Momentum is building for the re-municipalisation of waste collection. I commend the work of councillors on Dublin City Council. My colleague Daithí Doolan has been working with unions. They have a working group to identify the barriers to this and they gave a presentation in the audiovisual room. We have now established an Oireachtas cross-party working group on the re-municipalisation of waste. There needs to be focus on the barriers to this. The climate committee can do a job of work on it, but the Government sho…

I welcome this debate and the fact that we are having it. I too commend Deputy Denis Naughten, who is the chair of the Oireachtas Friends of Science group, on the work done in this regard. I am happy to also be a member of the group. As the Minister of State has said, sometimes the focus and the idea of science is people in white coats working in labs or dealing with CERN. I welcome the statement in relation to CERN . The Government should get on with it. It is, however, important to have a far broader interpretati…

The British Government has succeeded in uniting every party on this island in opposition to its so-called legacy Bill. The Bill is not about legacy or in any way endorsed by people on this island. It will be devastating for families and unilaterally close the door on them getting truth and justice. It is contrary to the Stormont House Agreement, which states that processes dealing with the past should be victim centred. The Bill is also contrary to the spirit of partnership of the Good Friday Agreement, which all p…

We have been a long time waiting for this legislation. When I saw this Bill in our office this week, I presumed it was the legislation relating to energy credits. I find it amazing that we are still dealing with this Bill, but we are, and with these amendments back from the Seanad. It must be a month at this stage since we dealt with this Bill here previously. It must be borne in mind that when we debated this legislation then, I wanted us to be tighter on the timelines and to be making more aggressive commitments …

That does not answer the question I asked. When will people see the benefit of this legislation? The Minister of State should bear in mind that the Government is among the slowest in Europe to move on this matter. It was decided at European level last October and November. Many European countries have already moved and implemented legislation. When will people see the benefit of this windfall tax? It should be borne in mind that people have been paying exorbitant household and business rates for electricity for the…

We are paying out on the energy credit. Tomorrow, the Select Committee on Environment and Climate Action will meet to agree the additional moneys to transfer. The Minister of State should not tell people it is going to be funded out of this legislation, which has not even been passed. When will people see the action of this windfall tax? Is it next September, as was originally intended? What moneys will be accrued and how will they be distributed to people to relieve them of the high cost of electricity, which I pr…

Over the past month and more, the world has watched in absolute horror as the Gazan people face annihilation. Missiles rain down on 2 million people who have been denied food, fuel and water in one of the most densely populated areas in the world. We are bearing witness to a cataclysmic event. We are bearing witness to war crimes. We are bearing witness to genocide. Israel acts with impunity through its indiscriminate slaughter of a trapped population. Entire families have been killed in their beds; many more are t…

I welcome the opportunity to address the statements on the Energy Charter Treaty. I acknowledge my colleague Senator Boylan who has done a significant amount of work on the Energy Charter Treaty, including a master's thesis, which very much informs our party policy and these statements. For a long time we have been advocates of withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty. It is a relic of a fossil fuel past. Negotiated in the early 1990s after the Cold War, this international agreement represents a bad deal for Irela…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue and the Minister of State for being here. I will be sharing time with Deputy Kenny. I was prompted to submit this issue due to an unprecedented level of bus service cancellations in my county over recent weeks. It was particularly acute the week before last when approximately 20% of services on the busy 103 route serving Ashbourne and Ratoath were cancelled. Passengers were encouraged to avoid using the busy NX service from Navan and there was similar cha…

Go raibh maith ag an Aire Stáit for that response. It immediately raises the question of timelines and how soon a decision will be made. It is important in advance of that to reiterate the case. I welcome the fact and I am not surprised at all that submissions have been made. It is important this debate is reflected on in the considerations that will be made. It should be a positive decision to include vehicle mechanics on the critical skills list. This is about providing solutions. I agree entirely with Deputy Ken…

I welcome this legislation and commend Deputy Duffy on bringing it forward. It contains a number of important provisions. I refer to widening the parameters in this context where they are needed, particularly in terms of the area of responsibility and the statute and the existing limitations in this regard. Turning to the existing schemes, I represent the constituency of Meath East, and we live with the pyrite scheme because many constituents have had pyrite discovered in their homes. It is welcome that the scheme …

Continuing on the theme of encouraging people onto public transport and making it safe for them, I have to raise the deteriorating standard of public bus services in County Meath. We are at a crisis point in my county. On the 103 service, which services big and busy towns like Ashbourne and Ratoath, 20% of services were cancelled on Monday, more than 10% were cancelled on Tuesday and 15% of services were cancelled yesterday, Wednesday. Today, it is the same. The same applies to the 105, 109 and NX routes, which ser…

There is a palpable sense of déjà vu in the Chamber. Here we are, debating for the third time an almost identical Bill to the ones we debated in both February and October of last year. In fact, the only difference between this year’s Bill and those that have passed through the Houses is that the Government has incorporated several proposals Sinn Féin tabled last year, which is to be welcomed. Ironically, however, they are proposals the Government had stubbornly rejected as inappropriate, unnecessary or made too soo…

I move amendment No. 9: In page 8, after line 40, to insert the following: “(3) Electricity suppliers shall remove any arrears limits placed on pre-pay meters until the Minister directs otherwise.”. In the interest of brevity, and given the Second Stage debate, I withdraw amendments Nos. 9 and 15 with a view to perhaps reintroducing them on a further Stage.

I move amendment No. 10: In page 9, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: “6. (1) Where an electricity supplier refuses to make an electricity costs emergency benefit payment then the final customer may request the electricity supplier, on or before 30 June 2024 to review its refusal. (2) The request under subsection (1) shall state the reasons why the person making the request wishes the refusal by the electricity supplier to be reviewed. (3) The electricity supplier shall within 28 days of the request u…

I move amendment No. 12: In page 14, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “Reporting 14. (1) The Minister shall, within 12 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the application of the Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Scheme III and the Submeter Support Scheme to address high electricity costs. (2) The Minister shall, within 12 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the application of the Electricity Costs Emerge…

I thank Deputy Murphy for co-ordinating an audiovisual room event and for the submission of the Topical Issue. It is very important and timely. The points have been made already. When I speak to constituents who are living with long Covid and their families, neighbours and friends the issues raised are the lack of public awareness, completely inefficient HSE services, clinical pathways, services and supports for children, a co-ordinated vaccination strategy that recognises long Covid and the need for continued supp…

The points have been made and I thank the Minister of State for his reply. There is a singular focus on the clinical side and referring back to the Minister for Health. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, also needs to be involved in this. With regard to the clinical aspects of the capacity of services and clinical awareness in the services, the point has been made to me, and the Minister of State picked up on this, that the focus is on pulmonary and cardiac and less so on neurology. This is also …

Flight paths on the north runway at Dublin Airport are not as planned. Houses, schools, businesses and communities are being overflown that were never intended to be overflown. This is causing huge consternation. On Tuesday, 3 October, RTÉ's "Prime Time" covered this issue very well, and the impact it is having on communities. It also presented a potential solution, as presented by Mr. Gareth O'Brien and others, to bring flight paths more closely in line with what was originally planned, reducing the impact on hous…

I fully support this amendment. Regardless of one's instinct, impulse or opinion on the passing on of wholesale price reductions, one thing that I hope we can all agree on - we have heard it from Minister after Minister - is that there was no transparency or oversight of hedging practices. The Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, the Minister for Finance, for Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, to this day, say that energy companies a…