Brian Stanley
Laois · Independent · Ireland
“We are going through an epidemic of domestic abuse and violence. In 2025, the Garda had over 67,000 calls in relation to domestic abuse. Seven women were murdered last year, and in many of those cases, it was by a family member, a partner or somebody known closely to the victim.”
“Those fundamentals cannot be ignored. Are supporters of partition really saying that we can continue on this small island with 14 different departments in each jurisdiction working back to back, often in competition with each other? Are they saying that having Twenty-six Counties in the EU and Six Counties out of it makes economic sense?”
“Those who still argue for partition ignore the fact that in a reunified 32-county state, the pension liabilities of those workers in the Six Counties who accrued pension entitlements by paying into the British national insurance system and the British exchequer or employment pensions would receive that portion of their pension liability.”
“Unfortunately, I do not get any sense of urgency from the Minister of State that we are going to have laws introduced in September or October, and that is the crucial issue. Yes, we have rules now, and she listed them out in relation to the signs. However, they are being ignored.”
“The cost is €2.6 billion for the diplomatic mission alone. There is also MI6 and the massive military machine and capacity, including the army, the navy and the Royal Air Force. I saw a figure of €60.2 billion for 2025 and 2026. That amount is due to rise sharply to meet its increased military capabilities.”
“The issue I am raising with the Minister of State is the increase in the number of injuries, including those involving young children, relating to e-scooters and e-bikes. Ten have been killed.”
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“Will his Government commit to the capital funding needed to construct a new primary care centre in Portlaoise? The site and the design are there. Will the Government provide the funding for new health centres for Mountrath and Rathdowney and upgrades in Borris-in-Ossory and Graiguecullen? Will the Government increase the number of GPs per county? There is a commitment in the programme for Government to explore the recruitment of HSE-employed GPs. We need to go further than exploring it; we need to do it. The programme for Government states, "Explore the recruitment of HSE-employed GPs." We need to start employing a cohort of those also.”
“I thank the Taoiseach for his reply, but we also need GPs. Mike O'Callaghan of the Irish College of General Practitioners said that we clearly have a deficit in our GP numbers and he listed out a number of counties, including Laois. The last time I checked, we were way below what is required. Primary care centres and health centres in other countries include a whole range of services - physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dental, chiropody, mental health services, etc. - but we are miles away from that comprehensive primary care model. We have neither the staff nor the facilities. I agree with the Taoiseach that primary care is the cornerstone. He said 79 primary care centres have been funded.”
“It is the same for the centre in Rathdowney, which is totally unsuitable. A new centre needs to be put in place there. We are moving at a snail’s pace. The centre in Borris-in-Ossory needs to be replaced, and there is now an opportunity to locate it within the old courthouse, which is being refurbished by the county council. In Graiguecullen, the position is the same. There is talk of making it the health centre for the south-east corner of Laois, taking in Swan, Newtown, Crettyard, Killeshin and Arless. However, this cannot happen because, as things stand, we cannot even cater for the population of Graiguecullen.”
“Basically, we have to have health centres and GPs to staff them, in addition to ancillary staff, whom we do not have in this country, to manage and man them and ensure the services are available. In County Laois, we are short of the basics on both counts. We have no primary care centre in Portlaoise, a town with a population that exceeds that of Kilkenny. It now has a population in the region of 30,000. We have health centres in Mountrath, Borris-in-Ossory, Rathdowney and Graiguecullen that need to be replaced or upgraded. In the case of Portlaoise, the design is done but the project requires capital funding to move it on. It is located on a perfect site. The centre in Mountrath is too small and is outdated. It is being talked about but the project needs to be moved on.”
“Despite the best efforts of GPs and staff working in the sector across the State, we are not within a country mile of having a properly resourced and fully functioning primary care system. The effects of this are many. There is a lack of timely intervention and minor health issues are becoming chronic, finishing up in hospitals. We have emergency departments clogged up with people who cannot afford to go to a GP because they do not have a medical card. In some cases, they cannot even get a GP even when they have a medical card or are going privately. On occasion, people who come to me state they cannot access a GP even though they are paying privately. Treatments that should be available in primary care centres and local health centres are simply not available. Therefore, it is up to the hospital, which is where people are going.”
