Deputy Paul Lawless has the floor.

There is only one speaker, Deputies.

Deputy Paul Lawless has the floor. A Aire, do not draw Deputy O'Donoghue on.

Stop. Deputy Paul Lawless has the floor.

A huge range of significant issues are putting pressure on farmers. They include bluetongue, the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, the Mercosur deal and Bord Bia. Last week, the agriculture committee questioned the Bord Bia chair on Brazilian beef imports. There are very strong views on the issue and farmers are really upset about what they saw happen in the weeks leading up to the committee meeting. Time and again at the meeting, the question came up about discussions and getting people around the table, face t…

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Barry Heneghan - To discuss issues regarding St. Joseph's Primary School, Fairview. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue - To discuss the development of a minor injuries hub plan for Balbriggan. Deputy Malcolm Byrne - To discuss actions taken by Government in relation to ongoing human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party against the Uyghurs. Deputy John Pa…

I want to raise with the Minister the roll-out of the national broadband plan in the area west of Macroom - the switches for Carriganimmy, Béal Átha an Ghaorthaidh and Dunmanway. They cover large rural areas going from Clondrohid around Cill na Martra, Reananerree, on down towards Cappeen, Kilmichael, Johnstown and out around Togher, Shanacrane, and Doirín na Cathrach. It is a very large rural area and they are keen to get that roll-out advanced as soon as possible.

I fully appreciate that the roll-out of such a large plan has to start somewhere and has to end somewhere. The switches in the Carriganimmy, Ballingeary and Dunmanway area are towards the latter part of the plan. Residents in those areas could reasonably expect that things that would have been learned from the earlier deployments could be put in place to speed up the later deployments, such as in the area west of Macroom. Is that actually being done? Is it possible to get it done faster in the later deployments tha…

I thank the Minister. He raises a very reasonable point about the way it was when we came in here, when it was a much bigger issue, but for the people in the Ballingeary, Carriganimmy and Dunmanway area, it has continued to be an issue. They were in the later part of the deployment and in fairness to them, they have been very patient. There is a level of frustration and people need to see that headway can now be made, and that possible lessons that would have been learned from earlier parts of the deployment can ad…

Auto-enrolment is a significant change for people who are in employment and preparing for pensions. It has been up and running since the beginning of the year, as the Minister will be aware, and the first pay packs are arriving in. It is very visible there. Can the Minister give an outline of the number of people who are registered at this point, and, in particular, the figures for Cork?

With more than 760,000 people to be enrolled across the country, and I hear the figure of more than 75,000 people in County Cork, are they all registered and up and running on it or are gaps emerging in places where employers have not registered and people are not yet registered for various reasons? If gaps are emerging, can the Minister outline where they are and if they are in particular sectors or concern large or small employers? Can the Minister please give an overview on this?

In relation to the gaps emerging, it would be interesting to know if these are in particular sectors or geographical, if there is a little bit more information on this, as well as how quickly, or otherwise, the gaps might be closing. The Minister might not have the information now, so it is okay if he is able to send it on afterwards. I have been discussing this with people locally and a number of different issues have been emerging. For example, where people are not registered but will be at some stage in the futu…

Next is the Independent Technical Group, beginning with an Teachta Michael Collins.

Tá go maith. I call Deputy Ken O'Flynn.

We are on Irish Water infrastructure, a Theachta.

There are two issues I wish to raise with the Minister of State on Irish Water infrastructure delivery. The first issue relates to connection fees and the second relates to pollution in waterways. Irish Water has a fee structure for connections that fails to take into account that community groups have to fundraise and get grants from Government and various sources to build community services. They are still treated as commercial entities when it comes to making a connection to water and sewerage. In Rylane, for ex…

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss the tackling of coastal erosion and flooding in County Kerry. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere - To discuss the new Kilkenny Institute of Further Education and Training campus. Deputy Pat Buckley - To discuss ongoing water outages affecting the community of Knockane, Castlemartyr, County Cork. Deputy Joe Cooney - To discuss the em…

Seanad Éireann has passed the Finance Bill 2025, without amendment. Seanad Éireann has passed the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025, without amendment. Seanad Éireann has passed the Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Bill 2025, without amendment.

I congratulate the Minister on her appointment and wish her every success in the role. Will she outline what engagements she has had with UNIFIL about the security of Defence Forces personnel in Lebanon? Has she identified any additional security threats in view of the decision to end the mission there?

Irish men and women have served with such distinction over many years in Lebanon. The Minister is right: it is such a regrettable decision that the mission would not continue. Nonetheless this decision of UNIFIL and the mission not going on leave a void once the force starts to scale down its numbers and the possibility of a scramble to fill that void, whether from one side or another there. That is a threat both to people locally there and to the troops themselves. Has the Minister identified particular threats in…