Amendments Nos. 49 to 54, inclusive, and 61 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Amendments Nos. 55 to 60, inclusive, and 62 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

When is it proposed to take Report Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I want to follow up on a comment made by Deputy Richmond yesterday about the concept of a special Oireachtas committee on Irish unity. It is an excellent idea and one that the Government should strongly consider and implement, for a number of reasons. I am a member of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, which is a really excellent committee but its focus is very wide. It deals with a really wide variety of issues both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland. In contras…

This is a good debate to have. A number of months ago I stood up in this House and said we should have a debate and discussion about the use of nuclear energy and in my political outlook, having a debate on what could be perceived as contentious issues is the best way to resolve them. It is only when you challenge arguments, have debates and have opposing views against one another that you can really test out your opinion to see if it is correct or not. That is the logic I apply to all of my political outlook and t…

That is a fair point. It is easy to come along and discuss an issue and it is great that we are doing this but it is different to then get up and champion that issue in front of a local community that may be completely against it. We have seen that with wind and solar energy and fair play to an individual if he or she is willing to stand up in the Seanad to say we need nuclear energy and then champion a nuclear reactor in their local community. I am being honest in saying I would not have the ability to do that. Se…

Yes. I tried to think of a witty response to that but I have failed on this occasion. More power to you and fair play if you are willing to make the right decision, as Senator Keogan mentioned, to say that this is the right thing for us to do. It may be a good idea or the right thing to do but it will not get us there any quicker than renewable energy will. If this was a magic bullet that would get us there quicker I would be all for it. I would say let us go and do it, let us have the debate in those communities, …

This morning, I met with Liam Grimes and Derek Reilly from Nevo.ie to have a discussion about our electric vehicle industry, the charging network and some of the opportunities and challenges the industry faces over the next couple of years. There are two key points that I thought valuable and we should have a discussion about them at some stage in the future. One of them was a point I had raised previously, which is that anyone who does not have access to a private driveway cannot avail of an electrical vehicle cha…

Today in Clanbrassil Street in Dundalk, I attended a wonderful event, the opening of Creative Spark's downtown hub. In a nutshell, this means that between 40 and 50 remote working spaces in the centre of Dundalk town will be open to people to come and use. I raise this issue because funding for the hub came from the Border enterprise development fund. One of the stipulations is that the funding must be used to target vacant or derelict buildings in an urban centre. Retail is not what it was 20 or 30 years ago. It h…

My first experience of posters was in the 2004 local elections. I was 14 years of age. At that stage, my dad had been a councillor for 15 years. I was helping him to put up posters at 7 a.m. He fell off the ladder, broke a rib or two and, a week later, lost his seat to a former Member of this House, former Senator Mark Dearey from Dundalk. That was my first experience with posters. It was not a good one and it was not a good election for my family either, but since then I have come to love posters and see their val…

It is the Senator's time to speak.

The point I want to address is the concept of local government as we know it today. I spent five years on Louth County Council. The current format is fundamentally flawed. The reason is because the people who are supposed to hold the chief executive and director of services to account are technically the county councillors. They are the people who supposed to hold them to account to make sure things are happening the way they should. Let us be blunt and call a spade a spade. If I am a county councillor who wants to…

Before I start, I welcome Councillor Paddy McQuillan. He and I served together on Louth County Council. Although he is from Drogheda and I am from Dundalk, I will not hold that against him. He is a great representative for Drogheda and he is here as a guest of Senator Craughwell. The issue I wish to talk about is as a result of a meeting I had with Paul and Niamh Brady in Dundalk last week. They have recently set up the Drive Virtual Driving Academy. I had a good opportunity to try it out. It is incredible and is e…

A debate that has taken place in other parliaments around the world, most notably in the United Kingdom in the Scottish Parliament and in the French Parliament, is the concept of and debates around long Covid. That is what I would like to ask for today. At some stage in the next couple of months it would be very useful to have the Minister for Health in here for a debate on long Covid. It is a totally new entity that we do and do not know much about. I would like to hear what the Government has to say using the bes…

Amendments Nos. 1 and 6 are related and may be discussed together by agreement.

Amendments Nos. 2, 100, 101 and 106 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Perfect.

Anybody else? No. Does the Minister have any further comments or is she happy enough? Perfect. I apologise, I did not see Senator Higgins. I call Senator Higgins.

Amendments Nos. 3, 99, 119, 121, 122 and 172 are related and may be discussed together.