Michael Fitzmaurice
Roscommon-Galway · Independent Ireland · Ireland
“Basically, there was no Exchequer money at that time but we were still able to keep the bus service going. Unfortunately, there have been reviews, public consultations and various documents since then.”
“I thank the Tánaiste for that. The number was 120,000 in 2018. Think back, however, and you will see that it was 135,000 or 140,000 in the eighties. That was the base figure at a time when Ireland was awash with money.”
“A few weeks ago, I brought to the attention of the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, a problem regarding apprenticeships. In fairness, she rang me last Sunday evening. Over the past few weeks, she has resolved this issue, which had given rise to problems for many apprentices. I thank her for resolving it.”
“I handed that list to the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and he sent it on to the relevant Department. You can go from Boyle to Taghmaconnell in Roscommon, right through Fuerty, Athleague and other areas all the way into Galway and you will encounter the same problem. We can give out about what is happening, but we need to solve it.”
“They picked up students and brought them to national schools and secondary schools. Those buses were owned by the State. Ireland had, on average, a population of 3.5 million during the eighties. At that time, we were transporting between 135,000 and 140,000 children to school.”
“An awful lot of the children I am talking about have had concessionary tickets for the past two years. When the contracts are being drawn up, I just do not know why they to not reference 23- , 33- or 50-seaters. If this is done and if the population increases, all involved would under the procurement rules, be able to adapt.”
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“While they might not understand the whole world of politics, they see children on screens - they have children - and fathers and mothers, people starving, hospitals in bits and no solution. The reality is unless America's deal goes through, there will be no solution now. It shows that America backs Israel. Unless that deal goes through, there will be no other deal on the table. There will be more genocide because Netanyahu does not care for anybody. That is the sad reality. You wonder what is going on in the world and how we turn a blind eye. Our Taoiseach last week was at the United Nations. A few months ago, we saw what the Taliban did in Syria. There was an earthquake there and I read in the Spanish media - it was not covered in our media - that the men were told they could not pull the women or the children out. That is sickening.”
“In fairness to this Government and especially to all in opposition, we hope the Bill will be brought through shortly. It is good to see some countries in Europe coming on board. When the Ukraine war started, Europe automatically brought in sanctions and rightly so. It brought in rounds and rounds of sanctions to try to cripple Russia. What have we done to try to cripple Israel's genocide? We have done nothing. Ursula von der Leyen should be ashamed of herself because of the way she has performed as leader of Europe - that is the reality. Sadly, there are a few countries in Europe that still control the European Union and unfortunately we are not one of them. There are a few big countries that nearly decide everything, like we see with the Mercosur deal. It is harrowing to get phone calls from people who would never ring politicians.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. When we were growing up, long before we were in politics, we looked at the news at night and saw the United Nations and said to ourselves, God they are powerful men in suits. We looked at the G7 or the G8 - whatever you want to call it - and said, my God, they are going to solve the problems of the world. To look at the atrocities going on in Gaza at the moment, the UN and the G7 or G8 are standing idly by and letting all this happen. We saw all those guys on television and said they would solve problems because they have power, but they have no power. That is the reality. That is what we have got to face up to. People think they are important but they are not. They do not have the guts to stand up and be counted.”
“It is becoming a revolving door. It is wasting serious amounts of Garda time and, as has been pointed out, gardaí are in the courts nearly all day. That is not solving anything. We need to look at that area as well. First, we need to give them whatever facilities we can to try to bring them with us, but if there are ones who are not listening or are not toeing the line, then it has to get sharper.”
“I understand all that but we have lost the touch of the common local knowledge. Local knowledge is what will tell you everything, from a local garda living in an area. At the moment, in my area between Headford and where I live, about 40 miles away, there will be one Garda car on at night. It does not have that resource. With the best will in the world, they cannot police an area or look after it. It is like Nanci Griffith's song "From a Distance". We knew all our gardaí one time in the area. Now, you would not have a bull's clue who is coming to you because they are coming from a different area. For the sake of the Minister's Department, we have to look outside the box. If a gang is going around, why not take the phones off them? Why not have that facility to know what is going on? Why not start laying down the law or putting tags on?”
