An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-22 ============================================================ Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I would like to offer our sympathies and condolences to the wife and family of Gerard Lynch. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. Overnight there have been welcome developments. This House should welcome the announcement from President Trump that he is pulling back from his planned 10% tariffs on eight European countries. Also, most importantly, he is pulling back from his threat to Greenland. Greenland is an independent state and its sovereignty and independence must be guaranteed. It is welcome news and we should send our good wishes to the Taoiseach on behalf of our country. His position has been steadfast. He has asserted that we should work through the European Union, that we should ensure European unity in our response to the US and use our diplomatic channels to deal with all geopolitical and trade issues. These are welcome developments. It is an evolving situation. It is always changing. What is most important is that we work consistently with our partners to assert the values of independence and freedom. This week, there was a very significant announcement for active travel around the country. Over €350 million will be spent on improving greenways and routes for active travel and this is very welcome. I want to particularly welcome the allocation of almost €36 million to Dublin City Council. The council will use these funds to further extend the Royal Canal Greenway in my own constituency. It runs from the Liffey all the way to the west, running through from the IFSC, up through Newcomen Bridge and Phibsborough and now we have funding to continue it. That is really great news. The Grand Canal, Clontarf and the Liffey cycleway will all benefit. These are really important investments, not just for the city, but also for urban areas. Active travel connects communities and makes it safer for us all to get out of our cars and to cycle, walk and run. This is a really important development, and I wish all the projects well. Finally, I want to welcome the €1 billion announcement from Government for the housing activation office, HAS. It has not got much coverage. The silence has been somewhat deafening, actually. I do not know if that is because it is €1 billion being given to help activate the delivery of housing in the immediate short term for local authorities and the Land Development Agency, LDA. This is only part of €11 billion the State is spending this year on housing alone, which is a very significant investment. However, I think about all the noise made about other elements and no noise made about this, so I want every one of the 31 local authorities in our country to know there is an extra €1 billion there. People need to know that if they have a piece of land that is zoned for housing, has planning permission on it, and it needs a water or other utility connection or a road they should make their application. It is open and the deadline is in February for applications. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-22