I regret that the Minister for Justice had to leave only a few minutes ago. She would not have-----

That is true. I absolutely agree that the savage attack on Mr. Niland that the Deputy mentioned requires us all to see what we can do. If constitutional rights are to mean anything, people have to be protected in their homes. I do not believe mandatory sentencing is the best response to that. The independence of our judicial system I mentioned earlier requires giving judges and our judicial system the powers to assess each case and impose the appropriate penal sanctions. We do need policing, however, and the Govern…

I mentioned earlier that the three key priorities of this Government are housing, climate and health. In health there will have to be reform. There was a lot of controversy yesterday in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health as to how quickly that is delivered and whether it will be delivered. Our cancer treatment service has improved significantly in recent years-----

The Deputy is right. We have to ensure, then, that that cost does not result in other areas falling back. As the Deputy asks, I will talk to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and see what plans he has in this regard. No one wants to see someone with cancer burdened with another worry about finances. Considering how we do that and how we deliver universal healthcare would be the best solution to this. That is a cornerstone of the Sláintecare strategy. Broadly, I agree with the Deputy's perspective. W…

I assure the Deputy that the north side is just as much in our minds, attention and-----

That does not come from any Government direction or an inclination on its part not to support the north side over the south side. The Deputy mentioned the active travel fund. I remember talking to an engineer who said he had not seen a previous example where pretty much everything Cork had looked for we had been able to deliver. Cork has been ambitious and a bit ahead of the curve in some of these areas. What I said to the council when I met it was that if it comes with good projects, there will be an open door to …

I propose to share some of my time with Deputy Leddin, the chair of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. I appreciate the chance to outline some of the measures which Government announced last week. I am glad our officials are here. They are responsible for much of the good work that has been done, particularly in the last year or two, to get us into position to launch this national retrofit scheme. I will put it into wider context before going into some of the details of the various schemes. This…

I am very glad to be here to introduce this Bill. It is an important part of the Government's response to the recent increase in the cost of living due to high electricity and gas prices. It is in this regard that we produced the Bill. I am glad to be opening the debate today and to be able to set the context for the action to be taken on foot of this Bill. I will describe the sections of the Bill and, having regard to its main provisions, set out some background as to why they are needed for the operation of the s…

I thank all the Senators who contributed to what has been a very useful and interesting debate. I very much appreciate the thought and time they have given to their contributions. I will not address every matter raised but I will try to cover as many as I can. I will start with Senator Boyhan, as some of the points he raised were also mentioned by a number of other people. There is the question of everybody getting this credit. We must look at this and recognise that this is not the only measure that the Government…

It is useful debate. The warmer homes scheme, which is 100% State support for those at most risk of fuel poverty, gets €118 million out of the total, and rightly so. I do not have the full details on how the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is progressing on it but it is getting stuck in. It is learning. It is deeply committed. The Government is committed to tackling three issues with all of our heart. These are tackling the health crisis of Covid and reforming the health system; addressing the …

I thank the Seanad for inviting me to discuss the carbon budget programme and the recently published report of the Oireachtas joint committee on the proposed carbon budgets. I welcome the committee's recommendation for the carbon budgets to be adopted and I greatly appreciate the approach taken by its members. A number of Senators were centrally involved in some of the work of the committee in the production of its report as they engaged with numerous stakeholders and experts and sought to achieve political consens…

I am glad to follow Senator Higgins. We have soldiered together on that Oireachtas committee. She is right. The analyses of the likes of Barry McMullin, Kevin Anderson and others have been presented and we cannot deny the science. It is clear and presents a completely scary reality that we are heading towards, seemingly inexorably. We have known the science since Dr. James Hansen testified before a US Senate committee back in 1988 The science has not changed that much. We know the risks, downsides and potential dis…

It is.

Okay, I see what the Deputy means.

I wish to clarify that whether amendments are accepted or otherwise has nothing to do with the Government. That is a Bills Office issue. Similarly, I take Deputy Bacik's point about the timing of amendments, but that was not within our control. I wish to respond to this amendment and to each of the three subsections it is proposed to insert, paragraphs (e), (f) and (g), in order. Paragraph (e) concerns criteria and system design. I emphasise that this scheme is an exceptional measure designed to be delivered direct…

I thank the Deputies and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The issue of how to protect our people in this inflationary period is very important. This inflation is caused by international events that we do not have control over. I appreciate the contributions from Deputies and their good intent in coming forward with proposals. This matter will not end with this Bill but it is a significant step in the right direction. It is very practical, immediate and deliverable. What it proposes can be done in a timeframe that will al…

The Deputy is right. I had a meeting with representatives of the NTA yesterday and this issue was among the topics discussed. There are complications. The real difficulty is that we do not have the same facilities in our train stations as we have at Luas stops, where people can tag on and tag off. That makes it difficult to introduce a scheme, which we want to do, where it is not expected that people will be commuting five days a week. Therefore, we continue to look at the options. It is complex and difficult becau…

I look forward to such a meeting.

I move: That Dáil Éireann hereby notes the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action report laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 7th February, 2022, pursuant to Section 6B(2) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Acts 2015-2021 regarding the carbon budgets, which were laid before Dáil Éireann on 6th December, 2021, pursuant to Section 6B(1)(a) of the Acts.

I was to share time with Deputy Leddin but he is not here so I will take the full ten minutes. I welcome and accept this Private Members' motion on offshore renewable energy from the Regional Group. It is absolutely timely and I imagine it will be supported across the House. What the Deputies say is absolutely true. This is a significant economic opportunity for our State, as well as being critical in meeting our climate and renewable targets. It has potential to completely transform the economic development of the…