Will the Taoiseach ensure that there is oversight-----

-----of the amount of water that data centres use?

We need to know what they are using.

We need to go into this with our eyes wide open.

We have no idea how much water data centres are using. It is incredible.

More than 1,000 people died in Spain due to heat-related causes in June of this year alone. By early July, Spain had 14 major forest fires and 50,000 ha of land had been burned. Across Europe, more than 10,000 excess deaths associated with the recent heatwave were recorded in a single week. These warnings have to be taken seriously. I am really worried that, rather than using his time at the helm of the EU over the next six months to bring Europe together and really fight against climate and nature breakdown, it wo…

In 2024, 1,000 incidents of antisocial behaviour were recorded on Dublin Bus. That was nearly double the figure recorded just a few years earlier. Unfortunately, this is not just limited to Dublin. We are also seeing instances of this in my constituency, Wicklow, on Go-Ahead services. I have constituents who are unable to take some routes because of the antisocial behaviour that is happening, particularly on the top level of some of these buses. There is drug-taking, harassment and fighting. We do not want a situat…

This debate today is really important. I think every family in this country will to some degree have experienced dementia and the difficulties and challenges people face when they get that diagnosis. I have a lot of personal experience with it. My father had vascular dementia, my father-in-law had Alzheimer's and my mother-in-law also has vascular dementia. I know how difficult it is from the point when you get the diagnosis and how scary it is. Not just the person who got the diagnosis but their family are trying …

I welcome the Bill. It is great to see progress in the area but an opportunity was missed to make the scheme accessible to everyone. Similar to my colleagues, one of the main issues I have is the age scope of the Bill. I am glad the national women's health action plan includes a commitment to expanding the age scope but this needs to be a firm commitment and it needs to happen sooner rather than later. We need free contraceptives to be offered to women of all ages. The National Women's Council of Ireland undertook …

I am happy to see the Minister, Deputy Heydon, is amending the Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and is introducing some stronger regulations for dog breeding. They are long overdue. I am also pleased to see that many of the proposals he is including are proposals I included in my dog breeding Bill last December. We debated that Bill in the Chamber last December so I am pleased to see those suggestions being carried forward into this legislation. However, there are a number of glaring gaps in what the Minister i…

-----and promised it would work with me on it and it did not. That has completely undermined trust in the process.

Part of the Minister of State's response reads, "The mandatory staffing ratio of 1:20 creates an indirect but real constraint on establishment size." I am really not sure what the rationale behind that is. I assume the Minister of State means that people will not want to employ a lot of staff because it is a cost to them, but if somebody has 20 breeding females and each has an average of five pups, you are looking at 100 pups. That is a minimum of €100,000. It is a lot of money. This is big business. I do not think…

The CSO reported today that electricity consumption by data centres is at a record high of 23%. That is 10% higher than it was in the previous year. It is forecast to grow to 30% by 2030 and if the Government's large energy user policy is implemented in full, it could reach 55% of our electricity demand. That means higher electricity prices for domestic users and small businesses, it means completely undermining our energy security and it means that we could face up to €28 billion in fines because we will have abso…

It was quite balanced.

I am asking how many.

They need to------

I am trying my absolute best to find out what has happened to the 119 bus service from Glendalough, through Roundwood to Bray. It was meant to start last September, as the Tánaiste is aware. One month ago his office told constituents that the service was financed, sanctioned and overdue and that it would come into operation very soon and that there should be a firm date in the next week. That was a month ago. As recently as yesterday I had confirmation from the National Transport Authority, NTA, that there is no mo…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 to provide for the utilisation of curtailed and constrained renewable electricity in order to support the achievement of the national climate objective and carbon budgets, to advance a just transition, and to reduce energy poverty by facilitating access to lowercost renewable electricity for eligible electricity customers; and to provide for related matters. This Bill has a v…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Some 77% of Irish people favour a ban on hare coursing. The reason they want to see a ban on hare coursing is, simply put, that it is cruel. It is completely unnatural to pull a wild animal from their environment, to cage it for weeks and put it out in front of a greyhound and essentially let it run for its life. To do that and to call it a sport is probably one of the things that I have most difficulty with. We need to have a conversation about it. I have been listening to the debate. We need to have a conversatio…