I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I echo the views expressed by the Taoiseach and my colleague Deputy Brennan on the fact that we need to continue to show solidarity with Ukraine and support, in every way possible, the people of Ukraine in their fight on the front line against Russian aggression. Whatever support we can provide while bearing in mind our policy of neutrality, must be provided. On cyber resilience and hybrid warfare, we need to work with our EU partners and Ukraine to combat Russian aggression. I welcome the moves we are making to pr…

Will the Taoiseach comment on the possibility of President Zelenskyy addressing a joint sitting of the Houses?

I can, but I will not be able to do so in the time allowed. I welcome the debate. That the Minister and both Ministers of State from the Department are present speaks to a recognition of the seriousness of the challenge facing the tillage sector. I have raised this issue with the Minister on a number of occasions on the floor of the House and privately. I know he is aware of the challenge. Colleagues have outlined that in great detail. I want to specifically take on remarks by my Sinn Féin constituency colleague, w…

I strongly welcome the Taoiseach's commitment to the implementation of CETA and to the growth of our trade relations with Canada. However, I want to raise EU competitiveness. It is over a year since the publication of the Draghi report yet the European Policy Innovation Council, the Brussels-based think-tank, states that only 11% of the recommendations are on the road to implementation. We are seriously falling behind in Europe in terms of competitiveness. One of the areas is network resilience and our digital infr…

We are seeing an expanding war in Europe now and Russia’s campaign of aggression against Ukraine but also others. We are seeing horrific things. Up to an estimated 20,000 children have now been abducted from Ukraine and taken into Russian territory. We also know about the hybrid and cyberattacks from Russia on member states of the European Union and, indeed, other European countries. We have seen drone attacks and violations of airspace in recent months on Poland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Estonia,…

I praise the very considerable investment in sport that has been made by this and the previous Government and commend the Minister of State and his officials on the co-operation with local sports groups on the sports capital scheme and the LSSIF. In reviewing both the sports capital scheme and the LSSIF, I will make a number of comments. It is essential, as colleagues have said, that where sporting codes are sharing facilities, that will be rewarded. Facilities must have equal access for men and women, for boys and…

I am glad to see the Government has agreed to progress with the private wires Bill and the development of a private wires policy. It is critical to addressing the energy deficit we face that we move as soon as possible. It is also important that we ensure we have the necessary digital infrastructure to support the digital economy, and that includes data centres. I am sure the Taoiseach would agree with me that data centres, as a critical part of the economy, would benefit from the private wires Bill, in particular …

It is not an exaggeration to say that the tillage sector in Ireland is facing an enormous crisis. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Heydon, is very aware of this. As part of the Government's climate action plan, it is intended that we will have 400,000 ha in tillage by 2030. We are not going to achieve that, particularly given that, since 2022, 1,400 farmers have left tillage. Despite a good summer harvest, prices are not there for tillage farmers. We are also facing the challenge of cheap i…

I thank the Minister of State for being here to address the question of a national office on artificial intelligence. It is very much within her brief. I welcome the commitments she has made to open a national office on artificial intelligence, establish an AI observatory in order that we will have evidence-based research on the social and economic impact and potential of and the opportunities presented by AI and host an AI summit during the course of Ireland's EU Presidency in the second half of next year. The Min…

I thank the Minister of State very much. I very much welcome the fact that the general scheme is going to be coming before Government, that we will see legislation in place to underpin this office by next summer and that the office will be in place by August 2026. As the Minister of State knows, resourcing is critical to this. During debate on the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, the Minister of State and I talked about Coimisiún na Meán and ensuring that it was adequately resourced. I am not just talking ab…

I welcome that the Minister of State is here to take this debate. However, why are we having statements on this issue and not a debate on the legislation? During my time in the Seanad when we debated the legislation on the prohibition of sales to under-18s, there was promise at that time that we would move on legislation to deal with the issue of flavoured nicotine-inhaling products and that we would deal with some of the marketing issues, yet it has not happened. I really have to ask the question: why are we havin…

I know the Minister of State is personally invested in improving the school transport system. It should be acknowledged that we have seen a significant increase in the number of school transport places. I want to put on record my thanks to officials in the Department, to people in Bus Éireann and to the bus companies and drivers around the country who carry tens of thousands of children to school every day. The Minister of State will appreciate it is not from those that we are hearing the complaints. The issues com…

Will the Minister of State provide an update on the private wires policy?

The Minister of State can speak off the cuff.

In support of my colleague Deputy Ó Cearúil, I think we need to explore nuclear as a potential option. We are all very supportive, for instance, of the Celtic interconnector between Ireland and France, where there is the possibility that we will be obtaining some of our energy from France. Last year, up to 68% of all of France's energy was generated by nuclear power. If we acquire energy from Scotland, similarly, some of that is going to be generated by nuclear. The debate on nuclear has moved on. I totally underst…

This relates to the question of energy demand and how we meet it and the importance of progressing as quickly as possible with the private wires policy and indeed the private wires Bill. I welcome the commitment in July by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, that he is going to progress on this. However, it is now of the essence that we move quickly. He did say it would be priority legislation. I hope the Minister of State can indicate a timeframe to the House today because we know about the demands for energy an…

The Minister of State knows how urgent this is. I am particularly thinking in terms of industrial demand and whether we can connect solar farms or wind farms into private industry or on the commercial side. In the development of our digital infrastructure, including data centres, it is critical that we move on this. I even suggest this in regard to housing because electricity supply is becoming a problem. A developer in my constituency who is ready to build homes came to me recently and said the only thing holding …

It is critical. When we have a number of companies that are ready to build that infrastructure, we need to facilitate them. We do not need them to be held up in the planning process for long periods. We need that private infrastructure to complement the State infrastructure as soon as possible.

Along with others, I congratulate the Minister of State on her recent wedding and wish her every success. I appreciate her being here to take this debate this evening. We are talking about the role of amateur theatre and musicals right around the State in all of our constituencies. In terms of the numbers who are actually involved in amateur theatre and musicals, it is estimated that after the GAA, it is the largest voluntary movement in the country. Think of the people who are involved, both onstage and behind the…