I move amendment No. 9: In page 15, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “(5) In making appointments under this section, the Minister shall ensure that not fewer than 2 members of the Board possess significant knowledge of, and experience in, the development, deployment or commercialisation of AI technologies, digital innovation, entrepreneurship or business representation, including experience gained through service with a recognised representative body of enterprises or industry sectors.”.

I wish to raise the issue of insurance reform. Progress has been made. My colleague Senator Nelson Murray often raises the matter. We cannot afford to lose momentum in this area. The latest report by the Society of Actuaries in Ireland confirms that the reforms introduced in recent years are working. Since the personal injury guidelines were introduced in 2021, the average injury award has fallen by almost 30%. That is significant and the Government deserves credit for staying the course on this, but we are not the…

I thank the Minister for being here and I thank Senator Conway for his words even though I did not understand some of them. I am moving this amendment with Senator Conway because I know this Bill is important, but it also risks becoming just a Dublin story when it should be a national one. I know we are debating the passenger cap at Dublin Airport and how many people can move through one gateway in Ireland, which is in Dublin. It is a legitimate and pressing question, but every hour we stand debating capacity at on…

Yes.

I want to raise a report released by Barnardos in the last week of June, which found that one in five families are cutting back on food because they simply cannot afford it. This means 20% of our population. Parents are skipping meals so their children can eat. Others are reducing portion sizes or going without essentials just to get through the week. I find this really worrying. As the Leader knows, for 20 years I have been working with families across Ireland through Tiglin and I have seen what poverty is like. I…

I thank the Minister of State for being here and commend her on this important Bill. We should have dealt with vapes before now so it is timely that the Minister of State, as a new appointee, is dealing with it now. Before I continue I would like to welcome my friends in the Gallery, as the Leas-Chathaoirleach has mentioned, especially Gillian who is here with her husband Niall. Gillian has recently graduated with a PhD in psychology from Dublin City University so she is assessing every one of the Senators now as t…

Just before I came up here, I had an interview on Ukraine's television equivalent of RTÉ. There was an overnight attack, which killed 17. I was asked about the European Presidency and Ireland taking up that Presidency, but the focus came back to Aughinish and the alumina plant. I was sent a list of questions and that was not on it, but we cannot be seen to support Ukraine and support Ukraine's war, and also support Ukrainian citizens in Ireland, while at the same time allowing a firm deliver manufactured materials …

I thank the Minister for being here. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. At the heart of the legislation is a simple question. How do we protect the right to a fair trial while also protecting those who have already experienced trauma? There have been examples given. There are visitors in the Gallery and Paula's own story was given. The legislation must and can do both. Counselling is one of the few places where survivors of abuse, sexual violence and domestic violence get the opportun…

I reiterate what my colleague Senator Paul Daly said regarding the electric chargers and price-gouging, as he called it. It seems like we were all encouraged to switch to electric vehicles, EVs, or hybrid cars because they were very cost-efficient, etc. Now that we have all done that, it looks like the pendulum has swung and charging is more expensive than diesel or petrol. We certainly need to look at that. As Senator Andrews mentioned, there are huge opportunities as we taken on the Presidency of the Council of t…

I thank the Minister of State for being her today to discuss something that is very important, especially to the people in the Gallery. Both the Minister of State and I appreciate that across our health and disability services there are dedicated professionals working every day to support children and families with additional needs. My purpose today is not to criticise those front-line staff but to be constructive and ask what more the Government can do to ensure autistic children receive the timely assessments, th…

I was given permission, so I did check that.

I thank the Minister of State. I see from her reply that she is in agreement that the length of time people are left to wait is not acceptable. I thank her for agreeing with that. I often think of "a stitch in time saves nine". We need to ensure that people are getting timely support, otherwise, it reduces the effect of the help when it is given. If a key phase of development early on in a child's life is missed, that will have an impact later on. The brain is highly adaptable in the first years of life. Early supp…

I will raise an issue regarding a census of women's refuges in Ireland. This showed that in the first six months of this year, approximately 1,900 women fleeing domestic abuse, and their children, were turned away from safe places because there was no room. That is 1,900 women who had the courage to flee violence only to be told to go back because there was no room for them. I have spoken about this issue in the House before because it is personal to me. I have spoken about my own childhood and my father. He was a …

An article this week revealed that at least 346 third level students reported being homeless in the last academic year. Student representatives believe that the figures are higher and describe this as being only the tip of the iceberg. The article was on thejournal.ie this week. As someone who has worked with homelessness, I have seen the demographics and face of homelessness change. Even though this article disturbed me, it was not surprising. When most people think of homelessness, they have a picture of a person…

I commend my colleague, Senator Ruane, on the work she has done in the area and on the report that was launched today. She was also talking from personal experience. I know, even in my own family, what addiction can be like. I also want to speak today about a place I visited that is inspiring young people to engage with science, technology, engineering and mathematics called Explorium, which is in Sandyford. I visited it recently and was impressed not only by the scale but the vision and the innovation behind it. F…

I congratulate the Leader. Since I came into this House, he has certainly been a friendly face and shown the rest of us how it is done. Judging by the remarks of our colleagues today, he deserves canonisation rather than election to leadership. I want to mention a good friend of mine, Ann Lane, who was on the hantavirus ship. She got out of quarantine yesterday. We are all delighted with that. She is coming into the House today with Senator Michael McDowell and me. It shows how public events thousands of miles away…

This morning, as part of the housing committee, I was downstairs for the launch of the homelessness report. I mentioned in this House before that I appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing and Homelessness back in 2016, at which stage there were approximately 6,000 people in homelessness. The Minister for housing gave an undertaking that homelessness would be eradicated by 2020. The homeless report today deals with a trebling of those numbers in the past ten years. We have more than 17,500 in emerg…

I thank the Cathaoirleach and the Acting Leader. I just want to reiterate first of all what Senator Robbie Gallagher said when he mentioned legislation that we decided on, and we all agreed on to be accepted in the referendum that was approved. It seems disingenuous that we are revisiting that legislation in such a short time period. I want to raise something that is affecting every town and is certainly affecting even my own family, which is the slow squeezing out of the small Irish business owner. I saw a post la…

I second the amendment.

I thank the Minister of State for being here today and I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this matter. Let me briefly explain the technology. When the Cathaoirleach introduced "tokenisation" into the record, he said "tokenism", and they are radically different. I am conscious of this for myself, as getting my head around it was difficult. Tokenisation is the conversion of a real-world asset into a digital token on a blockchain, such as a share or an investment fund. It is then registered as a digital token …