James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue I have raised several times here in the House. It concerns the lack of guidelines relating to solar farms. At a time when we are facing such huge fines from Europe for our carbon emissions, clearly solar farms would be a huge addition to reducing that bill yet we do not have any national guidelines and local authorities are refusing planning permission for these farms on that basis.People are having to go to extra expense to go to An Bord Pleanála. I would like the Minister, Deputy Naughten, with whom this lies more so than the Minister, Deputy Murphy, to come to the House and tell us where he is with his plans. The other interest I have in this regard is in all those hay sheds around the country that could be covered in photovoltaic units. An initiative could be put in place for that.

Another national issue is childhood obesity and the fact that almost one third of our children are either overweight or obese. The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, promoted an initiative in his own area, Wicklow, of a no-fry zone near schools, something which I fully support. Local authorities need guidelines on this from the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, through the Department of Health but it will be a local authority issue. The local authorities and developers need guidance. We currently have a situation where there is a brand new primary school in Skerries with 365 children and there are proposals to build a huge fast food outlet beside it. The initial proposal was for an all-night drive-through with all sorts of traffic issues but, more recently, that has been dropped. It is a disproportionate development in a small local shopping centre. Our children need to be protected from this. We are possibly going to be the first generation that buries the generation behind us as they develop diabetes and all the complications that go with it.

I echo what other Senators said about the Autism Spectrum Disorder Bill. I would also like to know where it is. I have been seeking a meeting about this issue with the Minister for the last three weeks. I hope to meet with him soon. This House passed that Bill in its entirety, unopposed, unanimously and there are children and parents with autism who are struggling on a day-to-day basis. The Bill is by no means a panacea or the end of the beginning. It is the beginning of the beginning for them, in having a process to put in place a national strategy which will give them the help that they need to reach the potential that they have to make their contribution to our society. Over the centuries, people with autism have made major breakthroughs and discoveries.

I wish the new Garda Commissioner well. He has, as others have put it euphemistically, a serious challenge ahead.