Do I have three and a half minutes?

Maybe the Leas-Cheann Comhairle can stop me at three and a half minutes.

I wish to point out something to the Minister. While I welcome the payments that have been made, they fall very short. I refer, in particular, to the cost of disability or the failure to address the cost of disability in this legislation. There is a disconnect between the Departments of Social Protection and housing. The Minister will know that many of our constituents in Mayo - I refer to those who are tenants - got letters in the past number of weeks to say that their contribution to Mayo County Council, and, ind…

Instead, what we will see are wage cuts, reduced hours and even job losses to cover the cost of this scheme. This is the opposite to what we should be doing to strengthen employment.

Sorry, I was nearly there.

I thank my colleague, Deputy Daly, for bringing this motion to the House. I can hardly believe what the Minister of State read out because, basically, the thread running through it is that there is no problem, and he is not going to do anything to fix it-----

-----because there is no problem in the first instance. Right through it, it goes on about how much better off people are. I can tell the Minister of State that people in County Mayo certainly do not feel better off. Despite the Government's lack of investment in public transport, however, it seems completely unaware that many people have no choice but to drive. In rural areas and in my own constituency of Mayo, there is more often than not no public transport option or no bus routes or train line and no alternativ…

Fastway workers, subcontractors and franchisees were left high and dry last week. Some of them are outside the gate today and some of them are in the Gallery with Deputies Ruth Coppinger and Paul Murphy. They were told they would not be paid during the 30-day receivership period. It is eight weeks before Christmas. They cannot apply for another job. They cannot get jobseeker's allowance. They are afraid to take supplementary welfare allowance without having written confirmation that it will not affect their redunda…

Government Ministers have to be active in this space.

But what are they going to do?

This gruelling presidential campaign will result in an Irish President representing all of the people living on this island and the global family of Irish citizens. She will endeavour to make us all proud, no matter where we live, yet the electorate is confined to Irish citizens living in the Twenty-six Counties. Even that franchise is restricted because many students will not be able to make it home in time to vote, there are workers living too far away from their designated polling booths and there are people who…

I raise the issue of home help, particularly in County Mayo. There are 265 homes waiting for home help. These are people who are deemed to need home help to be able to stay in their own home, but they do not have it. Home and Community Care Ireland, HCCI, is asking for two things, which I too advocate. It states that waiting lists are too often treated as a HSE operational issue, and not a political issue like children's assessments of need, outpatient appointments or accident and emergency trolleys. That must chan…

For months, we in Sinn Féin and our colleague Deputy Mac Lochlainn have been calling on the Government to allow statements on fisheries to take place in this House. In that context, I welcome the opportunity today to finally debate the future of an industry that is at breaking point. This is an industry that has been failed by successive Governments and abandoned by Brussels, but we have reached the point, as a result of years of neglect, where it is in crisis. Across our coastal communities from Donegal to Cork an…

I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, in this space. I recognise it and his interest in reunification. That is important because what we are discussing is much bigger than party politics. It is reckless and negligent for the Taoiseach not to play the role he needs to play right now in terms of preparation. Everybody agrees that we need to prepare. Everywhere one goes, one hears that we need to prepare but that preparation is not being done in the way it needs to be done by Government. Th…

To conclude this debate, I thank everybody who has contributed tonight, including Government Members. It is important. What is obvious from it is, exactly as it says in the motion, is that we need a Green Paper on Irish unity, a White Paper, an Oireachtas joint committee dedicated to reunification and citizens' assemblies. Were we to do that, even in itself, we would make much progress in this space. We all agree that we need to prepare. Let us not go over the old ground. Let us agree here and now that we need to p…

I welcome the opportunity to talk about the National Training Fund because, as the Minister will know, we have long wanted to unlock this fund. It is, as was said, the fund that employers and hard-pressed businesses have paid into. They feel they have got very little back for the payments that have been made and they have been seeing the figures accumulate over the years. I have some concerns about this fund and what the Minister is proposing for it. We need further discussion on the detail of how this will be done…

I am very happy to co-sign this motion today with Deputy Ward and my colleagues, and I do so on behalf of the people of County Mayo and on behalf of the people for whom I have been fighting for the past 15 years. It is 15 years since we first noticed the houses start to crumble in Erris. Pat the Cope Gallagher is in the Chamber, and he will know many of those houses and families impacted. I am appalled by this countermotion the Government has tabled today and by the language that is in it. I will go through some of…

There are many more things I can say in relation to this, but the Minister needs to wake up. I appeal to all the TDs who are casting their vote against this motion to think long and hard about the suffering these homeowners and these children and families have had to endure through no fault of their own. It is absolutely disgraceful.

I am sorry, we have been fighting it for 15 years.

I have listened really intently to every word that has been said here today by all of the speakers. We are here today specifically because of scoliosis and the promises that were made. Families were threatened, ignored, and told to go away. They were told that they were the problem. They were reported to Tusla and it was all under the Tánaiste's watch. Children and young adults were told to go home and to go to their GPs. They were told to go home while their ribs and bones crushed their lungs until they could not …