“I, too, welcome Cara and Mark to the Public Gallery today. I will be speaking about the issue that concerns them later in the day. It is a scandal that Cara has to be here again to protest on the issue. The issue I want to raise with the Taoiseach is the absence of primary care. It is over eight years since the Sláintecare plan was agreed for a public health system by all parties in this House. It was due to be fully up and running by the end of this year, by 31 December, but, of course, we are so far from the full implementation of its recommendations and what was set out in it. Nowhere is this more starkly seen than in the area of primary care. Primary care is sparse right throughout the State, particularly in County Laois.”
“The average estimated wait time is 27 weeks, as the Minister of State confirmed. For an invitation, which does not guarantee a test, the wait time is six months in Birr in Offaly and more than six months in Portlaoise. There could be an additional six, seven, eight or nine weeks before people actually get the test. I have the figures that show this. I tried it myself on the website to see what would happen and it confirmed that it takes more than seven months to get an invitation. The numbers waiting for a test are shocking. There are 1,092 people waiting in Portlaoise and only 216 of these are scheduled for a test. The statutory maximum time is not being met and that is a breach of the service level agreement.”
“Take, for example, home help as typical. People in construction and delivery drivers all need a clean driver licence. There has been a big crackdown on driving with a provisional licence and the Garda is very active on it. We accept this needs to happen. People cannot be on a provisional licence forever. There is also the fact that a lot of young drivers pay sky-high insurance because they cannot get a driver test, or a second or third driver test to get over the line to get a full driver's licence. We need to deal with this. It is very important that we improve and shorten testing times. This has gone on for years. I and other Deputies have raised this many times over several years with various Ministers but it has got worse. The figures for those waiting for a test, and the length of time they are waiting, are absolutely shocking.”
“The importance of the driving licence issue cannot be overstated, in particular for workers in rural areas. For example, in County Laois, many workers have to get to work in Portlaoise, Mountmellick, Portarlington or Graiguecullen and they are travelling from outlying areas such as the Swan, Ballinakill, Errill, Rathdowney and other areas where there is no public transport early in the morning, or any area in the Slieve Bloom mountains, such as Camross, Clonaslee and places like that. It is important that we fix this. Public transport will never cover all townlands, and I accept that. We are trying to link up the villages and great progress has been made on this with Local Link, but often a village is five miles away and people need a car to get there. People also need a driver's licence for their employment.”
“Imagine the uproar if IBEC, the Irish Hotels Federation, the IFA or other organisations, which legitimately have a right to collectively negotiate, were told by Government that they could not represent their members and that it could only deal with them individually. There would be uproar in this country. It is time to close the loophole in Irish law. It is time to bring industrial relations into the 21st century. It is time to catch up with our EU neighbours. I heard the Minister of State say that the Government has committed to bringing in collective bargaining. I ask him not to back-pedal on this. He should put his foot on the accelerator and drive this on. We need to move into the 21st century with industrial relations in the country. I appeal to all TDs to support this good Bill.”
“One group of workers will be played off against another, which is common practice. In some cases, unionised workers will be cleared out of a business and replaced in a relatively short time by lower-paid, non-unionised workers. This can be seen happening around this country. In the beef industry, that happened in some beef plants. While previous Ministers have stated that they fully support the right of any worker to join a trade union and be active therein, those are hollow words, which have no meaning, because they cannot be brought into effect. If asked about joining a union, workers, in many cases, will express a fear of being targeted by their bosses because of being a union member.”
“The only power that a worker has is through combining with their co-workers so they cannot be picked off individually. This tactic is often used and I have witnessed it in workplaces. Hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers have no representation and very few rights. The percentage of workers in the private sector who are now unionised is very low. This needs to change. In many sectors, employment has become casualised, with no set hours. Short-term contracts are common as are so-called employment agencies. Workers' rights in many cases have gone backwards and that needs to change. Hard-won basic rights have been undermined by union-busting activities. Workers who join a trade union are sometimes targeted by their employers and victimised. There are good examples of that around this State.”
