I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important debate on whether we should transpose an EU directive on the definition of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of restrictive measures into Irish law. I am happy to support the motion for a number of reasons. I am, in principle, in favour of sanctions as an alternative to violence, provided those sanctions are targeted not at the ordinary people in these countries but rather at regimes, palaces, oligarchs and senior decision-makers. An integral…

I am glad the Minister is present in the Chamber. I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this important debate on policing, security and community safety for a number of reasons. The Bill replaces an important Act, namely the Garda Act 2005, and legislates for the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland from about four years ago. This Bill is not before time. Security and safety are important, and therefore it is important that this debate is taking place. Before I delve i…

Of the 27 EU countries, only 21 deployed small medical teams and search and rescue teams to Türkiye in the aftermath of the recent earthquake. Ireland, unfortunately, sent nobody at all. I accept the fact we provided approximately €10 million, which was a good thing, but money is of little use to families who are caught beneath the rubble. It is a pity. We have the Civil Defence and the Reserve Defence Force. We have the rapid response corps in the Department of Foreign Affairs. The ultimate expression of solidarit…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on Putin’s unnecessary and highly illegal war in Ukraine. Again, on behalf of the Regional Group, we wish we were not marking this grisly anniversary but we are here nonetheless. Unfortunately, that is just the way things are. I have a few points to make. The first is that I welcome, in general, Ireland’s response to the crisis. First of all, the €77 million which has been pledged to the European Peace Facility is appropriate. I recognise that much of this has …

I want to raise the issue of the housing crisis in County Kildare. There are more than 6,500 people on the social housing waiting list. Many of them are military families and the Tánaiste is their Minister, as Minister for Defence. At the same time, the Department of Defence has stated that 62 houses in the Curragh Camp are vacant or in various states of dereliction, which is unconscionable really when we think about how bad the housing crisis actually is. The Department will say that it is not a primary housing pr…

I thank the Tánaiste for that very reassuring answer, which is great. Something the Tánaiste may not be aware of is that you do not actually need planning permission to build military houses on military property for military families. It really streamlines the process. I am grateful for the answer and agree that in this country we have changed much more profound policies than this. We have changed laws on contraception, divorce and marriage equality, and they have all turned out to be good changes. They were the cr…

I thank the Minister for his opening statement. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill, which aims to modernise legislation that dates to the Second World War. That is probably a good litmus test for the need to modernise legislation. From the outset, I compliment the Civil Defence, both the organisation and the 2,700 volunteers. They do fantastic work. As other colleagues have said, they are an integral part of the fabric of Irish society. They provide huge support for the three principal response agencies…

We are all aware the VAT rate for the hospitality sector is scheduled to increase from 9% to 13.5% on 1 March, which is pretty much four weeks from today. In light of last year's exceptional Exchequer returns, an additional surplus of €5.2 billion, and something similar being expected for this year, there are many positive soundings in the media that this 9% rate might perhaps be maintained. What is the Taoiseach's view of maintaining that 9% rate? When are we likely to get a definitive decision in order that busin…

I am very grateful for the opportunity to make some brief comments on the outcome of the most recent EU Council meeting in Brussels in December. I thank the Tánaiste for his background briefs to the House, which were very useful. I welcome that the meeting's agenda was rightly dominated by the situation in Ukraine brought about by the unnecessary and illegal attack by the Russian Federation. I welcome the condemnation of the completely unacceptable missile strike and drone attacks, which specifically targeted civil…

I am sharing time with Deputy Tóibín, four minutes for myself and two for Deputy Tóibín. I thank the Minister for his opening statement. I have a number of follow-up questions. He mentioned that he is currently amending his returns for the 2020 general election. When are we likely to get a formal submission of those returns? Is it going to be some day this week? Could he outline his engagement with SIPO in this matter? He mentioned last week that he had received a letter, I think last Friday week, from SIPO stating…

Is this all the information?

I thank the Minister. I have a couple more questions. All the Deputies in the Chamber are aware that there is a ceiling for expenditure for every candidate in a general election, depending on whether they are in a three-seater, four-seater or five-seater constituency. Had the donation of services been properly accounted for, would that have pushed the Minister's expenditure above the limit?

This is my last question. This matter was flagged to the Minister in 2017. Is there anything he can say to the House and to the public as to why it was not acted on and why he did not recognise the severity and the seriousness of this complaint at the time and take action at the time?

I will yield to Deputy Tóibín.

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute on the Bill. As the Minister pointed out, it is historic legislation. There are so many people and families waiting for organs or clarification. I very much welcome the Bill, though I wish it had come before the House long before now. I am very happy to support its passage through the Dáil for several reasons. The first is from a school of anatomy point of view. As a person who is fortunate and privileged to have passed through medical school, I recognise the extraord…

I thank the Minister for that point of clarification. My question relates to the defence budget. Specifically, I would like to know if any unspent money was returned to the Exchequer by the Department of Defence at the end of last year. If so, where did that money come from? Was it from so-called pay savings, whereby the underspend in defence was as a result of the Defence Forces being under strength? Such savings are normally used for alternative purposes like capital expenditure or equipment.

I thank the Minister for that detailed response. There are a lot of figures there. I will try to get my head around it. I tabled the question arising from an article by Ken Foxe, published in the Irish Independent on 1 January, in which he outlined correspondence between Jacqui McCrum, Secretary General of the Department of Defence, and presumably the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I am looking for clarity on whether the recoupment of those pay savings apply to 2022 or 2023. M…

For clarity, I wish to emphasise in my final wrap-up that Ireland spends approximately one third of the EU norm on defence. This funding is desperately needed. The Minister referred to the modernisation and reform programme announced only six months ago that has to be funded. The war in Ukraine is likely to intensify significantly in March, with spring offensives. We have no idea where that will end up. We desperately need this money. I will read the Minister's written response and follow up afterwards.

I thank the Minister for his opening statement. I am very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I thank Deputy Naughten and Ms Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, our group administrator, who have done most of the legwork in preparing this motion. I would also like to acknowledge two dental colleagues in the Public Gallery, who are very welcome to this debate. I very much like the motion because, like any good motion, it is simple and straightforward. I endorse and support every single word in it. I support th…

I thank the Minister for his opening statement. We all appreciate that standards in public office are hugely important in order to maintain public trust and public confidence in our democratic system and, indeed, in democracy itself. It has been generally acknowledged that standards have been improving in recent years and it is very important that we keep that trend going, that we do not allow standards to slip and that we do not return to the bad old days from which we are still trying to recover. We believe these…