Martin Heydon, TD

Fine Gael Cork Senator, Deirdre Clune, has today (Thursday) added her voice to the Safefood campaign to remove sugary treats from all supermarket checkouts in the country. CEOs of Aldi Ireland, Dunnes Stores, Lidl Ireland, Musgraves Group and Tesco Ireland have recently been approached by Safefood and asked to support the proposed ban.

Fine Gael Meath East TD and member of the Oireachtas Health Committee, Regina Doherty, has said that representatives of the tobacco industry were deliberately disingenuous during their appearance before the Health Committee earlier today (Thursday).

Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar, TD, has today said that he has been extremely encouraged by Shannon Airport’s start to life as an independent entity.

Fine Gael Waterford Deputy and Vice Chairperson of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications, Paudie Coffey, has today (Wednesday) welcomed confirmation that in excess of €1 million is being allocated to address the recent storm damage at Plunkett Station in Waterford. Deputy Coffey added that the funding illustrates the Government’s commitment to helping communities affected by the recent severe weather.

Fine Gael Cork North Central TD, Dara Murphy, has today (Wednesday) welcomed confirmation that €2.8 million is being allocated to repair the roof of Kent Station in Cork, which was severely damaged in the recent bad weather. Deputy Murphy added that the funding underlines the Government’s commitment to helping communities affected by the storms.

Fine Gael Meath East TD, Regina Doherty, has today (Wednesday) welcomed an announcement that a new €20 million fund is being established to help distressed local authority mortgage holders. It will be used to offer the ‘mortgage-to-rent’ solution to local authority mortgage holders who are unable to meet their monthly repayments.

The Government today (11/2/2014) considered a Report on the severe weather that affected Ireland from 13 December 2013 to 6 January 2014. It announced that it has decided that a sum of up to seventy €70 million euro will be made available for a programme of repair and remediation works.

Fine Gael TD for Roscommon/South Leitrim, Frank Feighan, has said that the 250 jobs announced for Roscommon in the last week by a number of global pharmaceutical companies are a massive vote of confidence in the county’s infrastructure and its people.

Tourism Ireland has lined up a fairytale ending for St Patrick’s Day this year, as Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland® Paris, the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra in Jordan will join its Global Greening 2014. And, in another major coup for Irish tourism, the Pyramids of Giza are set to go green once again this year around 17 March.

On behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, I would like to thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Minister regrets that he is unable to be present today due to other business.