“I thank Deputies Paul Murphy and Ruth Coppinger for bringing forward this important and timely Bill. As a State, Ireland is well behind other EU states in terms of the rights of workers to be represented by a trade union. In most other EU states this is legally guaranteed. Ireland is completely out of line with most of our European neighbours. This right has been resisted by successive Governments and big business down through the decades. While the Constitution guarantees the right to be able to join a trade union, an employer does not have to recognise it and can simply refuse the right of staff to collective bargaining and the protection that union membership offers. Employers have greater social and economic powers than workers. That is just a simple fact.”
“I ask the Minister of State to look at the money that went into Irish Water in the past 12 years and think about the fact that if it had been given to local authorities, we would have very good water infrastructure rather than what we have at the moment. We need an investment plan for County Laois, and we need to move on with housebuilding.”
“In relation to electricity, the ESB has flagged that demands of data centres will continue to curtail the amount of energy in reserve for housing developments. Over one fifth of the supply is taken up by data centres. I am not completely against them, but we have to have a bit of balance. We cannot expand the number of houses to be delivered in many localities because of our shaky grid and capacity, with overdependence on a few sources of generation. The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland has flagged this, as have the ESB, Uisce Éireann and local councillors. When he was Minister, I argued with Phil Hogan on the floor of the Dáil about the establishment of Irish Water.”
“Small schemes could be developed in many of the towns and villages I mentioned. The Government says that not enough land is zoned for housing. The Minister of State and I know it is not in the right place in some areas, but there is substantial land zoned. The Department has informed me there is 46,300 ha available. That is over 100,000 acres. If you work it out, hundreds of thousands of new houses could be built on this land across the State. In County Laois, 1,145 ha is zoned for mixed use. Assuming 700 ha of that could be used for housing at 20 units per hectare, that would provide 14,000 houses in County Laois alone. There are some places where it is constrained and where land will need to be zoned. Portlaoise is one of those places.”
“The four on red alert are Borris-in-Ossory, Ballinakill, Swan and Timahoe. Those on amber alert include Mountmellick, a substantial town that needs increased capacity, Clonaslee and Arless. This needs to be addressed because we cannot have homes without infrastructure. This is hampering housebuilding in these towns and villages. The Government needs to set out a clear investment plan for County Laois to address this. I have raised with the Minister of State previously the fact that low-interest loans need to be made available to small builders. We need to activate small builders and developers to build small housing schemes in these towns and villages that would meet much of the demand that is there. Not everybody wants to live in a city. Many of these people work locally and it would save them having to commute.”
“It has taken a long time to get the Government to accept that there is a housing crisis. The Minister of State's predecessors would not accept it, but I think it is now accepted. We have huge constraints when it comes to water, wastewater and electricity infrastructure. In County Laois, the county I am most familiar with, 13 towns and villages require improved capacity. I will name them. In Portarlington, people have particularly complained to me of the lack of water pressure in Slí na Móna and the Ballymorris Road. Mountrath town, Stradbally, Rathdowney, Ballylynan, Durrow, Killenard, Borris-in-Ossory, Ballinakill, Castletown, Ballybrittas, Newtown and Graiguecullen all require improved capacity. In wastewater, the situation is even more tricky. There are four towns and villages on amber alert and four on red.”
“The Minister of State knows the difficulties in trying to deal with Irish Water. Money needs to be given directly to local authorities to put in the infrastructure into small towns such as Mountmellick, Mountrath, Rathdowney, Graiguecullen, Ballylynan, Portarlington and Abbeyleix. Many of them are connected by rail so they are very easy to get around. We need the infrastructure to go into those towns. We need to get the foot off local authorities and stop micromanagement of them. We need to use the same plans throughout the Twenty-six Counties in trying to rapidly build up and speed up delivery. If you want to quickly produce something that is good quality, you mass produce. That is what we need to do.”
