Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, I thank the Minister present here for all her good work. On a personal note, I also thank her for calling to a nephew of mine and his family when he had an accident recently, which I appreciate.

Beidh fíorfháilte roimpi go dtí an Fiodh Ard i dTiobraid Árann an Domhnach seo chugainn. She will be welcome to Fethard and we do not need Deputy Ring to tell us about it.

All of this is great as is everything the Minister does, but alongside all of this happening and the great money that is being spent on the URDF and all of that, the Government has set up the Office of the Planning Regulator, there is the Land Development Agency and the CEOs - county managers – so there is absolutely no power now for the county councillors.

We have a situation with our own county development plan where a long-existing crèche wishes to expand in Tipperary and the county development plan will not allow it. On the one hand the Government is giving and with the other one it is frustrating, blocking and stopping with all the regressive legislation which has been coming in.

We then have situations such as the Tipperary town bypass struggling for funding while there has been an underspend, and we have the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Green Party destroying rural Ireland. This money might as well be wasted. I salute all the community groups engaging with the Minister and with us and getting the funding for valuable projects. On the other hand, the life is being sucked out. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, just cancelled forestry. It is cancel culture at its very best.

We then have the situation at Ardfinnan bridge in the village of Ardfinnan where for eight years this has been blocked and made into a single carriageway because it was nearly damaged in a flood. Money was spent on consultants who decided to put in a separate stand-alone bridge. Who blocked it? I will name him here in this House. It was the director of services, Marcus O’Connor, from Tipperary County Council blocked that funding, now that the Department and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, have thrown it out. He told the council meeting on Monday that he agreed with TII, after we had got independent consultants to develop an independent report and send it to TII. We have senior officials who are unaccountable to the elected members or to anybody and who are getting away with this kind of blackguarding of people and communities. It is shocking. All is not well in rural Ireland because we are being blackguarded.

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