“On top of that, we need to start getting youngsters to show respect for the things we were brought up to show respect for. At the moment, as Deputy Gogarty said, there are gangs going around. Yes, we try to put in sports or youth club facilities or whatever facilities we can, but once we do that people still have to show respect. They cannot be going around in a mob around people such as the pregnant woman Deputy Gogarty mentioned or around other people. We cannot have that going on in a country. Gardaí will not be everywhere around the place - there is no point in saying we will have them everywhere - but I remember the local garda or sergeant once being able to control the area. I know things have got more sophisticated and that there are different crimes that go on that were not investigated at one time.”
“These can just fly along out past you, go in through traffic and there is no regulation. I remember in the previous Dáil, there were supposed to be tags going onto repeat offenders so that it would be known where they were. Where has that gone? It seems to have disappeared. The prisons are full. There is no point in saying it. The Minister is not going to build a heap of them overnight. We understand that. Why have we not tagged these offenders with a tracker to know where they all are? It is a fairly simple thing to do. The sad part about it is that if a garda uses a baton now, he is called a criminal nearly, whereas at one time they used it and they kept manners on many a gouger who was getting out of hand and got them into line.”
“They did not have to be going to the DPP many times; they would have it sorted out in a matter of hours. We have lost that. The change was done over the last seven or eight years. It was not in the Minister's time, in fairness. It was done before this. The way it went was they decided to start closing local Garda stations. As I always say, the local garda was always able to find out what was going on. When a robbery or something happened, what we call a crow on the wire gave the information and the local garda would know who was giving the information. We have lost all that. Right around this country, there are youngsters flying around on these e-scooters with no insurance or anything. They can drive into anyone and there is no regulation. Where are we going with this? If we go out in a car or a tractor, we have to have insurance.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and commend Deputy Gogarty and his staff on putting it together. It often baffles me that when we had 9,000 and 10,000 gardaí on the streets or in the total force, there were local Garda stations. If anyone said they were not doing much, they knew everything that was going on in the area. They did not have to be taking out the book doing this one, that one and the other one. They were able to keep manners on the area in their own way. Sadly, it is gone now with the phone straight into the face if there is a garda anywhere the minute they do anything. That is not acceptable, to be quite frank about it. One time, if there was a robbery in a local rural area and if something was stolen or anything went wrong or if there was a bit of a scrap, the local garda sorted it out.”
“The sad reality at the moment is that a person coming to this country is better off coming in through the illegal system. If a person comes to Ireland illegally, he or she can work after six months, whereas another person could be trying to come in for a year and still not get through the process.”
“I do not think I was in front of you before this so the best of luck. The reality of immigration is that, at the moment in Ireland, we are building 30,000 houses. There is a huge shortage of houses. Look at the numbers of people who are coming in both through legal and illegal immigration. We are scratching our heads when people want to come to work. Let us bear in mind, we need people working. We need them in hospitals, hospitality and in all the different sectors. When employers go through that process, it is so cumbersome. It is basically stalling people from being able to produce the goods in different places because they do not have enough staff. At least they know who they are and where they came from. People have to make sure they give them a proper wage and that everything is above board.”
“We need to make sure our ports are developed and given facilities for bringing goods from A to B. When the term of this Dáil is over, someone else could be in the position of the Minister of State. He has the ball in his court now. He should hop it and put the necessary funding in place for the western rail corridor. My fear is that the minute someone from the west is not in government, the Government will consider another part of the country and try to direct the money towards it. That is my honest opinion. I wish the Minister of State luck in this regard. If the project is not carried out now, we will be as well to forget about it. I have been here a long time and nothing has happened.”
