Brian Stanley

The warnings from us on the Opposition benches were ignored. In the context of the protests in Laois that I attended, there were decent hard-working people who work 60 or 70 hours a week present. Truckers told me that they are losing €6,000 per month. They can only do that for a couple of months. The fact is that they could not get a week's wages and were sinking below the waterline. While the mea…

The supposed purpose of the Bill is to speed up the delivery of infrastructure and get various different bodies to work together. I would welcome any genuine attempt to simplify planning and speed up infrastructure delivery, which takes forever and a day to get moving, to deliver it on time and at the target cost while environmental laws and regulations are not ridden roughshod over. However, the …

I raise the issue of charging points in Laois - or the absence of the charging points in most of the county. We have a situation where there are 21 publicly available charging points in the county. That is the latest information I can get. I have a map of Laois which shows the charging points run down the centre of the county. That is fine because there is the N7 and N8 but there is the N80, the R…

I thank the Minister of State for his answer. The strategy being developed needs to look at the reality on the ground and at the geographic locations. You cannot have a situation where there are chargers down the middle of the county but nothing either side of it. If you travel the 28 miles to Carlow from Portlaoise, there are none. On the other side of the county, if you travel down the Slieve Bl…

The Taoiseach will recall that last November I brought the Wind Turbine Regulation Bill 2025 before the Dáil, partly to get the Bill through and partly in an effort to move the Government on this issue. I have been receiving replies to parliamentary questions on this matter for a decade and a half now. The most recent one, from the start of this month, says: My Department is currently undertaking…

I have grey hairs from it.

The assistance being given on the cost of fuel will bring some relief but I would like to see it more targeted. The question is how we can target it in the short term. There are middle-income areas who do not qualify for the fuel allowance. There is a particular cohort whose income is just over the limit and they will not benefit from the extra month of fuel allowance, although it is welcome. Th…

-----and, as a small neutral country, we need to stand up and say, "Stop the madness".

I welcome the proposal in this motion. Unfortunately, the incidence of cancer is increasing. Many cancer patients are being failed. There are roughly 42,000 people diagnosed with cancer per annum in the State. That is a huge number of people. The State has the third highest mortality rate for people with cancer in the European Union. Poorer former eastern bloc countries are doing better than we ar…

87. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide details of the initiative to increase the amount of flour milling in the State and the necessary increase in the acreage of wheat grown; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19101/26]

I am glad the Minister and two Ministers of State are here to take the question. Will the Minister provide details of the initiative to increase the amount of milling flour produced in the State and the necessary increase in acreage of wheat to be grown for that? I say this in a positive way. I hope with the Minister and two Ministers of State that we can have some good news on this now.

An-tábhachtach.

I thank the Minister for the reply. I welcome the news of the plan to develop four flour mills. There is huge financial potential here and gain for producers and jobs and employment. A total of 80% of our flour is coming from Britain, as the Minister knows. During the crisis with the beast from the east, the freak freeze, we almost ran out of flour and bread. The total cereal production in the Sta…

We have a strong tradition of milling flour in Laois. Odlums in Portarlington is one of the few places in the country now doing it. That is there. There is potential for it to be developed in the county. An economic report was published this morning by Alan Ahearne, former adviser to the US Federal Reserve and a former adviser to Micheál Martin, as I understand it. He stated that foreign firms are…

88. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the length of time that the Government and his Department are allowing for the review to be completed into governance at Bord Bia; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19098/26]

It is important that the review to which the question relates be expedited fairly quickly.

I am trying to figure out the length of time it will take. The Minister said that it will start with procurement and that the review will begin by the end of April, is that correct?

It will begin by the end of April.

That is better again. That is good news. It is obviously a concern because it is fair to say there is a confidence issue there. There has been a big breakdown in relations and that needs to be addressed. Bord Bia is central as a body to promote the quality of Irish food and quality is the key word here. In any outcome, we cannot have a food safety and promotion body that promotes the high standar…

The Minister said that the end of April is the completion date, and that is very welcome. Normally when we hear about reviews, they to go on forever and a day. As a result, I welcome the fact that there is a bit of urgency about this. Farmers' participation will be central to it. We have to learn from the fiasco that we have had over the last few months. We all need to look at what happened there …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this today. In doing so, I recognise the role women have played in bringing about revolutionary change in this country. Indeed, they have been to the forefront of it on many occasions, including the fight for independence, the right to vote, social changes, workers' rights, trade union rights, economic changes and in every area of politics. In recent decades w…

Prior to the imperial oil war in the Middle East being waged by the USA and Israel, we already had a cost-of-living crisis. We are now really in a difficult situation. In County Laois the lowest price for road diesel is €2.10 per litre and it continues to increase. In this State, the increase in home heating oil is eight times the average increase across Europe. It was €480 for 500 litres. It is n…

I ask the Government not to go ahead with the planned increase in it in March. There should also be targeted energy credits and supports for middle-income and low-income households.

I agree around the cost of living and particularly the cost of energy to households at the moment. That has obviously escalated further this week. We have one of the highest gas and electricity prices in the European Union. Added to this is the fact that householders are paying almost double the cost of electricity that data centres are paying. The average cost per household is 36 cent per unit wh…

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. He said the Government will make an informed evidence-based response. That is fine but the evidence is there. There are in excess of 320,000 households in serious arrears and we are only talking about electricity there. It is one in four is in arrears with gas. There is a real problem. I have constituents contacting me - people who are on middle incomes - who ju…