I express the same sentiments as my fellow Seanadóirí who have spoken on this. Tara Mines is weighing heavily on the minds of everybody at present, especially in the area where I live in north-west County Meath, including towards Athboy and that catchment area around Navan. It is a serious concern that such a vast swathe of jobs is to be put on hold at once. We had that experience previously and it was not nice when it happened. I am curious, in that while the price of zincs, coppers and many associated metals has …

Antisocial behaviour on public transport has long been a scourge. It inhibits getting more people onto public transport. According to one of the transport unions, it is also driving good, hardworking people away from working in public transport. I have written to the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, proposing that all members of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces should be given free travel on all forms of public transport. In itself, this will not stamp out antisocial behaviour. However, an increas…

I am delighted to welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, to the House. He is a great friend of councillors and has been very proactive and has worked hard in his role since his appointment. He knows about this because he was at the front line and he started from the ground up. He is to be commended on all his experience over the years, which makes him understand the issues affecting councillors probably better than most. Recently, the Department rolled out a scheme worth up to €5,000 that has beefed up se…

I thank the Minister of State who, as always, has come here with good news. As he says, he is being proactive. He understands councillors and he understands their safety and security concerns. It is great news that he is actively looking at this scheme. I have no doubt that its roll-out will happen in time. I really appreciate his work. I appreciate that he has looked at the different categories in relation to the allowances. He is keeping us updated on what the different allowances can be spent on, as he discussed…

Hear, hear.

I thank the Minister of State. That was well said. Just get the cheque book out.

The House has previously discussed the issue of councillors and their security. It has been raised by Senator Boyhan and other Senators who are present. This morning, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, dealt with a Commencement matter on this important issue. Councillors deserve to be treated in the same fashion as Members of this House and the Lower House of the Oireachtas, particularly in the context of their security and security concerns. Following a Garda review, an allowance of €5,000 has been brought i…

I will briefly raise two small matters. I was contacted by a constituent regarding Eircode. This individual's eircode is wrong for their home address. When this person gives their eircode, the website brings up a different road that is wrong. They have been trying to contact Eircode to change their eircode address. On the Eircode site, the address shown on the eircode finder is different from the actual address and cannot be changed. According to Eircode: There is no one official address for any location in Ireland…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Quite a lot of amendments in the Bill are progressive, particularly regarding bankruptcy, which shows how our society has changed, in addition to nationality, citizenship, international protection, immigration, legal services and the Judicial Council. A whole fillet of additions are part of this Bill. They are all very progressive and welcome. I support the comments of my colleagues, Senators Keogan, Wilson and Conway. We saw the news from the POA this morning on overcr…

I second the proposal.

I am sorry. Did I steal Senator Boyhan's thunder?

I second the proposal that Senator Wilson act as Acting Chairperson for the day.

I concur with what Senator Boyhan has just talked about with regard to one-off planning. I raised the same issue last week in the House. It would be quite worthwhile having a debate about it. Some of the legislation that was being brought in recently had unintended consequences and is causing problems for people that should be entitled to planning heretofore. The issue I will raise today has been brought to my attention by a number of constituents, that is, the dealing Vodafone and its call centres have with their …

I am just curious, because we have an Oireachtas point of contact for many other entities.

It might be beneficial.

I have received a few calls in the past month about what seems to be a co-ordinated plan on the part of county managers, or certainly from the top down, in the context of how local authority planning executives deal with councillors. The reserve function is very specific when it comes to the input of councillors regarding development plans, making representations on planning files and generally laying out the reasons why somebody in an area who may have contacted them should be eligible for planning. The process is…

It is nice to see the Minister of State here today. I thank him very much. This matter concerns one-off plannings. Section 42 of the Planning and Development Act could give a five-year extension to planning permissions. However, legislation, particularly section 7 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2021, about which I raised concerns at the time, has had unintended consequences. One-off housing planning permissions are tangled up in legislation which was introduced to push developers to start on larger…

The Minister of State's answer is a bit of a smokescreen, unfortunately. I know he is only the messenger. It is hard to see how there are two junior Ministers in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and neither could be here, with the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, having to field all these questions. If substantial works are done, the council can look at the matter or whatever else. From then, there was a short window within which the council could give a two-year extension. The ability to …

I am speaking today about housing, which has been quite popular over the past while. We have all discussed and agreed that we are in the middle of a crisis. Nobody could deny that. However, there is a more simplistic solution that could be used. It was pioneered during the Covid crisis and it worked extremely well. Developers and builders were asked to roll out mortuaries and additions to hospitals. There was a plethora of different building works at that stage. Work started in a matter of weeks. At this stage this…

To have a properly functioning property market, we need confidence and investment. I have listened intently yesterday and today. I wonder how some people think they can achieve this if we stop people from selling their property and interfere with laws governing landlords and tenants, as we have done already. I would suggest that the ban on selling rental properties has not bred confidence in this sector and has put fear into investors. This has increased sales and escalated the problem. It would have been far more …