“The NRA said it would put it back up. How much will it cost to put it back up now compared with at the time in question? I do not know whether the cost was €1 million at the time. It is going to cost an awful lot more now to put it back up. The bottom line is that I am sick of hearing about reviews and various focus groups. We know the service is needed from Claremorris, and indeed Collooney, as a previous speaker has said. There should be a joined-up approach. The west of Ireland, no more than any other part, deserves rail. The south and the east need it. I have mentioned Navan before. A lot of people live there. Either we decide to fund rail or we do not. The Foynes line is being done under TEN-T, I believe. That is great because it needed doing.”
“I welcome this opportunity. I remember doing the Leixlip–Ballycoolin water main in 2004 or 2005. An area from Clonee to Navan was supposed to be left for rail. The rail was nearly to come the following day but the position is still the same. Although the posts are up and will soon be rotten, no rail ever came. In the west, the Claremorris–Athenry line is ferociously important. The Minister of State will remember that, in 2016, the time he went into government, he and I were talking about including the western rail corridor in the programme for Government. Enda Kenny was Taoiseach at the time. That was nearly ten years ago but nothing has happened since other than the review, although I agree it was needed. A bridge was taken down at Barnaderg or Ballyglunin at the time of the road project and there was a big hullaballoo about it.”
“The unfortunate part of this is that more of our kids will have emigrated even though they have jobs, because at a cost of €600,000, they cannot afford a house. One would want to have a super duper job to be able to afford it and that is for a second hand house. If we do not concentrate on solving this problem, those kids will keep on emigrating. Children around the country do not have a roof over their heads tonight and the figures due to come out on Friday will be higher. It is up to us, as elected representatives, to represent the people and not to keep listening to the people who have gotten it wrong for the past ten years.”
“That choice is the Minister's. I worry that if the same piano is playing, we will get the same tune. People in the different Departments are not used to change. They are not used to making decisions to change something if it is not working and of going a different way. Someone has to put the boot in and change the tune. If that does not happen, we will be in the same situation next year and the year after. The quarries keep closing. There is no quarry open from Galway city to Connemara, and the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach can correct me if I am wrong. Those are the facts. Things are being brought 50 to 80 miles now because of legislation. Was anything done over past three years? Has the Department done anything? No. If the same thing continues in housing, the Minister will get the blame as will the next one.”
“The Minister spoke about different reports and bodies being set up and whatever. The bottom line is that if people do their job and are given the utilities, instruments and simplifications, everyone could do their jobs without putting layers upon layers. All we are doing, if we get a housing tsar or whatever, is getting another person to blame. We will say they should have done their job. At the end of the day, if everyone who is appointed, whether in councils, in planning and up the ladder to Secretary General, does their job, we would not need more layers. What we need to do is simplify things. I have simplified the croí cónaithe scheme. I have simplified it in all of the aspects of housing because we spoke to the people who are building the houses, the people on the ground. They are the ones who see the problems.”
“The Minister said there is not one magic bullet and he is correct. I have given him 23 magic bullets that will help solve this situation.”
“I thank Mark Nolan and John Campbell for helping us out. I thank each of the speakers, whether they spoke for or against the motion. I thank them for spending the time. I will address a few of the issues raised by the Minister. Three years ago I came into the Dáil and today RTÉ is reporting that we are now in trouble. To build a house, a site has to be dug out. Stone and concrete are needed. It is damning that three years after I raised it in the Dáil, we now face this. It was raised with the then Minister of State, Damien English, a few years ago that quarries are being closed left, right and centre as a result of legislation. We are heading for a cartel of two or three quarries. Anyone who knows the building game knows that is happening. That is the first stage of building a house.”
“Regarding mandatory reporting, we know outside interests buy huge tracts of houses. There has to be mandatory reporting of non-residents buying large blocks of housing. We need to know what the pressures are and what is happening in this country. It is disappointing when such simple, straightforward solutions have been put forward in relation to the whole housing issue. The Government has done things. I am not saying it has not. I have said that croí cónaithe is a good thing and that some of the rent reliefs are good. I am not against that. The Minister of State talks about extra money, but money might not be the only problem. The roadblocks are blocking people. Everyone is talking about social and affordable housing. Our youngsters are leaving the country because they cannot see a future in a house.”
