Briefly, to be clear, this is not to say that persons with a certain level of debt are dishonest. That would be a wrongful inference for the Minister of State to make. It is to say that where there is a debt of over €1 million it is a significant debt. There are those who are owed up to €1 million so, given the significance of the amount involved, it is appropriate that there would be a measure to address that. As the Minister of State said, an honest belief is the standard. That is not to suggest that somebody wou…

Yes.

I move amendment No. 10: In page 11, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “Report to Oireachtas 18. Within 12 months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall prepare and lay before each House of the Oireachtas a report to include a comparison of the methodology, calculation and application of— (a) the guidelines on Reasonable Living Expenses as developed by the Insolvency Service of Ireland under section 23 of the Principal Act, and (b) the Minimum Essential Standard of Living as developed by the…

I am delighted to hear of that engagement and not surprised because I see many of the same principles reflected. The concern is not the impact of the minimum essential standards of living in respect of the ISI's calculations, but in the other direction - not on the Vincentian partnership but in respect of our social protection system. There is a conversation I am hoping to start and I am happy if the Minister can give an indication on this. He has told me of the conversation between the Vincentian partnership and t…

That is absolutely fine.

I move amendment No. 11: In page 11, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “Report to Oireachtas on secured debt 18. Within 12 months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall prepare and lay before each House of the Oireachtas a report to include statistical analysis of: (a) the use of the Principal Act in respect of secured debt; (b) the extent to which it has been used for secured debt under €1,000,000; (c) the extent to which it has been used for secured debt between €1,000,000 and €2,000,000; …

I am happy with the Minister of State's reply but it is important that we have a sense of this. It is not personally identifying information. It is literally a question of how many people are using this legislation to deal with debt of over €1 million or €2 million. Do 40% of cases relate to small debt or do 70% of cases involve debt of more than €2 million? I doubt that is the case. It would be reasonable to provide that information. If that is not currently part of the review and data collection process, I hope t…

I will start by addressing the question of the horse racing industry and, particularly, the greyhound racing industry. While we are not a party, the Civil Engagement Group has been active in challenging some of the practices related to the funding of that industry and the animal welfare issues in the industry. Some have been addressed by rehoming but there are substantial issues with overbreeding and exporting of greyhounds, which have not been addressed. We are here to talk about gambling and I am going to talk ab…

The Minister is welcome. It is important to emphasise that vaccination cannot be our only plan. I worry that so much now is focused on the end goal of vaccination that we do not have as much emphasis as we need on the many preventative and other measures we will need to use in the months ahead. With all due respect to the Minister, it was unhelpful for the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, to state that we will not get the case numbers below 500. It has also been unhelpful to see the amount of energy put into challenging …

I have tabled a number of amendments to this section. I am happy to yield my amendments, which seek an extension to October, in favour of the amendments put forward by Senator Warfield, which seek an extension to December. There are three key points on this. One key concern I have in terms of timing is that this is the fourth Bill in this regard, again rushed through the House in an hour and a half followed by a guillotine. This shows no actual respect for this House in terms of any potential to amend or improve th…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, line 5, to delete “12 July 2021” and substitute “13 October 2021”.

I move amendment No. 3: In page 4, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “(b) in section 10, by— (i) the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (1): “(1) This Part applies in relation to a tenant in relation to the tenancy of a dwelling where— (a) he or she is a relevant person, and (b) as a consequence thereof, there is a significant risk that the tenancy of the dwelling will be terminated by the landlord, and references in this Part to tenant or tenancy of a dwelling shall be construed …

It is a pity I am not in a position to report progress. I hope that next time we have this debate we will be able to report some progress in terms of how we approach these issues.

As a proud anti-racism campaigner, I------

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, is very welcome to the House. I thank him for his engagement on this legislation. As many colleagues across the House will be aware, procurement is an issue with wide implications. To give a sense of the Irish position, in 2019 we spent €12 billion on public contracts for goods, services and works. Over the next few weeks, the expenditure will increase very significantly. As we heard earlier this week in the Seanad, from …

I will second it when I respond.

I formally second the amendment. While I am glad to see the Government supporting the Bill passing Second Stage, I would rather that it would be deemed to have passed after six months rather than one year. That is important because, as we have heard, the decisions are going to be made in respect of €116 billion in the next two to three years. I do not want us to have spent €50 billion and then come back and say that we should have done it better. In terms of time, I have engaged on this issue since 2014. I have eng…

I welcome the Minister to the House. Like others, I have given my personal submission on the NDP and, indeed, we have collectively contributed through the different committees, such as the climate action, disability and public expenditure committees. It is a very important review and a very important opportunity to think in a deep way about how we shape the places and the services within Ireland in the future. I am not going to repeat all of the points in my submission and I will just go to the five areas that the …

I welcome both Ministers to the House. Both of them have had very constructive engagement with the House. I realise it is probably in the spirit of constructive engagement that they are accommodating the joining together of two issues in this Bill but I echo what Senator Bacik said. It is a concern and something we want to guard against in legislation. We have a strong tradition of having direct purpose, focused legislation where the policy goal and intent is very clear. We do not go the route we have seen, for exa…

I am very happy to support the amendment from Senator Ruane. I support the Bill in its spirit. We highlighted very much last summer the fact that many families had used maternity and paternity leave in a very short period because of Covid-19 and responsibilities arising from its effect. The same occurred with many who might have previously spread parental leave over five or ten years, using it when a child most needed that parental support. It is really positive that we have family leave and the measures are also p…