Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate all of those who were involved in seizing the €100 million worth of cocaine yesterday evening. The Army Ranger Wing did a fantastic job and the crew of the LÉ William Butler Yeats, the Air Corps, the customs service and the Garda were also involved. It is a really important seizure and it highlights the important work the Defence Forces do in terms of the security of our country. In that context, yesterday the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Deputy Micheál Martin, announced the strategic framework for the transformation of the Defence Forces and that is hugely important. The aims of that are to support the transformation of the Defence Forces into an organisation that is fit for purpose in defending the State and meeting the challenges of today and the future. It also aims to address the issues in recruitment and retention, and importantly, it seeks to enhance the physical working environment of our Defence Forces and to enhance their equipment.

I also want to raise the recent announcement by the Minister for Justice regarding the new domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency, which is a significant step and it will be up and running by January. It is important and I thank the Minister for her work on this. As an addendum, it is really important that our courts, particularly in family law, are up and running and can deal with the cases they have. For example, last Monday week there were 106 domestic violence cases listed in Naas court. Of those, only 30 were heard. Many people have to take time off work and organise childminders to appear in court, and let us not talk about the emotional stress and so on that is involved as court is a distressing place for all who are there. We have a broken and inefficient service; those 76 other cases were adjourned to another day that was already full. We have to get this right.

I mention the upcoming budget and the need for infrastructure within our country. I have to give a shout out for the second bridge in Newbridge, which I have raised before. Two weeks ago we got planning permission for that second bridge, which is part of the south orbital relief road for Newbridge. That is important for relieving traffic congestion because five schools are situated around the existing bridge, which is the only gateway out towards Dublin. I hope that within the budget we see funding for vital infrastructural projects such as the new bridge for Newbridge.