Richard O'Donoghue

I said to the Minister earlier that I would pray if somebody would start to listen and I am going to give him a small bit of prayers. This is from the point of view of the part in the Bill that brings in developer-led infrastructure. Why am I so glad that is going to be introduced and that Government is looking at and encouraging this? I will tell you why. When you bring a business model into a de…

I welcome any additions to the scheme but the scheme is not right. The scheme we are talking about includes counties Limerick, Clare, Sligo, Donegal and Mayo and other areas. The latest data shows that 3,022 homeowners are at various stages of the scheme. Of those, 326 applicants have completed remediation works with a further 1,057 applicants having notified their relevant local authority. I welc…

What cost would the Minister of State put on life? That is the question. If it was in different circumstances and the Minister of State needed something, what cost would he put on his own life? When it comes to our search and rescue personnel, all I can say is "Thank you." They are absolutely unbelievable in what they do. If they work for 24 hours, that must be recognised. The Government is brill…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: acknowledges that: — the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, as amended, was enacted to give effect to the European Union's Whistleblowing Directive and to protect persons who, in good faith, report wrongdoing in the public interest; — despite these statutory protections, numerous whistleblowers have faced retaliation, career destruction, delay or suppression of their di…

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle.

Before I start off, I thank John Campbell, Mark Nolan, Emma Corrigan, my colleagues here in Independent Ireland and, most of all, the whistleblowers who gave us the details and information on this to make sure that we could bring a Private Members' Bill to the Government on which it is after delivering 20 minutes of waffle outside of what we were talking about. I want to make quite clear what we …

A letter was sent from Revenue's VAT interpretation and litigation branch of its taxes policy and legislation division to the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, stating that broiler-house chickens must be registered for VAT this year. Revenue is now saying they do not have to be registered but the Department of Finance is saying they do. A total of 83% of broiler-house chickens are on farms that are …

Yes.

I will send the Taoiseach the details.

I will start with a headline from the Irish Examiner that ran "HSE warns it cannot fill vacancies even with agencies as staff shortage crisis deepens". We are talking about health insurance and the rising cost of it. Why do we have such a shortage in the HSE? Why are private hospitals being built and providing a service efficiently, with efficient staffing? We see the 96-bed unit open in Limerick,…

I have employees. If I was in any other county, including Donegal, I would get paid an awful lot more for doing what I was doing than I am paid for doing what I do here. The reason I am here is to protect people. It is not about money. It is about protection and putting in place procedures using the experience I have as a taxpayer and an employer who has had employees all his life. We are here to …

You should not because I had seven minutes as well. I will have to teach the Chair how to read the clock.

Exactly but that is what I do. I am sorry. Seven and seven is 14. I think that leaves me about two minutes.

I will conclude on this. I am offering the Government assistance. I am offering to simplify and to allow the Government to spend money with accountability to deliver services so that it can help the vulnerable people in this country.

In November 2021, I brought a truck in here to Leinster House for the same reason we are talking on this today, for the road hauliers. At a time of crisis in this country, they travelled the roads to make sure that we had food and energy in this country. I have a letter from Martin Ryan & Sons Transport, a big haulage company in Cappamore in County Limerick and I will give a small piece of it. It…

They are now driving down the middle of the road. There is plenty of room for biodiversity inside the ditches around the fields. It is the law that anyone in this country should be able to travel in it safely. Today, we are looking at somebody in the Chair who has driven trucks and was part of the haulage industry. For God's sake, the Minister of State is partly responsible for the costs of truck…

The Minister came to Limerick and we opened the 96 beds. I welcomed it. We now have options A, B and C, which we were looking for in Limerick for the care of the people of the mid-west. Developers have come to us saying that if the State does not have the money to build the facilities, they will build them for it and sell them back for €1 after 35 years. The reason I am saying this is that I hope …

When people came here from Ukraine, the Irish people opened their houses and their hearts to help them. Many people from Ukraine have actually integrated and are staying here. They are working, contributing and paying tax here. Many people of different nationalities have immigrated into this country from Poland and other countries. They are now part of our workforce. They are now working here. The…

I am going to start with the auto-enrolment pension scheme. A pension scheme is good if it is introduced at the right time. To get down to brass tacks, for those who do not know, auto-enrolment means 1.5% for an employer and 1.5% for an employee. After six months, the employee can opt out of the 1.5% if he or she does not want to pay it. Is there any extra benefit for somebody in their 40s, 50s o…

Hear, hear.

I will start with insurance and insurance fraud. Insurance fraud is being paid for by all the rest of the people who are trying to get insured. Let us say a person is trying to insure their vehicle in Limerick, Tipperary, Cork or Clare. If we look at the same vehicle across the different counties, it seems to be the insurance rates are higher where the cities are. We did a small synopsis with a To…

81. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment if he will acknowledge that the High Court has now ruled in multiple cases that wind turbine noise can constitute a nuisance, even where developments are compliant with planning conditions; and his plans to ensure that Ireland’s regulatory framework adequately protects affected residents. [60859/25]

At the outset, I am not against wind energy. I am against the health implications of wind energy. Will the Minister acknowledge that the High Court has now ruled in multiple cases that wind turbine noise can constitute a nuisance, even where developments are compliant with planning conditions, and confirm the specific advice the Department received from the Office of the Attorney General in March …

How many High Court judgments will it take before the Government accepts that wind noise is causing health implications? People and communities in Limerick are taking up their own alliances because of the health implications where wind turbines are put up. Wind turbine planning applications are being lodged at a massive rate. The wind turbines that have gone up to date never involved health organi…

I thank the Minister. Again, we are talking about health. The other side of things is that given the number of wind turbines that have been pushed through planning at the moment, it is not about wind energy. Cian Murtagh is a lecturer in Sligo and he has looked at Ireland’s energy mix. For the month of October, we paid €115 million in curtailment costs and over €300 million in the last three month…