I will be very brief. It is very welcome that that has been launched today. However, there is still a need for that screening process. I have raised the issue of hedgerows with the Minister of State again and again. People need to exceed 500 m before that screening process kicks in. What we are worried about is that, over the consultation period, people will take advantage of what will most likely be more lax regulations in the interim. We do not want to see a rash of hedge clearing or scrub clearance - those semi-…

The Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss reported at the beginning of last month, having been convened in May 2022 in line with a programme for Government commitment. Over the course of seven months and under the direction of their chair, Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, the 99 citizens heard, weighed and considered the advice of experts, both in terms of where we are, and more importantly, where we need to go. After that careful deliberation, the citizens' assembly delivered 159 clear recommendations and in its f…

There are 12 Deputies to contribute on this grouping and we only have 11 and a half minutes, so I ask them to keep their contributions as succinct as possible to leave time for the Taoiseach to reply.

The Taoiseach is over time.

The Taoiseach is well over time.

We will face the same challenge with the next group of questions.

We are already very much against the clock on the next questions as well.

If Members are happy we will have to be very brief with the final round of questioning. Do Members agree to afford the Taoiseach another two minutes? Agreed.

I ask Members to be very brief and to the point on this round.

The Minister will be aware of the pre-legislative scrutiny of the research and innovation Bill, which is before the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science at the moment. This Bill has been broadly welcomed across the sector. We in this country know the importance of research and innovation. We have new players now within the tertiary education system and that is our technological universities. However, they are curtailed in their participation in research both d…

We recently had a public call for submissions on Ireland's fourth open government national action plan under four thematic areas: transparency and accountability in public office; citizen decision-making; public access to Government data; and strengthening public trust in Government. I want to ask about the follow-up steps we are taking, how we will implement those and when we are likely to see an action plan issue from the end of that process.

I mention the OECD better life initiative, which closely shadows what our well-being indices will look like here. Under that initiative it is the civic engagement score that we rank lowest on. For some reason Irish people feel quite distant from their Government and I suspect that is to do with the under-empowering of local government for a number of years. That needs to be remediated, particularly when we look at the societal challenges we are facing. We need to be able to better engage with the populace to better…

The Minister of State specifically referred to the citizens' assemblies and I was going to reference them. That is a great model of participative and deliberative democracy but we need to see that transformed into action. We need to have some sort of process whereby recommendations of citizens' assemblies are put in place. We ask these 99 citizens to give of their time and they generally produce outstanding recommendations, but we need to have a way of making sure those do not sit on the shelf. Those other traditio…

That is understood. President Joe Biden, who visited us last month, is famous for saying, "Don't tell me what you ... [care about]. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you ... [care about]." That very much applies to the ongoing work on the well-being framework in the Department. It is an important piece of work in breaking out of that siloed thinking we see inhibiting progress across Departments. Will a report on the well-being framework be included in the summer economic statement later this year so we ca…

The Minister of State referenced that we will integrate the well-being framework into key points in the budgetary process. The logical key point in the budgetary process is the summer economic statement, which really begins to set out the parameters for the following budget in October. I would like an explicit statement based on the well-being framework to be included in that process.

Fillfidh mé anois ar Chathaoirleach an chomhchoiste chun deireadh a chur leis an díospóireacht.

The Minister, Deputy Harris, informed me on my way into the Chamber that I might be at least partially to blame for this debate because I asked for it during oral questions in the Chamber earlier this year. If I am partially to blame, I am happy to bear that blame because this is a valuable debate to have, especially at the start of the European Year of Skills and in light of the launch of the OECD report yesterday, which, I have to admit, somewhat passed me by. I had to go back and have the executive summary print…

Does Deputy Shortall want to come in with another word on this?

Amendment No. 2 in the name of Deputy Shortall arises out of committee proceedings.

I think the Minister was concluding.