The recent attack on the Nord Stream pipeline has clearly shown the vulnerabilities of strategically important cables that run through Irish waters. Some three quarters of all cables in the northern hemisphere pass through Irish waters and 97% of global communications, including business operations, financial transactions and Internet traffic, are carried through these cables. They are critically important and it has been suggested that we are the Achilles heel in the security of these critical data cables. I hear …

I fully support level of ambition 2 and increasing the capacity of the navy and its ability to put ships to sea, which is something that is currently tying our hands in providing the security that is needed for these essential data cables. There is a serious anomaly in that the responsibility in legislation falls to An Garda Síochána to provide security for such cables. There is a significant anomaly there given the Garda has no ability whatsoever to go to sea and provide security in circumstances such as this. Wil…

I raise the student registration fee and the decision that was taken in the budget to reduce it by €1,000 for this academic year. That is something I welcome, but there seems to be some confusion within colleges as to how the reduction is to be applied. I have been contacted by a number of students who make the payment twice over the course of a year. They have been hit with a bill and the colleges are demanding immediate payment of a student registration fee of €1,500 in addition to student levies and charges of €…

I have heard it from a number of colleges. There are serious concerns as to how this is going to be implemented.

Public transport needs to be accessible, affordable, frequent and reliable but that is certainly not the case at the moment. That is due to many issues but I wish to focus on the issue of privatisation. The policy of this Government and the previous Government to privatise particular routes has been a disaster in recent years. Go-Ahead now operates 30 routes that were previously operated by Dublin Bus. Since it took over the routes three years ago, it has been an unmitigated disaster. In my constituency of Wicklow,…

There is a fundamental divergence in the ideological and strategic approach of the Minister and me on the defence budget. The premise of the Minister's strategy towards the development of the Defence Forces seems to be one of "If they build it, they will come". Unfortunately, as this plays out, his foregrounding of capital expenditure means that while he will have secured a whole lot of new tanks, ships and so on, there will be very few members of the Defence Forces left to crew them. The Minister's failure to addr…

I welcome the decision by the EU to grant candidate country status to Ukraine and Moldova. The scenes of joy with which this was greeted by Ukrainans who gathered in Brussels in their hundreds tell a vivid tale of what it means to the people of the country. I condemn the indiscriminate attacks on civilians taking place throughout Ukraine. These attacks are acts of appalling aggression. They are war crimes and they need to be fully investigated, with those responsible brought to justice. I welcome the work being don…

That was not the question I asked.

I will try to be concise. On 15 June, the EU, Egypt and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding on co-operation related to trade, transport and export of gas to the EU. The memorandum of understanding, MOU, negotiated and signed by the EU does not contain a territorial clause explicitly excluding the Palestine Territories occupied by Israel. This omission appears to be in complete contradiction with the long-standing EU decision that all agreements between the EU and Israel explicitly indicate their inapplicabi…

I am not shouting.

I call out all violators of international law. I am not a hypocrite.

The Minister of State thinks it is appropriate that we punish one but not the other.

I want to follow up on the point Deputy Howlin made regarding Moldova becoming a candidate-status country for EU accession. Ukraine has been given that status, which is hugely significant. I agree with Deputy Howlin's call to open up a full embassy in Moldova. We have a full embassy in Ukraine, which, unfortunately, is still closed.

We are seeing a lot of European countries moving now to reopen their embassies in Ukraine. It is important, as an act of solidarity, that we do the same. The Irish bar in Kyiv is open to the public and proudly flying the Irish flag. It is incumbent on the Government to reopen our embassy there as a matter of immediate importance.

We have two fundamental issues to discuss today, namely, the service of the Irish Defence Forces with the UN for 2020 and 2021 and approval of Ireland's participation in four projects involving PESCO. On the face of it, these are two separate issues. In reality, however, participation in one will impact on Ireland's participation in the other. This may colour the future perspective adopted by the smaller military non-aligned nations that invested their support and confidence in Ireland as a military neutral country…

The Minister missed the fundamental point.

Before the budget.

Will the Minister of State indicate what measures have been taken to address the serious mess that has developed in my constituency over the past three and half years, since the privatisation of a number of routes that were formerly operated by Dublin Bus? This followed the privatisation of three particular routes: Nos. 45A, 184 and 185. At a time where we are supposed to be encouraging people and enticing them to use more public transport, a poor service is being provided by Go-Ahead Ireland in my constituency. Th…

To say I am disappointed with the response is an understatement. I could have predicted the response before I came in here. It wastes my time and that of the Minister of State. That is the response I have heard consistently over the past two years, namely that the impact of Covid on Go-Ahead is resulting in the poor service that is being delivered. The poor service was there before Covid and it continues now. The same response does not wash because I do not see the same volume of cancellations from Dublin Bus, whic…

Earlier this month the Taoiseach published the second report on Ireland's well-being framework and analysis of the well-being dashboard. That analysis identified a number of groups in Irish society that experience inequality across a high proportion of indicators. These groups include women, single-parent households, households on lower incomes, people with long-term sickness or disability, immigrants, non-Irish and households in rented accommodation. This represents a sizeable proportion of the population across a…