The upcoming centenary of 1916 marks an important milestone in the history of our republic. The Easter Rising defined us as a country. It belongs to no party but to the people of Ireland. Even in my county, some historians would like to rewrite the history of 1916 but the British, French and Germans all celebrate historical events such as this and this is our opportunity to celebrate, 100 years later, the significant role played by the brave men and women of 1916. We should not apologise for that. It is an important political occasion to reflect upon our successes as nation in the face of seemingly impossible odds and to examine those of our shortcomings that history demands should be addressed. It is also a poignant personal moment for families whose relatives served in the Rising. I am sure every Member receives the same representations but almost every day, a huge number of people contact my office in Wexford in the hope that they can attend the celebrations in Dublin on the day. Some family members of those involved in 1916 have been invited while others have been left out in the cold. Some left it a little late to apply for tickets. However, I had a discussion with the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Deputy Kehoe, earlier. The Government should consider late applications from direct descendants and allow them to attend the celebrations, particularly in Dublin.
The Moore Street area is a central part of our historic heritage and should be appropriately preserved and developed to mark the 100th anniversary of 1916. The Government has bought 14 to 17 Moore Street but there is serious controversy over plans for the site and the surrounding area, which is owned by a private developer. We fear the area risks continued dereliction and decline. Fianna Fáil proposed a Temple Bar-type company with the power to create and develop a fitting historic quarter. This would be a much more effective mechanism to secure and revitalise the area appropriately. The historic buildings associated with the 1916 Rising at 14 to 17 Moore Street are in a state of great disrepair and the Minister said they would be brought up to the required standard. The entire Moore Street area was under the ownership of NAMA and the care of Chartered Land before a significant amount was recently sold. The original plans for the area should have ensured that it would be developed, that the traders would be protected and that there would be an economic plan for the area. This has not happened.
It was the last headquarters of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic during the Rising. Volunteers broke into houses on Moore Street and tunnelled their way through the terrace and took up new positions in each house, making No. 16 their headquarters. As many as 300 Irish Volunteers and members of Cumann na mBan escaped to the buildings from the GPO after it caught fire following a bombardment by British artillery during Easter week 1916. The buildings were designated national monuments in 2007 by the then Minister for the Environment, Mr. Dick Roche. As a national monument, the Minister has a duty to ensure the buildings do not descend into permanent decay.
The Moore Street area has been neglected by the Government parties since they came to office. They have failed to bring forward an economic plan to revitalise the area, they failed to create a business environment, they failed to look after the Moore Street traders who have been part and parcel of Dublin for generations. I would like the Minister to serious re-examine what is proposed. I come from Enniscorthy where there will be a full year of celebrations. There will be re-enactments. We have had a school programme which featured the names of Galligan, Weafer, Rafter, Etchingham and Brennan. Every year, Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil hold commemorative events. Next Sunday, Fianna Fáil will celebrate the life and times of Liam Mellows. As far back as I can remember, we have had celebrations in Easter Monday in the cathedral in Enniscorthy followed by a parade to Market Square and the laying of wreaths at the monument to Fr. Murphy and the people of 1798.
We have monuments also to Captain Thomas Weafer and Captain Seamus Rafter and we are very proud of the historic significance of the Easter celebrations. In 1994 and 1995 when, perhaps, it was not popular to do so, our then chairman, Mr. Peter Byrne, who has since retired from politics, invited the Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, to Enniscorthy as part of the 1916 celebrations. It was not very popular at the time but it was a forerunner to the celebrations and the Good Friday Agreement. Enniscorthy is proud of leading the way in that regard. We contend that the tricolour was flown for the first time in Enniscorthy. Some people contend it was flown for the first time in Waterford. We will continue to fight that issue with the people of Waterford. From Easter Sunday 2016, the tricolour will fly over Enniscorthy for generations to come in a specific glass casket that will protect it.
Returning to the motion, it is important that the Minister revisit Moore Street and the surrounding areas. In recent years NAMA has sold property to large developers, foreign developers and UK developers not only in Dublin, but around the country, when it could have been more appropriately used for local people and the people of Dublin. I ask the Minister to reconsider the situation and to revisit the issues called for in the motion. I know she has assigned to herself some of the celebrations and some of the good work she has done in this area. The people of the area want to see more of the properties around Nos. 14-17 Moore Street secured and developed in a different way for the people of Dublin and not for the big developers and those who would sell it on for massive profits in the future.
