I agree wholeheartedly with the Deputy's closing remark. I mentioned in my opening statement that the Minister met senior officials from the HSE yesterday to discuss the issues in University Hospital Limerick and the immediate responses required to address the pressures being faced by all 29 emergency departments. The Minister was updated on the progress of the University Hospital Limerick expert team review and the response to the HIQA report. He was also informed that the HSE's performance management improvement …

Tairgim leasú 1: I move amendment No. 1: "To delete the word 'now' and add at the end of the motion the words 'on 30th June, 2023'.".

I am pleased to address the Dáil on the Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Vote at 16) Bill 2021, as brought forward by Deputy Pringle. This presents an opportunity to discuss the age at which persons should be entitled to vote in elections and referendums in Ireland. This Bill proposes to amend Article 16 of the Constitution to lower the age at which persons would be entitled to vote in Dáil Éireann elections from 18 years of age to 16 years. This amendment to reduce the voting age in Dáil electi…

I thank everyone who contributed. I do not want the young people either in the Public Gallery or watching online to be despondent from this debate; quite the opposite. As Deputy Nash said, this will progress in a positive way. On timing, I will task the commission to look at this piece of work very early on so that we can prepare for our next electoral event, which will be the 2024 local and European elections and can make an informed decision on it. It is very important that we collate all the research. In thejour…

I join Members in paying tribute to Senator Norris. It is a great privilege to be here to take this Bill this afternoon and to be present for the unveiling of the beautiful portrait of the Senator. He is an absolute hero of mine, for many reasons, heritage being one of them. I will give a response to the contributions and then the departmental spiel on it in a moment. I found an article entitled "David Norris on 40 years of saving North Great George’s Street". It is reflected in the points made about Mountjoy Squar…

They are very welcome to the Seanad. It is great to have them here and I hope they enjoy their day.

I welcome the pupils in the Gallery. I am not sure what school they are in but they all very welcome to the Seanad Chamber. It is fantastic to have schools visit these Houses. I thank Senator Boyhan for his question and for citing the example of Kilkenny. He is correct. It is a very good example but we always do things well in Kilkenny, as he would know well. Rural nodes are the lowest tier in the settlement hierarchy and comprise a cluster of developments where public wastewater and-or public water infrastructure …

There has been significant investment by the Government in Irish Water and much of that will, excuse the pun, trickle down into local rural communities. We see it as being vitally important that small-scale water and wastewater treatment plants are upgraded to meet the needs of local rural areas. The funding is directed through local authorities. They are responsible for the local road infrastructure, lighting etc. in these rural nodes we are discussing. That prioritisation falls back on to local elected members, w…

I move: That, pursuant to Standing Order 187, it be an instruction to the Committee to which the Electoral Reform Bill 2022 may be recommitted in respect of certain amendments, that it has power to make amendments to the Bill which are outside the scope of the existing provisions of the Bill, in relation to the insertion of a new Part 8 and amendments to the long title for the purpose of allowing for political parties to apply to the District Court for a license to promote periodic lotteries for the purposes of fun…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 11, line 5, to delete “the Electoral Commission” and substitute “ An Coimisiún Toghcháin ”. These amendments relate to the Irish language and to the commission itself. I thank the committee members for their suggestions and contributions on Committee Stage. I have reflected on the views expressed in tabling these amendments, which are centred on two themes. First, amendments Nos. 1 and 8 relate to the title of the commission. I have tabled those amendments to provide that the commiss…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 12, line 1, to delete “accounts;” and substitute “accounts; to provide for the holding of fundraising lotteries by political parties;”. In my concluding remarks on Committee Stage, I signalled that consideration would be given to bringing forward an amendment to the Bill on Report Stage to allow political parties to apply for a lottery licence in support of their fundraising activities. The insertion of a new section 172 into the Bill, the consequential amendments to the Bill’s Long …

We are losing sight of the core premise of the entire Bill in terms of its potential role to strengthen our democracy and improve accountability and transparency in our political system. That is what the Bill is about. That is what establishing the electoral commission is about. As the Ceann Comhairle stated, I am not going to get into any issues in respect of any political party. What this amendment does is for all political parties to be able to participate in our electoral system and our political process. In re…

I have no comment.

I have no comment to make and there are no further speakers.

I am coming to this debate from the last session. The whole point of substitute consent is to seek regularisation and to protect the environment. It is a key point that the developer in a parallel application must show bona fides. The substitute consent application is assessed as per the section 177K criteria for exceptionality. I hope that clarifies the matter. The Senator mentioned she might bring some other elements on Report Stage so I wanted to give that clarification.

Before I come back in on the scripted response, I will raise a couple of quick points. Senator McDowell is always a rock of sense and he always makes sensible points. Specifically, I will not make any reference to the Derrybrien case particularly. It is subject to an ongoing planning enforcement and I am not going to give any feedback specifically in relation to it. I will just say that the Irish State is engaging separately on it with the European Commission regarding the fines. I think we had somewhat conflicting…

To clarify, in terms of section 13, Senator Higgins has withdrawn amendment No. 9.

I am sure Senator McDowell will appreciate that I cannot comment on a specific area. Again, a substitute consent is an application for consent by a developer and a developer cannot be forced to launch a subsequent consent application.

The Senator's opposition to this section concerns a technical drafting amendment in respect of remedial environmental impact statements as a result of the substantive changes being made by the Bill. I cannot accept the Senator's opposition to this group of amendments, which comprise technical amendments that are necessary as a result of the repeal of section 177D and ancillary provisions relating to a decision of the board on whether to grant leave to apply for substitute consent. The removal of the leave to apply …

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I am very familiar with the beautiful town of Newbridge. As the Senator knows, my mother is from Morristown. The outgoing Italian ambassador, Mr. Paolo Serpi, is in the Gallery and I wish him well. My city of Kilkenny is twinned with Formigine, a city in northern Italy. The ambassador has had a fantastic tenure here and I wish him well in his future appointments. The urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, is one of four funds established under the National Develo…