I thank the Minister for his forthright comments and again I thank him for the approval that has been given today to SETU to purchase that iconic site in Waterford. It is hugely welcome and I put on record my thanks for all those who have been involved in the process over the past 12 months and more. Regarding the PPP process, there has been justified inflation. It is a build and maintenance contract. The sooner we can proceed to final price on that, the better. The alternative of taking it out of the PPP bundle wi…

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. Debates on housing in this Chamber are always welcome. I echo many of the comments made by the Minister with regard to the progress that has been made through both Housing for All and Rebuilding Ireland. If we look at where we came from in 2013, fewer than 5,000 homes were being built in this country. Last year, 30,000 homes were delivered. We are going to exceed that number again this year. More than 470 first-time buyers are purchasing their first home every week. If …

I have to follow the thought-provoking contribution of my esteemed colleague Senator McDowell. I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I welcome our friends from Comhairle na nÓg in Wexford, guests of Senator Byrne, and representatives from the National Youth Council. This is thought-provoking legislation. It is one on which I have an open mind. I probably do not look as young as when I entered politics at the age of 21, but being 36 now and having spent nearly 15 years in politics, youth participation i…

I thank the Minister of State for taking what I feel is a timely Commencement matter this afternoon on the need for a more specialised and location-specific warning system for extreme weather events in light of the recent flooding experienced in my own county, Waterford, Cork and many other areas. I acknowledge at the outset the utter devastation that businesses and home owners have experienced over the past six days. On Saturday I visited Tallow, Clashmore and Knockanore in west Waterford and saw at first hand the…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Unfortunately, there are no timelines for the implementation of a more localised approach. Perhaps he could follow up with a written response to me in that regard. While generalised weather warnings might have been appropriate yesterday from the north tip of Kilkenny down to the south of the county, often, as was the case last week and this week, it is more appropriate to have a higher level of warning for certain areas. When we first implemented those warning systems…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for welcoming my guests from Waterford. I hope they enjoy their visit to Leinster House. I reiterate the comments by my colleague, Senator Lombard, regarding the serious flooding in the south of the country at the moment. A status orange rainfall warning will remain in place until after lunchtime. The evidence locally across my constituency of Waterford is that serious damage has been done. Part of the seawall between Kinsalebeg and Youghal Bridge has collapsed and there is serious floodin…

The Cathaoirleach will give me a little latitude in recognition of the more than 70,000 junior cycle students receiving their results across the country today. I congratulate them, their teachers and their parents. They had a very difficult time over the past three years of the Covid crisis. They are to be congratulated on their results today.

I will raise one issue on the Order of Business, that is, the large scale sports infrastructure fund. As the Leader will know, it was introduced in 2018 to try to focus on those larger national governing bodies and regional projects. In my county of Waterford, the county board received €3.753 million in 2019 for the redevelopment of Walsh Park. Fantastic work has been done there in terms of phase one of that redevelopment. However, it is my understanding that many of these larger scale projects have come in for sig…

It will be good to have the Cathaoirleach back.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, to the House. I congratulate her and her colleagues, the Minister for Finance, Deputy McGrath, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, for their work, and all of their ministerial colleagues who have put a tremendous amount of work into budget 2024 over the last number of weeks and months. There is only one Opposition Member here in the Seanad, and that shows how much they have to give out about…

I thank the Minister of State and his colleagues for their work on budget 2024. As I said in the previous debate, the fact that only three Opposition Members have spoken in the House this evening is testament to the fact that the Government has clearly put significant measures in place to be able to assist the public with the cost-of-living pressures they face. The budget is framed with a series of universal measures as well as targeted supports for the most vulnerable, none more so than the €12 increase for pensio…

I welcome the Minister to the House. It is great to have her here. She has ten minutes.

I welcome the Minister of State. I commend the Minister and the Minister of State for the work they have done in modernising the entry system for access third level education. The changes that have been by the National Tertiary Office for people who do not have to have the requisite leaving certificate points is a really welcome move. I know this is only the start of the process and that it will be expanded in time. I also welcome the changes that have been made to the apprenticeship system in the context of access…

I thank the Taoiseach for being in the Chamber. In the brief time I have I want to stress the importance of continued investment in regional Ireland, particularly in the context of the review of the national planning framework, NPF, that is under way. To have propulsive growth in the counties and cities outside of Dublin, namely Waterford, Galway, Limerick and Cork, we have to have strategic investment. That is why projects like Waterford north quays, a €170 million investment by Government, are so important, as is…

I welcome the announcement made last week on the extension of the first home scheme to self-builds, which will be fantastic assistance to many young people looking to build their first home in rural Ireland. The issue of construction inflation has meant that many projects that were initially estimated to be of a certain budget, with mortgages approved for a certain figure, have gone much higher and therefore there was a gap that the first home scheme will now be able to fill up to a maximum of 20% or 30%, if combin…

I thank the Minister of State for his work on this legislation. I put on record my thanks to my Fine Gael Seanad colleague, Senator Kyne, the former Minister of State, who put a significant amount of work into this legislation at the front end of the process. As evidenced by what has happened in the past hour, a significant amount of work has been done by the Minister of State's officials, previous officials, the Dáil and Seanad staff members and drafters. A huge amount of work has been done and I want to put on th…

This morning I welcome the announcement that the sports capital and equipment grant programme will open to applications next Monday, 17 July. The programme has a few new features. The maximum grant available for local projects will increase from €150,000 to €200,000. The maximum grant for regional projects will increase from €300,000 to €500,000 and there are new rules on providing equal access to facilities for men and women which is hugely welcome and long overdue. It is a huge opportunity for sports clubs, commu…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter. As Members know I tabled it on a number of occasions and I have written to both the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on this matter. I welcome the opportunity get some clarity on the matter because the discrepancies around the septic tank grants have existed now for too long. On 27 June this year, the Environmental Protecti…

I thank the Minister of State. My concern is with the timeline for the review, which has been going on for quite some time. It was my understanding that the review was completed. In his response, the Minister of State cited that 98% of all systems are now registered with local authorities, but the question is what percentage were registered before 1 February 2013. I would argue that it was considerably lower than the 98%. What that is actually doing is excluding a significant cohort that were not registered by that…

Following on from my colleague Senator Burke, something I raised on the Order of Business last week and on which I had hoped a Commencement matter would be taken either yesterday or today is the issue of people who did not register their septic tanks before 1 February 2013 and are excluded from the grant scheme referred to by Senator Burke. These may be people who did not own the property in 2013 and have since bought one in 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2019. Because the previous owners of that property did not register the…