Why has the debate on the biodiversity citizens' assembly been wiped from today's agenda? The Dáil declared an emergency and a crisis in 2019. It has taken two years for the Government even to put a date on the citizens' assembly. The much-heralded review of the national parks is delayed. The much-heralded announcement of the wildlife unit shows that only one person has been allocated to that wildlife unit. When I raised this on Twitter, someone said “I hope it is Ace Ventura that is being employed”. We need to be …

Why was it taken off?

I am standing in for my colleague, Deputy Catherine Murphy. Competition is a vital element in our economic system. When operating at its best, competition results in better outcomes for consumers and society in general. A variety of options in the market leads to better pricing, better quality and innovation. When it comes to competition policy, the fundamental concept is about applying rules to make sure business and companies compete fairly with each other, resulting in the best outcomes for the consumer. The cha…

The Social Democrats will be supporting the Sinn Féin amendment. It is a very important amendment and I am pleased to see it included. I also raise the issue of the short timeframe associated with the Bill. I know it includes the term "emergency measures" in its Title. There was no pre-legislative scrutiny and the timeframes are very short. I also believe it did not need to be such an emergency measure. It was clear from last September that we were facing a serious fuel crisis and a cost-of-living crisis. In Septem…

It is only the increase and not the entire carbon tax yield.

We need the entire carbon tax yield to be ring-fenced and put back into measures to support families and communities to make the transition so that they can be buffered from those global energy inflationary crises that we could face.

The motion on the carbon budgets is going through without debate. There should be a debate on that. The entire discussion about the recommendations was conducted in private and there was no opportunity for the committee to input into the body of that report. We were not given an opportunity to do so, which I believe is wrong. There was no time for a minority report to be developed by committee members if they so wished. There are concerns that the actual body of the report does not reflect the very stark evidence--…

-----given by the independent scientists around the carbon budgets. I ask that this motion be debated in the Dáil this week.

Not-----

This is not about delaying. This is about giving the committee an opportunity to participate in the process and have its voice-----

Committee members did not have an opportunity to have an input into the body of the report.

On average, eight women every day are turned away when they seek a space in a refuge. Meanwhile, demand for services has increased by up to 200% during the pandemic. I do not know if the Taoiseach saw RTÉ's "Prime Time Investigates" report last night, but it is harrowing what these women and children have to go through. The Social Democrats have consistently called for the number of refuge spaces to be increased to the level recommended by the Istanbul Convention. It is welcome that the Government has finally come …

Those nine counties will get refuge spaces.

The Taoiseach stated that climate change was a profound challenge that would require all of our efforts to address it. I agree. Akin to how we dealt with Covid, it is a fundamental societal challenge. When we were debating and dealing with Covid, we followed the scientists' lead and the evidence. At the committee dealing with carbon budgets in recent months, the independent scientists were clear that the proposed carbon budgets did not go far enough. Not only did they not go far enough to meet our climate targets, …

What about the carbon budgets and the 7% commitment?

The Government has support to do more.

I did not realise this question would be coming up.

I would be pleased if the Minister would provide a response to that.

In 2018 the Tánaiste told the European Parliament that Ireland was a climate laggard and promised to do much more to protect the environment. Four years later, the European Commission is not very impressed with the Government's progress. A director in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Environment, Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, recently gave a speech in which he did not just give the Government both barrels, he actually rolled up in a tank and launched a volley of heavy fire in its direction. I do not have t…

The increase in the number of judicial reviews in this country coincides completely with the introduction of the strategic housing development, SHD, planning process. That is because SHDs bypass local democracy, so there was not an opportunity for people to put in planning objections to local councils. They only had the opportunity to raise objections with An Bord Pleanála. If that failed, the only course open to them was judicial review. The fact is that more than 90% of the judicial reviews relating to SHDs were …