I am actually on my own. I very much welcome the proposal before us today, which proposes that Ireland opt into an additional four European Defence Agency projects. Three have to do with procurement and one has to do with cybersecurity. They make perfect sense. I will address the procurement projects first. The first has to do with soldiers' equipment. This refers to personal protective equipment like body armour, helmets, ballistic glasses and ballistic gloves. The House will know that we have suffered one Irish f…

I very much welcome the opportunity to make some brief comments on this EU anti-corruption directive. I welcome it. Ireland has had its brushes with corruption in the past, which have held us back decades. To be fair, I think things are improving but we cannot let down our guard in the light of recent events. I would like to focus on prevention in particular. Prevention and deterrents are very important. I agree with the emphasis on a public awareness campaign. It is not just a whole-of-government approach that is …

I ask the Deputy to be somewhat circumspect in respect of individuals-----

In fairness to the gentleman concerned, he is not here to defend himself. I do not think-----

If the Deputy has an issue with some of this-----

In your opinion.

The last word goes to Deputy Boyd Barrett.

I am very grateful to be in the Chamber this morning to speak on this very important motion and I acknowledge Deputy Noel Grealish and Maria in his constituency office and her team who did all the heavy lifting to put this together. To start, I want to double on what the Minister of State said about demographics. People talk about this demographic bulge as though it is a time bomb. I think it is a good thing. It means that about 40 years ago there was a baby boom, because people had great confidence in the future o…

I am very grateful for the opportunity to contribute briefly to this debate on the opt-in by Ireland to the three EU proposals. It sounds like a bit of housekeeping to deal with technical issues, but in this Chamber we should forensically scrutinise any proposal that comes from Brussels. As the Minister of State and Deputy Daly are aware, there is a reputation at least that the legal service is overly bureaucratic. That is going to change. Deputy Daly admitted that as well. These proposals sound like they are going…

I wish to raise a very important issue with the Minister, which is the inability of our Defence Forces to recognise the bravery of their troops due to overly restrictive regulations placed on them. I wish, if I may, to use the tragic case of Private Billy Kedian as an example of this. Billy was a very young Irish soldier who was killed in action 24 years ago in south Lebanon. I welcome a small delegation of his comrades, who were also there on that fateful day, who are in the Public Gallery. It is great to have the…

I thank the Minister for that encouraging response. The country could do with a few heroes these days. The great irony is that we already have them; we just have not found a way to recognise and acknowledge them. We have done so in the sporting and business worlds, but not in the military world. I look forward to engaging with the Tánaiste on this issue because it is long past time that both Private Billy Kedian and his family got the recognition and acknowledgment they rightly deserve.

I have another budgetary question. Yesterday, there was an excellent discussion here in the Chamber on rural Ireland. The major takeaway for me was that some of the schemes are working well. We have the town and village renewal scheme and the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, initiative. The major problem with these schemes is that they are not adequately funded. The principle in this regard is completely sound. The problem is there is just not enough cash in the pot. Every Deputy here will know there …

I am delighted to be in the Chamber this afternoon to speak about rural Ireland. As a farm boy, it is a topic that is close to my heart. From the outset, I should say I never really bought into the urban-rural divide, and I know the Minister of State is a Dublin Deputy. I know it exists but it should not. I never felt there was an "us" and "them". If rural Ireland thrives, it is in Dublin’s interest. It will cut down congestion, difficulty with housing and the pressures on services. I compare Ireland with other isl…

I would like to discuss the issues for PhD researchers. The specific question is how the Minister intends to ensure that they will get paid a living wage as soon as possible.

That is excellent. It is very encouraging. I very much welcome that the review has been completed and the report is on the Minister's desk. That is good. He probably received the same emails and the same type of correspondence we all have. The requests by the PhD fraternity are quite reasonable. They are just looking for a living wage. They are looking to reduce the cost of tuition fees for non-EU students. The most reasonable request of all is just to have normal employment rights like everybody else from the poin…

That is again very positive and reassuring. It is better than I was expecting, which is good. As the Minister will be aware, it is not just about the fourth level students; it is about third level students and the downstream consequences. If we do not support our PhD researchers, there will be huge consequences for teachers at third level and also in regard to exam invigilation, the supervision of labs, exam correction and all of that good stuff as well. Currently, we are out of kilter with international best pract…

I wish to discuss with the Minister the strength of An Garda Síochána and any measures he intends to introduce to improve recruitment and retention rates.

I very much welcome the increased budget allocation. I accept that there has been an increase from 2015 to 2020. I know the Covid pandemic has been used for a number of reasons, some genuine and some perhaps not so. There seems to be an overemphasis on recruitment. As we both know, retention is the second side of that coin. Instead of just focusing on recruitment figures, we should probably look at what the net overall strength would be. I take the Minister’s point, which I welcome, that the overall goal is to reac…

I thank the Minister for that useful information. Most people would say that being a garda is not the job that it used to be. It is not as attractive a career as it was in the past. This relates to shift work, work-life balance and perhaps the lack of respect for gardaí among some members of the public. It is a more dangerous job. Post 2013 the paltry pension is a fraction of what their predecessors would have had and is having an effect. I intend to be as constructive as possible. The Garda Reserve is a very under…

The last word is to the Minister.