It is indeed.

I wish the Minister of State "good morning" and welcome him to the House. I appreciate Deputy Ossian Smyth coming here to take time to listen to this extremely important matter with respect to public service pensions. I can say since 1995 that the messing and changes being made to public service pensions have rendered the public service the least attractive job in the country but, today, I want to specifically speak about those who are in uniform and who generally are part of an accelerated pension scheme. The post…

I am coming to an end now. It is utterly astounding that this would happen. This has been under review for quite some time. We really need an answer straight away.

I thank the Minister of State for that comprehensive reply. Whether we like it or not, the bucking about that has taken place with State pensions has been an issue. I will be submitting another Commencement matter on the post-2013 pension, in respect of which I hear from public servants in all aspects of public life that they no longer want to work in the public service. The single pension Act is detrimental to them. However, that is for another day. I know the Minister of State and know he does not want former mem…

I read this morning that we are now down to one ship to patrol our western shores. That is deeply worrying. I would like to have a debate in this House on what I call the Atlantic fleet. I believe the assets that exist off the west coast of Ireland and the west coasts of France, Spain and Portugal right the whole way down and whole way up north to Norway, Finland, etc, should be patrolled as a European Union. The time has come for the European family to pool its resources and have a shared Atlantic Ocean that would…

If the mayor is ultimately the man who carries the can, where does that leave the CEO?

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, but it raised more questions than it provided answers. We are heading into new territory. These are as yet untested waters. If the mayor is accountable to the chamber within the local authority but the accounting officer is the chief executive officer, there is the probability, I would think, of conflict between the two offices from time to time over certain issues. There may be a particular policy position the mayor wants to drive forward and the chief executive officer…

I am not trying to throw a spanner in the works for the Minister of State, but it is really important that we empower a mayor to be accountable to his representatives in the chamber and, ultimately, to the people who elect him. I have always held the view that the chief executive officer or accounting officer is answerable only to the Minister of State's Department. They are not really answerable to their local representatives in any great way. We have seen in the past how some of them dismiss the council's views. …

I have been on the ground with the Minister of State in Limerick. I know his commitment to the city. I also know he is anxious to get this through and see a directly elected mayor. I want to put that on record. The Minister of State is a true-blue Limerick man. I will give him that. The issue I am talking about has not arisen. I am not trying to be negative. It is our job in this House to tease things out and see where they go. The Minister of State mentioned the relationship between a Minister and a Secretary Gene…

I support Senator Boyhan's amendment. As he rightly pointed out, I spent quite a lot of my life in Limerick. I owe my second-chance education to Limerick. I often remember working with the Minister of State on various projects in Limerick city down through the years. Recently, I had the pleasure of going back there and visiting St. Nessan's Community College and seeing an unbelievable regeneration programme there. That college was gone. It was finished and it no longer had a role in second level education.

No, not Thomond, South Hill.

Then there is the old Krups factory. The work that is going on there with Eimear Brophy, Paul Patton, and other such people, is just unbelievable. As a politician in Limerick, I know the Minister of State used to push various projects himself. He was quite a strong voice in Limerick Senior College back in the day when I was there, as were some of this colleagues. I would not like to take away from all his colleagues who work in Limerick. It strikes me that a political influence in regeneration is extremely importan…

I know the Minister of State as a man of his word. The problem is not him; the problem is those who come after him. As he knows, we are all in transient positions here. We come, we go. Putting what we are requesting here on a statutory footing in the legislation leaves no ambiguity and no room for anybody to say that is not what was meant or we have the power to shift that or we can change this, that or the other. By putting it into the legislation we do the city a favour. We make the mayor of Limerick a statutory …

I second Senator Boyhan's amendment. The Minister of State and I both remember the bad times in Limerick. It is now one of the best cities in the country. A huge amount of work was carried out jointly by the Garda, local and national politicians and the education and training board, formerly the vocational education committee. It is now a model city in so many ways. I love the place and I love to visit it. As my colleague said, there was a lot of animosity in our discussions in this House when we were dealing with …

And they are from Kenmare.

It is a beautiful part of the country.

That was when the Leas-Chathaoirleach togged out for the reserves.

I will first draw attention to the Taiwan Strait. The International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, is responsible for air navigation and it has set rules about how air navigation pathways might be changed. In the past few days, China has decided to cut off a number of vital pathways for air navigation in the Taiwan Strait. The M503, W122 and W123 flight paths are now all closed. Once again, this is China is flexing its muscles against a small state that has a democratically elected president and government. We …

The Minister of State is welcome to the House to discuss this important matter. At the end of 2022 there was an announcement awarding €900,000 to dental schools for head and neck cancer treatments. This would have been the first time funding was made available for pre-radiation and rehabilitation of head and neck cancers. These are the only cancers where patients had to pay for their own treatment. The Dublin Dental University Hospital stopped charging head and neck cancer patients in March 2023 on foot of funding …

I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive answer, albeit that she did not have the full detail until she came here today. It is correct that the service was allocated €315,000. In light of the fact that Cork University Dental School and Hospital has withdrawn from that service, the only centre in the country now is the Dublin Dental University Hospital. It is looking for €815,000. I listened to the Minister of State speak about her own experience. I am conscious of the beautiful young people going into th…