the Minister of State. I will not rehash everything everybody has said. I agree with it. I will just say one thing to the Minister of State. It is coming to the stage now where young people will not actually wait to get their driving test. Perhaps they have secured employment and the mother and father are no longer fit to bring these people to work at 7.30 or eight o'clock in the morning, so now we see young people actually going to work without having done their driving test. We are actually forcing our …

I find myself raising something I raised here last week. We had a TB task force last week involving farming organisations, the Department of agriculture and the Minister. At the task force there were nine hours of discussions. No. 2 on the list was to promote badger biodiversity. No. 5 on the list was mandatory disclosure of TB herds categorisation. For anyone who does not understand this, categorisation means actually labelling a farmer in a mart where his animals are being sold. It means putting something up on a…

A bald head.

I raise once again the issue of the cost of bovine TB to the beef and dairy sectors and to general agriculture throughout Ireland. Bovine TB costs Irish farmers in excess of €150 million, according to a new report. I welcome the emergency TB summit meeting which the Minster, Deputy Martin Heydon, has called for. He intends to meet representatives from all the farming organisations to try to resolve this or come to some recognition that the cost of bovine TB to the sector is out of control. In trying to get this und…

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. I am delighted to see him as Minister of State in charge of the sector at this moment in time. Coming from a rural area, he understands at first hand the suffering and pain the recent storm caused to rural communities, private landowners and forestry in general. I compliment him on meeting people in County Cork recently and engaging with a number of stakeholders in the forestry sector. I believe he has engaged with many personally, on which I compliment him. I am …

I want to raise an issue that is very local and very personal not only to myself but to the people of Longford. St. Joseph’s Daycare Centre has just received its HIQA report. It is a damning report of how the service has been run into the ground. Our local councillor Peggy Nolan and other councillors in the area have highlighted this matter at local level. We lost our cathedral some years ago when it burned to the ground. It was rebuilt from the ashes. People call it the phoenix. This is our daycare centre, where t…

Happy birthday to the Minster of State, Deputy Moran, or Boxer as he is known in Westmeath. I said when he was elected first that I was delighted to see the Boxer back. I really am delighted to see him back because the people of Athlone will always remember him as the man who put himself in a boat and took families out of flooded areas and houses. Unfortunately, when they went to vote the following year, they forgot about him. They did not forget about him this time. I am glad to see that because the Minister of St…

I raise an alarming issue. We had another case of foot and mouth disease, FMD, in Hungary on 6 April. As everybody knows, the sector in Ireland has exported 100,000 cattle this year. The industry has grown and grown and beef is now at €8.40 per kilogram. We have tourists visiting Hungary, Slovenia and places like that. Have we the right measures in place to protect our industry when they come back? Have they been in contact with livestock? Have we disinfection areas at our ports and airports? Have we departmental o…

I wish to raise a number of issues affecting my local village of Drumlish and Ballinamuck. The credit union in Ballinamuck closed a little less than six months ago and it is now being raised that our local credit union in Drumlish is due to close in the coming months. We have also received notification that our local post office is in danger of closing and is under review. Our two local gardaí, Donal Madden and Justin Browne - I have permission to name them - who have given significant service to the community, hav…

I raise an issue of great concern for a sport I am heavily involved in, that is, the horse racing industry, the Irish draught horse and horse sport in general. Passports are an identification. Every equine animal must have a chip, a passport and some sort of identification for export for the racing industry or people in general to know exactly where that animal was brought and reared. There is a huge delay in the issuing of passports to the Irish draught horse foals association. We have horses and foals that last y…

I raise the matter of our forestry that has been damaged in the recent storm, which amounts to 5,000 ha on the ground. It seems we have not learned from our mistakes. In this situation, local enough to where I live in County Longford and at the border with Coole, County Westmeath, more forests are being planted to the very edge of a road. These are currently mounded in a peaty soil right to the edge of the road. Will the Minister of State in charge, Deputy Healy-Rae, come to the Chamber to address the current probl…

I welcome the Minister of State. I wish to address the N4 from Mullingar-----

The N4 runs from Mullingar to Longford. It goes from a dual carriageway to a single lane, which has created huge concerns and caused accidents over the past number of years. I welcome the funding for the bypass of Mullingar. I hope that will continue and be progressed in the future.

The Minister, Deputy Heydon, is very welcome to the Seanad Chamber. I compliment him on his Ministry thus far as since taking over, he has dealt with some issues in a very quick and astute manner-----

I am sharing two minutes with Senator Duffy. Ireland’s CAP strategic plan, CSP, for 2023 to 2027, underpins the sustainable development of Ireland's farming and food sector. Food production is a must to feed a growing population. Ireland has the best ecological system to produce a green, grass-fed beef, lamb, dairy and vegetable sector. It goes without saying that our product is sought all over globally. Regarding the CAP itself, I am glad the Minister mentioned simplification. I will go through it for those who do…

I wish to address an issue that has come to my attention regarding the Stena Line route being suspended from Rosslare to Cherbourg. As everybody knows, cattle prices in Ireland are now at a level they should have been at for the past ten years and we have seen live exports rise about 70%. We are now in the middle of calving season, where we depend on our exports to cater for the weanling trade as well as the calf trade into Spain and France. Irish Ferries now only travels on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The St…

I thank the Minister of State for being here today. As some of my colleagues said, he has delivered in some of his past roles. I thank him for all his work in the past and for engaging with elected representatives across Ireland. We welcome the increase for meals on wheels in the programme for Government. After the last storm and what we have seen, it is incumbent on us to make sure meals on wheels services have heater boxes and facilities where they can deliver hot meals to our elderly. That must be throughout Ire…

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I would like to discuss the issue of fly-tipping in local bogs and amenity areas. It has become a huge issue, not only in the county of Longford, but throughout Ireland. People are making huge amounts of money by lifting household and building site rubbish and fly-tipping it. This comes at a great cost to our local authorities. I call for a discussion on this issue and for greater powers to be given to local authorities with regard to cameras at black spots and other areas that are known …

I wish to raise the issue of TB testing and TB sector in Ireland. At this moment in time, 6.2% of the national herd is closed due to TB. If we define this 6.2%, it is late testing in animals and cows brought in that had not been tested in a 60-day period. They are part of the 6.2%. Skin testing is usual way of testing animals. However, when an animal goes down following a skin test, the Department carries out a blood test on this animal. Does that give us a clear indication that the skin test is accurate? Many of t…

I compliment all the small shopkeepers, community centres and local businesses that gave credit to people who wished to purchase food when this crisis happened and the card machines went down. People are so dependent on card machines. Our local shopkeepers and businesses took out a little book and wrote in credit notes for people whereby they could purchase food. That has to be recognised. Not only did they give water, but they also gave food and credit to people, unlike some of our bigger stores which would not gi…