The DRS is a good idea and there is a way in which it has to be managed and rolled out. As the Deputy has heard me say, and as customers will also hear me say, that if the success of the DRS results in the waste collection industry raising the price for households, the Government does not accept that such prices are inevitable, as the Deputy has said, nor merited. I just want to be very clear on this. What individual stakeholders may believe is not what the Government position is, which I am clearly elucidating her…

I thank Deputy Daly and Deputies Cronin and Donnelly for introducing this Private Members' Bill on Second Stage today and acknowledge their intentions in bringing forward the Bill. I would also like to acknowledge, as Deputy Daly has, the work of the OPLA, which does extraordinary work to support Deputies in this House in producing Private Members' Bills. In my first role in this House, I was legal adviser in Fine Gael and my responsibility was to draft Private Members' Bills among other things and I drafted some s…

I am greatly encouraged to see that Deputy Ó Snodaigh takes the same approach to volunteering as I do, which is that we do enough public service here. I cannot be baking tray-bakes and that. Perhaps when the electorate decides I need more time to bake tray-bakes and volunteer in different ways, I will spend my time doing that as well. In the meantime, I feel like I have a pass and now I feel legitimate in taking that approach considering it is Deputy Ó Snodaigh's approach as well. Excellent. That being said, we are…

It is definitely not opposed.

It is a cause for concern.

Threatened by whom? Threatened by Russia.

We are not part of NATO.

I might answer some questions about Ursula von der Leyen more broadly, because it was the feature of many contributions. The then Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, made clear his disappointment and the fact that her statements at that time, in the very beginning in October, did not reflect the Irish position and went too far. They did not represent the competence that she as President of the Commission had on foreign policy, which is a different question. He made that clear, both publicly and directly to her in meetings …

Is there a question? I have so much to respond to.

There has been no response on the trade agreement. As the Taoiseach said during questions to the Taoiseach, if it were the position of the European Council more broadly that there should be a response, we would get a response from Ursula von der Leyen. There are different positions. Ireland continues to advocate for its position. That is not a shared position. We raise it and try to bring others with us but it is not a shared position. If it were, we would get a response. We continue to raise it. I cannot put it an…

I made the same point.

I did not. I explicitly said-----

I listened to the debate-----

What is the question?

What does the Deputy mean by that?

What I am saying is that the overwhelming majority of contributions to this debate focused on Gaza. That is really important; all I am saying is there should be balance on both sides, as I said about the Council also. I already addressed Deputy Harkin's point. I counted the number of contributions. I am also looking for this balance. On the Irish position, we have actively divested through ISIF. Last April, we removed funding - Irish State money - from investments in the West Bank. We have gone ahead in every we ca…

I thank the Deputy. This is what we are trying to do all the time, which is to work within a European structure. We are one of 27. Ireland has 14 MEPs out of 720. We advocate as strongly as we can but we must not overstate our position or relevance either. If we are one of a club we have to respect that we are one of a club and that we work within a consensus environment. This is what we are trying to do. We are trying to show solidarity to our eastern partners as they showed solidarity to us during Brexit. We are …

I thank Members for their contributions. The other issues that were on the extensive agenda of the European Council meeting on 27 June were the internal reform agenda, Georgia, Moldova, the EU's strategy for the Black Sea region and its response to hybrid threats. On migration, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, provided leaders with a written update of developments since their previous discussion. This was on asylum and migration. Ireland was of the view that it should be addressed thr…

That is my point. This must also be the question for Europe. The General Affairs Council has looked at how we deal with existing members. We have the Article 7 procedure with Hungary, for example. As politics moves to the right and towards a more fascist agenda across Europe, we must look at how we deal with existing member states. I represented Ireland in the Article 7 hearings on Hungary. I addressed two particular matters. I did so in agreement with my counterparts to ensure that we would cover the best possible…

The Taoiseach will participate in the June meeting of the European Council taking place in Brussels tomorrow and Friday. The agenda will cover Ukraine, the Middle East, security and defence, competitiveness, and the next institutional cycle. The meeting is also expected to adopt the EU's next strategic agenda and agree a roadmap for future EU internal reforms. There will also be discussions on migration and hybrid threats, as well as other foreign policy issues including Georgia, Moldova, and the EU's strategic app…