I am sorry; I did not know.

I formally second the motion. The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. I think this is my first time to address him since he was elevated as a Minister of State. I am very happy for him. He was a good local representative himself in his time. We are talking about the erosion of power in local authorities and it is important that we put things in context at the very outset. I do not believe any government or Member of this House or the Lower House has any interest in disempowering local authorities, but w…

When we look at issues like security and the personal security of county councillors, I note that the amount of money for telephone and broadband has been reduced. Why, when I get an allowance to carry out parliamentary duties, is it called an allowance when it is a sum of money that is not subject to tax? When a county councillor gets an allowance, it is referred to as pay and it is liable to tax and insurance. In addition, we expect them to run their offices. The Minister of State and the Members of this House kn…

Some time ago, I spoke, and the Leader herself spoke, on the appointment of the next head of intelligence for the State and it surprises me that they are continuing with the appointment. Former colleagues from the UK have contacted me and they cannot believe that we would even consider the appointment of a foreign national. By the way, those who came in here and accused me of racism, etc., because I objected to a foreign national taking the most senior intelligence post in the country have yet to apologise. It was …

There is no need to give way.

The bottom line on it is we really have to think about what we are doing. The person who will take over intelligence in this country will have access to information on all of us, on past deeds in this country and on those who were involved in various different things down through the history of this country. Micheál Martin, in the Dáil the other day, said that the person appointed would be appointed under normal appointment conditions and would have to take an oath to the State, etc. For God's sake, I ask the Gover…

Hear, hear.

I stand foursquare behind the Minister. She is doing a fine job and should continue to do it. I also think the Garda Commissioner is doing a fine job and he should continue to do it. On the riot, I am probably the only person in this room was ever actually involved in a riot. I was sergeant in charge of a riot section and we faced 15,000 people on that particular day. I can tell the House that it is a damn scary place to be when one is facing a madding crowd but our gardaí did well. There is a notion about that the…

Hear, hear. Well said.

I came up here to talk about security but Senator Ruane has sent me off on another track. She is 100% correct. We have let communities down in areas. I lived in Limerick for a number of years and there were two estates whose residents were constantly referred to as troublemakers, scumbags and so on. In Galway city, there were similar estates and there are areas in Dublin that are similarly regarded as tough places to grow up in. That is no excuse. Some people who come out of tough areas excel. However, if we are ho…

I thank the Minister of State for being here. I should start by saying that I am delighted to see that the Naval Service seagoing allowance has been retained. That is one of the good things in the budget. An awful lot more work needs to be done with respect to our soldiers, sailors and airmen. The Minister of State might consider whether the duty allowance should be made tax-free. That would make a great difference to members of the forces. In 2008 and 2009, this country was in dire straits. There is no doubt that …

I join with the best wishes to Mary as she moves on to the next stage of her life. On 8 November 1960 an ambush took place in Niemba in the Congo. On this day that same year the bodies of the troopers killed in that ambush were brought home to Ireland. I want to read their names into the record: Lieutenant Kevin Gleeson, 2nd Field Engineer Company; Sergeant Hugh F. Gaynor, 2nd Motor Squadron; Corporal Liam Dougan, 5th Infantry Battalion; Corporal Peter Kelly, 5th Infantry Battalion; Private Matthew Farrell, 2nd Hos…

The Minster of State is welcome to the House. I thank my Fianna Fáil colleagues for introducing this motion, although they seem slightly obsessed with AI and its use for elections and the like. Let us be honest about it: I can think of no situation where we will have an artificially intelligent Minister of State sitting in front of us answering questions in the House. As such, we as politicians will not be easily replaced by AI at any time in the foreseeable future.

To leave aside the jokes and get down to the serious issues, AI has the capacity to rapidly evolve cybersecurity risks within our country. Not only is our country suffering from these, so too are countries right across Europe. The level of cyber awareness that exists within populations is desperately and deeply worrying, as is the replication capacity of AI. We saw just today in The Irish Times that a teenager was responsible for cyberattacks in this country. That is just frightening. Many will know I have put toge…

The bottom line where the National Cyber Security Centre is concerned is that we cannot put enough money into it. My final plea to the Minister of State is that the Government fund industry with respect to cyber awareness. Our nation should be the most cyber-aware country in the world given the amount of FDI in it.

For most of us growing up, watching the Artane boy's band march in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day was something of great joy. However, for a number of people the Artane Boy's Band, its title, uniform, and everything about it conjures up nothing but memories of the abuse and butchery that took place in the Artane Industrial School. Councillor Mannix Flynn has managed to get a motion passed by Dublin City Council calling on the band to change its name and uniform and the House should support that call. The band …

I was not here yesterday, unfortunately, as I had other business. Today I want to remember the people of the Niemba massacre who lost their lives in Niemba in the Congo in 1960. Forever etched in my mind are the dates of 8 November and, in particular, 22 November, when the bodies were returned to Ireland and brought down O'Connell Street in Dublin. Lieutenant Gleeson and his men, all but two, were lost. I think two survived. One is still missing. That is dating back to those days. On Tuesday, I raised the issue of …

This weekend, it was once again confirmed to me that, in this country, we do not understand security or intelligence. Under the Irish intelligence system, the Garda is double-hatted – this is unlike the situation in any other state – and is responsible for both intelligence and policing. We find that the head of intelligence is now likely to be hired from abroad. Just think about that for a minute. Would, for example, MI5 employ someone from the CIA to run it? It is absolute nonsense that we would consider bringing…

Employing a foreigner to head up our intelligence system is beyond belief. It would happen in no other country in the world. Even some of the banana republics manage to have their own intelligence and security. At the end of the day-----

I would delightfully give way to Senator Seery Kearney.