Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like my colleagues, I congratulate the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the European Union on the wonderful negotiations that led to the Windsor agreement. We should also congratulate Sinn Féin on the measured response it issued yesterday and the unionists who have come forward to say this is a great day. I hope that those who are still struggling with it will find a way forward.

Friday is World Hearing Day. It is no secret that I suffer quite badly from hearing loss. Hearing loss is horrific for anybody who suffers from it. I was at an event one day with my wife and when I walked away from some people we were talking to, she asked me if I had heard one word they had said. I asked her what she meant and she said I kept answering questions I had not been asked. It is a horrible place to be. I ask that people suffering from hearing loss go to get their hearing checked and get hearing aids, which are a great assistance. Without hearing aids, I could not use my telephone. From that point of view, hearing aids are of huge assistance. Unfortunately, however, they do not restore one's hearing to what it was.

I got the most peculiar email from the United States asking me to visit Tipperary town. The man who sent it told me that what I would find would be depressing. I visited the town afterwards and to say I was depressed on leaving it again would be an understatement. At the county building, the headquarters where the bureaucrats and the people who look after the town work, there is a water feature that is absolutely disgusting. It is filthy dirty because debris and rubbish have been thrown into it. Surely to God, at the very centre of the town, that should be the first thing looked at. The town courthouse, which is 100 years old, is locked up and completely unusable at this stage. This means that young people who are involved in situations of domestic violence or who are having marital problems and who have to resort to the courts must travel 60 km to the nearest courthouse. That is simply not good enough. There are other things I will say, not just about Tipperary but about how we deal with such things as rates in towns, and how people can avoid rates. I will discuss that matter in more detail later.