Joe Cooney

8. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to review the valuation ceilings applied to reactors under the bovine TB eradication scheme, to ensure farmers are compensated for the full market value for animals removed as reactors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52213/26]

The scheme designed to compensate farmers for animals lost to TB is simply not fit for purpose. The market value caps are totally out of step with the real world and farmers are being left thousands of euro out of profit. The Minister has publicly stated that he is monitoring and reviewing these caps. A review without an end date provides farmers with no commitment. When will the review be complet…

The Minister said that budget 2026 money is tied to reducing disease and I commend him on that. It is having a positive effect. Reactor numbers are down significantly year on year to June and the herd incidence rate is also down. That is welcome. However, this disease reduction policy does absolutely nothing for farmers who have animals who are reactors. The Minister can clearly accept there is a …

I compliment the Minister on the great work he is doing. With respect, farmers battling with this disease cannot live on engagement or reviews with no end date. Every month this drags on, more and more reactors are being removed at values set three years ago, while cattle prices continue to climb, which is good. The scheme also has a significant negative impact on farmers who are producing the bes…

Ireland is at a crossroads. Dublin is bursting at the seams, housing is scarce, costs are out of control, infrastructure cannot cope and commuters spend hours of their lives on packed roads every day but two hours west of this Chamber, we have an asset of great national potential, Shannon and the wider region. Developing Shannon as Ireland's second economic engine is not just good for County Clare…

I thank the Minister for his update and his commitment to Shannon and the wider mid-west region, which is very much appreciated. The overdevelopment of Dublin is not a Dublin problem, it is a national failure of planning and political will. Shannon and the wider region are not asking for charity. They are asking for the investment and commitment to do what they have always been able to do: contrib…

12. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment to outline if his Department has undertaken an impact assessment of the current high cost of electricity on the Government's own electrification and decarbonisation targets; the measures that are in place to ensure that the cost of necessary grid infrastructure investment does not fall disproportionately on domestic c…

38. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the steps being taken to ensure that retail electricity prices are brought to a level that makes electrification a genuinely affordable proposition for ordinary households, given the Government’s ambition to accelerate the electrification of Irish homes through heat pumps, electric vehicles, and other demand-side meas…

I welcome the opportunity to raise this important matter. Has the Department looked into the impact of high electricity prices in Ireland on the uptake of technology like heat pumps, electric vehicles, EVs, and home batteries that are needed to meet our decarbonisation target, and how that might impact on our 2030 targets?

Ireland has set an ambitious decarbonisation target of a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030, which is nearly full electrification of heat and transport. I heard from constituents who have recently undertaken works to electrify their homes and from others who are considering it. The price of electricity means the payback calculations, unfortunately, no longer stack up. We face a situation where, un…

The electrification of our economy is the right policy direction but it will only succeed if ordinary households are not priced out of it. Ireland already has some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. The scale of grid investment required over the coming decade is enormous and there is a real concern that the cost of that infrastructure will be loaded onto domestic electricity bills throug…

69. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport to provide an update on the basic income for the arts scheme, the number of applicants by county in tabular form; the timeline for approvals and to outline if each county will be given an equitable allocation of recipients; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44127/26]

I welcome the basic income for the arts, BIA, scheme and commend the Minister on securing funding to make it permanent. This is a genuinely progressive policy and is especially important to County Clare, with our rich arts tradition, from traditional music to visual arts and literature. I ask for an update on the application process, a breakdown by county and an outline of how rural counties such …

I thank the Minister. My question today is important. Will rural counties such as Clare receive an equal share of the BIA scheme? The randomised selection model is fair in principle as it ensures no bias in individual selection. However, fairness in process is not the same as equity of outcome. Clare has a proud professional arts community but artists in rural counties often lack access to the ins…

14. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if the Critical Infrastructure Bill 2026 will apply to wastewater projects irrespective of their scale or geographic location; if he will consider a programme-level designation for wastewater treatment infrastructure across the country rather than limiting fast-track status to …

Many towns and villages lack adequate wastewater treatment, with a significant number discharging raw sewage every day. The planning process is one aspect where long delays can occur in the delivery of wastewater treatment plants. Given the huge issues we have with water quality and our failure to comply with EU legislation, will the Minister consider a national designation for all wastewater trea…

I thank the Minister. I have to be direct with him. Wastewater treatment is named in the Government's own Bill as critical infrastructure. Logic dictates, then, that individual rural schemes should not have to make their own separate case for designation under the Bill. As far as I am concerned, they should all be included. The communities I represent in County Clare are not asking for special tre…

I thank the Minister. Again, this question is not about Uisce Éireann’s capital programme. It is about whether the Minister will look at the current status of wastewater treatment as a national scandal, one that has huge negative consequences for the environment and all our communities, whether rural, coastal or urban. The Minister accepts that wastewater is critical infrastructure. All that remai…

Changes to the tenant in situ scheme are of significant concern for some constituents who face the very real prospect of homelessness because a scheme that was working has been effectively dismantled. When a landlord decided to sell, the local authority could step in, buy the property and keep the family in their home. It was straightforward and cost-effective and it worked, but last year the Depa…

As far as I can see, the scheme is not working as well as previously. I ask the Minister of State to consider a number of things to make it work better in the future. Reinstate the scheme to its original state. Failing that, reinstate it for properties where refurbishment costs are proportionate to a purchase which is often worse value. Provide county-level data on acquisitions that have been decl…

14. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the Garda resources that have been allocated to County Clare in respect of major events scheduled for 2026, including a tournament (details supplied); whether the staffing required for such events is being drawn from within the existing Clare-Tipperary division complement or from other divisions; the steps being taken…

I raise the issue of resourcing gardaí in County Clare for the Irish Open in September. This is a huge event coming to County Clare and it will bring tens of thousands of visitors to our county. I ask the Minister what additional resources both human and financial will be made available by his department to Clare Garda division for this event.

I thank the Minister of State. I congratulate everyone who has helped to bring this event to County Clare. It will provide a major boost to the local economy, particularly during the shoulder season of the year, but it will also place additional pressure on Garda resources, especially in west Clare. Gardaí will have to be reassigned from other duties, including community policing, to deal with cro…

There is also a possibility of a visit this time by President Trump who owns Doonbeg golf club. We saw in previous visits the scale of the operation required for a presidential visit, including road closures, major security arrangements, co-ordination with the US Secret Service and the redeployment of Garda personnel from across the region. An Garda Síochána in Clare simply cannot do this with exi…

87. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the current herd incidence rate of bovine tuberculosis, TB, in County Clare; the steps being taken to support Clare farmers who have suffered financial losses due to TB reactor removals; whether the on-farm market valuation ceiling of €3,000 for non-pedigree cattle will be reviewed in light of the significant gap between…