I give my best wishes to Eamon Ryan. He is a very courteous man and very willing to engage. I have great respect for anyone who recognises that their first priority is their family. That is an important thing that we would all do well to remember. One of the last Private Members' debates in the Dáil before the elections was on housing maintenance. Doubtless, this is an issue that the Taoiseach will have come across while canvassing. In my constituency, several apartment complexes were identified in the Housing Comm…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "to accept the following measures" up to and including the words "migration and asylum and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1147" and substitute the following: "(a) Regulation (EU) 2024/1351 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on asylum and migration management, amending Regulations (EU) 2021/1147 and (EU) 2021/1060 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 604/2013, and (b) Regulation (EU) 2024/1358 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 M…

That is what you said. I asked a very straight question and you said the answer to that first question is "No." That is what you said. We can look back at the record afterwards but you said very clearly that no consideration was given, and I checked it again this morning. It was a reckless and not thought-through approach.

You can clarify that in the closing remarks but what is on the record is crystal clear, Minister. This is a reckless and not thought-through approach and the public would be absolutely astonished at this. We are in a unique position. We share a common travel area with Britain as we have for the guts of a century. We have considerations that no other country has because of that travel area. It is my view that it is a mistake not to ensure we have flexibility. If we are tied in to the EU system entirely we reduce our…

No, if the Tánaiste listens back that is not the case. Only by retaining the powers to make our own decisions on migration will we maintain a system that is properly managed and fair and that applies common sense and common decency. It does not make sense to give up that flexibility. Sinn Féin also opposes the migration pact because there are significant human rights concerns. Several human rights organisations outlined a number of concerns to the justice committee regarding the potential in some of the provisions …

Family carers are the backbone of care provision in Ireland. That has long been recognised in sentiment and it is now time it was recognised in substance. They play one of the most important roles in our society. They care for their loved ones, their families and friends, out of a sense of love, duty and responsibility. They are not looking for any applause. However, being a carer in this State is extremely challenging. Being a carer and having to fight and struggle for every bit of support takes a huge toll on a c…

I commend the work of my colleague, Deputy Sorca Clarke, on this issue. This is ever a debate at this time of year, particularly with regard to the issues in respect of summer provision and access to school places for September, which is always a really challenging issue for many families. Deputy Paul Murphy correctly highlighted the Jesuitical attempt to say that there was no cut in the capitation grant. The simple fact is that there has been a decrease of €15 per child in the capitation grant. That will undoubted…

There are two primary elements to the legislation. One relates to the pay-related jobseeker's benefit, which we welcome, and the other relates to the PRSI increase, which we are not in favour of, and consequently we will be voting in favour of the legislation. I will deal with them separately. They are connected but I will deal with them one after the other. We have long called for social insurance-based payments such as jobseeker's benefit to be pay related. It is welcome that the Government has moved on this. The…

It was in my speech.

The Minister would not be right.

I do not think you would.

Read back over my speech. I was very clear.

I appreciate the Minister being here. I think this is an area where a bit of innovation could get us a long way. I saw the Minister was in Noonan's Road recently. I was glad to see that. I hope Government funding for that project will remain strong. The Minister is familiar with Cork and he may be familiar with the greater Douglas area. It is an area that has seen enormous growth in the past 20 years or so. There is a very large young population in the locality and that has had a big impact on the schools. It was d…

The key sentence in the Minister's response is: To be clear, in line with public transport remit, the NTA has no plans to operate a dedicated school service in the area. It is the Department of Education which has responsibility for the school transport scheme. That is the problem which prevents something like this happening. No one really has the flexibility, the interest or the ability to do so. While the scheme would be better off in the Department of Transport, that is another day of work. The Department of Edu…

I cannot tell the Minister of State how many times I have been in the following situation: I knock on a door and say, "How are you? We are canvassing for Sinn Féin. What issues are important to you?" The person says, "Come in here 'til I show you." They bring me into the house, upstairs and into the kitchen and they show me black all along the walls. I can feel the cold. I touch the walls and I can feel the droplets from the damp into these 60- or 70-year-old houses that have scarcely had anything put into them by …

I do not understand the Department's objection to this because it seems to be a departure from prior policy. Apart from the fact that predecessors of the pension board would have had representatives in this arena, the fiduciary duties and responsibility to a board are a red herring. Ultimately, once anyone who is nominated by an appropriate nominating body goes on a board, their responsibilities when they are in that boardroom are to that organisation. I can give a slightly different example. Regarding the Good Fri…

I support all that Deputy Sherlock said. It is vitally important we ensure no room for manoeuvre exists for people who will look to exploit the system, or will look to not give some categories of workers their full entitlements, and that we work to avoid that. The points were well made. I welcome Deputy Ó Cathasaigh's amendments and commend him on them. I also commend the Minister on taking them on board. It shows that, sometimes, when we go back to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, more things are possible.…

I have said my piece on the legislation in general. I commend the work that has gone into it. The whole area of auto-enrolment is vitally important. We have significant reservations about the management of the funds. That will be discussed further in the Seanad, but I recognise the work that has gone into the Bill. In principle, auto-enrolment is certainly a big piece of the jigsaw. As I have said, further discussion is required but we welcome the fact that the policy objective is being advanced, even if we do not …

Currently, it is not possible to avail of primary teacher education in the Cork area. People have to leave Cork. There is a serious gap in provision. It is well worth exploring. The Minister of State is aware that the cost-of-living crisis is having a significant impact on students' choices. Previously, people in outlying areas might have moved to Cork, Limerick or Dublin but increasingly the cost of rent means that is less of a choice. For people in Cork who are from a low-income background, the option to take up …

I am used to generic responses to Topical Issue matters, and I am not blaming the Minister of State for this one, but the question I raised was to discuss the need to provide primary teacher training in Cork. The Minister of State's reply must add up to a few hundred words, none of which is "Cork" and none of which deals with the specific issue, namely, the location of teacher training, which is a significant part of the question I am raising. Nobody is suggesting that any of this would happen extraneous to the sys…