Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister, Deputy McGrath, well when he goes to Europe. I ask him to bat as hard as he can for this country. I know he has to do it for every country as a Commissioner but many crossroads are coming up for Ireland, such as the derogation and various pieces of legislation such as the nature restoration law and various other measures. I ask the Minister to be mindful of where he came from. I know he will and in fairness to him he has always been approachable.

I have known the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, for a while. I wish him luck. I will always say that he is very approachable. He is from good stock as some of his people originally came from the west of Ireland. He will be leaving the Department of Transport and I ask him to be mindful when he has the purse strings that funding for resurfacing many roads in Mayo, Galway and Roscommon has been pulled. The Minister of State is aware of this. I ask him to look at where resurfacing was to be done on national routes.

In his budgets I ask Deputy Chambers to remember that rural Ireland exists. With regard to the agricultural sector I say to him and to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, that we need to bring confidence into it. Everyone has been kicking it in recent years. I ask Deputy Chambers to show confidence to those farmers when he brings forward his budgets and make sure they are remembered and thought of.

The Minister for Education is beside Deputy Chambers. With regard to school transport I ask that we do not have the debacle of one child getting a school bus ticket while another does not. We need to make sure if we are to have public transport that every child is brought to school. As a minimum requisite we should have school buses for secondary school children to give them this opportunity. I wish Deputy Chambers well going forward. I can always say that when he was Chief Whip he was very courteous and helpful.

See this speech in context