“I have told previous Ministers that and I am telling Deputy Cummins that as the new Minister of State. That is the first thing. The second is that we need builders, in particular small builders. The Minister of State knows that in rural towns and villages, small builders need the low-cost finance that is available to the larger builders. We also need to accelerate the apprenticeship programmes. We need to stop micromanaging the local authorities with regard to social, affordable and cost-rental housing. Infrastructural deficits need to be addressed, particularly the infrastructural deficits in water supply. I ask the Minister of State to think about this. His constituency counterpart, Phil Hogan, created Irish Water. I was Opposition spokesperson on that at the time. I argued with him about it over several days.”
“I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment. The revision of the national development plan is supposedly to accelerate the delivery of housing in particular. There are a couple of things needed to accelerate that. The first is the need to replicate existing plans so the same plan for social and affordable housing and other houses can be used in Waterford, Laois or Donegal. The private sector is doing this. If we look at what it is building, it is replicating the plans all over the country. However, what is happening with local government and Government-sponsored housing is that it is back to a blank canvas every time. It is costing between 10% and 15% more to build houses and it is slowing it down. The Department in the Custom House is micromanaging the local authorities and it needs to stop.”
“Castlecuffe National School is happy that it is getting the first special needs class but it is facing a situation where it will have to put the children involved into a general purpose classroom or use the PE hall. It is the same in Killeshin. The school there is working to put a contingency plan in place due to the lack of accommodation and is being pressurised to set up in the PE hall. Modular buildings need to be put in place. That is the message I want to give the Minister this morning. Laois is happy to have new classes but the schools involved need the physical space to accommodate them.”
“There are emails sent to all the Government TDs. Nine such classes have been announced, but where will the Minister put them? Many of the schools have made it clear that they do not have the space to provide them. This has to be rectified by September. We have 16 or 17 weeks to get this right. Announcements are no good it there is no space for classes. The Rock National School, for example, is going to have to find space in the playground for modular classrooms. Management at the school has stated that it will be a challenge to get the new buildings in place by August. The families have contacted the school already. If the classes are oversubscribed, which is likely, the school is on record as stating that there will be a problem.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this progressive motion. It is a case of here we go again. We have a shortage of school places for children with special needs, and there are huge gaps. In addition to the obstacles with the lack of nearby school classes in their catchment area, children are experiencing exclusion and extended absences from school. In some cases, they are receiving no supports. The impact of that disengagement from schools is catastrophic for the children and for their families. If a child does not have a place and he or she has a special need or disability, he or she is more likely to be placed on reduced hours. While there has been some investment in this area, we need to see more. In County Laois, the Government is constantly announcing special classes. There are press releases issued.”
“First, he needs to expand the number of training courses in speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychology and therapy assistants and dietetics. Second, he needs to recruit people for full-time positions and retain them in the services. Third, the Taoiseach mentioned the gaps in services. The gap is 100% in those therapies in networks 11 and 12. Someone needs to look at this. This should not be the case. There are no services in some of those therapies in Laois.”
“I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. Yes, the education situation has improved over the last two and a half decades. I accept that. We have more to do there but we were starting from zero where we had nothing. However, in the HSE overall, there is a great problem between budget and services. No one will dispute that a considerable budget is going in. Certainly, I will not argue with it. There is a problem at the other end when we see what comes out in terms of services. There is a fog in the middle. Where does the money go? There is a question mark around that. It is the same with these therapies. When the Minister for Finance was deputising for the Taoiseach here a few weeks ago, he told me that the Taoiseach was chairing a Cabinet subcommittee on this. I would say three small things to the Taoiseach.”
“We have to increase the pipeline of staff coming into the services. The programme for Government includes the commitment I have mentioned, but there are immediate actions that can be taken on that.”
