I wonder what I am walking myself into. Perhaps I am missing something. I give my condolences and sincere sympathy to the family of David Hill and his colleagues, and to our own colleagues who have spoken so eloquently today and from such a heartfelt place. It could not have been easy for any of them, so our thoughts are with them as well. I am a big supporter of any kind of cross-community sports. I think sport is a great leveller and it brings people together. In fact, this Sunday, in Seaview in Belfast, the Lime…

Palmerstown Football Club.

A new toll is being introduced at Dublin Airport for people being dropped off or picked up as part of a sustainability drive and to encourage use of public transport. I think I speak for the majority of Dublin 15 residents when I ask, bemused and bewildered, what public transport? We do not have any public transport to the airport, neither public nor private services. I remind Senators that those travelling from the west via the M4 or anywhere south of the River Liffey are already paying up to €3.20 when they go ov…

I have just lost 50% of the time I had, but that is okay. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is welcome. We are in the same constituency but the Minister knows how much I value his work and the work he is doing. I know we are not supposed to say this because we are constituency rivals, but it is true. I still believe that we are at a turning point of all of the reasons I got into politics, and we have an opportunity to address them here right now. I was working in an advertising and marketing agency. I was a business d…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English. I congratulate him on the launch of the new Town Centre First policy, which is going to be transformative. Of course, I am here today as a Senator based in Dublin West and I want us to be part of that. Town Centre First, for anyone who does not know, is a policy where local communities and businesses will be supported in revitalising towns and villages through tools and supports. It is about revitalising our communities and, of course, we want to create strong…

When I talk to local authorities about access to town and village and the urban regeneration and development fund and even the regional enterprise funding that is available, they say they are not able to get support from those schemes. Will there be new schemes or will the schemes be tweaked so that areas such as Blanchardstown and Castleknock get access to them? I agree that bringing together the stakeholders of a village is great. There is a development plan. There will be an urban planning framework for those di…

Today I want to talk about problems facing community centres in Dublin West although I imagine there are community centres all over the country that are facing the same problems. I am referring to centres that are not owned by local authorities but are owned by the community and which need work done on them. Such work can include fire safety works, as is the case in Huntstown and Hartstown community centres. This work must be undertaken because both centres are home to childcare facilities and pre-schools but the m…

Will the Minister of State respond to the entire grouping of amendments?

Amendments Nos. 11 to 13, inclusive, have been ruled out of order.

When is it proposed to take Fifth Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

This weekend, I was privileged to attend the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. It was my first in-person plenary session. I really got to see the benefits of the informal and formal engagement with members of the Parliaments of Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was really great to be able to talk about the challenges that face us and the difficulties we are going through. We all know that the bilateral relationship is not as good as we would like it to be but it was a positive weekend for parlia…

We all woke to news from Ukraine that is not shocking, given the direction of travel in recent weeks, but is certainly sinister. I agree that we must do everything in our diplomatic, humanitarian and political power to support the people of Ukraine. The draft Fingal development plan 2023-29 was launched today. It will be out for public consultation until 12 May. This is critical. In the past couple of years, there has been a real shift in terms of what is described in the development plan as healthy place-making, t…

I welcome the Minister of State. We meet again. I again express my gratitude to her for the commitment she is showing to change the existing mental health services. She has a significant challenge after years of underinvestment. I say that first, before I get into the negatives and positives. What is positive is that there has been a reduction of 19% among under-18s waiting for more than 12 months in primary care psychology following an allocation of €4 million, which is easing pressure on acute services. Funding o…

I am sharing time with Senator Ward.

The Minister of State is welcome. I am very supportive of deliberative democracy. As the Minister of State rightly said, it is not an experiment any more. It has become a vital cog in the wheel of democracy. He is right that we will be running assemblies concurrently. That is new, as is going beyond the electoral register. I hope both those innovations add value to the process. Obviously, I support a citizens' assembly on biodiversity loss and one on the type of directly elected mayor and local government structure…

Is Senator Flynn sharing time?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I, too, want to extend my sincere condolences to the family of Christopher Stalford, MLA. It is an incredibly sad time for his family - his wife Laura and their four children, the DUP family and the entire political family in the North. Our thoughts and sympathies are with them today and this week. I want to reflect on the announcement yesterday about the connected hubs in relation to the launch of a mobile app where people can locate a local hub that they can work from. There is a network of more than 200 hubs tha…

I welcome the Minister. I thank the joint committee for putting a huge amount of work into this. That includes the report and the numerous meetings it had. I am sorry I missed it and that I am not on the committee as it has been very interesting. However, I worked in advertising and marketing for 15 years so I know how important this Bill is and how much it is needed. It will be one of the most important Bills we work on during this mandate. We must take proper account of the influence of new media. I was watching …