The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says precious little about our heritage, our past or our archaeology. There is literally one line in it which states: "There will be detrimental impacts to social and cultural assets." Sin é - that is the sum total. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important matter. It is very important that we recognise the importance of our built and archaeological heritage, including sites of historic and cultural significance and also recognise that they are …

It was about the challenge of dealing with climate change in the context of increasing tourism demand.

I welcome the opportunity to address this topic. Like a number of previous speakers, I am familiar with the important work of the OPW on flood relief, particularly from my time as a county councillor in Meath. I worked on the CFRAM and FEM FRAM programmes in the east Meath and Fingal area up towards Ashbourne. I commend that work. In my experience, we had works in Ashbourne, which are ongoing, as a result of flooding in 1986 and 2002, before my time, but when I was a councillor, we had very bad floods there in Nove…

The Tara management plan is a work in progress. Another issue has arisen that is quite local. It is relevant especially in terms of the new dispensation that we are all ambitious for in getting people walking and cycling. We have been involved in the Ashbourne linear park project for many years. This is a cross-party project. Meath County Council is ambitious for it. We have had a difficulty in dealing with the OPW because the office wants access to the waterways. Will the Minister contact the OPW and ask officials…

I will take seven minutes and the other Deputies will take four minutes each.

We will see how we get on. I have a couple of questions for the Minister and will afford him the opportunity to answer. I commend all the sporting organisations, as I am sure everybody does, on their efforts during the Covid-19 crisis. They really have been the backbone of the community responses. I thank them for their sacrifice. This goes from kids missing out on a kick about to the elite athletes missing out on the Olympics or some of the high points of their careers in some cases. The importance of sport and sp…

I thank the Minister and Minister of State. I have a question on gyms and swimming pools. Many avid sports people are keen to get back to the gym or swimming pool and their routine of exercise. Under the original roadmap, swimming pools were set to open in phase 4 while gyms were scheduled to reopen in phase 5. Will the Minister provide an update on this plan under the reconfigured roadmap that was announced last week? Is it the case that both these types of facility are set to reopen on 20 July?

My final comment will be to echo the sentiments expressed publicly and in this Chamber in the past 24 hours in regard to the boxing community. I am a member of a boxing club and I am very proud of the contribution boxing has made in communities across Ireland. I am very proud of our amateur and professional boxers who have done so well on the world stage, in the Olympic Games and in world championships. It is very important that the State make every effort to ensure that professional boxing is not hijacked by eleme…

I am sharing time with Deputies Wynne and Ó Broin. I welcome the opportunity to address this important issue. Transport will be central to our moving towards a low-carbon economy. Over the past 30 years, the transport sector showed the greatest overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions at 137%, with road transport increasing by 143%. In 2018, transport was responsible for 20% of Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions. Those figures give a sense of the challenge. They are also, in large part, an indictment of the fai…

As I do not want to eat into my colleagues' time, I would appreciate it if the Minister could send me a written response on the Navan rail service.

I will take seven minutes and Deputies Quinlivan and Wynne will take four minutes each. I welcome the announcement of the establishment of a task force for aviation recovery. It is very much needed and I ask that it be established and get through its work as quickly as possible. I recommend and encourage the Minister to include the unions representing workers, including Fórsa, SIPTU and IALPA, in the stakeholder forum. It is important that they are represented. I acknowledge that in the Minister's opening statement…

It was stated at the committee yesterday that the advice from NPHET was not adhered to or was not taken on board at that time anyway. We were also told yesterday the Minister for Health is currently examining the possibility of a mandatory 14-day period of self-isolation. This is causing considerable confusion. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport referred to the industry as well as travellers, including would-be holiday makers, looking to the summer and beyond. For how long will the 14-day self-isolation …

Is the Minister indicating that we will move to a stage when the 14-day period of self-isolation will be mandatory? Is that something the Government is planning to implement?

Okay. I thank the Minister. One of the public criticisms of the 14-day period of self-isolation is that somebody can come out of the airport and hop onto a bus to their final destination with the possible transmission of infection. It is exacerbated by the lack of face coverings on public transport. Anybody using public transport will be aware of that. Yesterday at the Covid-19 committee meeting, I asked Anne Graham of the NTA if she would insist on face coverings becoming mandatory for all passengers and drivers o…

The Minister made one whistle-stop visit there in three years.

Covid-19 public health advice is deliberately intended to restrict the movement of people and to get them to stay at home or as close to home as possible. While this public health advice has a significant impact on us all, it has a very profound impact on children at risk. I refer to children who live in homes that are not safe havens or sanctuaries; unfortunately for some children, home is the exact opposite. People working in this area say that we have a perfect storm. We have children forced back into abusive ho…

I am sharing time with Deputies Cronin and Wynne. We will respectively take seven minutes, four minutes and four minutes. If the Minister does not mind, I will ask some questions and request a response, and we might go back and forth. My first question concerns the Covid-19 checks and the controls at our ports and airports, particularly the latter. We know that our airports have never been quieter. Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport were down by 57% in March, and possibly by as much as 90% in all Irish airports la…

Yes.

I have not said that.

I thank the Minister. I am satisfied with that answer. I want to raise the issue of traffic guarantees and how they might be affected at this time during the Covid-19 crisis. Has the Minister any information about the liability that the taxpayer is now coming under as a result of traffic guarantees on public private partnership projects, given the fact that traffic volumes have nose dived? What are taxpayers' liabilities for March and April, for example? Have the Minister or his Department investigated whether ther…