I move amendment No. 4: In page 3, line 27, after “with” to insert “the Act of 1832 or”.

I second the amendment.

I move amendment No. 6: In page 4, to delete lines 1 to 17.

Our concern relates to the repeal of the prescription period of 12 years given to users against private owners of land in seeking to retain the prescriptive period of 30 years and 60 years for foreshore. Again, our concerns and the reasons we are flagging this is that we do not believe there has been proper consultation with the people who will be directly impacted by this. I ask the Minister of State to at least give a commitment that these issues will be examined as part of the review. On the basis of such a comm…

On the basis of that reassurance from the Minister of State, I am happy to withdraw the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I move amendment No. 8: In page 4, to delete lines 19 to 22 and substitute the following: " 4 . It is hereby declared for the avoidance of doubt that section 39 (repealed by section 6(1) )of the Act of 2009 was without prejudice to the application of the Act of 1832 and the common law with regard to the extinguishment of an easement or profit à prendre howsoever or whenever acquired and, accordingly, the Act of 1832 or the common law,or both, as the Court shall determine in any particular case, shall apply to such …

The only comment I will make on it is that we will engage with the Department on some of the concerns that we have before the Bill goes to Committee Stage in the Dáil. I hope the matter can be teased out and the assurances the organisations require can be provided.

I would like to use my time this morning to raise the manner in which the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is making appointments to the Climate Change Advisory Council. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Climate Action. We engaged in extensive pre-legislative scrutiny of the climate Bill, where we heard from leading experts on international best practice for climate law and carbon budgets. During that pre-legislative scrutiny, the make-up of the Climate Change Advisory Council was discussed at length. It was acce…

I find it astounding that the justification echoes exactly what Deputy Simon Coveney said about Katherine Zappone's appointment, when he asked if anyone was seriously questioning the person's expertise or ability. Nobody is questioning that. At no point am I questioning any expertise or ability of the people who are on the Climate Change Advisory Council but these people have to be able to hold the Government to account. They have to say whether a Minister is doing the job or not. I am sorry, there is no process, p…

They would have flown through an interview.

I want to raise an issue I seem to be raising every week in this House, that is, animal welfare. Last night, the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine heard from the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, DSPCA, on what needs to happen to strengthen the laws in this country, particularly in the area of dog welfare. The DSPCA pointed out that puppy farms are the biggest animal welfare problem it faces. This entire industry is based on the concept of cruelty to animals and deception of…

I will not use the full eight minutes. It is an understatement to say that forestry is an important sector in our economy. Many jobs depend on it. It also has a serious knock-on effect on our climate ambitions. We know our forests are going to play an important role in the fight against climate change. It is important not to overstate that. We are facing a significant challenge as we seek to get as close to zero emissions as possible. Some hard-to-escape emissions will need to be compensated for with removals from …

I take the opportunity to welcome the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Simon Harris. I am particularly delighted to be chairing a session to mark Science Week, as I used to teach teachers how to teach science to primary school kids. I will therefore be interested to hear the contributions. The Minister has ten minutes.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, to the House.

I thank everybody for their contributions.

I will raise two concerns and might table amendments on Report Stage. The first concern relates to the doctrine of lost modern grant, which is relied upon in the Bill. We are hearing concerns that it might not be sufficient to restore the law to the practice of the courts prior to the changes anticipated by sections 33 to 39 of the 2009 Act, which will be repealed by the Bill. In short, the Prescription Act 1832 may need to be revived. We may bring forward amendments reflecting necessary references to that and to a…

I have similar concerns regarding the different prescription period proposed for State-owned land in section 3, which includes the foreshore. I echo what Senator Higgins has said. I would much prefer that we had designated protected areas before we gave planning permission for offshore wind, but that is why we are particularly concerned about this section. There is going to be so much change around our coastline. Why should the State have a longer prescription period that is more favourable to it than that applicab…

To leave the option open for amendments on Report Stage, I want to flag again the non-inclusion of a reference to the Prescription Act 1832 in section 4 of the Bill.

I want to flag again my concern that there may be a need for section 6 to be adjusted on the basis of the reference in the 2009 Act to the Prescription Act 1832. I refer to the provision that the reference in Part 4 to Schedule 2 to the 2009 Act is deleted and the effect of such reference is revoked. I may come back with amendments on Report Stage.