“We need to reward high-performing councils. Production of and housing delivery should be built into CEO contracts for the simple reason that we have to drive and have incentives for delivery. I know the Taoiseach has a sort of a task force or a housing body set up, but we need quarterly reports in each area from the likes of the ESB, Irish Water and the local authorities. This would be a public scorecard on how the councils are performing around the country. On apprenticeships, we need to try to fast-forward it. The excuse has always been that Covid held them up. Some youngsters spent up to six years trying to get a four-year course done. If we can do it of teachers, we should be able to do it for the construction industry, because it is a critically important industry at this time.”
“These should be exempt, provided they are built at the back of an existing house. If the garage is at the back of the house and can be converted, it should exempt. This is how we will get things rolling, helping people to put a roof over their heads. The same should apply to modular homes. I believe the modular homes for Ukrainians are 600 sq. ft. On top of that, we are allowing someone from, say, Waterford to object to someone building in Galway. We need to bring in a rule that a person has the right to object if they are from that area. Someone from 120 miles to 130 miles away should not be in a position to object. This needs to be sorted. We need to produce performance-linked funding for local authorities. The better and more aggressive a local authority is, the more funding it should get to build houses.”
“There should be standard specification, standard everything in the way we regularise it and cut out all this craic of over and back. On rural housing guidelines, we see problems where family members are trying to build. More than one should be allowed to build because, at the end of the day, we have an emergency and if we have an emergency, we have to try to sort it out. Family members need to be allowed to build on farmland, provided sightlines and percolation tests are okay. On top of that, we see local need. If a teacher moves to an area in rural Ireland, they are needed in that area but the problem is they are not from that area originally and some councils will not give them planning permission. On modulars and granny flats, we are proposing 600 sq. ft. or 63 sq. m.”
“The Minister of State is aware that if there is a void, the council gets about €11,000 from the Department. A lot of these houses are costing from €30,000 to €50,000 to do up. The Department needs to guarantee them the money within 30 days of finishing, but it needs to be 95% of the cost. Councils are picking the best houses to do up, because these will obviously cost the least amount of money. Councils are telling me this. We need to make sure we do that. On social housing, why are we designing different houses in different counties in different ways, with architects designing them and proposals going back and forth to the Department? Why do we not have standardised, two-, three- and four-bedroom houses, for the country? If a house has seven or ten windows, they should be of a standard size.”
“Depending on the council, if the owner knocked a chimney because it was cracked or put a porch onto the house in the 1970s, to get into the croí cónaithe scheme, the council might say the owner has to go for full planning permission because a change was made to the house, and we see this week in, week out. That is complete lunacy. There is a simple way of doing that. If there has been no prohibition notice lodged with the council in the past seven years, the owner should be given the go-ahead. We went for a temporary VAT reduction on materials. It is about €15,000 because we did not go for the whole house for the simple reason that it is given a six- to 12-months' period. If it was done and not passed on, then it has to revert. We have to try things.”
“We need to make as much land available as possible and look to see where the sewerage and water infrastructure is so builders are ready to go. Why are we holding up sites, whether as a result of planning or whatever, for builders? We know what the density of a site is supposed to be. We know about the designs and everything else but we are holding up builders from getting going. Regarding section 5 exemptions, croí cónaithe is a great scheme. I am not taking from it but the problem is getting into the scheme. Someone might have a house that is, say, 100 years old.”
“They will help the Government to deliver houses. I am talking about doing properly to Irish Water specifications and not any lesser specifications. Regarding the procurement rules, about which everyone knows and which were raised with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, if a person builds 100 houses in the private sector but has not done a State job in the past five years, they are not allowed on to the framework. That is wrong. This person might be as good a builder as someone else. On top of that, if people who were contractors to the councils and to local group water schemes do not go through a big process with Irish Water, they are not nominated for the framework contracts. Those are two simple things that could be done overnight. The Minister of State knows about phase 2 lands and that 70% of phase 1 has to be built.”
