We spoke about leadership. One thing that will affect whether we extend in November is whether we have a TRIPS waiver so that the world can be vaccinated. Let us be very clear.

We are not passively in a situation, we can choose to accelerate the vaccination of the world and minimise the risk of new variants by supporting a TRIPS waiver and I hope the Minister will champion that. I know some of his colleagues have.

The Minister of State has heard the high regard he is held in across the House and I echo much of that but everybody is speaking to and anticipating the positive use he might make of the powers under this Act. My concern is not about persons but about structures. My concerns relate to the legislation in front of us and the fact that the Minister in this legislation is not the Minister of State but the primary Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. That is clear in the briefing …

Section 8 relates to the same principles that will be addressed in sections 9 to 11, inclusive. I will speak to the general principles in each section. This is a provision whereby the Minister with responsibility for planning and housing, the Minister who still has those powers, in fact, the primary Minister and the Minister for the purposes of this Act, would be required to “request the views of the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht” in terms of section 177X of the Act. Let me give an example. If there…

On the section-----

The Minister of State did not speak to section 8 but to section 11 and I asked the direct question of who performs these functions. I asked the same question on Second Stage and other Senators received answers to their queries on Second Stage.

Will the powers be delegated in respect of these functions?

I make the same argument.

We need to be sure-----

The fact that we are in a hurry is not my fault. The Government had the prerogative and chose to put this Bill through All Stages in one hour. To be very clear, I have the same concerns about sections 9 to 11, inclusive. We are taking away another small element of the checks and balance system in our planning architecture. If issues arise further down the line then we need to be really clear that that is done. I do not think that that is necessary. These checks and balances could be accommodated within the Departme…

I have the same issue with section 10.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 10, line 35, after “protected” to insert the following: “and the views of any Minister with heritage responsibility and the Minister for the Environment have been sought”. Unless we do not have time to speak to it there is a similar amendment in respect of section 12. My amendment is very reasonable. Again, this my attempt to insert the safeguards that were intended in the primary legislation, which are part of the architecture in respect of safeguards, checks and balances in the pla…

Can I ask for a time check?

I move amendment No. 2: In page 11, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “12. For the avoidance of doubt, where a Minister of State has delegated responsibilities for heritage, functions under sections 8, 9, 10 and 11 shall be performed by or subject to the agreement of that Minister.”. These amendments provide that where there is a Minister of State with delegated responsibility for heritage, the functions under the Act would be performed by, or subject to, the agreement of that Minister in respect of…

As the Minister of State outlined, there are imperative reasons of overriding public interest. Bear in mind, the Natura 2000 sites are not generally protected areas. They are the highest quality, most precious areas of biodiversity we have in the State. If a decision was made that basically said we are willing to have damage done to a Natura 2000 site for a reason of public interest, it would be something which we have never done as a State. One of the things which ensured we never did was because there were checks…

I move amendment No. 3: In page 11, between lines 26 and 26, to insert the following: “12. Where there is a Minister or Minister of State with delegated responsibility for heritage, the functions under this Act will be performed by, or in consultation with, such a Minister.”.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend Senator Bacik and the Labour Party on introducing this legislation. I am sure everybody in the House is tired of hearing me talk about the importance of the Irish Women Workers' Union winning the two weeks' holiday for everybody. The Irish Women Workers' Union was founded by many of the women who came out of that revolutionary early period at the founding of the State. Margaret Skinnider, who came out of that same movement, played a key role in the establishme…

I join in the calls for a debate on cybersecurity. I ask specifically that whichever Minister or Minister of State comes in is able to speak about the single customer view data set, to which we have started to add biometric data in the last few years. It includes the data of over 3 million of our citizens and photographs are now being added to it. This is very concerning and is something I have highlighted previously. I understand the Data Protection Commissioner is due to publish a report on biometric data. The St…

Others have outlined the numerous human rights violations, the violations of Article 18 rights on the expression of faith, the forced evictions in east Jerusalem, the constant and gleeful expansion of illegal settlements that we have seen in recent years, the provocation, the unacceptable killing of civilians on both sides - but far more in Gaza - and the destruction of media and health infrastructure. We are aware of these issues and we know that the Minister spoke strongly at the UN, as did many others on the Sec…

I welcome the Minister to the House. It is good to debate the issue of affordable housing and to have a new Bill, although there are many concerns. I open by joining together the dots between four different articles that appeared in the Business Post last week. I commend the work the Business Post has been doing in diving into the real detail of our housing policy. We can all bemoan the experiences but we need to look at the detail. The first of the four stories showed that State investment in cuckoo funds amounted…