When is it proposed to take Fifth Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I will follow up on the calls to consider having people in their 20s vaccinated sooner. While it is highly unlikely to happen, I am concerned about the authoritarian nature of some of the comments that have come out over the past 48 hours regarding the scenes in Dublin. Young people have put their lives on hold for the past 15 months. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. I am sick of the sanctimony and of the moralising towards young people. Young people are outside because they have basically been locked up for 1…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, back. Senator Moynihan is next.

How kind.

Senator Casey, without interruption.

Amendments Nos. 6 to 9, inclusive, and 18 are related. Amendments Nos. 7 to 9, inclusive, are physical alternatives to No. 6. Amendments Nos. 6 to 9, inclusive, and 18 may be discussed together, by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Normality has returned with children now being able to play outside and play sports so when will swimming lessons for children resume in the Republic of Ireland? Last night, I spoke to the manager of the Aura Leisure Swimming Pool in Dundalk who outlined a couple of things and it is not until one thinks about these things that one realises they make perfect sense. Perhaps, as a Government, we should consider the nuances of reopening and my rationale is as follows. First, numerous scientific studies have identified …

Senator McGreehan and I represented this part of the world, namely, the Dundalk-Carlingford area, on Louth County Council. It is a hugely symbolic and important project for the communities of Omeath, Carlingford and north Louth, and for communities on the other side of the Border, like Warrenpoint, Rostrevor and Newry. It is a symbolic thing to connect those communities which have been apart for so long because of issues in the Troubles and everything else. Carlingford Lough is already quite connected through the C…

I do not think it should be a case of the Newry southern relief road or the Narrow Water bridge. There is no reason we cannot have both. There are many reasons the Newry southern relief road makes sense in vehicular traffic, access and so on, but it should not be a case of one or the other. As Senator McGreehan rightly pointed out, it is the symbolic nature of this project that we should be talking about. It is for that reason this project is being progressed by the shared island unit as opposed to a Department of …

I wish to raise the issue of visas and how we are not granting any visas to people from South America. A couple in north Louth are about to get married. The girl, who is marrying a guy from north Louth, is from New York City and is a US citizen. Her family are US citizens with the exception of her mother, who has a Colombian passport. Her mother has lived in New York City since 1985, and the last time she was in Colombia was seven years ago, but she cannot come back to Ireland for a family wedding in two months' ti…

I congratulate my colleague, Senator Seery Kearney, on bringing forward this very important topic. It is good to get this discussion going. Young people have borne the brunt of society's anger at certain things so many times over the past 12 months and they have been forgotten about in certain matters. One thing that has annoyed me is that young people have had to sacrifice so much by essentially being locked in and cooped up for the last 12 months, and then you see the valley of the squinting windows-type stuff on…

It is important, as has been said earlier, to discuss who this Bill is about and who the people at the coalface who will benefit are. I am 30 years of age and it is people in my generation and from my age cohort who will benefit. Those of us from this generation who are still in Ireland today are the ones who did not emigrate in 2010, 2011 or 2012. We are also the generation of people who went to New York and London, did our five or six years there and are looking to come back and set up family life at home. That i…

I am talking about local authority councillors. I was on a local authority for seven years and I know what I am talking about when it comes to local authorities.

What individual did I refer to?

Did I name one individual?

Thank you.

What insult?

Today is a great day with the positivity in the air. I got my hair cut at 8 a.m.. I was first in the queue. Literally and figuratively it is a weight off my shoulders. The best thing about it is that the number of people-----

I want to give no offence to the four Members beside me over here who may not need haircuts as quickly as that, with all due respects to them. Senator Byrne will be in the queue as will the Cathaoirleach. I have just lost so many potential Senate votes now if I ever need to run again. My point is about the positivity in the air. It was great for the two barbers being able to come back in this morning. The last time that they were working was on 24 December. People were knocking on the window wishing them good luck …