Thomas Gould

I will try to be constructive but, following on from my colleague, €11,000 is a joke of an amount of money. I appeal to the Minister of State to increase that amount. A local authority that has a property that will cost between €50,000 and €80,000 to fix will leave it idle and fix the voids that are cheaper. The Government is only giving €11,000 plus the grant for the retrofitting, so call it €25…

I wish to inform the Minister and the other Deputies talking about excess water usage that water in Cork is undrinkable. Some of the time, it is not fit for human consumption. In Gurranabraher, the area in which I live, test data is coming back stating that the levels of manganese are so high that the water is unfit for human consumption. Still, we cannot get a "do not consume" notice from Irish W…

Where in the programme for Government is a referendum on water-----

-----to protect the people.

Hear, hear.

Ah, stop.

There are approximately 100 children with additional needs in Cork who do not have a school place this September. Their parents are putting up a Trojan campaign to force the Government to provide their children with a place. There are rumours that there will be an announcement this week about a new special school in Carrignavar. Will the Taoiseach confirm if that will be announced this week? Will …

He has not met them.

Will they have a place, yes or no?

I want to talk about a lady in my constituency who spent six years on the housing list and on the rental accommodation scheme, RAS. She is to be evicted on 10 April. Because of the sky-high house prices in Cork, the council is not allowed to buy the house under the tenant in situ scheme. The council has said the landlord is looking for too much. This lady has three children, the youngest of whom i…

The Minister and Minister of State should go back and read the Act because I do not believe they have any understanding of what they are looking to do and what we are looking to do. We are looking to protect one of the few things that the previous Minister, Deputy O'Brien, did when he was in office by listening to all the Opposition parties when we put forward a tenant in situ scheme as a way of p…

Broken promises and strokes.

We have more TDs than you. You lost the election.

You made promises.

You are the third-largest party.

Hear, hear.

Will there be a space for every child?

Will there be a space for every child in September?

There was €4,500 for the door, €13,200 for the plinth and steps and €141,000 for site works. You would think we were talking about building a mansion, but instead we are talking about fixing up a small fireman's hut in Cork City Council. A total of €361,000 has been spent on repairing this hut and it is not finished yet. I have spoken to contractors about this and they told me these prices are exo…

The funny part of this is that some Government back bench TDs have not turned up for their time.

We are talking about an issue-----

It happened again last week and the week before.

Today in Cork city-----

Can I have my time back, please?

We have been interrupted. If a Sinn Féin person stands up and interrupts, we get lambasted.