Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and I will carry out a rapid-fire round of all the issues I can speak to within five minutes. It is an awful way of doing business but I nonetheless understand it.

My first issue is disabilities, to continue on Deputy Tully’s theme and in recognition of the fact that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, was present. I welcome the allocation of €13 million of additional new funding for residential services. I am encountering within my constituency a severe shortage of residential places, so much so that in a recent parliamentary question dated 11 October, I received a response in respect of a person who was looking for a full-time residential place for a family member and was told: "Unfortunately, the number of people requiring residential services far exceeds the number of vacancies within the services."

I welcome the additional €13 million. If the Minister of State was of a mind to do so, I would ask her to look at the regional residential forum to see how that is operating and whether there needs to be more work done or a greater light shone on how it operates, which would be welcome.

With regard to agriculture, €49 million was to be the ring-fenced for agriculture and the decarbonisation effort,. If we are talking about a just transition in agriculture and if we are to include farmers in that just transition towards decarbonisation, sending a message to them - I am talking about small farmers, not big ranchers - that the Government is taking €40 million away from them and giving it to the Department of Social Protection, is not the right message at this time. There is justifiable anger within the farming community. Their understanding was that this was to be ring-fenced within the carbon tax and was to help with decarbonisation measures. This was a promise that was made within the programme for Government, which has been reneged upon, and that is something we will have to interrogate further as time goes on. If the Government is to bring the farming community with it on this decarbonisation agenda, and to move away from facile statements such as “reducing the national herd”, this issue is worthy of greater debate as it is a great deal more complex than that. The move to take €49 million from the farming sector to assist it to transition and decarbonise was ill-advised and is something that should be revised in 2022, if possible.

I acknowledge the contribution of the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, on the youth travel card. The typical fare for a student travelling from Mallow to Cork is €7 return. There is no Leap facility on this route. I will be talking about Mallow to Cork and Leap services until the cows come home or until someone ejects me from this House but the fare will be half price at €3.50 through the youth card. That is excellent and will cost €1.75 single. That is a competitive fare and is brilliant for somebody in the under-23 category. If this is not expanded or if Leap services are not put in place on routes which are typical of the rest of the country outside Dublin, we have a problem. I can travel from Pearse Station Dublin to Greystones on a Leap card but I cannot travel from Mallow to Cork on this card. The youth card is fine and it sends a wonderful signal to young people that the prices are coming down, which I welcome, but for people who want to get out of their cars and get on to commuter trains, it does nothing.

I am making the case again in the short time that I have for the expansion of the Leap services to provincial rural towns outside of the Dublin conurbation and to start thinking beyond the Pale. If the Government can get people out of their cars and on to trains and public transport and if Leap services are enabled, more people will use them. There is a latent demand there for this. I welcome the youth card, as everybody does, because it will reduce prices for young people. That is excellent and well done on that. It is a great first step and the Government should think about the expansion of that service. The way to do that for those who are not students or who are in the over 23 category is more Leap card services throughout country, no matter where people live. This is about equalisation and non-discrimination on the basis of not living in Dublin. This is not, incidentally, an anti-Dublin rant but this is just the reality for most people on the ground.

The expenditure report on road safety measures mentioned specific roads were mentioned. The N73 was not. The much-vaunted M25 was not mentioned. Is that even in the national development plan?

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