Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I dtosach báire, tá a fhios agam gur ardaigh mo chomhghleacaí, an Seanadóir Gavan, ceist inné maidir le táillí bruscair. Tá mé ag iarraidh a fháil amach an bhfuil aon fhreagra ar sin. We had a meeting last week with the Minister about the ongoing refuse collection issues. He assured us that he would have a meeting on Monday or Tuesday of this week to clarify the situation. From what I can see, there has been no clarification whatsoever so far. I am getting calls about this issue from people who have no mechanism to get rid of their refuse this week. This will continue next week and they need clarification on the matter. I think the Minister was asked yesterday to seek clarification. Could he clarify this? Otherwise, next week we will have to raise this issue once again in the Seanad, and I do not want to have to do so on an ongoing basis.

Many people are thinking about school holidays, but many parents are faced with the proposition of school transport for next year and there are some serious issues in this regard. Very severe cutbacks were introduced in 2011 by the Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government, which were continued during the last Administration because, we were told, of lack of funding, etc. However, there have been some serious anomalies, particularly in rural areas. Yesterday I visited a school in Mullagh, Galway, that has a very big problem in that it is being asked to send children to schools in different parishes because they are 100 m. closer to a school over the parish boundary than they are to the one they want to attend. There are serious issues in this regard and in the way in which the Department is very rigidly imposing the school transport directives. I call for the Minister of State with responsibility for school transport to come before the House, possibly before we break for the summer, so we can raise some of these issues with him now, rather than having to come back to them after the fact in September, once the issues have been raised.

I note with concern that in Monaghan this week five heifers belonging to a south Monaghan farmer were shot dead by the Defence Forces. I understand this relates to a repossession case. I am very concerned about the issues surrounding repossessions in the State and the way they are being handled, and I have raised this on many occasions.

Surely there are questions as to why the Defence Forces had to get involved in such a situation. The Animal Health and Welfare Bill came before these Houses under the last Administration, during which time we went into an awful lot of detail about the health and welfare of animals. To see five animals shot in Monaghan, on foot of some form of repossession, is extremely worrying, and we should have an explanation as to what exactly happened in this situation. I want us to have a specific debate on the whole area of repossessions. Again, in Galway in the last week there have been more than 100 repossession hearings in the courts. This is happening in courts across the country. There do not seem to be any moves whatsoever to try to resolve these issues for people finding themselves in these situations. There are also serious questions about the way banks, the legal profession, etc., are handling all these matters. I call for that debate on repossessions to be held as quickly as possible.