I thank Deputy Ó Murchú. The Government is aware and we have discussed the difficulties being experienced by a small number of sectors in insuring some of their events and festivals. We do not take lightly the challenges that they and other areas have experienced with regard to the availability and affordability of insurance. We engaged with a range of stakeholders, including Fáilte Ireland, to understand the depth and scope of that. As the Deputy is aware and we said before, neither the Minister for Finance nor th…

On the duty of care legislation, the amendment of Occupiers' Liability Act, as the Deputy is aware, is being led by the Minister for Justice. We hope that it will be passed by the House, should time be available at both Houses, before the summer recess. That is certainly the intention. Overhauling that legislation should help to address the "slips, trips and falls" piece and it is an important piece of the conversation we are having around adventure tourism and the provision for festivals and so on. There is a piec…

On the public liability piece, the legislation is a crucial part of that. I do not believe that the insurers will have any conversation about barriers in regard to it after that. We have that conversation with existing providers and with new providers coming in. We have found solutions. It is not all bad. We found solutions by working with groups in various areas, as the Deputy said, such as inflatables hire, equestrian activities, childcare and non-standard buildings. Incumbent providers are expanding their produc…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following: "Dáil Éireann resolves that the Flood Insurance Bill 2021 be deemed to be read a second time this day twelve months to allow for further consideration of the Bill including an updated regulatory impact assessment; and for alternative methods to meet the policy objective of the Bill be assessed, given the legal concerns of the Bill, for current initiatives underway to progress and developments in the wider insurance reform agenda …

What if we tried to fix the issue without legislation? The Deputy said he would like me to work with him on this issue. I am working on it all the time. The solution is actually without legislation. The solution involves two things. One is the infrastructure to try to prevent flooding in the first place. I cannot believe Deputy Bacik said we should build along the coast. Really? Should we be building along the coast and have the State insure that knowing it is a flood risk? We have to think this through in a way th…

I understand.

I thank the Deputy for his question. He is right. There has been an extension of insurers which have been working with local authorities in regard to community events and festivals. I will speak to the Deputy directly on the particular issues in Cork South-West to see if there is anything further that can be done there. The State has not intervened in the insurance market as a consequence of the European insolvency directive which states that the State may not do that in the same way. However, we are trying to main…

Absolutely.

Amendments Nos. 1, 2 and 8 are technical amendments, which amend the Long and Short Titles of the Bill and references in the Bill, and allow the new provision amending section 3 of the Oireachtas (Allowances To Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act 1992, which I referenced on Committee Stage. Amendment No. 1 amends the Long Title of the Bill to reflect the widening scope of the Bill. Amendment No. 2 changes the reference to the Short Title of the Bill to reflect these changes. Amendment…

The purpose is that the Oireachtas one-stop shop made a proposal to allow all Members of the Oireachtas to receive up to 50% of approved security costs, or a maximum of €5,000, whichever is less. This is for a security requirements allowance. We need to make a technical amendment to the legislation because at the moment the Minister's power is limited to making payments which are either in full settlement, recurring in nature or both. This is different. This is in partial settlement and is a once-off expense. That …

Senator McDowell is quite right. I have long-standing views about amending legislation in this way. It makes it difficult to read.

It happens from time to time as a matter of expediency. This is one of those mechanisms. There is a view that to make the technical change to allow the Minister discharge the allowance both on a partial and full non-recurring basis, a technical change is needed to the governing Act. The statutory instrument has been made and there were previous statutory instruments made in this way going back to 2010 with respect to constituency offices. However, the view has been taken that we will use this legislative opportunit…

Before dealing with the amendment, I will speak to the broad principle behind what the Senator is suggesting. I take the view that everybody needs to be transparent in respect of their funding. Whether it is a lobbying group, a political party or any other body engaged in a political process or policy-making process, there should be utter transparency in respect of all its sources of income, domestic or international. That applies to everybody in the policy-making space, including political parties. The strength of…

It is probably worth going back to first principles on the lobbying Act because there are quite a number of different issues there. The purpose of the lobbying register is to enhance transparency in the activities of entities under the Act with Government. The purpose of it is to provide people of this State with clear information about who is engaging with Government, when, and on what basis. It is not an effort to curtail freedom of expression of any individual or any corporate body. While I am a full supporter o…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after “That” and substitute the following: "Dáil Éireann resolves that the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023 be deemed to be read a second time this day nine months, to allow for further consideration of the Bill, as the Bill as drafted raises specific practical and legal questions, is not likely to achieve its intended purpose and it is appropriate to consider in addition whether a combination of legislative and non-legislative approaches could be adopted …

I am just marking that as a question.

Excuse me, may I finish?

I have tried to take a reasoned approach to what I think is very reasonable legislation. I have brought forward similar legislation in respect of cluster munitions. I am expressing my opinion, as the Deputies opposite are also allowed to do, on some of the language used. I hope I am doing that in a reasonable way. I deserve the respect of the Deputies to be allowed to finish my contribution.

I will deal with the issues in reverse order. On the oral hearing piece, the approach adopted in the Bill is based on the advice of the Office of the Attorney General. As Senator Martin said, the Bill does not require all hearings to be in public. There is no responding party, therefore it will involve only persons under investigation before the commission. The basis for this, as the Senator will be aware, is the Supreme Court decision in the Zalewski case in 2021, which related to the exercise of powers by adjudic…

I forgot to flag one Report Stage amendment from the perspective of the State which relates to the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act 1992. We are using this legislative opportunity to make provision for a scheme of allowances for politicians to be able to claim expenses for security upgrades to their homes and businesses, as agreed by the Government. We may bring that in on Report Stage next week.