Hear, hear.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for welcoming the marine pilots to the House. Few people in Ireland are aware of the work done by this special group of highly-skilled people who are responsible for the safe navigation of some 97% of our imports and exports through ports, including the Cathaoirleach's Port of Cork, and major harbours. The Cathaoirleach and I spoke about that this morning and I was grateful for his support in that area. Having spoken to the chaps today, I realise that there are little harbours around the c…

I thank the Cathaoirleach: two minutes and one subject. Yesterday's budget announced for the defence sector €176 million for capital funding, with €12 million for the recruitment of 400 additional members of the Defence Forces. I am really confused about this. They talk about a net increase of 400 members. Is this a net increase from the number that exists today? Is it a net increase from the 9,500 or is it a net increase from the 11,500? I am really very confused. The Government is putting €12 million into it but …

During the pandemic, the Minister’s Department showed how quickly it can respond with compassion and move the country forward at a time of crisis. Senator Clonan came here with lived experience in disability. On the other side of the House, Senator McGreehan has a major interest in disability issues and has often discussed her concerns with me. There is a Green Paper on long-term disability on the table. There are difficulties with it and they need to be examined. We need to establish, first and foremost, the Green…

I join with the Cathaoirleach in marking Taiwan's national day. I wish them the very best. Further to what has been said by my colleagues about what is happening in the Middle East, Hamas has been armed by God knows who. Clearly it is saying the Iranians were not a part of this attack and we must acknowledge that. Both Hamas and the Iranians have said it and we must acknowledge that. However, we are very quick to jump on other countries when something like what happened this horrible weekend happens, which is only …

I do not stand up here to throw water over the budget.

Three and a half minutes. I will mention a few things that jumped out at me today. The mortgage interest tax relief is to be welcomed but I am concerned that the upper limit is €500,000. Where we live - the Minister of State knows it, it is not far from her constituency - two-bedroom houses are currently being sold for €555,000. I know the relief is aimed at those on tracker mortgages to an extent but we need to look at the upper limit to help those who have mortgages of slightly more than €500,000. That is one of …

There is no sign of any incentive for retention, of any effort to try to reach level of ambition 2 from the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, of duty allowance or of help for the navy. There is nothing in the budget. There is talk of increasing the military by 400 people. To do so, we must first find the 1,000 who are already lost which make it 1,400 that we need and not 400. I will take that up with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform as it was covered b…

I congratulate the Government. It has at last sent out a signal to foreign direct investment in this country that we do not get defence and security and have no interest whatsoever in it. The miserable additional €55 million increase in defence spending will just about allow the Defence Forces to tread water. There is nothing in it for them. The Government simply does not get it and has not got it over the past ten years I have been speaking about this. My colleague, Deputy Berry, has been speaking about it for the…

I have spent the best part of two and a half years trying to get people to listen to the shambles that was the previous search and rescue contract and the future search and rescue contract. As we know, it has gone sour, with legal action between the incumbents and the incoming contractor. Imagine my anger this morning when I read an article in the newspaper concerning the directors of Bristow, who I assume had a champagne party and danced around the office after getting the Irish contract of €800 million, because t…

The Minister is welcome. What is wrong today is that he is sitting in the chair opposite. The system in this country is totally and utterly wrong. The Minister is answerable to the House here but the people who caused this problem have swanned off or are hidden in the system. Admittedly, one was referred to as having withdrawn from surgery. I believe he is now suspended. At the end of the day, we have a system in this country that sees us, as soon as something goes wrong, wheel in the Minister, fire him and kick hi…

The Cathaoirleach will forgive me if I also congratulate Germany on its journey.

There has been much talk about the capture of the drugs vessel off the coast of Cork. We rightly commend the Defence Forces, the Garda, the Revenue and everyone else who was involved on their work. There was fantastic co-operation across the board. However, have we thought about what would have gone wrong if there had been weapons on board that ship and the helicopter involved in the operations had come under fire? Have we considered what would have happened if the helicopter had crashed into ship and the loss of l…

Senator Dooley mentioned pay restoration-----

-----and the fact that barristers deserve it. He said politicians had their pay restored, but we have not. There are still long-term increments outstanding.

Ours is the only profession with those outstanding. I am not afraid to say it in public. I do not care.

How long do I have?

I thank the Taoiseach for being here and I will not take a lot of his time. There are two issues close to my heart and the first is the Defence Forces. We saw the wonderful operation off the south-west coast in recent days. We have to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to remunerating members of the Defence Forces. We have to rebuild the organisation, particularly the Navy. We have €300 million worth of ships tied up in Cork, not able to put to sea because we do not have crews, which is not g…

I would like to be associated with the various good wishes to Mr. Martin Groves and his team, who frequently work late into the night after we go away to have stuff ready for the following morning or day. It is truly appreciated. They also keep an eye on those of us who might stray into areas we should not every now and then.

I welcome the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence's tribunal of inquiry. One of the things it might do is clear up what should never have gotten into the public domain from the independent review group. The independent review group's report could have been one sentence: "We found prima facie evidence, which requires a sworn inquiry." Instead of that, we had a report, which was extremely detailed, based on untested facts. Hopefully, the tribunal of inquiry will deal with that. With respect to the oversight body that h…