Every housing target and every infrastructure project in the country depends on a skilled workforce. Instead of opening the doors and making the apprenticeship system much more attractive we are actually going in the opposite direction. I believe apprentices are treated like second-class citizens in that third level space. There is a significant lack of capacity and this is causing significant delays. The contribution fee has actually increased this year. Phase 4 apprenticeships starting in January will be hit with…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. I welcome this amendment in relation to variations of the local development plan. It is a practical step and it shows a level of flexibility regarding planning, which has become increasingly inflexible. While we are discussing this, I ask the Minister to consider allowing local councillors and local authorities more autonomy and more responsibility in relation to development plans and the direction of the areas. Councillors stand for election and are elected by loc…

First, I acknowledge the great work of Mayo County Council over many years working with a very difficult scheme. I particularly acknowledge the work of Clodagh Gleeson, who has helped many families through what is the most horrendous time. She has worked tirelessly, day and night, to assist many families in the most stressful time of their lives. This is such an important issue. It affects thousands of people and their homes. This issue has been going on for so many years and yet this Bill was only published by the…

I welcome the opportunity to speak. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. This is a really important topic. The Coast Guard has been shouting into the wind for far too long. It is only right that we have the opportunity today to put this issue front and centre. I am sincerely grateful to all the coastal communities across Mayo. I thank all the voluntary groups, including the Coast Guard, the CHC crews, the RNLI, the Civil Defence, Mountain Rescue, the many community first responders and so many other v…

I welcome the courageous individuals in the Gallery who stood up, such as Maurice McCabe, John Barrett and Ciarán Kenneally. These people and many others, including the Women of Honour, have done a tremendous service to the State. They showed incredible courage and conviction. In every case, the State used every lever in its power to smear these individuals. I rise with a heavy heart and a sense of responsibility. What we are addressing here is not a technical matter. It is an indictment of the State by the people …

I rise today to speak for children with disabilities and their families. Children's disability network teams, CDNTs, are meant to be the backbone of early intervention in this country, but that backbone is well and truly broken. The teams are chronically understaffed and the consequences are devastating. In Mayo, no CDNT is fully staffed. Mayo north has four full-time vacancies, Mayo south has three and a half vacancies and Mayo west has almost four vacancies. Unbelievably, the HSE tried to remove one of these vaca…

What about vacancies-----

We have serious issues in relation to cost overruns in this country. Inquiries, commissions of investigation and tribunals have cost the taxpayer millions of euro. The fact the Taoiseach is not here this evening is reflective of that. He is the line Minister in relation to this and he should be here to answer questions. Millions of euro are pumped into this system and yet so many of these inquiries fail to deliver justice. The Moriarty tribunal was established in the late 1990s, the final report was published in 20…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Health insurance reports show that the average premium rates rose by over 12% in 2024. Some plans even jumped by 25%, a quarter, for some individuals. The average adult premium in the country now is €1,800 - an incredible figure. The Health Insurance Authority is preparing to raise the levies again further by another 10% on insurance premiums. This is an enormous cost for individuals who are above the very low threshold for a medical card and find themselves grapplin…

The people of Mayo, represented so courageously by the Mayo Pyrite Action Group, are living in homes that crumble around them. Their walls weep damp, their children breathe mould and their lives are suspended in uncertainty, yet the Government offers schemes that are actually defective in themselves. They exclude, they delay and they diminish. The families are not looking for charity. They are looking for justice, they are looking for 100% redress, they are looking for retrospective payments and they are looking fo…

This is a family that has children with disabilities. They are in immense difficulty, with rodents in the house.

I am asking the Taoiseach what he can do for this family.

Is he going to develop a new scheme to actually include these families that are so excluded by the scheme?

But the cut-off-----

I have raised this many times previously but the water quality in Clew Bay, County Mayo is being massively damaged at the moment. Raw sewage from Newport town is collected and stored in containers. When the high tide comes in to Clew Bay, it washes raw sewage on to the shoreline. Everyone is in agreement that a water treatment plant is needed for the town and it has been in the planning process for decades. There are significant issues in relation to the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, which is not meetin…

I want to raise concerns about the Supreme Court ruling in Britain on religious education and collective worship in the North of Ireland. Aontú is a pluralist republican party. I believe it is really important that all parents can choose the ethos of the school they wish to send their children to. Catholic schools played a significant role in the lives of nationalist families. They were a safe place for Catholics in the North and promoted the Irish language and games.

Will the Taoiseach engage with his counterpart-----

-----in Britain to ensure we can retain our Catholic schools in the North? Schools can be an inclusive-----

-----place and a religious place.

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak on this today. It is almost four years since the invasion occurred. It is important that we acknowledge in the House the role Ireland has played over the four years. In particular, I commend the Irish citizens and communities who have worked so hard on integrating people from Ukraine and supporting them, right across my constituency and right across Ireland. What is happening is utterly barbaric and the loss of life is really difficult to comprehend. I spoke to a Ukraini…