Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

You are welcome.

Kon'nichiwa. For those non-Japanese speakers of which I am one, that is basically “Hello, how are you?” in Japanese. That is to mark today which is the last day of the leaving certificate in 2021. Japanese is the last exam subject to be taken. It has been a difficult and arduous year for those leaving certificate students. They have shown terrific resilience throughout the last 18 months. They deserve not our gratitude, but our best wishes for what lies ahead of them. There are two important dates for them which I want to mention, namely, 1 July 2021 the last day for a change of mind for the Central Applications Office, CAO and 8 July 2021 the last day for Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, applications.

On what they have to look forward to, we were all taken aback when we heard what NPHET proposed to Government. Indeed, the Government has a difficult task ahead in regard to its Cabinet meeting today. I immediately thought of those young people doing their leaving certificate and those who were looking forward to jobs in hospitality during the summer.

If we implement what NPHET recommends, what about all of those young people who were hoping to have jobs in hospitality? Will they be able to get those jobs, if it is insisted that only those who are fully vaccinated can avail of indoor dining, hospitality, and entertainment? If that is the case, we need to look at bringing the vaccination programme forward for our young people, so that they can avail of the summer work they need and indeed the hospitality industry needs hen it has the opportunity to reopen. We wish them well.

I want to raise the issue of the 200,000 vacant homes in Ireland. I congratulate Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, on the work he has carried out on voids with local authorities. However, more needs to be done on vacant homes. One way we can do that is by including second-hand homes in the first-time buyers' grant. We know the importance of the first-time buyers' grant but it is only for new buildings. That is wrong and we need to change it. We also need to change it for couples are divorced and who may not be able to avail of this.

The last item I want to mention is the national peatlands project I mentioned last week on the Order of Business. This week I want to mention a pending application for planning from Bord na Móna for exactly the same area. It is for 50 wind turbines at 220 m in height. This is in an area through which we are bringing the blueway. We have Lullymore Heritage and Discovery Park and the Umeras peatland park is coming up.Bord na Móna is talking about introducing this in an area where two private companies have put in for planning permissions and have been turned down. The people in the Rathangan area are not going to roll over and accept this. We are going to fight this with every bit of our being.