Recent reports indicate the Government is now considering a commercial liquefied natural gas, LNG, facility and that this is being seen as a bargaining chip with the Trump Administration. President Trump is a very transactional person and this is seen as something we can give him in our negotiations. That would be contrary to previous Government commitments and policies in favour of a State-led emergency non-commercial facility. Obviously, any decision that is made on energy security needs to be based on evidence. …

I will be sharing time with my two colleagues. I thank Deputy Daly and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very important motion, which will have an impact on many lives, particularly those of young people. We often make things particularly difficult for young people. This is one instance of our doing so. I acknowledge that both Ministers are new to their roles and that the Government is not going to oppose the motion. However, we need to see action because while the Minister of State is new to the role, his party …

If they are grouped because we are raising the same issue, what are the timings for it? How does it-----

I concur with my colleagues on this. There are concerns for the workers' futures and for the future of the industry. If this sale goes ahead, we will have a 100% privatised model of waste collection, which is not what anyone wants to see, particularly in the public arena. It also flies in the face of Government policy of a just transition. This was set up primarily to support the workers in Bord na Móna to transition from brown to green. I have specific questions regarding the Minister's consent. He has repeatedly …

I thank the Minister for his response. I am glad to hear this is not yet a done deal and the Minister still has serious consideration to give to it, including the fact he will consider the future for the workers, which is fundamentally important. We need to consider Ireland's position on our requirements to reduce waste. This country is way off and we will not meet our 2025 EU targets. We have a lot of work to do in the waste sector and this will only be done through a more public model. This has come out of the bl…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I too offer my congratulations to him and wish him the best for the term. I think it might be a very busy term; that is what my gut is telling me. We will see how it pans out. I also congratulate the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, on their appointments. This is my first time speaking as spokesperson for agriculture for the Social Democrats. Agriculture and the marine are cornerstones of Ireland both economically and culturally. They have played a …

It is an agricultural issue. The Minister spoke about forestry. I agree; it is bizarre but it is a matter for the Minister for agriculture so it is appropriate to talk about it today. Ireland is an outlier because not only do we allow greyhound racing to happen but we give it an awful lot of money - €20 million - every year. If one compares that to what some charities get to provide fundamental services, one will appreciate that €20 million is a huge amount of money. It is time to look at this. I will not call it a…

Can I just make a comment-----

-----that forestry was covered by the Minister as well and that is not an agrifood issue.

I congratulate the Minister of State on his new role and wish him the best in it. Public transport is a key challenge facing the country, but there is a lot of potential there to provide a service that will benefit so many communities across the country, and it is a vital service that we need to invest in and make sure operates properly. Key to any really good, successful public service is reliability. If it is not reliable, it completely undermines the whole system. People and the public have to have trust that a …

I thank the Minister of State. On reliability and improvements, there have been some improvements, but when we are still missing services that is going to hugely impact on the people who require that particular bus. For example, the bus from Newcastle has been frequently dropped. If there are improvements in say, the L3 in Delgany, that is not going to make any difference to the person in Newcastle who needs to get to work. It cannot be the case that there are slight improvements. We must see reliability across the…

When will the penny finally drop? When will the Government get that its approach to the housing crisis not only means it is incapable of solving it, but is making it worse for tens of thousands of people across this country? The numbers tell a grim story. A total of 15,000 people are living in homeless accommodation and 4,500 children are living in single rooms in bed-and-breakfast accommodation. These children are not just statistics. They are the faces of a growing crisis. In the past year alone, the number of ch…

I again raise the issue of hormone replacement therapy, HRT, which I raised a couple of weeks ago. Free HRT was promised in the most recent budget and was due to begin in January. We have not yet seen it happen. I know the Minister has inherited this problem, but does she have a timeline for when it will be available to women who are experiencing the menopause? There are also issues in respect of the different menopausal products. Has the Minister sought to identify the supply chain issues?

Our current approach to road planning prioritises the supremacy of cars over the safety of pedestrians. It is time to turn this approach on its head. It is no secret that Irish roads were and still are designed with cars in mind, often at the expense of pedestrian safety. In the first seven months of last year, there were 113 road fatalities nationwide and a third of those victims were under the age of 26 years. I mention the number of hit-and-run incidents we are seeing, which I understand accounted for 10% of ser…

Despite the Taoiseach repeatedly stating that climate change is the existential crisis of our time, anyone who reads the programme for Government would not get the sense there is urgency on the part of or a grasp by the Government of the scale of the problem we face and how difficult it is going to be to implement changes. The Government seems intent on continuing with business as usual, bringing forward the measures that were outlined by the previous Government and continuing on the same trajectory. It is clear, h…

It is not about investment; it is about making sure we have the right buses and the contracts are in place. We need to go back to a public system of public transport because then we can control exactly the kind of service is provided.

I congratulate the Minister and the Minister of State on their new roles. I look forward to working with them over the course of the next term. Over the past couple of weeks, we repeatedly heard the word "unprecedented" being used. Storm Éowyn was unprecedented. To a certain degree, we could never have prepared for a weather event of that extent. However, we could have prepared a whole lot better than we did. While the impact of the storm was unprecedented, it was not unforeseen. We have been repeatedly warned by a…

What is it called?

That covers flooding. Does the framework deal with storms?

It is not on the website that has the emergency framework. That document refers to storms in the context of different analyses and stories relating to Storm Ophelia. Background information is provided, but it is not listed there. There is a framework for flooding and others for maritime, rail and nuclear emergencies, but there is none for storms. The document was only updated in 2024. Maybe the Government has it, but it is not on the website where all the other ones are listed. I am delighted that the Government ha…