The Senator will be ganged up on if he takes the time of people who are waiting to come in.

I am conscious of the need to get everybody in. I believe Senator Flynn wants to get in. I ask everyone to co-operate and to take one and half or two minutes. Is that okay? I told Senator Seery Kearney she had four minutes. Could she try to keep to three?

I believe Senators Dolan, Doherty and Currie are going to share time.

Yes. If people are co-operative, I am also going to give one minute to Senator Flynn.

Yes, the Senator is sharing with Senators Doherty and Currie. Senator Doherty is going first.

That is well said. I appreciate everyone's co-operation and the patience of the Minister of State. I call on him to respond.

I welcome the Minister of State. On the previous occasion, we left the debate at the point where we asked the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, to clearly set out the rationale for the thresholds. A number of us had amendments relating to this matter ruled out of order and we made the point that we are completely out of kilter with our nearest neighbour in the North and with Scotland and Wales, countries that have similar hydrological profiles and water tables. We wanted to clearly hear, for the public record,…

Our rationale for opposing the section is to give the Minister of State an opportunity to respond. We want him to stipulate what exceptions will apply, for whom they will apply and the rationale for those exemptions. Will it be anybody who is currently abstracting water? How will they be taken into consideration? What mechanism will be put in place? We are opposing the section in order to give the Minister of State an opportunity to allay concerns about what the exemptions will include and how they will be decided.

I move amendment No. 11: In page 35, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following: “(viii) any additional information specified in Annex IV of Directive No. 2011/92/EU relevant to the specific characteristics of the abstraction (a particular project or type of project) and to the environmental features likely to be affected,”. This comes on the back of concerns raised by An Taisce, which noted that the definitions of the terms in section 14 contain omissions. For example, section 5(3) of the amended annex IV to…

I thank the Acting Chairperson very much. I am glad she raised that issue. There are two problems with the Commencement matters. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who is does not have the portfolio, nor is he in Department relating to the Commencement matter I raised. I also have an issue with the Seanad Office accepting that the Department I wanted to answer the question refused and passed the buck to another Department. I wanted the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage…

I thank the Minister of State. Will he bring the proposal back to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who is responsible for it despite the fact that the Department says it is not responsible for it? When we read the Standing Orders governing Commencement matters, it proves that we should be getting a response on the issue from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I remind the House that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is a relevant body under the cl…

I wanted to raise last Friday's Supreme Court judgment on CETA. I commend Deputy Costello for taking that case despite the fact that the Tánaiste had threatened to pursue legal costs had the Deputy lost. It is interesting that in the last couple of days we have seen the arrogance of both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste who were out of the traps very quickly to say that it would be a simple fix: just amend the Arbitration Act 2010 but their gallop seems to have slowed. Those who were at the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party …

Good luck renegotiating with the EU.

I am happy to speak on this motion on behalf of the Sinn Féin Seanad team and we were happy to cosign it. It is a perfect example of how this House can work collaboratively for a common cause. Recent weeks have been difficult for everybody who has been listening to the airwaves as we once again expose how far the State needs to go to protect children from sexual abuse and to end the institutional cover-up of that abuse. Abusers in this country seem to be able to abuse for years and, in the case of perpetrators in S…

This week is transgender awareness week and I want to say a few words on that today. It is a week that helps to raise the visibility of transgender people through education and advocacy activities. It also addresses the issues of prejudice, discrimination and violence that affect the transgender community. As we are all aware, they endure much abuse as well as facing constant challenges to their civil rights, their safety and their health. For all of these reasons, the transgender community needs and deserves our s…

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

I can speak to amendment No. 7. I also put on the record my unhappiness that our amendments have been ruled out of order as being a cost on the State. I do not agree, particularly given the nature of the amendments reflect the recommendations from the pre-legislative scrutiny report on the threshold levels. Why does Ireland seem to deem itself to have a different standard from our closest neighbours while having very similar geography and hydrology? I would like to hear the rationale. If we cannot move our amendmen…

I refer to a decision that was taken that the term "project", while not defined in the habitats directive, asserts that the European Court of Justice has indicated that the term is to be given a broad interpretation. It may be surmised that most of the large abstractions can be viewed as projects for the purposes of the directive. The Bill as drafted does not give due regard to the obligations under the habitats and birds directives.

I ask the Minister of State once again why we are asking to opt for a threshold that is in direct contrast with that of all our nearest neighbours and countries with similar levels of rainfall and similar hydrology. The Minister of State needs to describe the rationale for the thresholds. The joint committee heard from the experts and made a recommendation to reduce the threshold from 25 cu. m to 10 cu. m. The Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers gave its opinion on it and said that, as matters stand, the level i…