]]>The homelessness crisis is not about people living in hotels or on the streets alone. It is also about many families who have gone to live with their parents or taken over one bedroom in the family house. In some cases, they are staying in the sitting room during the night and sleeping on couches. This has become a problem not only in Dublin, but throughout the country.
We have a situation where banks are ordering people out of their homes because of an inability to pay and then selling off the houses at a cheap rate. I ask the Minister to consider if some situation could be arrived at whereby local authorities, through the Minister's intervention, would enter negotiations with banks which have houses for sale at a reduced price. The banks are taking these houses from ordinary families and selling them off to financial vultures at a reduced rate.
I can think of approximately 150 houses in Wexford at present that have been repossessed by the banks and which are for sale at a reasonable price. I believe the rate is probably the same throughout every constituency in the country. I estimate that between 2,000 and 3,000 houses have been repossessed by banks in the south east and are now up for sale. It is not an easy way, but it is a way of acquiring houses for local authorities. Money would be made available to purchase these houses and allocate them to families who may have been dumped out of their houses as well as to people on the housing lists.
Between 2011 and 2014, the Government built or acquired from the private sector 44 social housing units in Wexford. Last year, one social housing unit was built in the county. This compares to 559 units between 2007 and 2010 under Fianna Fáil. I remind the Minister of State that Gorey and Enniscorthy are to get eight houses each in 2016 while no houses are planned for the New Ross or Enniscorthy urban areas. That in itself says a good deal about the commitment of the Government to building social housing in Wexford.
Wexford always had a great record of building houses through the years. Various Governments made money available to the various local authorities, urban authorities and those in the county. Unfortunately, it has been static in recent years. We now have a situation where people are trying to find rental accommodation. In Wexford, and particularly in Gorey, a two-bedroom house costs €650 per month. The most a person can get on a rental subsidy in Wexford or Gorey town is €300 or €350 per month. There is no way the people concerned can make up the difference.
I have encountered cases in recent times of people who were paying €400 per month - I imagine all the politicians in Wexford know about the same cases - but all of a sudden the landlord decided to increase the rent to €650 per month. I realise a curtailment has been put on that for the coming years, but all of these landlords have taken the opportunity to increase the rent to a level such that people are unable to pay. It is important that we recognise the need to make moneys available.
The Minister has announced on a number of occasions that money has been allocated for Wexford and other councils throughout the country. I do not know whether the same money is being announced on each occasion, but there is no great movement to build houses in any local authority areas. Is that because there is no longer the wherewithal within the council structure to bring about a building programme? Is it the case that no money is being made available?
I understand 30,000 houses are being made available by the Government, but there is no flexibility. The Minister needs to have more flexibility in the renovation of houses because many houses that are ready to be repaired are locked up. Councils do not seem to have the funding or manpower to carry out such work. Perhaps it is time that small builders and developers were brought on board to bring houses up to a standard in which people can live. There is nothing as frustrating for people on the housing list as seeing houses boarded up in every urban area, leaving them with no opportunity to move into them.
No housing targets are being laid down. The Government seems to be making it up as it goes along. Mistakes may have been made in the past whereby decisions were made to provide most of the houses through voluntary housing or developers. Developers have told me that houses are for sale in urban areas for €90,000, €100,000 or €120,000. It will not pay them to build new houses while houses are available for sale at a reduced price.
It is important that the Minister of State recognises the difficulties faced by communities and people seeking to be rehoused in Wexford and every other constituency in the country. He should bring forward a fire brigade proposal to ensure local authorities become involved in building houses. There is a need and demand for housing. The time for talking is over. Now is the time for action. The Government will leave office next week or the week after. I do not know who will replace it, but whatever happens it is very important that building new houses and providing money for local authorities is the No. 1 priority to ensure the housing list is substantially reduced over the next five years. The Minister of State referred to 2020, 2021 and 2022. That is too far in the distance.
Before I conclude, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his courtesy and kindness to me over the recent years since he took the job. I did not bother him too much. I do not bother Ministers too much either. I usually deal with ministerial staff because I always found one probably got far more action in terms of getting things done than one would with the hierarchy. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Acting Chairmen for their courtesy and kindness to me.
