I move amendment No. 5: In page 14, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “(4A) In this section, ‘exceptional circumstances’ means circumstances that— (a) arise from a unique and unforeseeable event, or a specific and demonstrable public necessity, (b) cannot reasonably be addressed by compliance with the requirements of the EIA Directive within the timeframe necessary to avert serious risk to human health, safety, the environment or essential public services, and (c) are strictly limited in scope, dura…

I move amendment No. 6: In page 14, to delete lines 31 to 34 and substitute the following: “(b) publish, prior to deciding the application to which the exemption relates, a notice of the exemption, any requirements referred to in paragraph (a), a summary of public and authority submissions, and the Agency’s reasoned conclusions on the main issues raised— (i) on a website maintained by it or on its behalf, and (ii) in a national newspaper,”.

I move amendment No. 7: In page 15, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following: “(d) ensure that information published under this section is accessible, written in plain language, and includes non-technical summaries of likely significant effects and mitigation measures.”.

I move amendment No. 8: In page 16, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “(4) An order under subsection (1) shall specify a maximum duration and shall be strictly limited to what is necessary, and shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas in accordance with section 88C.”.

I move amendment No. 12: In page 19, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(4) The Minister may by regulations prescribe periods under subsection (2), having consulted the Agency, and may prescribe different periods for different classes of activity. (5) The Agency shall include in its annual report under section 51(3) the number of cases in which the period under this section was exceeded, the reasons, and corrective actions taken.”.”.

I move amendment No. 15: In page 23, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following: “(d) publish a notice of the request for an exemption, accompanied by the information provided under subsection (1), on a website maintained by it or on its behalf and in a national newspaper, inviting submissions from the public within a period of not less than 30 days, and (e) consider all submissions or observations received under paragraph (d) and publish a reasoned report addressing the material issues raised.”

I move amendment No. 16: In page 23, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “(4A) In this section, ‘exceptional circumstances’ means circumstances that— (a) arise from a unique and unforeseeable event, or a specific and demonstrable public necessity, (b) cannot reasonably be addressed by compliance with the requirements of the EIA Directive within the timeframe necessary to avert serious risk to human health, safety, the environment or essential public services, and (c) are strictly limited in scope, dur…

I move amendment No. 17: In page 24, to delete lines 4 to 7 and substitute the following: “(b) publish, prior to deciding the application to which the exemption relates, a notice of the exemption, any requirements referred to in paragraph (a), a summary of public and authority submissions, and the Agency’s reasoned conclusions on the main issues raised— (i) on a website maintained by it or on its behalf, and (ii) in a national newspaper,”.

I move amendment No. 18: In page 24, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following: “(d) ensure that information published under this section is accessible, written in plain language, and includes non-technical summaries of likely significant effects and mitigation measures.”.

I move amendment No. 19: In page 26, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “(4) The Minister shall cause a copy of any order made under subsection (1) to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and the order shall lapse 6 months after the date it is made unless earlier revoked or expressly continued by a resolution of both Houses.”

I move amendment No. 20: In page 26, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “(4) An order under subsection (1) shall specify a maximum duration and shall be strictly limited to what is necessary, and shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas in accordance with section 88C.”.

I move amendment No. 24: In page 28, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: “(4) The Minister may by regulations prescribe periods under subsection (2), having consulted the Agency, and may prescribe different periods for different classes of activity. (5) The Agency shall include in its annual report under section 51(3) the number of cases in which the period under this section was exceeded, the reasons, and corrective actions taken.”.”

I welcome the Minister to the House. I am delighted to see him here and hope he is as concerned about wind energy in this country as I am when I look at some of the statistics that I have and some of the issues in County Limerick in particular. There are at least three wind farms being proposed for County Limerick and in that context there are two issues I want to raise, relating to curtailment costs and wind energy maps. In 2013, a circular was sent to the county councils that said not to amend or adjust their win…

I thank the Minister for his response. It is great to see that he is not just reading off a script and that he is engaging with this. It is fantastic to see that there are projects going ahead that are going to increase our capacity for holding this energy. As I said, however, it is putting the cart before the horse. Is there any way the Minister would put a pause on these proposals to put more wind energy in until the grid is at a stage where it can hold that energy and where curtailment costs are not going to be …

It is nice to have the Minister back in the House again. Not for one minute is this anybody's fault. Nobody can predict a midge coming over the Border and infecting our animals but it is an all-island issue. I echo what I have heard across the floor. It is an all-island issue, and it needs to be tackled on an all-island basis. Not having exports North and South is just not sustainable when there are farmers on each side of the Border with the exact same disease. I completely understand the Minister's point that imp…

I also do not have any inspirational quotes to share but you never know – I might say something inspirational enough that I might be quoted in 50 years, although I doubt it. When we talk of volunteering we are talking about real people who give up their evenings, weekends and time after work not because they have to but because they want to and they have a passion. I see it every week in Limerick. Our Tidy Towns volunteers are out on a Saturday morning planting flowers and cleaning up towns. I see the GAA coaches s…

I do not know why but I do. Organising events is what I enjoy. There is one organisation that I would have to put above a lot of organisations that I know, and that would be ALONE. It does amazing work. I went through Garda vetting to become a volunteer with ALONE. It turned out I could not fulfil that because my mother's dementia was so progressive that I said I would use my ALONE hours to spend time at home with family and look after her, but it is an amazing organisation. It does such good, especially in rural a…

I raise an issue I have raised a number of times in the House, namely, wind energy, particularly for County Limerick. A 2013 Government circular asked local authorities to refrain from updating their wind energy strategies or maps. In the 13 years since, Limerick City and County Council has updated its map to change an area from orange to green. It will not, by any means, change from green to red or green to orange. It will change the map to suit itself. For 13 years, councils have been told not to change the map. …

I will be brief. The amendment is sensible and would provide more staff to the RTB for when this potential disaster hits. When many immigrants came into the country, the International Protection Office was understaffed and could not keep up with the number of applications. We saw what that did. People were giving out and protesting on the streets. There is no protection for renters in the Bill. As I said yesterday, the entire Bill needs to be dumped. I ask the Minister to at least accept the amendment and have staf…

I will direct my questions to Séan Kelly, MEP. Why did he vote against referring the EU Mercosur trade agreement to the European Court of Justice? I know he spoke about that in his opening remarks and a couple of times thereafter. Was there a whip in place for that vote? I ask this in light of the recent block-in of the Hague fisheries safeguards by a group of the larger member states, an outcome which is expected to probably cost Ireland up to €200 million. There are real concerns that the safeguards can be weaken…