Amendment No. 1 arises out of committee proceedings. Amendments Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, 12 and 16 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Amendments Nos. 6 to 8, inclusive, are related and may be discussed together. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Amendments Nos. 9 and 10 are related and may be discussed together. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Amendment No. 11 has been ruled out of order.

Amendments Nos. 13 and 14 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

This Commencement matter was intended for the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform, Deputy Noonan. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, for being here. I ask him to provide an update from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, on the conservation status of 45 special areas of conservation, SACs, Irish turloughs and objectives to restore habitats and protect the local community in the Lough Funshinagh area. There were hundreds of people at a public meeting in…

From what I understand, then, the GSI is stating Lough Funshinagh is still a turlough. Is that correct? From what I understand and from what the Minister of State has told me, he is stating that the last time Lough Funshinagh was cleared was in 2016, whereas Roscommon County Council has stated the last time it was fully drained was in 1996. In other words, Lough Funshinagh is not operating as turloughs normally would. The Minister of State has stated that every six years an update is provided to the European Union,…

That would strike a balance.

I raise the issue of the smart villages and rural towns meeting being held in Mountbellew this evening. The venue has been selected by Galway Rural Development, GRD, to receive this type of funding. I encourage people in the local area to come along. The meeting begins at 7.30 p.m. this evening and it will be great to be able to see the opportunities for funding. Mountbellew is now one of the campuses of the Atlantic Technological University, ATU. An agricultural college is also based there and people will know of …

Families have faced devastation at Lough Funshinagh with their homes, farms and roads. Lough Funshinagh is a turlough, that is, a disappearing lake that has not disappeared in full for over 26 years. I have met families at Lough Funshinagh over the past while. There are generations of farming families living in Ardmullan, Lisfelim, Ballagh and Rahara, and I have extended family living in the area too. They suffer great mental anguish and exhaustion from watching rising waters, especially coming into wintertime, and…

A few weeks ago, I met hundreds of people at the Raheen Woods Hotel, Athenry, County Galway. These were groups of people who work with Galway Rural Development under rural social schemes, Tús and community employment schemes. Many of our public representatives were also present. We know all our community heroes. They work in towns on all these schemes and are doing so many projects. They work with our town teams, Tidy Towns and the GAA, as well as on sports pitches and with charities. In my local area, they were pa…

It is clear that this is groundbreaking legislation. The Government is bringing through legislation that will cater for so many people working in the private sector who currently do not have access to any sort of sick pay scheme. It is absolutely crucial that this happens. It is a statutory scheme that will come into place over a number of years. We will increase the period from three to ten days. It is absolutely phenomenal to see that we will be bringing this in and that the Bill will be enacted as soon as possib…

I thank the Minister for coming here to debate the Bill with us. The third level education landscape has been transformed over recent years. We have had the creation of the brand-new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. There has also been great focus on third level, which is crucial. There has been the development of technological universities to drive innovation in new campus towns and cities across the country. The third level qualifications of a degree, master's and PhD …

The current legislation is not fit for purpose. The Bill before us needs to come into play right now. A body of work is being done by all our HEIs and the stakeholders that have been involved but we need to crave success and excellence and there needs to be a sense of competition between our technological universities and our HEIs. We need to reach those rankings again. We need to ensure that through our peer-review system, which has been set up by Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council, IRC, we …

Next Tuesday.

The preliminary results from the census have just come out and for the first time since 1841, we have 5.1 million people living in Ireland, which is pretty incredible. It is really crucial that we see Ireland as a country, State and democracy that is standing tall on its own two feet. The initial preliminary census data takes into account more than 2.1 million homes, which is an increase of 120,000. It also gives details on the vacancy rate, which is close to 8%. I think it is 7.8% in terms of vacant homes, which i…

It just shows that there is a team of people here in the west fighting for funding for the population of the west. We are the seventh largest population with 180,000 people living in County Galway. We are the second largest county and that means a hell of a lot of roads in Galway. As a Galway county councillor elected in 2019, I am fully aware of the devastating impact in terms of the roll-out of services to people and families who live in our towns and villages. This is our rural future. These are the policies we …

It is important, as the Minister of State indicates, that taxes collected in the local area would come back to that local area. That is in regard of the local property tax. It is important to recognise that core funding for Galway County Council is the issue. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, must engage with Galway County Council in this regard. There has been an increase in commercial rates within Galway County Council and this shows the executive is making commitments …

We are supporting so many people who will participate in Dublin Pride this weekend. Many people will be travelling up from other parts of the country. I refer to the important work being done by teams and people working within the Oireachtas. A lovely Equali-TEA event was held this morning. I also wish to highlight LiveStock, a wonderful music festival that will be happening in Aughrim. It is a fantastic festival that brings together music, arts and crafts. Independent musicians such as Kíla will be appearing. Ther…

Excellent.