They are not choosing.

Last week, the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Peter Burke, was in the Minister's place in the Chamber. Am I right?

Sorry. The Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, gave a commitment that we would see the regulations before we got to this point. Is it possible for the Minister to share those draft regulations? We should at least have that, given that the families have come all this way. The Minister of State gave that commitment to the Seanad. We accepted they would be draft regulations and could change, but we would at least get to have a look at them. We are taking the Minister at his word. This is the last throw of the dice for t…

On a point of order-----

I echo what Senator Boyhan said and I commend Senator Higgins on tabling these amendments. I am keen to hear the Minister reassure Senators in respect of how we will protect the environment and environmental law with the regulations. Part of my frustration and that of the Irish Environmental Network - I am sure Senator Higgins will agree - relates to the fact this provisions of the Bill have not undergone any pre-legislative scrutiny. That is part of the problem. This paragraph was introduced without that scrutiny,…

Senator Gavan addressed many of the issues about the workers that we spoke about with a unified voice in this House. We are all in favour of the ending of mink farming, but we are concerned about the workers and how they will be treated. As I have said repeatedly on all Stages of this Bill, there is a concern not just in the short term for the workers in mink farming who are directly affected, but also about the precedent it sets for workers with the just transition. In the medium to long term, we will watch how th…

I do not need to tell the Minister of State that the cost of energy is spiralling out of control. We know that renewables are cheaper than oil. The economic argument for transitioning to renewables has never been stronger and made more sense. However, the more we can produce electricity from renewables, the more we can protect households from the high prices of imported fossil fuels. My question for the Minister of State today is why, when we hear so much about our excellent wind energy resources, are our prices so…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. However, I do not see many answers in it. He outlined how the programme works in terms of how we get the RESS auctions. He is right that renewable energy will protect households from price fluctuations, but it will not guarantee lower prices. We have the highest renewable energy prices in the EU. While some say we are the Saudi Arabia of wind energy in terms of potential, we are the most expensive for delivering renewable energy. Not only does that mean that household…

I wish to raise the issue of blood donation. As someone who has been a blood donor since I was 18, I encourage anyone who is eligible to contact the blood bank and make an appointment to donate. Only this morning, I got a text to tell me that stocks of my blood type are down to 1.6 days of supply when they should be seven days. I cannot believe there has been no public campaign to inform gay and bisexual men that, as and from 28 March, the eligibility criteria will change. From 28 March, a four-month deferral for g…

I echo what we said the last time we debated this Bill. There is unity across this House about being in favour of ending mink farming. Nobody here is calling for an extension of mink farming. I would have liked to have seen it abolished a long time ago given my experiences as an ecologist dealing with escaped mink and the damage they do to the natural environment. There is a unity of voice in the Chamber when it comes to mink farming. Now is the time it has to be abolished. The Government is introducing legislation…

I echo what others have said when the Minister of State referred to the three-year method for calculating compensation. With regard to our amendments that were ruled out of order, I am aware that a ten-year cycle is taken in other jurisdictions. As others have said, it appears that the years selected on which to base the compensation seem to be the loss-making years. Will the Minister of State elaborate on where the five years came from? Why are we not looking at how this was done in other jurisdictions when it cam…

I am not saying the Minister of State is not correct but he is saying Department officials visited all the farms, but it was not about fur farming. In terms of inspections around fur farming, has anybody visited all three farms regarding demolition costs? My understanding is the Grant Thornton report, which cost €100,000, was a desk-based exercise from Dublin that did not involve anybody from Grant Thornton visiting any of the farms. The Department then recommended Google Maps and only one farm was visited in terms…

I will follow on from Senator Boyhan's comments on the importance of trust and communication. I know it is the Minister of State's first time debating this legislation in this House. When it comes to trust and communication, however, the deadline for Report Stage amendments was today at 11.30 a.m. That is the indication the Department is giving in respect of listening to the Members of this House and what will be accepted and not accepted tonight. That does not build trust and is not very respectful of this House, …

I move amendment No. 7: In page 15, to delete lines 6 to 14 and substitute the following: “ “ ‘native tree area’ means land under trees— (a) with an area of not less than 0.1 hectare and not greater than 1 hectare, and (b) where the trees concerned are native tree species only, of which not more than 25 per cent are Scots pine;”. The Bill proposes a limit on the amount of Scots pine that can be included and a limit of 1 ha for new native tree areas where planted as a plot. Where the planting is done in a 20 m strip…

I move amendment No. 15: In page 15, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: “(i) shall, on an annual basis, lay a report before Dáil Éireann on the level of afforestation per Local Electoral Area, the level of which is broadleaf, and as to how this aligns with government policy and objectives,”. The purpose of this is to make data on forestry more readily available to legislators and the public. In the Dáil, the Minister indicated that the data are already available, or rather that they can be extrapolat…

I move amendment No. 16: In page 15, line 30, after “grants,” to insert “subject to Oireachtas approval and”. The amendment asks that the Minister bring any scheme arising from this legislation before the Dáil for approval. The reason we are doing that is that forestry policy, as has been discussed here at length for the past two years, has failed utterly. There has been a systemic failure to deliver on targets that have been set and to ensure the forestry policy does exactly what it should do, which is to deliver …

I will speak as well to amendment No. 27, as tabled by Senator Higgins, which is similar and provides that the regulations under this section be laid before and be agreed by both Houses of the Oireachtas. Article 15 of the Constitution vests the sole and exclusive power for making legislation in the Oireachtas. With these provisions the Minister is seeking extraordinary discretion in the making of regulations and will have to ensure they are compliant with a significant body of EU environmental legislation and Irel…

I move amendment No. 23: In page 16, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: "(i) existing levels of afforestation adjacent to domestic dwellings,". This amendment is proposing that one of the criteria to be taken into account before the Minister approves a scheme is the existing levels of afforestation adjacent to domestic dwellings. The amendment does not seek to constrain the Government in designing the scheme but simply asks that when people seek to avail of it, due consideration is given to the existi…

I move amendment No. 25: In page 16, to delete line 32 and substitute the following: “(S.I. No. 477 of 2011). (5) Regulations under subsection (1) shall not apply to planting on peat soils where the climate change implications are unclear.”,”. This amendment seeks to limit the operation of the unlicensed planting of forestry enabled by these provisions so that it cannot happen on peat soils, where the effects on climate change are complex and often the opposite of what we are trying to achieve in respect of climate…

I move amendment No. 27: In page 16, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(5) Any regulations made under this section must be laid before and agreed by both Houses of the Oireachtas.”,