“Then we had the crash and then the uplift in 2014 and 2015 and we are still in the same situation. This has to be sorted out. Children are missing out at crucial periods in their development. We know, as does the Taoiseach and everyone who looks at these issues, that early intervention is key, but it is not happening. This is putting enormous pressure on parents and families. They are coming to TDs and when they have to come to TDs, councillors or anyone else, the system is failing and we must address it. Some voluntary organisations such as Laois Offaly Families for Autism are trying to plug that gap by providing therapy and assessments but they can only do so much because they are voluntary organisations. As an Oireachtas, we have a responsibility – the Opposition and the Government – to sort this out.”
“For families with children on the autism spectrum, or with ADHD, dyspraxia or similar conditions, trying to get an assessment is a problem but trying to get the therapies is a bigger problem. This has to be sorted. The programme for Government says on page 92 that the Government will “increase staffing, train more therapists and prioritise children’s disability teams”. I welcome that commitment but the Taoiseach has been in government for most of the last 30 years. The Taoiseach was Minister for Health at one stage and I have to bring it to his attention that right through that period, this crisis has pertained. I remember during the boom of the Celtic tiger, parents coming to me as a county councillor who were desperately trying to get services. It goes back to that boom in the late nineties.”
“I raise the child disability network teams and the chronic situation regarding their staffing. There are vacancies across the State. They run between 22% and 29% according to replies I have received from the HSE. In County Laois, however, the situation is far worse. I will read the figures for the shortages: occupational therapy in network 12, which covers most of the county, is 33% staffed; speech and language therapy is 46% staffed; physiotherapy is 50% staffed; therapy assistants and dietetics are zero staffed. In network 11, which covers the north of the county and part of Offaly, the situation with dietetics is the very same. Therapy assistants and behaviour therapists both have zero staffing.”
“This is more money for Irish Water that should be going to the local authorities. The problem in the first place was the establishment of Irish Water. We need to keep water services in public ownership and enshrine this and the right to water in the Constitution. Water charges must be ruled out for good. I appeal to the Minister to do that. He still has a chance to do it and redeem the Government. We could put this issue to bed once and for all.”
“Millions of euro were wasted on installing meters to turn Irish Water into a cash cow. This is what it was about. The hope was that sometime in the future it could be hived off to the private sector and privatised. The real waste has been on establishing and running Irish Water. I ask the Minister to picture this scenario for a moment. Count up the billions of euro that went into Irish Water during the past ten years. If those billions of euro had been given to the local authorities to fix the piping system and the sewage treatment plants, then we would be a long ways on. I got a reply to a parliamentary question in recent weeks. It said an extra €1 billion is going to Irish Water from the sale of AIB shares. The sale brought in €3 billion and €1 billion is going to Irish Water.”
“There is an allowance there now, with an excess over that of 1.7 times the average use. I find people generally are conserving water. I refer to the promises made before the election on the triple lock. Many people took the Government at its word on those promises. It was the same with HRT treatment. People took its word on that issue too. I heard what was said. A commitment in respect of water charges was made before the election. What will happen to it? Can we trust the Government on this issue? The real waste is the cost of the charging system and the waste of money on domestic water meters for houses instead of neighbourhood meters. This was pointed out on the floor of the Dáil. I remember pointing it out to Phil Hogan at the time because that was what engineers were telling me then, and are still telling me.”
“I heard the Minister's words on this Bill. Words are one thing, but action is another. There is an opportunity here to nail this issue once and for all and ensure domestic water charges will not be introduced. I campaigned against domestic water charges and I will do so again. There was major opposition to them in all counties, including in County Laois where communities rallied all over, and we defeated them. Regarding the suggestion that water charges will help to conserve water and address maximum usage, there is no evidence of it. Upgraded pipework is what will do this. We must keep water services in public ownership. As I remember, the Minister's party in 2010 proposed setting up a utility, Irish Water. It was followed up by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in government.”
“There is going to be a shortage of school bus drivers. It is already happening. People have finished in the past few weeks. I spoke to a person last night who was forced into compulsory retirement. They have been driving trucks and buses all their lives and never had an accident. We need to give these people the option. I ask the Minister of State to take that back and for the civil servants to take note of it. The Bill is a positive step forward. We need to go further in separate legislation to bring in the mandatory right to collective bargaining and to be represented by a trade union. I will be supporting this Bill.”