“I can show plenty of proof of that, even though the land has been zoned for a number of years. It may have no Irish Water infrastructure, no sewerage infrastructure and no electricity. That is a bare, naked site. We need to do up a list of sites that are ready to go. This is an idea that could be implemented overnight. This idea does not cost money. Darragh O'Brien gave €30 million to the councils and Irish Water for towns that had no water or sewerage infrastructure. For sewerage schemes, he said he wanted Irish Water and the councils to get together. That was three years ago. This is not about money; it is about not delivering. Nothing has happened in Ireland; not one red cent has been spent. I am asking the Government to give the money to community development groups. They are willing to do the work. I have spoken to them.”
“This legislation should be fast-tracked as happened with the former Minister Eamon Ryan's legislation on jet engines, which was put through in a day. We were able to get rid of a lot of the bureaucracy is holding things up. Today the Government has decided to oppose what we are saying. We have said is that there should be a pre-planning meeting within 30 days. Obviously, the Government does not think people should have that. A builder should be entitled to a pre-planning meeting within 30 days. Irish Water needs to get funding but it needs to be targeted. It needs to be on condition of delivery and time of delivery. What is a zoned site or what is a zoned area for housing? There could be a zoned area where no transport plan has been done by the councils.”
“It is rather regrettable that the Government has not accepted this motion. I read the Government's amendment and all it does is tell us how great everything is. If everything was great, we would not have young people be leaving this country for lack of housing or data from the Central Bank and the CSO. All we are doing is putting constructive proposals together to try to help the housing situation. This is not having a go at Government. This about sitting down with the various stakeholders to try to make sure we drive this forward. We have always said to the leaders of the country that if it does not take a housing emergency to drive things, in social and affordable housing, we will still be talking about this in a few years' time.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: acknowledges that: — the persistent shortfall in the delivery of housing, particularly social, affordable, and cost-rental units, constitutes a structural failure of public policy; — successive Governments have fallen short of their own housing delivery targets, and a significant proportion of zoned, developable land remains idle due to systemic delays in planning, infrastructure alignment and institutional coordination; and — local authorities, statutory agencies, and utility providers are frequently constrained by fragmented decision-making, bureaucracy and lack of accountability, leading to protracted delivery timelines, despite the availability of zoned and demand-sensitive lands; further recognises that: — excessive procedural rigidity in planning, procurement, and utility coordination, while rooted in the need for accountability, has created a delivery environment that is adversarial, inefficient, and increasingly unfit for the urgency of the housing crisis; and — a generation of young Irish people are increasingly being forced to emigrate, as any possibility of home ownership slips further out of reach, with house prices soaring and affordable supply at record lows, and many now face the harsh reality that they may never be able to buy a home or even afford to live in the communities where they were born and raised; and accordingly, calls on the Government to: — declare a National Housing and Infrastructure Emergency and introduce time-bound emergency legislation, enabling local authorities and developers to accelerate delivery of housing on already-zoned, infrastructure-ready land; — establish a dedicated Housing Delivery Acceleration Taskforce, reporting on a regional basis directly to the Taoiseach, comprising senior officials from the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation; Transport; Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water); the Construction Industry Federation; ESB Executives; and Chief Executives of respective Councils, to coordinate and address cross-agency blockages, with all reports to be published quarterly; — introduce a statutory obligation on local authorities to hold round table pre-planning meetings within 30 days of request, with minutes to be available to both parties for further reference; — amend national planning policy to permit pre-approved, standardised housing designs for social and affordable developments, to reduce delays and professional duplication, while maintaining compliance with Building Regulations and Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014; — reform rural housing guidelines, to permit housing on family-held farmland for more than one family member, subject to percolation and safety standards; — reform planning exemption regulations, to allow for up to 63 square meter structures for modular homes, extensions, granny flats (attached/unattached), or garage conversions, with enabling legislation to