I welcome the debate on this Bill. Parents who have contacted me about assessments of need consistently raise three points, namely timely appointments, clear answers and a straightforward path that supports their child’s development. We know the current system is not delivering that. In 2008, the HSE received 2,535 applications. Last year, that figure grew to 13,186. By the end of June of this year, 23,282 were overdue. In the first quarter of this year, only one in ten was completed on time. Behind each figure, of…

I welcome the motion. For families in Donegal, Mayo and seven other council areas, defective blocks have meant cracked walls, crumbling homes and years of uncertainty. Until now, social housing sat outside the scheme. Council and housing body tenants will now get the same remediation options, the same grant cap and the same grant rates as private owners. That is fair and it is overdue. As winter approaches, there is a need to highlight the issue of council tenants living in cold homes that need retrofitting. Under …

I support the motions. This agreement lets airlines share booking data with the Republic of Korea in order to fight terrorism and serious crime. Korea is the first Asian country to agree such a deal with the European Union. The safeguards are strong. PNR data, as the Minister outlined, is depersonalised after six months, held for five years at most and passed on only with independent approval. Opting in also lets Korea share its findings with our passenger information unit and with Europol. These motions form one p…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Social Welfare, Civil Registration and Charities (Amendment) Bill 2026. While the Bill is largely technical in nature, it really matters to the people it impacts. The changes to the civil registration are straightforward and welcome. Tusla will be able to re-register a father's details for a child in its care on foot of a court declaration or order. The notification of deaths is modernised so a hospital or doctor can authorise another person to notify the…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I commend the Minister and his officials on bringing forward this Bill. I believe it is his 24th Bill so far this year, which is quite remarkable. This legislation updates and modernises Garda powers around stop and search, entry and search, and the treatment of people in custody, bringing it all together under one single Act. It follows on from the 2018 recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing and is another programme for Government commitm…

I welcome the debate and the contributions from all Members of the House, as well as the varying views. As Cathaoirleach of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, I believe this is exactly the type of debate and discussion that we should be having in this House. The agreement envisages that the people of this island may one day be asked to decide on their constitutional future. It is right that we prepare for that question seriously, honestly and well in advance. The Good Friday Agr…

I welcome the opportunity to speak today on dementia. Like many others, I want to extend a particularly warm welcome to Jordan and Cian Adams, the FTB Brothers. I commend them on all their fundraising work and advocacy. Today, we remember their beloved mother, Geraldine. There are 64,000 people living with dementia in Ireland today. Around 11,000 people receive a diagnosis every single year. There are 30 new cases every single day. By 2045, the estimated number will grow from 64,000 to approximately 150,000 people.…

Hear, hear.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Postal and Telecommunications Services (Amendment) Bill 2026. I am glad to support its passage. This is a short Bill with a single purpose. Section 1 raises the amount the Minister can make available to An Post for the post office network from €30 million to €105 million. That one change gives legal effect to the Government's decision, announced earlier this year, to provide €15 million each year until 2030. That amounts to €75 million in total and it builds on the €10 mill…

I thank Deputy Clendennen. I welcome and support the Bill, which implements the reforms agreed by the Dáil in 2024 and will accelerate the supply of housing. The housing crisis is the defining challenge facing this country and we all see the impact in our weekly clinics. The Planning and Development Act 2024 was the largest reform of our planning legislation in a generation. I want to focus on three elements of the Bill. The first is the judicial review. The Bill applies the new procedural rules for planning judici…

I am pleased to speak on this Bill, which I support. Recent events in the Middle East have underscored the necessity of this Bill. The energy crisis caused by the conflict in the Middle East has seen record price hikes but, more importantly, raised questions over Ireland's energy security. This is an issue that I have highlighted on several occasions in the House in this term and the previous one. We are an island at the end of the European supply line. We have no meaningful buffer and no gas storage. We are the on…

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.

I join the Taoiseach in his remarks about Prime Minister Starmer and all of the work he has done in rebuilding the relationship between Ireland and the UK, including through the UK-Ireland summits that have taken place in Liverpool and Cork. I welcome the €377 million announced overnight for the shared island initiative, particularly the €193 million for the Dublin-Belfast-Derry line. That is real all-island progress and the Taoiseach deserves credit as well for starting that initiative. Much of this funding rightl…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for that. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026. As the Taoiseach noted, the accelerating growth of AI is both a challenge and an opportunity. AI is here, being used daily by businesses and individuals, and it will continue to develop. It is not something we can ignore. AI-related economic activity is already beginning to materially influence the Irish economy. I support the Government’s ambition to make Ireland…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Dublin Airport (Passenger Capacity) Bill 2026. Last year, the airport saw 36.4 million passengers travel through it. It was the busiest year in the airport’s history, up more than 5% on the year before. Passenger numbers there have grown by 46% in the last decade. The cap is set at 32 million, so last year the airport carried more than 4 million people above the limit that was imposed on it. The demand is real and the growth is real. The cap is the one th…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Criminal Justice (International Cooperation on Electronic Evidence and Other Matters) Bill 2026. The objective of this Bill is to support efforts to tackle crime being facilitated over the Internet. The large drugs cartel being organised on an encrypted app, the fraud run from a server in another country, the grooming of a child through a social media account or the money laundered through a chain of digital transactions - none of these crimes respects a border. The evidenc…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on tourism. Tourism is worth almost €9 billion a year to our national economy. It supports jobs in every county, town and community across this country. Last year, almost 6.5 million visitors from overseas came to Ireland, spending an estimated €5.5 billion. We should, however, be honest about the trend. Visitor numbers in 2025 were down 3% and spend was down 9%. Cost is a factor and access is a factor. We cannot take this sector for granted. In my constituency…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Finance Bill 2026, which gives effect to the cost-of-living package introduced by the Government earlier this year. These supports include 32 cent off a litre of diesel, 27 cent off a litre of petrol and other measures which are not small adjustments. They are part of a significant €750 million package to support families and businesses as we deal with the energy shock caused by the continuing conflict in the Middle East. The Government’s €750 million int…

Skills, training and innovation are the foundation of Ireland's competitiveness and of every young person's opportunity in life. The investment of €1.5 billion in the National Training Fund, including €37 million to SOLAS for construction, manufacturing, healthcare and the green transition, is the single most consequential reskilling investment of this Government. Apprenticeship registrations in construction and related fields have grown by 57% since 2020. I see this on the ground in my constituency, in Dublin Coll…

Funding for the shared island initiative - an initiative brought in by the Taoiseach in 2020 - increased by €1 billion in the last budget, which is very welcome. It has supported a wide range of projects, cultural and community groups and infrastructural projects, which the Taoiseach outlined his reply. As Chair of the Good Friday Agreement committee, I have seen first hand the benefit and improvements it has made and, indeed, the popularity of the funding itself. Some €100 million of the shared island fund is for …