Michael Fitzmaurice

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…

Sports capital grants have done great things in small communities right around the country. I remember playing football and togging out in places they would not tog out in nowadays. It is incredible what it has done. With the population increasing and different sports coming into play, more money should be put in to attract young people to get more of them involved in sport. The budgets must be av…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. First, I wish the Minister the best of luck.

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…

We need to make sure that we tighten this. The court system needs to be sped up to make decisions-----

-----and not hold things up for four or five years on people who are coming here about whom we know nothing.

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,…

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 Sta…

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, i…

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…

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 e…

The clock is going.

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.…

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 th…

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.

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.

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 Dubl…

If I could have just one second. They might lease the land, and if they do, they are in trouble.

Could the Minister look at this because it is ferociously important to help the situation?

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 30,0…

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, …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. We need to learn many lessons from Storm Éowyn. We can blame and give out, but we need to be prepared for the next one and do a post mortem on what needs to be improved. In fairness, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, has been helpful whenever I have gone to him. I would say his Department has no closing date in its letters. You need flexibility for a…

4. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if the bachelor of veterinary medicine will be delivered in Atlantic Technological University, formerly Mountbellew Agricultural College, Galway, in September 2025, as announced by his predecessor; if not, when this course will commence; and if he will make a statement on the matter.…

First, I want to wish the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, well as I did not formally do it. For a number of years, I have lobbied about veterinary colleges and I welcome the announcement where Letterkenny and Mountbellew was going to be one of them and Carlow-Kilkenny and Waterford was going to be the other. My understanding was this was going to kick off in September 2025. I h…

There are probably 200 youngsters out of the country at the moment because UCD is not fit to take the numbers who are looking for this. I understand that there is a lot of setting up to it, but the problem is, as the Minister knows in his position, that a delay of three or four months does not work in veterinary or in college because if it is not ready for September 2025, it will not start until S…