be presented by 30th October, 2025; — restrict planning objections to persons with local standing, to eliminate serial objectors; — instruct Uisce Éireann to publish a transparent and time-bound schedule of infrastructure delivery, prioritising zones with planning permission or active land management, making additional funding available to Uisce Éireann where they meet or surpass the schedule; — in towns with no Uisce Éireann sewage schemes, assign funding to community development companies to employ consultants that can draw up schemes to Uisce Éireann specification, enabling fast track delivery of sewage schemes in towns not covered by Uisce Éireann, and additionally, to assign funding for lands for water treatment plants and for delivery of overall project; — ensure that Uisce Éireann recognise contractors formerly experienced in Group Water Schemes/Council Schemes (sewage/water) as competent contractors for frameworks inclusion; — introduce a performance-linked funding model for local authorities, tied to: — activation rates of zoned land; — timely refurbishment and re-letting of vacant social housing units; and — compliance with prescribed turnaround times in housing delivery processes; — ensure high-performing councils are publicly recognised and resourced through bonus allocations, with fast-tracked funding drawdown, with underperforming council results published publicly: — with performance of local authorities under the performance-linked metrics to be reported to the Housing Delivery Acceleration Taskforce quarterly; and — where a local authority underperforms for three consecutive quarters, the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Housing will be called on to account for under-performance; — require Uisce Éireann, ESB and local authorities to jointly publish a quarterly housing infrastructure delivery scorecard, detailing progress on enabling works, void turnarounds, and utility connections by county, with a focus on ensuring all zoned land is serviced; — ensure all local authority Chief Executive contracts include performance related clauses going forward; — develop a streamlined, fast-tracked system allowing local authorities to recoup 95 per cent of costs associated with bringing voids back into productive use within 30 days of completion, financed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; — introduce a streamlined approval of Part I, Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, exemption under Croí Cónaithe, where there have been no prohibition notices linked to the property in the last seven years; — reform procurement thresholds within six months, to allow proven small- and mid-sized public and private builders, with a track record of compliant delivery within the public or private sector in the past five years, to qualify for public housing frameworks; — in line with European Union (EU) Value Added Tax (VAT) Directive allowances, introduce a temporarily reduced VAT rate of 5 per cent on construction materials for housing development for the term of the declared emergency; — fast-track key apprenticeships in construction and trades by developing modular, dual-delivery formats that retain EU-mandated standards, while reducing time to certification; — direct SOLAS, Education and Training Boards and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, to expand access to construction skills training, particularly in regions with below-average output; — mandate the Central Bank of Ireland and the Department of Finance to report quarterly on the proportion of residential units acquired by bulk purchasers and non-resident buyers, with a view to transparency and demand-side management; and — upgrade all phase 2 lands to phase 1, to enable urgent building on zoned land and immediately bring infrastructure required for immediate development.”
“They need help to replant. The Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, spoke about the reconstitution grant for wind-blown timber. I ask for those people to be included to give them a small token of help.”
“The fire burned a heap of forestry. The Government knows as well as I do that, after 20 years, it is not insured and these people are left high and dry. All that can be done is to woodchip it. That is all that is left.”
“This is a different scenario, though. If they are available, I ask them to come down and look at it. In my opinion, it was probably recklessness by someone passing a road that set a fire going.”
“I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. I know a small bit about civil engineering work, and it will be a miracle. The photo I sent was taken this morning. If all the infrastructure will be in place by 3 June, with Monday a bank holiday, I would be amazed. I hope the Tánaiste is right and that what Eir told the Government is correct but I do not think it will come true. I ask the Government to keep the pressure on. For a lot of the people waiting on these phone lines, it is their only contact with the outside world and the panic button is of huge importance to them. On the fires that broke out in the area, I ask the Government again about the reconstitution grant. Those people need help. In fairness to the Minister and Minister of State, they met forestry people and went out to sites where there was wind-blown timber.”