“In answer to a parliamentary question the relevant Minister, Deputy O'Brien, told me that there is a commitment to delivery of a skilled workforce to maintain and operate public transport vehicles, and said that the Department "has established a Public Transport Workforce Taskforce to identify options to assist with resolving these issues". With all respect to civil servants, when you start setting up interdepartmental task forces there is a problem. It is a straightforward problem. People over 70 cannot drive the school bus with ten or 12 kids on it. If they pass a strict medical test and an eyesight test each year, let them continue driving until the age of 75. That is an option. There is going to be a mighty shortage. The Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, will hear about this in Cavan-Monaghan in August.”
“In regard to the clause in Part 3 of the Bill enabling recourse to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, that redress is welcome. I acknowledge that. I would like to mention a situation I have mentioned in the House before. People over 70 years of age who drive school buses are forced to retire. They cannot drive the school bus anymore but they can drive the big coach to the swimming pool or to Dublin for a tour or to Cork or Belfast anytime during the day. I ask that this be taken back. I say this to every Minister.”
“In some cases, people have worked for 50 years, having started working when they were 15 or 16 years of age. While not applicable to this legislation, the Government needs to move on with the commitment to bring in the mandatory right to be represented by a trade union and the right to collective bargaining. We are out of sync with other EU states on this. We are currently only one of three or four who does not have it and we need to move on this. We have the quirky situation that you have a right to join a trade union - in some jobs you could be sacked for that - but you do not have the right to be represented by a trade union and the right to collective bargaining. Many workers are being mistreated. We need to provide that protection for them.”
“The problem with forced retirement is that you are forced in this situation, in many cases, against your will and are forced into economic dependency. The worst thing is to have to go to a labour exchange and sign onto the dole. We cannot continue forcing this on people. We must give people the option. It is legitimate that we do so. There is no justification for continuing the way we are. The unions broadly welcome this Bill and it will be well received. This will be easy enough to do in the public sector. It is already there and you can continue to work until you are 70. In the private sector, it may not be as clear. Some private employers, however, recognise the value of these workers if they have skills built up over many years.”
“I welcome this Bill. I want to be positive about it as it is only right. We have a situation where when people reach 65 years of age, most jobs say, "That is it, you are finished". There is the indignity of having to go to the local dole office. We need to end that and give people the option, if they so wish, to continue working. This Bill seeks to address this and while there are a few things I would go a bit further with, it is a good step forward. On top of that, we have a well-known shortage of skills. Many people who are forced into retirement have certain skills we need badly, particularly in the trades. That knowledge needs to be passed on. People should have a right to work until 70 years of age if they so wish.”
“There is an immediate problem - the management of the school and staff have pointed this out for a long time - and there is an immediate solution to provide two prefab buildings. There is space on the site for that. Can the Taoiseach get the Minister for Education, Deputy McEntee, and the Department of Education to take this seriously?”
“The issue I wish to raise with the Taoiseach is the need for special needs places, and specifically the case of St. Francis School in Portlaoise. There is a big commitment in the programme for Government regarding special schools and increasing places. We all welcome this but it must be more than aspirations. St. Francis School is a relatively new facility but it was too small the day it was built. There are children going there from all over Laois and the school is in urgent need of extra space. There are nine children due to leave the school this year but there are 45 children waiting to get in, and this number is increasing. The school has been granted four extra classrooms and I welcome that fact but this will take time. We know in this House that this must go through several hoops and stages.”
“This project is ready to go. The Minister of State mentioned that projects were being funded that had started or were almost ready to go, but this is ready to go. The studies and the groundwork have been done. The Minister of State's party leader was down just before the election. I always like to take people at their word. Along with Deputy Aird, he gave a firm commitment - I saw it quoted publicly before the election - that this would be built under the national development plan. Will the Minister of State remind the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and her party leader, Simon Harris, of the fact? I have already said it to Deputy Aird. The Minister of State might remind the Tánaiste of the commitment. Local people really want to see that, particularly all the people who voted for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in Mountmellick.”
