Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

We have an extraordinary situation at Elm Park, Buncrana in County Donegal where nine families are living in defective concrete block homes which must be demolished, but these homes are also on a dangerous flood-plain. The Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Moran and O'Sullivan, were working before Christmas on a scheme to relocate the families. That was announced by the…

The reason Israel feels it can kidnap 12 Irish citizens in international waters and act with impunity with no price to pay, is that the occupied territories Bill has been delayed by years. The Taoiseach knows that. He gave commitment after commitment as leader of his party that he would introduce that Bill and it has been held back again and again. That is why Israel can kidnap hundreds of citizen…

84. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will work with his ministerial colleagues and the relevant Departments to introduce a financial stabilisation scheme for inshore fishermen similar to the basic income scheme available to artists. [35020/26]

This is an opportunity for the Ministers to do something really important for fishing communities all around our coast. They have visited quite a few piers and harbours already around the coast where, until recent times, fishermen would have said they just want to fish and do not need financial supports. They are now telling us very clearly that they need those supports. This is a chance to do som…

I just cannot accept that the only source of funding we have has to come with the consent of the European Commission. We we can talk about how, under the CAP, long-standing financial supports have been provided to primary producers who work on the land. We need an imaginative measure here. This could be a game-changer, and anything that is ever a game-changer requires somebody to take on the syste…

Our inshore fishermen are a precious part of the heritage of coastal communities and are central to the piers and harbours that we have. There is a great love for them, not just in coastal communities but also right across Ireland. It is about keeping that going by means of what would not be a huge amount of money to subsidise and support them to stay on the water. The factors involved include ene…

I agree with my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, that we need to have a focused debate on the National Ambulance Service. The fact that ambulance workers across this country are on strike today says it all. They do not feel valued and we need to deal with that in these Houses.

We are very proud in Ireland of building up electrification at a time when our country had limited resources. It is a great story of our people. That led to us having the cheapest electricity in Europe. This was infrastructure and a resource that belonged to our people. Whenever the privatisation agenda was pushed by the European Union, Ireland was at the top of the queue to privatise what was pub…

Not agreed.

Anybody watching the debate here in the Dáil today must be scratching their head when they hear the Taoiseach talk about wind and solar. Does the Taoiseach know that there are turbines turned off in wind farms across this country because the electricity grid is not there? Does he know that offshore renewable energy policy is just not there? There is no strategy there. It is not happening. That is …

People need money in their pockets now with this crisis.

103. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Transport to provide an update on the timeline for the long-awaited restoration of the Derry to Dublin airlink. [29785/26]

We have been without this crucial Derry-Dublin airlink for 16 years. It was removed by the Government at the time. If we look at the map of Ireland, we see there is no motorway or train link directly to Derry, Donegal and the north west. The restoration of this airlink is key. I welcome that it has been agreed to by the Government but we need clear timelines.

I thank the Minister for his response. Obviously, I will have many back-and-forth battles with the Government but this is welcome news for the north west. It is a tribute to both Letterkenny Chamber and Derry Chamber. They work together for the region. A total of 40% of the passengers who use the City of Derry Airport come from Donegal. For people elsewhere in Ireland, sometimes that geography can…

I welcome the Minister’s firm commitment today. It is good news for the City of Derry Airport. I also commend Derry City and Strabane District Council and Donegal County Council. They created the vision of the north-west city region. They speak with one voice. This is good news for Donegal, Derry, Tyrone and the wider north-west region. I will leave it at that. I appreciate the firm commitment.

Sounds good.

Jesus Christ.

Which ones?

The 35th anniversary of the murder of County Donegal councillor Eddie Fullerton on 25 May 1991 is just weeks away. For all these years, Eddie's family have campaigned for truth and justice. They have been badly failed by An Garda Síochána and the State. An Garda Síochána has been aware of the names of all those who murdered Eddie since late 1993. It had most of the killers names in late 1991. One …

The Taoiseach will receive it.

Those of us in the west of Ireland have endured the inequality and injustice of seeing, rightly, 100% redress for 3,000 families in Dublin and north Leinster under the pyrite scheme, but nothing like 100% redress in the west of Ireland. We will now have people on the east coast who are also victims of injustice. We will have people who are victims of injustice and who live miles apart being treate…

The Tánaiste at the weekend was talking about his Department officials looking at more heat pumps. How out of touch can you be? People need money in their pockets now. We need statements on an emergency mini-budget. Sinn Féin has put forward proposals, including a permanent cut to the USC, a restoration of the energy credit and a cut to fuel and diesel at the pumps. We need this House to represent…

I am going to focus my comments on the challenge in our coastal communities and, to be quite frank, the neglect of our coastal communities. Today, in the fisheries committee, we dealt with seaweed harvesting and the applications that are coming in from major corporations. I asked a question of the traditional seaweed harvesters. I asked whether anybody from Government agencies had engaged with th…

The former leader of Fine Gael let the cat out of the bag in recent days. He said out loud what has been whispered by senior Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael personnel for many years - this divide-and-conquer approach between urban and rural Ireland. People in rural Ireland see the carbon tax as a penalisation of them for choices they do not get to make. They have to heat their homes with home heating o…

Nasty Taoiseach.