David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will tear into it and see how far I get. I welcome the Minister and his officials. I have gone through all the headings, the various reports and the Estimates. There is a huge amount of good stuff going on. It is absolutely amazing. I congratulate the Minister on all that and thank him for the work he is doing. I take the opportunity to thank him and his officials for the speedy way in which they moved to help the businesses impacted by flooding in my part of the country, in particular. As the Minister knows, that flooding was devastating. He visited the place. The water was three feet high on the walls of businesses and homes. Everything was ruined, destroyed and had to be thrown out onto skips. The work of lifetimes was destroyed. I thank the Minister for helping those people.

I also acknowledge the fact that this week, I think, he looked for further funding for the relevant scheme. He might point me in the direction as to which of the heads are being used to process that funding. I think it is around €11 million now, which leads me to say we should try to move - the Minister might use his good offices to move - on the flood relief schemes. Our biggest fear is that we might have another cloudburst and that this might happen again and we will be back where we started with all the good work ruined. The sooner we get the flood relief scheme up and running, therefore, the better. A number of anomalies occurred, and this was an unprecedented amount of water that fell in a very short time. It was phenomenal, and I do not think anybody was prepared for it. We had had flooding before in that part of the country but nothing like this. I ask Members to put themselves in their own home or their own business and think about water 3 ft up the walls and everything they had destroyed. The flooding came at a time when businesses were fully stocked just before the Christmas period, so they lost a lot of stock as well. An anomaly has arisen - I have mentioned this previously - in that some businesses, even though they were insured, were underinsured through no fault of their own because nobody could have anticipated the amount of damage that would be caused. Some of those businesses were therefore not able to avail of the emergency business flooding scheme that was set up because they had insurance but it was not enough. Would it be possible for the Minister and his officials to look at some of those businesses - they are very small in number - that are really caught because the insurance cover they have will go only a very small way towards meeting their costs, again, because the amount of water that fell was so unprecedented and so massive? The vast majority of businesses have been helped very well, and there is huge gratitude for that. Help moved fairly quickly, and the Red Cross, in fairness, did great work too, but this is the one area I ask the Minister to look at. He might come back to me on that.

I thank the Minister for the work he is doing with respect to the need to support some of the retail and food outlets that have just been discussed. I will not say too much more about that because the Minister has already mentioned what is happening in that regard, but I have come across some small businesses and restaurants that are under a lot of pressure at the moment and just barely hanging on. Anything that can be done to assist them would be worthwhile.

I have brought up the Unified Patent Court here again and again. Our committee did a report on it. I am glad to see that the Government has now decided to hold a referendum on it on 6 June, or around then, whenever the local and European elections will be held. Is there a cost to the Department involved in that? Will the Department have to pay out any funding with respect to the referendum, the referendum campaign or preparation of the ground to set up and establish the court? Provided the referendum is passed, how soon will we see a court set up here, what are the costs involved and through which mechanism in the heads will they be paid? The Minister might let me know that as well.

I notice that there is an increase in capital funding of IDA Ireland, €27 million, to accelerate its regional property enterprise grants programme. It would be remiss of me not to mention what I have mentioned here over the years, namely, land in Ballyadam and Carrigtohill, 54 ha, or 133 acres, sitting there for years and years, fully serviced. It cannot be used because of the road infrastructure. It is a scandal that it cannot be used. I know some work has been done on it recently, but the IDA needs ground like that. I acknowledge the huge work the IDA has done in the southern region in particular, but this is amazing and many people are asking why the land is not being used. Anything the Minister or his Department can do to move that on would be worthwhile.

There are a number of credit guarantee schemes. There are three of them here: the Covid-19 scheme, the original one and the Ukraine credit guarantee scheme. I notice that the Revised Estimate has allocated €8 million to meet any calls against the last scheme. Have there been any calls on any of those schemes over the period and, if so, to how much did they amount? I hope there have not been, but it just struck me to ask about it.

The Department has also established a national industrial strategy for wind energy, which I very much welcome. Our committee did some work on that too. We went to Belfast to see the development of the port there on the Chairman's suggestion. It was a great visit and we learned a lot. I notice that there is a plan to develop a strategic road map for supply chains, routes to market, spatial planning and so on, but is there a budget for the national industrial strategy for wind energy? What is the budget, and under what head does it come?

I notice as well that we are preparing to implement the Digital Markets Act. Again, what is the cost to the Department and the State of implementing that?

I have mentioned before the Employment Permits Bill, which has gone through the Dáil and is heading for the Seanad. Has the Minister given any consideration to what I mentioned previously here, that is, the inter-company transfers whereby spouses or partners are not allowed to work? That has been brought to my attention by businesses on more than one occasion. The principal person comes here under an inter-company transfer, maybe for just a short period, but his or her spouse or partner is not allowed to work. Under the critical skills list they can, but not under this one. It is a minor change. I am not sure if the Department or the Minister has considered making an amendment to that.

I notice as well that there are grants for trade unions, €900,000 for education and training and then other funding for amalgamation, amounting to almost €1 million altogether. I ask for a more detailed breakdown as to which individual trade unions got what.