I welcome this Bill and the opportunity to speak about it. Strengthening the role of and support for charities within society is important. I note the Bill strengthens the capacity of the Charities Regulator. We have seen why that has to be the case all too often, unfortunately. Bad practice has cropped up and there is a necessity due to that but in the vast majority of cases, charities are run with good corporate governance in a professional way, often with very few resources. As well as increasing the capacity of…

Can we make CPR training mandatory in secondary schools? CPR doubles and sometimes trebles the chances of survival in the case of cardiac arrest. Every ten minutes that go by without CPR reduces the chance of survival by 10%. Amazingly in Ireland, which has a population of more than 5 million, only about 80,000 individuals are trained in or know CPR. It is proven that bystander CPR saves lives. Some 70% of cardiac arrests happen in the home, so it is vital that we train teenagers in our schools with the skills nece…

This issue is more local. It is to ask about a licence that was in place between the Bere Island Projects Group and the Department of Defence for access to the Lonehort Battery on Bere Island. Why was the licence not renewed? When can it be renewed?

I thank the Tánaiste. That is a great answer and I do not know what to do now with my speaking time. It was such a positive response. It is good news and the sooner it progresses the better. I visited Bere Island recently. The Tánaiste might have seen the headlines about the electricity being cut off on the island for more than 30 hours. The subsea cable connecting the island to the mainland was cut by activity that should not have been happening in the inlet at the time. I went to visit the island because being wi…

I thank the Tánaiste. Since he mentioned other Departments and agencies, there is a great opportunity for the Bere Island community to transform the Lonehort Battery into a world-class visitor attraction to attract people to the island. I am not sure whether the Department of Defence is directly involved in this type of activity with regard to tourist attractions but perhaps something like a long-term lease with Cork County Council could be arranged that would allow access to funding to make it a world-class visito…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, for taking this really important matter. The next few weeks and months are crunch time for Ireland's hospitality sector. I do not think there is any doubt about this. We have some very important decisions to make as a Government. We can make decisions that will allow Ireland's hospitality sector to flourish or we can make decisions that will see a continuation of the trends that have seen the closure of hospitality businesses such as cafes and restaurants and the whol…

I am obviously utterly disappointed at the response and at the refusal to even examine this proposal further. There is mention of a cost of €570 million to the Exchequer. That is obviously not be ignored. We cannot pretend it is a small figure. It is a lot; it is €570 million. However, the cost to our communities, to society and to our tourism regions of losing cafes, restaurants and gastropubs on the main streets of our towns and villages is far greater. We know the economy is doing well and that we are at almost …

COP28 has highlighted the level of resistance from oil and gas companies and countries closely tied to oil and gas. There is an inherent resistance to a reduction in use of fossil fuels globally. We are seeing the scale of the battle we face in order to address that. We have to continue that fight in terms of international discussion. At home we need to ramp up efforts to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, including oil, gas, diesel and so on. We find in this House that it is easier to talk of things like floating of…

Tonight, I raise an incredibly serious issue that has emerged over recent times. There are several essential farm items for which farmers can no longer reclaim or get a refund on VAT. This is a disaster for farmers across the length and breadth of Ireland. Farmers are trying to invest in their farms and their farms' efficiency and sustainability. They are putting multiples of thousands of euro into their farms to make them more efficient and sustainable. Now, however, they essentially are being penalised for that b…

I thank the Minister of State. I guess it does, but the concerns still remain. What I am most concerned with in the statement is the line that states "VAT incurred for other purposes, such as on the acquisition of equipment or machinery, does not come within the scope of the refund order." There were certain items of equipment, like what I mentioned earlier, such as meal bins and bulk tanks, that are not necessarily moveable as such. Bulk tanks will, for example, remain a permanent fixture on the farm. The concern …

Not really.

I will not shoot the messenger.

I thank the Minister of State. My contribution, in the context of the number of years I have been in the Dáil, is one of my most important. It is one of the last opportunities for me as a TD for Cork South-West to finally sort out the slow, laborious planning process people have to face day in, day out, especially in the area of west Cork because although we are blessed with beauty, it can unfortunately be a bit of a punishment from a planning perspective. I am talking in particular of one-off houses. This legislat…

I will talk about the islands. We are trying to repopulate our islands. Again, west Cork has some of the most beautiful and stunning inhabited islands, including Cape Clear, Sherkin, Dursey and Bear islands, to name just a few, but there is an issue. We have an issue in populating our housing and there is a housing issue. We introduced Croí Cónaithe, and an enhanced rate for it, to try to incentivise renovation of existing properties but that will only go so far. The frustrating thing is that these island councils …

I want to raise the issue of ward 2D in Cork University Hospital, CUH, which is the HSE's largest hospital. Ward 2D is a haematology and burns unit. It has beds, seven of which are for leukaemia patients. That is ten beds to serve the entire region of Cork, Kerry and Waterford, so capacity is the first problem. These are also some of the sickest patients in CUH. Unfortunately, ward 2D has not changed in well over 40 years. The situation is so bad that when new patients are admitted, the care team has to assess the …

I wish to raise a very serious issue that is brought to my attention on a regular basis, namely the problems encountered by parents and guardians when they travel abroad with their own children. Mothers who may have chosen to keep their maiden name after marriage are being stopped by security, in some instances, because their surname does not match the surname on their children's passports. They are being detained by immigration officers and are being interrogated, in some instances for hours, simply because their …

I welcome Deputy McAuliffe's amendment. I can say from experience in my constituency that the rent credit has offered a very welcome breathing space to many families, couples and individuals in the midst of cost-of-living challenges. We do not acknowledge that often enough. Many of those availing of it are over the income threshold for social housing and may just not be there yet in terms of saving a deposit or being in a position to apply for a mortgage for homeownership. The tax credit and the recent announcement…

It was nice to hear the Opposition welcome the Government's rent credit, begrudgingly and a little indirectly.

They went about it in a roundabout way but they got there. I would love to see-----

I love to see that spirit of collaboration. We would be much better off with a bit more collaboration like that in the Dáil. The Opposition calls a lot of these things U-turns. I prefer to call it adaptability or flexibility. We saw the increase in the renters' credit in the budget and we also saw adaptability around mortgage interest relief. We saw an increase in the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which Sinn Féin would scrap.