“This has been devastating in that area, and I ask the Government to consider under the reconstitution grant what is only a small token of help because these people have lost everything. Whatever about the people in the windblown timber, at least they can try to cut it now and try to get it to sawmills, but where it has got burned, it is destroyed. You basically bring in a woodchipper and try to chip up whatever is there, but they have lost everything. In the coming months, when the Government is doing the reconstitution grants, would it consider trying to include those people along with the windblown timber? Those are the two items that I ask that the Tánaiste's Government address.”
“Following on from that - and I know there are two Ministers here from the Department of agriculture - in Cloonbonniffe, Carrowbehy, the Coney Island area and Gortaganny over the last few weeks a huge amount of forestry has been burned. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, has talked about a reconstitution grant for the windblown timber. A great many people had timber over the last few weeks burned. All you can do is cut it down now because it is smothered after the fires. I ask that when the Government brings in the reconstitution grant for those people who have been affected in the last few months, the Government help those people. After 20 years, there is no insurance on most of this.”
“Areas like Cloonfad, Ballymoe and a number of other areas are left devastated and without phone lines. It is not about the phone line because in some cases they have gone back and repaired the broadband, but the phone line is a lifeline to the elderly people for when you need your panic button. I know the Minister had meetings with them; I acknowledge that. I ask the Tánaiste and his Government to put the pressure on. I also ask that the communications regulator start taking the finger out to the likes of Eir because they should be ashamed of themselves the way they have treated the people who have been affected in that area.”
“The Tánaiste is well aware that a few months ago, at the end of January, there was a devastating storm in the west midlands and the north west. In fairness, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, are well familiar with the devastation that has been caused. I know the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, has had meetings with the different communications outfits. Four months later, however, we see parts of Roscommon and east Galway such as Creggs - I sent the Tánaiste a photo of Creggs this morning - where there are six communication lines for phones. The local people had to get a ratchet strap and tie the pole back. It broke and they had to do it again. This happened four months ago and the pole is still thrown there.”
“Deputy O'Flynn spoke about succession and the case of couples who do not have children. There is a significant problem in that regard. In many farms around the country a son or daughter might have gone to a different country or they might be in Dublin for X number of years -----”
“Carers are crucial. I know it is not just the money side of it because, unfortunately, even if somebody at home is deemed to be deserving of some hours of home care no one might show up. That is a major problem for the elderly. There is no point in getting a letter stating a person has been allocated 14 hours a week, seven hours a week or nine hours of home care if no one shows up to help. The system is not working at the moment and families are left scrabbling and trying to make sure their loved ones are looked after. Carers right across the country should be recognised for the amount of work to do, the effort they make, and what they save the State. That is ferociously important. Some years ago I welcomed the new move on the fair deal in regard to succession, but there are anomalies. The first issue relates to who succeeds.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I appreciate that the Minister is supporting it. The means test for carers is mentioned in the programme for Government. I have seen many cases where people's sons or daughters went from the west to Dublin or wherever else and when they came home to mind their parents they were not allowed to get the carer's grant because they had a house in Dublin, for example. They were told they could not live in two houses. That is wrong, because they were saving the State money. They wanted to get €250 a week but the general cost of a nursing home is €1,000 or €1,100. We should appreciate the work done by carers right across the country. I know most people do, but the Department is throwing out wild figures of what it would cost. We do not seem to mind spending money on other things.”
“From August until Christmas, it was tough luck with regard to leaks or repairs. They had to be left until the next year and the same will happen this year because of the way Irish Water is doing its budgets. I ask the Taoiseach to look at this. Given that we are talking about an extra 300,000 houses on top of the 30,000 target, we must look at the figures that Irish Water is giving. The Shannon project is a once in a lifetime project for Irish Water and should have a completely separate budget from all of the other projects.”
