I move: That Seanad Éireann: welcomes: - the Report of the Night-Time Economy Taskforce published in September 2021; - the Programme for Government commitment to reform licensing laws, application processes and to conduct a full review of policies governing night-time culture; commends: - 'Give Us The Night' and all campaigners advocating for positive changes to nightlife in Ireland; recognises that: - there has been a failure to sufficiently update licensing laws; - night-life and night-time entertainment in citie…

I welcome the Minister. I also welcome our guests in the Public Gallery. They have been patiently waiting for this debate to begin and I hope that it lives up to their expectations. Nightlife and the night-time economy are under a severe threat in our towns and cities. Rising property costs, rip-off insurance, extortionate licensing fees and archaic licensing are crippling business and cultural activity. We acknowledge the work that the Government has done in terms of the night-time economy task force. We also ackn…

Hear, hear.

I will not use all my allotted time in making my concluding remarks.

Thank you so much.

I thank the Minister. While I do not support or agree with the amendment, I think there is more we agree on than is evident from it. I thank the campaigners, industry workers and promoters from some of the best venues in the city who run some of the best nights in the city. All of us want not just to protect what we have in our nightlife but to ensure that it thrives as a night-time economy and nightlife culture that live up to our reputation around the world as a country of music, song and dance. All of us can agr…

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I support amendment No. 28, which concerns the commission making recommendations about gender quotas at local elections. This has arisen at the Committee on Gender Equality, of which Senator Higgins is also a member. We spoke to officials and there is concern about how we might implement that. Quotas are applied in the Dáil around political party funding, but there must be a way, if we use our collective experience, to come up with a solution to implement quotas for local elections. The European Parliament has hist…

I support amendments Nos. 6 and 7, which relate to students' unions, as well as amendment No. 206, relating to trade union representation. We will never get to the amendments Sinn Féin has tabled but we have a similar amendment, No. 117, on trade union membership on the board of the HEA. Amendments Nos. 206 and 117 relate to academic and non-academic staff, respectively. The absence of specific reference to trade unions throughout this Bill has been addressed by a number of amendments. That is welcome. It is import…

They must be tight on numbers over in that House.

It is time for a general election.

I also welcome these amendments. I suspect that they are probably in response to the increasing numbers of people getting notices to quit. It is welcome that notice periods are being extended but it will only delay people presenting as homeless; it will not stop notices to quit. For those reasons it is probably right that I articulate that we need to put a month's rent back into people's pockets and to bring down rents in that way. We should ban rent increases in addition to extending notice periods. I do not know …

I wish everyone a happy Pride. This year is our first year on the streets since the pandemic so we are looking forward to sharing our love with the city and asserting our right and freedom to be public in this country. It is a protest so we will march and make demands for healthy conversations we approach with sensitivity, respect and a meaningful voice, conversations that affect our lives instead of being a talking point or reliable media controversy. As we continue to make our country a more equal place, let none…

It is mad that Senator Dolan mentioned a festival. I was planning to commend all those who organise festivals throughout the country.

I had the pleasure of being at Body & Soul at the weekend and seeing Kneecap, Róisín Murphy, CMAT, Fynch and Mango. I commend the organisers, such as Avril Stanley, and all the folks who make it possible. These events are really important for people's resilience. People come together for artists. I refer to the amount of curation that happened at the weekend. They are also important for the economy. I tip my cap to the Body & Soul festival at Ballinlough Castle last weekend. On another musical note, a very sad one,…