I welcome the Minister to the House and commend Senator Black on calling for the debate. I acknowledge her service to the industry and advocacy on its behalf in recent years. I also echo the request for the Minister to meet the Oireachtas group, although I am not a member of it. It has sought a meeting and Deputy Ó Snodaigh and I have also requested a meeting. We would appreciate that as well. We have warned since the start of the pandemic about the potential impact on musicians and those impacts have been laid out…

There are reasons people find it so difficult to live at peace with who they are and to whom they are attracted, both physically and emotionally. The criminalisation of homosexuality until 1992 created a dark cloud over our country, enabling the kind of homophobia that existed in the institutions of the State, an Garda Síochána, in these Houses or among people who took it upon themselves to beat or sometimes kill those who did not conform. More than six years on from marriage equality, almost monthly, there are rep…

Let us not do that.

Senator McGahon was not here.

There was €500 million in the budget. Why do we not-----

I commend my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne, on his contribution and on taking a stand on the issue. There was an email from Oxfam that stood out for me. I will not expand much on it. It said that a failure to vaccinate the world is not just economically and epidemiologically foolish but also diplomatically and morally unacceptable. Before I go any further, I wish to commend the work of Senator Higgins. We signed a letter to the Taoiseach before the summer, I think, and the Taoiseach, although he did not commit t…

I move amendment No. 26: In page 30, to delete lines 1 to 9 and substitute the following: “(2) Not later than one month following the passing of this Act, the Minister shall commence and carry out a review of the existing NMPF to— (a) review its compliance with the MSP Directive, (b) provide for interim protections for the marine environment, and (c) in respect of the inclusion of relevant projects in the existing NMPF— (i) to specifically review the compatibility of the inclusion of the relevant projects in the ex…

I move amendment No. 30: In page 30, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “(3) Within two months following enactment, the Minister shall implement a process to provide for interim protection in the marine environment of the existing NMPF to ensure the designation of marine protected areas in accordance with Article 13(4) of Directive 2008/56/EC is not compromised and notwithstanding anything elsewhere in this Act no Maritime Area Consent or Development Consent shall be granted until that process is comp…

I am conscious that the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has completed six or seven sessions on this Bill. At three hours per session, that means 20 or 21 hours of work has been done by the committee and I commend the committee members on that. I also know that this issue was discussed at length on Committee Stage in the Dáil. There is a hierarchy of plans, and sitting at the top of it is the EU legislation. Beneath that is the marine spatial planning directive and other directives. Beneath those…

I move amendment No. 39: In page 35, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “(3) Notwithstanding anything elsewhere in this Act, the competent authority (D) shall prepare a DMAP, or any amendment to a DMAP, in accordance with the following sections, and as if the reference to “MSP” in those sections was construed to read “draft DMAP”, and the references to “competent authority (M)” was construed to read “competent authority (D)”: (a) Subsections (2) , (4) and (5) of section 16 , and (b) Subsection (1) of…

I want to raise the serious work of the Future of Media Commission. We have yet to see the publication of its report, which sits with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the Taoiseach. The Future of Media Commission is not to be confused with the future media commission, whoever came up with that. It is an independent panel set up under the programme for Government. It had its inaugural meeting on 29 October 2020. It was required to report within nine months, which brought us to 29 July. I have learned, in a…

I am here to moan, complain and give out - shock horror. While Senator Garvey was speaking, I was reminded of looking over the edge at Loop Head in her home county of Clare. I looked down at the Atlantic and watched the whales for hours. That is a nice thought on this day. I commend everyone in the Department who worked to prepare this mammoth Bill. I have never held a Bill so big. I commend the Oireachtas joint committee for all of its work, which I have been briefed on. I will start, as others have done, by ackno…

I commend the Leader on wearing a red ribbon today. Yesterday was World AIDS Day. It is 40 years since the discovery of AIDS and the start of the epidemic. I would like to place on record the memory of all those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses and reiterate the message of U=U, or undetectable equals untransmittable. This is the scientific fact that if you are on effective treatment for HIV, you cannot pass it on to your partner. I also encourage people to get tested not just for HIV, but to know their sex…

I welcome the Minister to the House. I can appreciate the frustration out there. The Minister said, in her contribution, that the decision to introduce new measures is not one that has been taken lightly. I recognise that it presents yet another challenge for students and their schools. I have an issue with the fact that children were sent back to school with fewer mitigation measures in place, for example, the lack of filtration devices and the fact that contact tracing was ended. We know that this led to 12-year-…

I want to add my voice to support a TRIPS waiver. As I have spoken on the record in this regard on the Order of Business in the convention centre in the past, I will not use my time on it today. I have not spoken on Order of Business since the Taoiseach was with us. I thought the elephant in the room was the fact that the Taoiseach did not give a response on the issue of Seanad reform. I intend to write to him but I ask that the Leader would also write to him on behalf of the House asking for a response to the Sena…

It was Thursday.

I welcome Senator Boyhan as the Acting Chairperson for this debate. I acknowledge his work and experience of these issues. At lunchtime today, I visited the National Gallery of Ireland to see a striking portrait of Catherine Corless, particularly ahead of the statements tonight. Her portrait was painted by Paul MacCormaic as part of the portrait competition that has been mentioned in the press. I want to recognise Catherine Corless, and all of the human rights activists and historians who have been relentless in th…

I wish to make a point on behalf of Senators Ruane and Black, who could not be here. I wanted to note that they hope to table an amendment for Report Stage. They are concerned about people occupying a dwelling in the course of or following renovations in respect of disability access in particular and retrofitting. They said tenants should not fear eviction because they have requested essential disability access improvements or proper insulation. They hope to bring amendments related to that forward on Report Stage.…

Gabh mo leithscéal.

I move amendment No. 17: In page 6, after line 38, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 34 of Principal Act 6. Section 34 of the Principal Act is amended by the deletion of paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Table to that section.”. May I speak to the amendment?