Yes.

Signage.

The issue of mass redundancies in the tech sector is very live at the minute. One of the companies we are speaking about this morning is Covalen. The actions of this company have been far from savoury in terms of the treatment of the employees it is making redundant. It has rejected calls for better severance packages and declined a request to start the process of voluntary rather than compulsory lay-offs. The tech industry faces major structural issues mainly as a result of AI. We have seen it across the board. Ho…

The treatment of the Covalen workers has been absolutely toxic. We have workers who have been involved in a company that has made millions as a result of their work, including moderating, as Deputy Boyd Barrett alluded to, yet this company is treating its workers with such disregard by offering two weeks statutory pay and saying they are getting bonuses as a goodwill gesture. They have already earned these bonuses, which were due to them anyway. The notion that we would allow a company to act in this manner, given …

We in the Labour Party welcome the intent of this Bill. We are far from the first to say it, as the Minister of State knows, but the emergence of artificial intelligence could be the most significant societal and economic change we will see in our lifetimes. AI is already reshaping how decisions are made that affect people's lives - decisions about credit, employment, healthcare and policing. It is reshaping our economy, our jobs market, the way we work and, fundamentally, how we live our lives. The pace of change …

Listening to the Minister's comments about the arrears issue, I noted he turned it into a maths equation. I cannot believe how disconnected he is from the reality on the ground. If he needs another reminder, we had fuel protests some time ago. The entire nation was convulsed. Even the former Minister of State Deputy Michael Healy-Rae was so convulsed by it that he stood up and said he had no confidence in the leadership of the Government. He went out and held his fist up in support of the protesters. This morning, …

Despite it being early days in the digital and AI strategy, do we have any feedback on how the Observatory for Business AI Readiness, OBAIR, is performing in actively assisting regional businesses to adopt AI? What are the tools it is using to immerse itself in the businesses in regional parts of the country?

This is an important Bill that deals with the most serious of questions, namely, how we keep our citizens and citizens of neighbouring states safe and how we co-operate with our European neighbours to ensure the rights of our citizens are protected. The Minister has publicly stated that the Bill is an important step in demonstrating Ireland's commitment to implementing the EU's e-evidence package and improving access to digital evidence for serious crime investigations. It is about how we make sure that the digital…

For a number of years, I have been working with St. Joseph's Gaelic football club in Wexford on the development of a fabulous new facility in the heart of Wexford town on Whiterock Hill. The club is just about to put the final touches to it. It has received assistance over the years, of course, but in the final touches, it has received an offer from Uisce Éireann to connect to water and sewerage services. Whiterock Hill is not an isolated area. There are about 1,500 houses on the hill and this will be a community f…

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the Chamber on this hugely important yet too often underestimated pillar of our national economy. Tourism is not and should not be a luxury add-on to our economic strategy, nor a seasonal afterthought. It is an extremely important component of our national economy, one that sustains many of our rural communities. It supports small businesses, preserves our cultural heritage and, in many respects, keeps rural Ireland alive. If we are serious about balanced regional development, …

-----but it is a wonderful tourism addition and could be an embassy for our tourism industry. We also need to look to exploit, in a sustainable way, what is available on our doorstep, for example, our seas and rivers. It is estimated that between 8 million and ten million people participate in sea angling across Europe every year, generating an economic impact of between €8 billion and €10 billion. France has recorded 1.4 million recreational anglers. England and Wales show that, historically, participation reaches…

As we all know, there are moments in the life of a nation when hesitation becomes moral failure. This evening, Ireland stands at such a moment. The occupied territories Bill is not simply another Bill. It is a test of our values and courage and our willingness to act when international law is being trampled upon and human dignity is being denied. As we all know, for decades, the world has watched the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. These settlements are built in direct violat…

Hand-wringing is complicity. We, as a nation, have always prided ourselves on standing on the side of justice, humanity and, indeed, international law but today, as the world watches the ongoing devastation in Gaza and the mounting civilian death toll of 73,000 to 75,000 - we do not fully know - men, women and children, our Government hesitates. This hesitation is absolutely unacceptable. It is time - indeed, it is past time - for us to show leadership worthy of our values and for us, as parliamentarians, to show a…

The children's hospital.

There are four children's disability network teams, CDNTs, in County Wexford and none of them have a full team. Some are missing psychologists, some are missing occupational therapists and some do not have nurses or social workers available and it is not possible to cross cover. In other words, someone on the CDNT team in Wexford cannot provide the service to somebody who has a requirement in New Ross. It has been said to me that the CDNTs in Wexford are in chaos as a result of the lack of staff and full teams avai…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. It is substantial and wide-ranging legislation touching on everything from environmental grants to consultancy supports, from technology acquisition thresholds to the establishment of new joint venture property vehicles. There are even amendments to the Science and Technology Act, freedom of information, FOI, provisions and the governance of the Health and Safety Authority. It is, in effect, a legislative omnibus, and as with all omnibus Bills, it demands careful scr…

Hear, hear.

With the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's blessing, I welcome the boys and girls from Castlebridge National School in Wexford. It is a historic place in Wexford. In fact, the Castlebridge team was the first Wexford team to win an all-Ireland hurling championship. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle, being a Kilkenny man, will no doubt look at that fact with envy. The measures that were taken over the years in relation to road safety were working. If we look at the figures for 2018, we can see that, tragically, there were 139 road dea…

Last year, the N25 around the area of Glenmore in County Kilkenny was the recipient of a much welcome static speed camera. However, because of inadequate and poorly placed signage, this camera is penalising even the safest of drivers. Literally thousands of drivers have been caught by this static speed camera because there is no adequate signage. People driving at 100 km/h have to drop to 80 km/h when they see the sign but given that they come into the camera's zone within 50 or 60 yards, they have no chance to adj…

I wish to raise the issue of the appeals' process in the allocation of special needs assistants, SNAs, in the context of the treatment meted out to St. Aidan's primary school in Enniscorthy in Wexford. St. Aidan's is one of the largest DEIS band 1 vertical primary schools in Ireland. It is exceptional in scale for a primary school, with 861 pupils. It has seven special classes, 36 mainstream classes and 76 teachers and has been awarded 15.75 SNAs. The school currently has 54 pupils attending the seven special class…