“The facts are that of the €10 billion that is proposed, €5 billion is to comply with EU legislation. It is to bring plants that are not compliant at the moment into compliance. Another €3 billion of it is for the Shannon project. What the Government is saying, then, is that the Government has €2 billion over five years to produce an additional 30,000 houses every year. To be quite frank about it, whoever did those figures - and I know it was not the Taoiseach - does not have a bull's clue of what is going on in this country in terms of trying to supply water and sewerage plants for the projects in question. Last year, the budget for subcontractors working for Irish Water on repairs, leaks and maintenance was gone by August and 500 subcontractors - people out working - were laid off. They were laid off because the budgets had been blown.”
“This morning, for the 21st time at Lowberry Cross, the pipe has burst once more. Irish Water has announced that it is doing part of it but that is like having two cuts on your finger, in that, if you put a bandage on one, the blood will still come out of the other. How can the Government sort out the planning side of it and make sure there is enough funding to facilitate what the Government is looking for in terms of the 300,000 houses? Most of these infrastructural projects are ten years on the go. We have to cut that, at a minimum, in half. What will be done with the judicial reviews, including the big one in Dublin? What is going to be done around the country to make sure that smaller towns are looked after as well?”
“It has not moved. This is a major problem. The Ballymore Eustace pipeline, which has been on the go for 50 years, has six leaks at the moment. Approximately 40% of Dublin's water comes in through it but, according to the chair of Irish Water, it could burst any time and then there would be pandemonium. The Shannon pipeline that is proposed is going to cost a fair few quid. At the moment, there are 400 sewerage plants in smaller towns that need to be brought up to specification but Irish Water is saying that will not be possible until after 2030. I will give an example. Irish Water said in 2022 that Ballygar in County Galway was going to get an upgrade, as was Mountbellew, and that they would be done in a bundle. Now we are looking at 2026, if Irish Water has the funding. Cloonfad is a small village in County Roscommon.”
“The Taoiseach has spoken about building 300,000 houses over the next few years and I wish him luck in that. The facts are at the moment that 85% of the towns of Ireland do not have capacity to provide extra water for new housing. We know the budget that Irish Water is working with. Its ten-year plan is to bring the network up to specification under EU regulations and is based on approximately 30,000 houses per year. We know that, in Dublin, Ringsend's sewerage is over capacity. What happens when it is over capacity? We open the sluice valve and away with it. The same is happening in Mutton Island in Galway. What is happening with the quality of water in Cork? There are major problems. This is all in the context of the Dublin wastewater plant, which started in 2015 and got approval in 2019 but which has been in the courts ever since.”
“If it is down in the south of the country, or in the east or north, we know what it is to get a devastating storm. We are only trying to give the ideas, so that we work together to try to drive it forward, and are ever-ready when it comes again. That is all I have to say.”
“The other issue, which was touched on, is that of small businesses. They were out of action for a good while and have got damn all support. All we hear is that they were not looking for it. The poor divils were trying to keep the lights on and the doors open. I ask that they be recognised for the effort they made. Some small businesses were out of action for a good while. The Minister will know, as he comes from such an area, that small rural shops and pubs are giving a service to their areas. It is not for the money they are making, my God. It is because it is a place of well-being on many a night for people where they will say hello to someone they might not have seen all day. This is not having a go at the Minister. It is about learning how to make it better for everyone, no matter where the storm is.”
“People need light and heat. I am a firm believer that many people get sick during the year who are not on this so-called list which the ESB has. We need some joined-up thinking between everyone to make sure there is a possibility people get generators when they are sick. I have seen people who have a hospital bed and all of that. It is not that a gigantic generator is needed, but it needs to be set up with the plug ready to be put in. These are little things. If a group worked together from different perspectives, be they telecoms, the ESB, the Department of agriculture for the farmers' side of it, doctors from the medical side of it and communities, which are at the heart of it all, to bring up ideas, we could learn and if we got a storm next winter or in a hundred winters' time, we would know what we were doing.”