France's Presidency of the Council of the European Union ends this month. President Macron's big idea during his term was the establishment of what he terms the European political community, a decision-making structure for political dialogue and co-operation on matters of common interest for European countries inside and outside the EU. He has emphasised in his public statements the inclusion of collective security and building this security architecture throughout the European Continent in the work of his new stru…

In November last year, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, wrote to six religious congregations to inform them of the Government's intention to establish the mother and baby institutions payment scheme. Individual meetings with orders to discuss their contribution to this scheme took place over the past few months. Will the Taoiseach confirm if similar discussions have been had with church leaders, and if so, has the State Claims Agency also attended thes…

Households across the State cannot wait until the year end for the Government to act when they are struggling in the here and now. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council the Economic and Social Research Institute and the Central Bank of Ireland have all stated that the Government has the scope to introduce additional measures to support households. The Government is now expected to run a surplus of €1.6 billion this year, taking in more in tax than is going out in expenditure. Therefore, the money is there to act and th…

-----in four or six months' time. Those people need action and they need it now.

It is widely acknowledged that there is a recruitment and retention crisis in our Defence Forces. One of the main ways to address that is the full implementation of the EU working time directive. Key to that is the recording of hours worked by members of the Defence Forces and then paying them accordingly. What progress has been made in regard to the full implementation of the EU working time directive?

I thank the Minister. We have engaged with each other on this issue a number of times over the past year or two. While it is welcome that some progress has been made, the last time we spoke about this issue the Minister spoke about the derogation and exemptions for peacekeeping operations, overseas work and offshore patrols. While there are comprehensive deliberations and consultations going on between civil and military management, where are the conversations with the representative bodies which are key to this? W…

I thank the Minister. The consultation is key to this because there can be no exemptions or derogations without agreement and the associated protections for all members of the Defence Forces. I asked the Minister a specific question because key to the full implementation of the working time directive is the conciliation and arbitration subcommittee that was established in 2019. It is my understanding that committee has not met since then so when we talk about consultation it is safe to say the Minister and his Depa…

I ask the Minister to provide details on the current status of the report from the Commission on the Defence Forces. When does he believe there will be a full Government response to the report? We have read over the last number of weeks and indeed months that there will be a proposal brought to the Cabinet. It is important there is a full debate in this House on the report and scrutiny of it and the Government's response to it at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence before the summer recess…

I thank the Minister. It is unfortunate there are delays. I appreciate the Minister wants to get it right but there also needs to be full debate and scrutiny of what is being proposed by Government to ensure there is proper oversight from the joint committee, which has also been committed to. That needs to happen this side of the summer recess. I am pressing the Minister to ensure that happens and that there is a commitment that will happen this side of the recess, because the reality here is the longer the Ministe…

I thank the Minister. He will have all-party support, I hope, once the bases are covered. Those bases are the retention, remuneration and conditions of members of our Defence Forces. That needs to be at the core of anything that comes before us. I refer to the possibility of there being contention. Unfortunately, we have seen the debate segue from discussion on what the Defence Forces will look like in future. The whole issue of neutrality is starting to seep into the conversation. I do not want the situation in Uk…

Not to be outdone, I am going to make a proposal as well. While Cork is well served by Haulbowline and the footprint of the Naval Service there, we will have to consider the east coast in the context of our Naval Service as well, and there would be no better location to establish a base than Arklow in my constituency. It would be a great home for the LÉ Eithne in future. We must consider the decommissioning of these three vessels and learn from our previous attempts where we caused controversy back in 2015, or I sh…

I wish to return to the point the Minister made about a government-to-government transfer and what is being looked at regarding the transfer of LÉ Orla and LÉ Ciara . The Minister will be well aware of comments made by Members of the House calling for the vessels to be transferred to Ukraine. As sympathetic as I am with Ukraine and what is going on in there in terms of the illegal invasion by Russia, if that option is being looked at it would seriously undermine Ireland's position as a military neutral country. It …

I ask the Minister to provide an update regarding the Government's response to the decision by the British Government to move unilaterally to introduce legislation that effectively tries to tear up the Irish protocol and jeopardises the Good Friday Agreement.

It has to be said that the British Government has deliberately set out to break international law. It is one of only two European countries prepared to deliberately flout international law, the other, of course, being Russia. Its decision to act unilaterally to engage in reckless and shameful acts on the Irish protocol is an assault on the Good Friday Agreement, and these are attacks which are largely driven by the nefarious internal politics of the Tory party. Boris Johnson's approach to the protocol is driven by …

I thank the Minister and I totally agree with what he has said. Indeed, it has to be said that Unionist leaders are out of sync, they are out of touch, with ordinary people in the North and what they view needs to happen and must happen. Yesterday, as the Minister will be aware, a coalition of 170 groups from across civil society in the North described Boris Johnson's plans to replace the Human Rights Act, which is supported by 84% of the population of the North, as a violation of the Good Friday Agreement. It is y…

There is a crisis in the issuing of passports. Like many Deputies, I am contacted on a daily basis by dozens of people, on most days between 40 and 50 people, trying to get clarity and basic information about their passports, most of which have exceeded their estimated issue date. There is a serious crisis for many people who are missing out on holidays, losing out on many thousands of euro due to the failure of passports to be issued on time. Will the Minister provide an update on this serious issue?

There is a crisis. There has been a huge increase in demand but that was not unexpected. To hear that we are still trying to recruit staff to deal with this crisis is concerning. It shows a lack of proper planning. The fact that we are still training and recruiting staff is unacceptable. It must be said that the staff working in the Passport Office are excellent. There is no criticism whatsoever of the staff. They are working exceptionally hard but there are major challenges for first-time and child passport applic…

I acknowledge that the turnaround time for most passport renewal applications is extraordinary. I welcome that and praise the staff of the Passport Office for it. However, there are serious challenges. I would seriously question the assertion that people are only waiting six minutes to talk to someone in the Passport Office.

I spoke to a number of people this week who found it impossible to get through, despite many attempts. There is a serious problem with people submitting applications but after eight to ten weeks, and only a couple of days before the estimated issue date, they are contacted by a checker in the Passport Office and told there is an issue. The issue may relate to photographs or to documentation but that adds an additional workload for staff and increases the anxiety of applicants. People have booked their holidays in g…

I ask the Minister for his response and that of the Government to the announcement in the past week from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that a trilateral agreement has been reached between the EU, Israel and Egypt to pipe gas from the occupied territories and from Israel to Europe, which contravenes both UN policy and EU policy. I seek the Minister's response to this announcement.