Seamus Healy

That is nonsense.

Would the Minister stop?

It is.

The N24 national primary road is a vital economic and social corridor across south Tipperary. It is also of strategic regional importance, running as it does from Limerick to south Tipperary and on to Kilkenny, Waterford and the port of Rosslare. An upgrade to motorway status is essential and urgent. Tipperary town, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir are choked with traffic and are crying out for bypasse…

In fairness, the Minister has indicated that he hopes to be in a position to continue the funding for the Cahir to Limerick Junction-Oola section in 2026 but he was not able to give the same indication about the Cahir to Waterford section. Funding for the Cahir to Waterford section is crucial for economic, social and road safety reasons. This section is costing about three lives per year. The proj…

Children's disability network teams of health and social care professionals provide services to children and young people aged 18 with complex needs. These interdisciplinary teams include professionals like occupational therapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dieticians and social workers. The objectives of the teams are to support a child's development, well-b…

The custom and practice is the reality and the fact that there is no charge for blister packs. Whatever the ins and outs of this issue, the Minister and her Government are now placing the individual patients as pawns between the Department, the Government and the pharmacies. The buck stops with the Minister. I am asking that the Minister does the right thing, the compassionate thing and stops any …

I welcome and support this Dog Welfare (Amendment) Bill 2025. I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this forward. We need to stop cruelty to dogs and there is no doubt that the area of dog welfare needs to be more formally regulated, especially in the area of dog breeding establishments like puppy farms. In August 2023, the then Department of Rural and Community Development released statistics…

I commend and congratulate the teenage disability rights campaigner Cara Darmody, from Ardfinnan in my constituency, for the outstanding work she continues to do in the area of disabilities. Is it not a scandal and disgrace that the Government is breaking the law every single day, knowingly and deliberately? When the Ministers accepted their seals of office, they promised to uphold the Constitutio…

In the short time available to me, I want to call for the payments of an emergency winter energy credit of at least €500. Households, especially those with children, are under huge pressure from the cost-of-living crisis, which is pushing more and more families into poverty. There are already 630,000 people living below the poverty line and 190,000 of those are children. We have almost 17,000 home…

In the limited time available to me, I want to call again for the declaration in law of a housing emergency. Housing is a human right enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A housing emergency exists in this State. The Government's own Housing Commission asserts that "Only a radical ... reset of housing policy will work". It further asserts that "It is…

School secretaries and caretakers are at the heart of all school communities up and down the country. In September, 2,600 secretaries and caretakers were forced to take industrial action to deal with long-standing inequities, whereby they are excluded from pension parity with other school-based public service staff, including teachers and special needs assistants. They have shown extraordinary pat…

I welcome and support this Bill and I do so as a long-standing director of the south Tipperary domestic violence service. This is a quality support and refuge service operated by the amazing staff at Cuan Saor in Clonmel for over 30 years. It operates across the country. The area of gender-based violence is an appalling vista - really worrying and deeply depressing. It is of epidemic proportions.…

Under international law, Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal. That is the basis of this. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice confirmed that and delivered an advisory opinion, which confirmed that under international law member states are under an obligation to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the occupied …

I welcome this Private Members' motion brought forward by Sinn Féin and confirm my support for it. The Mercosur deal threatens the future of Irish agriculture and family farms and harms rural communities. The European Commission concluded negotiations with the four Mercosur countries, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, in December 2024. The deal was to be subject to approval by national parl…

On Monday last, Clonmel lost one of its most distinguished daughters, Monica del Bigio, née Cullen, from Albert Street in Clonmel. She was an exceptional talent, a soprano of the highest rank who passed away in Italy. On behalf of the people of Clonmel and on my own behalf, I extend sympathies to Monica's family, her daughter Paola, son Patrick, extended family, relations and friends both here in …

I want to raise with the Taoiseach again the re-establishment of borough and town councils. As he knows, local government is the heartbeat of democracy. The heart was torn out of democracy with the abolition of town and borough councils in 2014 by the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition. These councils were replaced by committees with no powers, functions or funding. Effectively, they are talking sho…

I appreciate the response. I acknowledge and fully accept the Taoiseach’s personal support for the re-establishment of town and borough councils. He has outlined that to me previously in response to a parliamentary question. He also expanded on that in a feature in the Irish Examiner shortly afterwards. However, there are very serious concerns that the whole task force process is being controlled …

This Bill proves again that the Government is completely out of touch with ordinary people. The Government obviously lives in a bubble in this House. Is it that it does not know or does not care that there is a cost-of-living crisis? Families are struggling to make ends meet, grocery prices are through the roof and we have some of the highest energy prices in Europe, yet there is not a single cost…

I support this Private Members' motion. In the few minutes available to me, I will address a number of issues affecting south Tipperary. The N24 national primary road running from Limerick and the west through south Tipperary to Waterford and on to Rosslare is a major social and economic corridor. It serves all our major towns, including Tipperary town, Cahir, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir. Thousand…

I want to raise the severe shortage of healthcare assistants in south Tipperary. This is a service formerly known as a home help service and the shortage is the result of no recruitment, no replacements for sick or annual leave and no replacements for resignations or staff leaving for other employment. This has resulted in significant waiting lists across the county. Hundreds of people are waiting…

I commend Deputy Charles Ward on bringing forward this detailed and comprehensive motion. The campaign for 100% redress is one I fully support. It is indicative of the support for that campaign that all the Opposition across the House have supported Charles's motion today. The motion highlights the fact that light-touch regulation, facilitated and supported by the State, is the root cause of the d…

I want to raise again the fact that the people of south Tipperary have had no ophthalmology service - no eye service - for more than 12 months. Some 2,300 individuals are on the waiting list, including hundreds of children who have never been seen. Hundreds more are adults with glaucoma, who have either never been seen or are awaiting follow-up treatment and, in some cases, may be facing blindness…

Why was it advertised on a temporary basis?

A Cheann Comhairle, we are talking about the health service.