I second the amendment.

I formally second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

We all have to move down there.

Is it easy to move there?

There might be a few votes in Loughrea for Senator Conway.

The Leas-Chathaoirleach, the Leader and all colleagues will know that every day of the week, members of our Defence Forces undertake duties on behalf of the State. Their job, of course, is to protect property and human life. I know that the Leader, in particular, will have an interest. On 15 August 2024, while driving into Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa in Renmore, County Galway, Fr. Paul Murphy was viciously attacked by an assailant. That attack demonstrated two things. First and foremost, it demonstrated that Fr. Murphy is an…

I hope I do not drop dead with a heart attack in the next few minutes having rushed up here. I rushed up here to wish my colleagues, the Deputy Leader and the Leas-Chathaoirleach a very happy Christmas and a happy new year. We are living in tough times. As we go back to our communities, we will all be aware of the fact that there are people living around us whom we know are struggling hard as we come into this time of year. While it is festive for some of us, it is an awful, miserable time for others. Spare a thoug…

Does the Leader recall the episode of "Yes Minister" when the hospital was opened? Sir Humphrey was explaining to the minister that bringing the patients into the hospital would destroy the organisation and that it was running perfectly without patients. Somebody somewhere within our Government is taking tutorials from the programmes "Yes Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister". Yesterday, we had the delivery of the Government jet, which is welcome as it was something that was needed. However, while it was sold to us t…

Let us get real about where we are going with defence. Would somebody stop the madness? Let us sit down and see where the low fruit is and where we can do things that will immediately impact defence in this country. Of course, we should not really worry about it because the French, Belgians and Portuguese will come in and guard us during the European Presidency. Let us get real about where we are going in defence. I request we get the Minister in here at the earliest possible stage in January.

There is a G. Craughwell Twitter account and it is not me. I have contacted Twitter and it has moved from one individual to another. There you go. I do not intend to take any more of the Minister's time. I thank him for the time he has given on Committee Stage in listening to arguments on the amendments and I look forward to seeing what amendments he will bring forward on Report Stage. I thank him for his patience.

I said to my two colleagues, Senators Cosgrove and Harmon, that there was a time when I thought Labour had lost its soul. I am delighted to see that it has a soul and is prepared to nail its colours to the mast here. There are young people in the Public Gallery today. If ever they needed a reason to join a trade union, they are hearing it tonight. They are hearing it because the animal instincts of capitalism are alive and well. They have heard the nonsense statements that have been made. No worker should ever work…

Some time ago, we had a Private Members’ motion in the House on the subject of head and neck cancers. That has led to a number of discussions or conversations with people around the country about the underutilisation of theatres in hospitals. Specifically, it appears that hospital theatres are allocated to specialisms, so thoracic might have so many hours, orthopaedic might have so many hours and so on and so forth. Some of the new specialist services that have come in have been squeezed out as a result of the fact…

I sound like a broken record when I come into the House these days. Yesterday, the Governor of the Central Bank added his voice to that of Danny McCoy from IBEC on the need for spending in defence. Immediately after that, we find that the Government released a press statement to The Irish Times and RTÉ in which it outlines that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is about to announce €1.7 billion in spending for defence. You would welcome that until you read through the article and find that they mention four helicopters…

I thank the Minister. That was a fairly comprehensive series of replies. I want to talk about the social media providers or the Internet provider. The Minister says they are merely providing a service. If I put up a tweet or post that says "Joe Bloggs is corrupt and anything he ever earned was earned through corrupt means", then Joe Bloggs may have a case of defamation against me if he can identify me. The Minister says that the Internet service provider has no liability here. They use algorithms. It strikes me tha…

Senator McDowell raised a number of interesting points. I will start with the simplest. A long-standing tradition in the trade union movement back in the good old days when I was involved in trade unionism was to always resolve an issue at the lowest possible level. The Bill should enable me to write to a service provider and say, "I believe I have been defamed on your platform. I wonder if you could give me the name and address of the individual involved." Only then, on a refusal, should I have to look for legal r…

I want to know that. We talked about social media companies. When I sit down at my laptop, PC or phone and decide to tweet something or put something up on a social media site, I am transmitting. A transmission takes place in bits, bytes, packets, etc., which move their way through the Internet from the original source. If the Minister looks at the social media website in question this evening, because the algorithm knows he is interested in the sort of thing I just tweeted, it will appear at the top of his list. H…

The Cathaoirleach and the Ceann Comhairle presided over bravery awards last Friday. I am deeply honoured to point out that my niece's husband, Eoin Clancy, was one of the recipients of an award. Among my family, Eoin now holds a similar and equal award to the one my father received in 1942. My father is also commemorated in Blackrock in Salthill for saving human life. My father got a Carnegie Hero Fund Award, while Eoin received his award from the Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach. We are extremely proud of him…

I will not hold the Minister of State for too long. In 2015, we brought a Commencement matter to this House on class K PRSI, which county councillors were paying. We - four county councillors and I - were forced to go to the High Court on the class K case. Immediately, the Minister changed county councillors to class A PRSI. They did not make it retrospective and, by not making it retrospective, they have hurt the social welfare record of many county councillors who will not now qualify for a contributory old age p…