Joe Conway (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá mórfháilte roimh an Aire. It is very gratifying for us in the south east to see somebody from there at the Cabinet table. I hope the Minister will look after the south east to the best of his ability. It is lovely to see a champion of the purple and gold in the Cabinet milieu. I worked a lot in County Wexford in the past 20 years, but I only found out the meaning of the purple and gold during a visit to a primary school in Oulart. I was talking to the principal there and he asked me if I knew the origin of the purple and gold colours. I had to confess to him that I did not. He informed and educated me by telling me the purple and gold colours stand for the beautiful sand and heather in County Wexford, which I think is very appropriate.

As they say down in the Gaeltacht, sin mo dhóthain den sobal bog, that is enough of the soft soap; now down to the real business. I have four points to put before the Minister. The first concerns the fact that most of the Senators have spoken about the quantity of houses. I just wish to make a small reference to the quality of houses. As the Minister will know, approximately 12,000 registered plumbers are operating in the State. The Minister and I know, however, that probably four times that number of people are working and doing plumbing and central heating jobs who have no qualifications or ratification. A strong argument is to be made to bring all those people operating in that way into the fiscal economy and regulation under the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. Gas, electricity and water are all looked after under the utilities. For some strange reason, though, when it comes to plumbing anybody can go into a house, look after the building of it, call themselves a plumber and undertake work on the pipes and central heating system. Often, this is with disastrous consequences, with the spillage of oil and a subsequent need to reclaim ground. Households are being put through awful angst as a result. This might be something that the Minister could possibly examine under his remit.

My next point concerns the age-old problem we have of people trying to get planning permission. I know this is not the responsibility of the Minister, but I ask him to be cognisant in the context of the local authorities that so many people in rural Ireland are in an aged cohort. Their children want to build on land beside them. It makes social and economic sense that they be facilitated in any way possible. When the Minister is talking to the directors of services and planning and to chief executives in local authorities, I ask if he can do anything to bring about a more kindly look at the difficulties people have in supporting their parents in their old age by being physically close by in a house which may be on the family's land. To me, it makes absolute sense. The third thing is that out of bizarre good fortune, last year, I was elected mayor of Waterford City and County Council. I know the Minister has an intellectual and academic connection with Waterford, so this will be of interest to him. I also, coincidentally, was a member of the Údarás na Gaeltachta board. I was able to facilitate a connection between the chief executive of the county and city council and the Údarás chief executive with regard to two patches of land in the Waterford Gaeltacht. There was great synergy between the two groups and they wanted to build on those two sections of land, but for some reason I get the palpable sense that everything has stalled. However, I do think that a letter from the Minister's capable hand to both the Údarás and the chief executive in Waterford City and County Council might just concentrate minds. I beg the Minister to do that, check into it and see whether he can move that project along because so many people are crying out for housing in the Gaeltachts, and Waterford Gaeltacht is no exception.

I thank the Minister for his time.