I ask the Minister to report on the political agreement at the recent meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council to move forward with targeted sanctions vis-à-vis extremist settlers and entities supporting settlements in the West Bank.

I thank the Minister. I appreciate her comprehensive answer in this regard. I believe that she reflects the views of everybody in this House when she expresses the concerns of Irish people over what has been happening in the West Bank. I was struck when listening this week to the Catholic Bishop William Shomali, who I understand the Minister met with. He spoke on it and referred to "really nasty" actions on the part of some of the settlers. Their behaviour is, frankly, appalling. He asked where we need to go beyond…

I thank the Minister for her response and I think it is the correct approach. We need to start to think about what the ultimate goal is regarding what we are achieving. We all want to achieve peace. There is no disagreement in this House about achieving peace and getting away from the horrors we are facing right now. I was really struck when I listened to some of the interviews with Bishop Shomali where he said it is going to be about bringing the people together including, as the Minister said, many of the people …

In 1826, 200 years ago, King George IV decided to sign into the law the government valuation of Ireland Act. That set in train the process of commercial rates. This was the way in which local government was funded. A decision was taken to levy rates on all properties. Those rates were determined based on the floor space of properties. In 1979, commercial rates were removed from domestic properties and, following a court challenge in 1984, they were also removed from agricultural properties. We are still in a situat…

Yes. It was King George IV.

The response provided by the Department sets out the process by which it is carried out. I have no question about the professionalism of the public servants who carry it out but it is the principle. The Minister of State made the point about similarly sized businesses with regard to floor space. A bookshop in Gorey, Arklow, Wexford or Sligo is likely to be assessed in broadly the same way but the problem is their competition is the likes of Amazon and online sellers which are not subject to commercial rates. If we …

We know that Ireland will face around eight climate events every year that will have an impact on different parts of the country. The Taoiseach will recall that after Storm Chandra he was with me in Aughrim in County Wicklow. One of the requests made by the local authority, and it has been submitted, is for funding to repair many of the roads washed away as a result of that event. This is still a priority for Wexford County Council and Wicklow County Council. Can the Taoiseach give any indication, given the damage …

I very much welcome this debate. It is quite apt that this month is the centenary of the birth of David Attenborough and the founding of Fianna Fáil. In many ways, the Minister of State encapsulates the best of both in his approach to this office. He has been very committed to this work and his advocacy is something that deserves to be commended. I echo Deputy Ahern's remarks with regard to Our Lady's Island and commend Wexford County Council on the work being done there. That multi-agency approach is certainly som…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Canney. I have no doubt the response from the Department will outline the rich history of the old rocket house station and the importance of the Coast Card to our coastal communities in north Wexford and south Wicklow. As the Minister of State comes from a coastal county, he is very appreciative of the work of the Coast Guard. I will not go into the rich history of the Coast Guard but I will speak about the recent history. For …

I thank the Minister of State but it is very clear the Department has not been listening or engaging with the local Coast Guard unit. The Minister of State said it himself. It is operating under licence, not even under a lease, in a local parochial house. By the way, in order for the vehicles to come out of that parochial house they have to go through the churchyard. When there is a wedding or a funeral or, at this time of the year, a confirmation or communion, you can imagine the difficulty. I cannot believe the M…

This morning at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence, we heard from witnesses from the University of Limerick’s Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems about the concerns regarding AI-enabled drones and how drone warfare is impacting the battlefields in Ukraine after Russia’s illegal invasion. Given that the Taoiseach will have seen drone attacks at the European Council meeting in Copenhagen last year, and we have seen them here in Ireland as well, will he assure the House that the technolo…

I want to raise the question of dereliction and the inconsistency of approach between local authorities. The Taoiseach is aware of the impact of the scourge of dereliction on our towns and communities. In Gorey, Wexford County Council has taken a very active approach to deal with the problem of derelict buildings. In Arklow, however, Wicklow County Council has not taken an active approach and, as a result, there is a serious problem with dereliction, particularly in the centre of the town. I will frame my question …

I welcome this motion, and particularly the extension of the provisions to two designated areas in County Wexford. I thank the Minister for ensuring this happened and commend the work of the Housing Agency and Wexford County Council that allowed this to happen. The two areas concerned are, as the Minister indicated, in Bunclody and Ballyboy at Ferns. I was in a house in Ballyboy at Ferns. It was a family home of a hardworking and decent family. This is where they wanted to spend their lives. They invested their liv…

We should put on the record that the Collison brothers have made an enormous contribution to this country in terms of job creation, and allowing their views to be heard is quite important in the debate on the future of technology. Further to my colleague Deputy Ó Cearúil raising the role of artificial intelligence and the recognition there is a paradigm shift happening with regard to technology and work, the World Economic Forum estimates that while 92 million jobs may be displaced over the next five years as a res…

I welcome the establishment of the clearing house. We need to develop our offshore energy generation capability as quickly as possible. The only offshore turbines we have are in the territorial waters off the coast of my constituency. They were producing more energy 20 years ago than they are today. They are currently producing none. We know we will not reach our 2030 target, and I am worried about our level of commitment to building energy infrastructure. I was stunned two weeks ago during oral questions when I as…

Welcome changes are happening in Hungary, and the EU's release of funds to Hungary is positive. We need to continue to show our solidarity with Hungary at this time of great change. In the same way, that is obviously related to the importance of showing our solidarity with Ukraine. I have two related questions. First, we need to spell out more clearly why we are continuing to support Ukraine, and why there is the risk that if Ukraine falls to Russia, there is a huge threat to peace in Europe, but there is also the …

I welcome the Bill. I have raised the issue with the Minister of State on a number of occasions. I was in Arklow this morning. I met with the student councils of three second level school: Arklow CBS, Glenart College and St. Mary's. I allowed the students to ask any questions they wanted to ask. One of the early questions that was asked was what the Government was doing to protect young people against tobacco and vaping credits. This is not the first time I have been asked this by a young person. Young people have …

The reality is that we are already using nuclear energy in this country, as the Minister of State knows, because we have to import through the interconnector. The level of that import has grown in the past few years from 10% of our energy in 2023, to 15% in 2024, and to 17% in 2025. Of what we are taking already, a lot of the energy is provided through nuclear energy. I know the Minister of State is a strong supporter of the Celtic interconnector with France, and we know the majority of energy that is produced in F…

Our transition to renewables is critical. The Minister of State knows that I strongly support all of the investment that we are seeing in wind and solar, and I want it to happen much more quickly. The question is around future capacity, when we are looking to 2040 and beyond, and whether enough will be generated even at that stage by renewables. Given what we have seen with the types of models we are talking about, I specifically asked about small modular nuclear reactors with regard to being able to fuel our futur…

We are also renewable.