Peter Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome everyone. Before we begin the business of the committee, I will read some formal notices. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the place in which Parliament has chosen to sit, namely Leinster House, in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where they are not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate from outside the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting.

I propose that the petitions we consider at this meeting and previous meetings be published and that any replies from Departments and other bodies also be published. Is that agreed? Agreed.

We have six petitions for consideration today. The first is No. P00016/25: “A Call for Urgent Action on Flood Relief for Rathcormac, Castlemartyr, Killeagh and Mogeely” from Gleann Fia Residents Association, Rathcormac Flood Protection, Castlemartyr Flood Protection and Killeagh Flood Protection.

The committee recommends the correspondence from the petitioner be forwarded to the Office of Public Works for comment within 14 days and that the correspondence from the petitioner be forwarded to Cork County Council for comment within 14 days. Do members have any views on that?

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with the response. The correspondence should be copied and pasted and forwarded to both. This is going on a long time since before Storm Babet. I read some of the responses from Cork County Council and the OPW. Alex, the case worker, has broken his back on this but it seems repetitive. This specific housing estate comprises timber-framed houses so they cannot put individual protection barriers on the properties because they are for the doors. All these houses have something like 54 vents and air circulates through them. There was one response going back to November 2025. Property owners who experienced flooding during Storm Babet in Rathcormac, Castlemartyr, Killeagh and Mogeely were also eligible for individual property protection schemes. You might as well be emptying the Red Sea with a bucket with no ass in it because it is absolutely useless for them. Ms Jeffers has asked this question over and over again.

Alex and the committee have asked nearly four times and have submitted nine questions to the Minister, the OPW and Cork County Council. I want to put them on record. I think they are very basic questions: the reason for the seven-year delay in tranche 2 for any works to begin in that area; a timeline for each of the four schemes that were supposed to start whenever they are going to start; clarification on the transfer of Rathcormac to the minor works scheme; specific actions and deadlines from Coillte, the National Roads Authority and Cork County Council on issues in Mogeely; and a plan for specific individual property protection, which I suspect is something different for Gleann Fia in Mogeely. They have not had an answer on any of those. There is nothing on insurance. There is no co-ordinated approach, no mention of insurance or even public liability or government insurance for these issues. We have no confirmation on Killeagh, tranche 2 and when that work will start. A full explanation has been sought for the approval of new timber-framed dwellings in Mogeely contrary to the development plan for the planning department of Cork County Council. In Mogeely, where they had that flood, they are building more timber-framed houses. It has not even addressed part 1 of the flooding yet it is giving planning permissions to build more timber-framed houses, which is crazy. Property tax is still being paid for all those houses. They asked could they pause the property tax and they have not got an answer on that. This is very bad mentally for the petitioners and the families who are affected. The minute there is a yellow status rain warning, they are worried they are goosed because they cannot afford for those houses to be flooded again.

To be fair, Alex puts in the same questions every time and is not even getting a response from any of the Departments. I feel strongly about this. We have to put ourselves in their position and think of if it as our home and us asking for basic rights. These are not leaving certificate questions. These are common-sense approaches to get information. I would love to get Cork County Council, the OPW and the Minister responsible in here to answer those nine specific questions. There is no human impact. Alex has said the response fails to reflect the real life lived experiences of residents still traumatised, elderly people who are now afraid of the rain, children afraid to sleep, families living in uninsurable homes and households have been financially trapped. If they want to get out, they cannot even sell yet down the road they are building more timber-framed houses and talking about seven years when they hope to address it. They are going to come up with a plan for how they will deal with the flooding.

Finally, and I am sorry for being so long, there was plan in Gleann Fia where there was supposed to be works done to divert where the flood waters around the back of the estate onto a farmer’s land. At the bottom that was a holding area where the water could be released eventually into a culvert across the road from Mogeely down to Castlemartyr and eventually into the sea at Garryvoe. However, in their wisdom, someone in the planning department decided to give the landowner planning permission to put in a biogas plant on that site. There does not seem to be anything proactive here. It seems to be a case where they are saying they are sorry; they are doing their best but they will keep going building more timber houses and they will ignore the solution they had because they have planning for something else. I would love to see the three groups in here to answer those questions. I am frustrated so we can imagine what the people living in these areas are feeling like. The case worker might as well be shovelling snow while it is still snowing trying to get answers. I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for his patience.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Deputy. With his permission, we will go ahead and do what the committee recommends and, certainly, once we get the response from the OPW, I would have absolutely no problem bringing the officials in here, whether it be from Cork County Council or representatives of local authorities around the country because-----

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I know there are constraints within the councils and stuff, but at least we can get officials in here to tell the truth.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I agree.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with that. We can wait for the response to come back-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Perfect.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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-----and if the response is not good enough then we can bring in the three Departments. Is that agreed?

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Is that agreed by everyone? Agreed.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Chair very much.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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We will move to No. P00030/25, which is entitled "End Ireland’s Blind Deportations" and was submitted by Ms Zahra Ebrahim. The committee recommends, following the various different consultations, that the correspondence from the petitioner be forwarded to the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration for comment within 14 days. Do members have any views on that? It is agreed by all.

No. P00031/25 is entitled “Petition for a Review and Reform of Ireland’s Immigration and Asylum Policies in Light of Public Service Strain and Infrastructure Overload” and was submitted by Mr. David Benington. The committee recommends, following all the different actions by the secretariat, that the correspondence from the petitioner be forwarded to the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration for comment within 14 days. Is that agreed by all? Agreed.