This is my 34th year in the House. It has been a long time. I have had eight successful general elections. I thank my family, organisation and the many people who helped me along the way. I wish all my colleagues on both sides of the House well. I have built up many friends across the political divide during my years in the House. I came in here during the Haughey era and am going out during the Kenny era. There have been some very contentious and very good times. I have enjoyed all of my years here, representing the people of Wexford.
I hope to spend the next month canvassing for my son, James. The Brownes have been here since 1951. I hope to see that continue. I wish every candidate well. The election is tough on candidates, but I often think it is even tougher for families who worry about the results of the election. I wish everyone every success. I hope most are re-elected and that Fianna Fáil will have a substantial number of Deputies.
]]>Business people on Templeshannon Quay, the Island Road and the Promenade suffered severe losses and damage to their properties in the recent flood. This is not just an overnight problem. They have spent the past two weeks trying to clear up and clean out their premises and get their businesses back up and running. Householders have lost furniture, carpets, tiles and white goods, and walls have collapsed. Some of the businesses are hotels, restaurants and shops and they have lost major amounts of equipment. The loss of business during the past three weeks has been a major problem for these small, family-run businesses and it is important that the compensation to which the Minister referred is issued as quickly as possible to the householders and business people.
While the Red Cross seems to be a very flexible body for dealing with business people, the heavy hand of the Department of Social Protection is interfering with the community welfare officers on the ground, who were operating with great flexibility in Enniscorthy and Wexford up to yesterday. However, they have received many strict regulations from the Department of Social Protection, forbidding them from compensating for certain issues and specifying that flood victims get the cheapest possible replacements. It is very important that the community welfare officers, who know the situation, have visited the houses and have an acute knowledge of the River Slaney and the flooding and problems faced by the people, are given as much flexibility as possible to deal with the problems on the ground. The heavy hand of the Department of Social Protection in any form is very difficult to deal with.
I recognise the great work done by Padraig O'Gorman and the staff of the Enniscorthy Municipal District Office, supported by the outdoor staff and people on SOLAS and community employment schemes who came in and worked beyond the call of duty to help people in their hour of need. We had the fire services, the Garda and sand bags. While sand bags are very helpful and supportive, I wonder, in this fast-changing, modern, high-technology age, whether there is some other way of dealing with the problem apart from sand bags. Many of the areas where sand bags were put in place were still flooded. In some cases, the floods went over the sand bags.
The Minister will have to make much money available to local authorities to deal with country roads. While out canvassing over recent weeks, I found many country roads in a desperate condition. Water is still flowing in off land. Water is flowing where there used to be dykes, and, as a result, the roads are breaking up. Between the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, I hope adequate money will be made available.
I do not have long left in the House before I retire, as soon as the Taoiseach calls the general election. In 2009, the then Minister, Martin Cullen, announced the defence plan for Enniscorthy with €40 million ring-fenced for it. It is not the Minister's fault that it has not proceeded. The first set of walls and designs proposed by the OPW caused uproar. Many local people objected and the OPW had to go back to the drawing board. The OPW is preparing a new design for Enniscorthy. I would like an assurance from the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, that the €40 million is still there.
]]>The strong view is that the implementation of this proposal would maximise protection and eliminate the current widespread public confusion. The Health and Social Care Professional Act sets out to protect the titles of 14 health professionals and the title of "physiotherapist" is protected. The Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists believes it is imperative, for a number of valid and compelling reasons that I will outline, a second title of "physical therapist" also gains protection under the legislation.
In the United Kingdom and internationally the title "physical therapist" is synonymous with "physiotherapist" and the titles are, therefore, interchangeable. The difficulty is that a group of people in Ireland have adopted the title "physical therapist". While this group enters into practice after the completion of short part-time courses, varying in length from six to 15 months to three years, physiotherapists, on the other hand, undertake a full-time four-year professional university degree course, with provision for a postgraduate follow-up degree. This leads to considerable confusion since neither the public sports organisations nor many other individuals and groups related to health professions in the country are aware of the fact that physiotherapists and physical therapists and the level of services provided by each are completely different.
This is not a livelihood issue or about having to stop practising, rather it is about changing the title in order that physical therapists and physiotherapists would mean the same and to take away the confusion caused for the public. The titles mean the same all over the world except in Ireland. It is time that they also mean the same here.
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