“I thank the Minister of State. She mentioned the billions of euro that will be there between 2026 and 2030. The bypass did not make it into the 2025 period. We have come to the end of that now. The new funding announced a number of weeks ago did not include it either. I know some of those on the list, such as the Adare bypass, are badly needed, but there is a long list of other ones there as well. Mountmellick and Laois did not seem to figure in it at all. It needs to be considered for inclusion in the review. The Minister of State outlined the amount of money due to be spent between now and 2030 and I welcome that. The national development plan is the opportunity and that will be signed off on by Ministers. The Minister of State knows that. It will be signed off on by the senior Minister and the rest of the Cabinet.”
“You cannot put cycle lanes on the existing streets of the town. That is just a fact of life. It is too dangerous. We need to get people using cycle lanes and bicycles. It is an important project. Mountmellick is a substantial town with a large population. It is lacking in industry and infrastructure. This would benefit Mountmellick as well as travellers and drivers, particularly HGVs. We need to get this moving because there is now much more freight going to the port of Rosslare, particularly with Brexit. The number of HGVs going through Mountmellick has increased, so this is important. The port has been upgraded and new infrastructure has been put in. We need to put in the roads to feed into that. This road is part of that.”
“That is the simplest way I can put it. You cannot stop to do anything in the town. It is not friendly to walk around and it badly needs to be bypassed. The feasibility study has been done, with €105,000 spent on it. The county council has done its job, it has done the assessments and studies and the preferred route is there. There are benefits to this. In the previous Government, there may have been a bit of an ideological thing about not putting in a bypass, but this would shorten journeys in distance and time. The relief road would shorten the journey by nearly 60% because you are cutting across country and not having to go into the town and wiggle in and out through streets. It would be a far shorter journey. Like all new roads, it will have cycle lanes, and I fully support that.”
“Limerick has four pieces of substantial infrastructure, Cork also has four and Laois has zero. This route is badly needed to connect the Portlaoise road to the Tullamore road out of the town. This is the main route - the N80 - to Rosslare, which the Ceann Comhairle is very interested in. Vehicles coming from the west of Ireland use it, particularly HGVs. There are over 8,500 vehicles per day going through the centre of Mountmellick town, many of them HGVs. There are significant bottlenecks, particularly at the junction of Pearse Street and Sarsfield Street. It is difficult for them to get articulated trucks around it. The local hauliers association complains about it. It is also holding back the town to have HGVs and traffic trundling through every day and the middle of the town hollowed out from a business point of view.”
“I ask the Minister of State to address the situation of Mountmellick, which has been promised a relief road for a long number of years. It still has not happened and it is very important we get it. Mountmellick town has been neglected badly over the years in terms of infrastructure. This has been talked about and promised for about 30 years. Various options have been looked at for the route to take. There was a route from beside the mill on the Portlaoise road. That has changed and a better route has been selected. It needs to happen. There was an announcement a couple of weeks ago of €663 million for roads projects and I was delighted to see it. When I checked down along the list, it had everywhere from Ballaghaderreen to Midleton and Youghal, but nowhere does Mountmellick figure in that long list.”
“When we are starting with a blank canvas on all housing schemes, the architectural fees are between 10% and 15% according to senior local authority officials. That needs to stop. The same plans will suffice and we need to use them. I appeal to the Government to do that. We need to mass produce, reduce the costs and speed up delivery.”
“As I said last week, we need somewhere between eight and ten plans for the different types of households and household needs; large families, small families, people with disabilities, pensioners and so on. Those plans need to be used by all the local authorities for affordable housing, cost-rental and social housing. Do we really believe that people who need an affordable house to buy or a cost-rental house care if the house they are living in in County Donegal is the same as one in County Laois or Coutry Kerry or wherever else? No, they do not. I certainly would not. That is how we mass produced previously. We need to go back to doing this. The same plans can be used. I would like the Minister and Minister of State to listen to this.”