No. P0003/26 is entitled “Reduction of Luxury Tax on Family Courts from 23% to Standard Rates” and was submitted by Mr. Shane Cusack. The committee recommends that we publish the response from the Department of Finance, that the correspondence from the Department of Finance be forwarded to the petitioner for information and based on the response received from the Department, that there is no scope under the European VAT directive or domestic VAT legislation to provide a reduced rate of VAT for the services identified by the petitioner, to close the petition and advise the petitioner that this petition cannot be progressed further by this committee. Do members have any views?

Aubrey McCarthy (Independent)
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We recently had a petition and people were discussing how the divorce courts in Ireland are not only clogged but they are beset with problems regarding charges. A lady gave a wonderful life story about how she entered into this and it was meant to cost €10,000 or €20,000 and she paid upwards of €100,000 trying to proceed with the divorce. I can see that this petition, where they are trying to reduce the rate by 23%, is well-meaning and well-intentioned. It is a pity that we are bound by law and that we cannot deal with this. It certainly cannot be dealt with at the petitions committee. However, I do appreciate the heart of the petition.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with the Senator. I am disappointed that we are stuck under EU law. The witnesses who came in here explained it in detail but in very simplistic terms. This is a massive revenue generating measure for the Government as well. I am just disappointed that we are stuck between a rock and a hard place with EU legislation and that we cannot do anything about it. I suspect that the petitioners are going to be very disappointed on this. I will look at it and see whether we can do anything in legislation to strengthen it because it is extremely unfair, again, when people are fighting to do the right thing through the courts, when they are at their most vulnerable, that they get absolutely hammered in the most serious way when it comes to financial packages. We all know that in most of these cases, the home is sold and they end up with nothing, not even the value of the sale of the house, because it is sucked up by legal fees and extortionate VAT rates. I am disappointed, but it is what the decision is. I thank the Chair.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Deputy Is that recommendation agreed by all committee members? Agreed.

No. P00034/26 is entitled “Emergency Crop Loss Support” and was submitted Mr. Jack Kingston. Based on all the different actions taken by the secretariat, the committee recommends publishing the response received from the Department Agriculture, Food and the Marine, that the correspondence from the Department be forwarded to the petitioner for information and that based on the response received from the Department of agriculture, which states, “The position as communicated to Mr. Kingston remains, and it is not possible to provide financial assistance in this case”, we close the petition and advise the petitioner that this petition cannot be progressed further by this committee.

Paraic Brady (Fine Gael)
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We hear buzzwords about food security and protecting our farmers. Mr. Kingston has a genuine case where he actually lost his whole crop of potatoes due to unforeseen weather conditions that came in on top of him. He was very unlucky in the year that happened because only eight people country suffered crop loss but, unfortunately, he experienced 100% crop loss. When he harvested his crop, it had frost damage because with the severe weather that happened that year, the clay was washed off the tops of the potatoes and they were open to the elements, including sun and frost. As per his contract, he had to harvest his potatoes because the land was leased. I believe there are funds from Europe that provide for protection against crop loss. I would certainly like this left open and maybe referred to the Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food where we can genuinely hear from the two people in question, namely, Mr. Kingston and his father. The Irish Farmers Association did represent Mr. Kingston in this case and is still doing so but he has a story to tell. He has suffered severe damage to his business and there is cover available through European funds. We certainly should not close out on Mr. Kingston. We should hear his case. We should refer it to the agriculture committee, and I hope that a report would come back to this committee for further discussion.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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That is seconded by Deputies Buckley and Maxwell.

I call Deputy Smith.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach very much. I support Senator Brady. I am not familiar with the case but if anybody leases land and then loses the crop, it is a huge loss. It is a loss to lose a crop on a person's own land without having the additional outgoing of renting land. As the Senator said, if there are funds available in Europe for crop loss then, as a country, we should be trying to seek those funds when they are needed and where there is a very justifiable case. It just demonstrates the difficulties of farming, particularly if someone is just farming in one particular sector or farming one crop. If things go wrong, they go badly wrong. It is a huge loss for any individual, household or family. Like other colleagues, I agree with Senator Brady's proposition.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are we happy enough with that?

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I am in agreement. I do not like to see things just being dismissed because of our responses. As I said, this committee is lastchance.com and if there is a system, let it go back to the agriculture committee and let us see what comes back from that committee and what avenue we can go down. That is the fairest way to keep it open and let the person have a genuine hearing on these concerns. People talk about climate change and all this. The weather is not going to be getting any better. Do we agree with that?

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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We have a proposal then to keep the petition open, refer it to the Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food and wait for it to refer it back to us. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The final petition is No. P00035/26, which is entitled "Emergency Potato Crop Loss Support” and was submitted by Mr. John Kingston. Again, based on all the bits and pieces, the committee recommends that we publish the response from the Department Agriculture, Food and the Marine, that the correspondence from the Department be forwarded to the petitioner for information and based on the response received from the Department, which states, “The position as communicated to Mr Kingston remains, and it is not possible to provide financial assistance in this case”, we close the petition and advise the petitioner that this petition cannot be progressed further by this committee. I presume, with members' permission, that similar to the previous petition, we will keep the petition open, forward it to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food and once it comes back then we can adjudicate further on it. Is that agreed by all? Agreed.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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That is perfect.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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That concludes or consideration of public petitions. I invite members of the public who might be watching to submit petitions via or online portal, which is available at petitions.oireachtas.ie. A petition may be addressed to the Houses of the Oireachtas on a matter of general public concern or interest or an issue of public policy.

As members do not have any other issues that they wish to raise, we will adjourn.