To be clear for the remaining speakers, this debate must end at 7.24 p.m. I call Deputy Ward.

I apologise in advance because we are going to guillotine this debate at 7.23 p.m.

I am very sorry, but I must call on Deputy Cairns to conclude. The debate is to finish at 7.23 p.m. She will be in possession when the debate recommences at 1.44 p.m. tomorrow.

The Select Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has concluded its consideration of the following Supplementary Estimate for the service of the year ending 31 December 2022: Vote 40.

I regret that amendments Nos. 1 and 2 are ruled out of order.

Amendment No. 3 is ruled out of order.

We will have another one tomorrow so.

Would the Taoiseach give positive consideration to moving all matters relating to forestry applications to the realm of planning and development, thereby treating forestry as a land use? This would allow local authorities to deal with applications within an eight-week window no different from any other form of development or land use in Ireland. At the moment, the delays in forestry are injurious to the economy. They are slowing down development. Bringing it into land use would be a very streamlined way of dealing …

When can members of the junior certificate class of 2022 expect to see their results? They are all anxious to see the fruits of their labour but beyond wanting to get out and celebrate and digest their results, some of them have to make lower level decisions in respect of their fifth-year examinations and what may happen thereafter. On the school transport measures, this is a fantastic scheme, although there have been glitches with it. Does the Taoiseach envisage the scheme being rolled out in the years ahead? In J…

We are very excited in County Clare to see enabling works under way to develop a 1,400 MW €15 million offshore wind farm off the coast of Moneypoint, the Green Atlantic wind farm. Just like Aberdeen in the 1980s, when it became Europe's petroleum capital, we can exploit economic opportunities in the west of Ireland. Will the Government support research and development, higher education courses in the region and spin-off industries, all backed up by robust local infrastructure? There is more to this than offshore wi…

I am happy with the budget. It is a budget that has Fianna Fáil fingerprints all over it. We have worked really well with our colleagues in government, Fine Gael and the Green Party, to ensure that those in society who are marginalised and the squeezed middle are looked after well in the budget. The Fianna Fáil I joined way back in 2000 was a centre-left party. Parties sometimes deviate from a pathway they are on. This budget rings true to the true causes, aims and aspirations of our party. There are a lot of good …

Follow the Tories is it?

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for selecting this Topical Issue matter. Deputy Carey and I have combined on this matter and I will use two minutes to speak on it. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, for taking this Topical Issue matter, which relates to a very important report. It is the only report of its type I am aware of in Ireland at present. It was commissioned by Clare Public Participation Network, PPN. I acknowledge the presence of Ms Sarah Clancy from Clare PPN, who is in the Public Gal…

Insightful as this report is, it becomes futile unless there is a strategy to respond to poverty in County Clare. That is the very thing Clare PPN and our partners are looking for. We have a Clare county development plan that contains headings on housing, retail and wind energy, but there is no heading dealing with poverty. Currently, that plan is under review. We need a heading and a strategy on poverty. The representatives of Clare PPN cannot speak from the Public Gallery today, but if they could they would shout…

I am happy to speak in support of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill. There is a whole realm of online content that is pretty unsavoury. We all have to use the Internet every day socially and indeed for work. However, there is a real murky side to it too. Finally we are going to be putting forward legislation that will be enacted and will help us to police that better. The legislation paves the way for a new watchdog to regulate online services and to reduce the availability of harmful content. It will als…

This is a very real issue and I am delighted it is being discussed. I met with members of the Irish Hotels Federation, IHF, in my county recently. While they prepare monthly accounts, many smaller businesses in the hospitality sector, such as coffee shops and cafés, only prepare annual accounts. It will only be in October they will get the real shock factor. The costs of utility bills are spiralling through the roof. We must do everything possible to ensure, just as we did during the Covid-19 pandemic, that these b…

I support the other speakers on this matter. In the previous budget, €666 million was allocated to this area. An unprecedented amount of money was committed to the home help sector but the problem over the past 12 months has been that they have not be able to fill many of these roles. They simply cannot get the people. I suggested at the Fianna Fáil think-in - this feeds in also to the Tánaiste's Ministry - that we would look in budget 2023 at special taxation which would allow people, after doing the school drop-o…

I wish to ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he is supportive of the industrial hub around Shannon Airport being a base for major parcel distribution and transiting centres and, specifically, if his Department has made any particular efforts in attracting large multinationals from this sector to the Shannon Airport and wider mid-west region.

We were happy in the summer to see the Tánaiste down at the future mobility hub. Shannon and the mid-west is only scratching the surface of its potential there. Many people are shocked in Ireland to discover that only 1% of cargo leaves our country via the air. Given the number of planes that crisscross this country every day, we are uniquely geographically positioned between Europe and the United States. We have so many natural advantages and we should be capitalising on that. Luxembourg has Cargolux. It is a smal…

Some months ago, permission was granted to Shannon Group to construct a new air cargo hub logistics facility at Rineanna South, Shannon. This will be a massive facility. It is right by the runway. It is perfectly positioned to receive transit cargo and take it worldwide. We really want to see this happen. I am sure there is a tenant in mind for this. We would love to see Amazon there. I would imagine every Deputy in this House has the Amazon app on his or her phone. It is how people shop these days. A pair of jeans…