I thank the Minister of State and Deputy O'Rourke for their contributions on the report. I will not go back into the detail but I will attempt to address some of the comments that were made. We have to distinguish between what we are trying to do in the short term, the medium term and the long term. In the long term, the goal is to retrofit all of our housing stock so that people will live in the energy future I have been talking about. Deputy O'Rourke made reference to that timeframe of 200 years. We accept that 2…

Waterford is unique among the five cities in Ireland for not having a stand-alone university. Other cities have a university and a technological university. The reality is SETU, or WIT as it was, has had to play that role within the region. We made a promise to the people of Waterford, and the wider south east, that SETU will be a university of scale and of substance. We had a very positive decision about the veterinary course that was announced recently. We are still awaiting a decision about the pharmacy course, …

I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Steven Matthews. Under this Government we have seen significant funding put into childcare, particularly through the core funding model. What is the number of childcare services that have signed a core funding contract for the coming programme year, the number of partner services that have withdrawn in each programme year to date, and could the Minister make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister. That movement towards fair pay for the work being performed in these childcare settings is really important. We know one of the real issues is the retention of staff and a lot of that relates to pay grades and people moving on to some place where they can essentially afford their mortgage or whatever it is in their next stage. Where do the gaps still persist? The core funding model has been successful and 90% of services have opted into it. Is there an analysis of the characteristics of those …

I thank the Minister for his recent visit to the Waterford Childcare Centre, which is a really outstanding example in my constituency of that kind of community-owned and operated childcare model. There have been indications from the Minister and from other senior figures within the Government that we should look towards public provision as well. That begs the next question of how we see those pieces of the jigsaw come together where we will get community childcare facilities, for-profit facilities, which will remai…

Deputy Boyd Barrett is sharing time with Deputy Barry.

I want the Deputy to be careful with his language when speaking about prosecutions unless charges have been-----

The Deputy should confine himself to the subject on-----

Similarly, that comment about robbing the State is something the Deputy should consider withdrawing.

It is an open charge.

I would ask the Deputy to confine yourself to matters within the budget.

I would ask the Deputy to be careful about his language.

You are insinuating that is robbery.

I do not see a member of the Government-----

Moving to the Independent Group, Deputies Harkin and Connolly are sharing time.

Seanad Éireann has passed the Motor Insurance Insolvency Compensation Bill 2024 without amendment.

I want to ask the Minister of State about the marine protected areas legislation. It is key unfinished work that we have in front of us as a Government. I would like to see it completed, not just from the point of view of the environmental NGOs, which are looking for progress on this, as is anybody with an interest in the marine, but, also, as we are developing our offshore wind, it is critically important that the jewels in the crown of our offshore environment are protected in that context. I would like an update…

I thank the Minister of State. We are great friends, both inside and outside this Chamber, so I hope he does not mind if I put the boot in a little on this. That was not really much of an answer. The clock is ticking on this Government, whether we are talking about November, December, Valentine's Day, or March 2025. There is not a great deal of time and this is key legislation. Under those programme for Government commitments, we have seen an expansion of marine protected areas. We are on course for that 10% within…

We have a range of competing interests that are looking at our offshore area. It should be mentioned that we do not have a senior Minister for the marine even though nine tenths of our actual territorial area is the marine. We do not want a Klondike situation here. We have huge growth in offshore renewables, which is welcome. We have that designated maritime area plan, DMAP, process, which has been good, and the creation of the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA. These are important steps, but we need to make…

I will slightly recast the Topical Issue that I submitted, which was not to deal with school bus transport in west Waterford. It was specifically on a school transport issue arising between Ardmore and Dungarvan. If the Minister of State does not know that part of the world well, I remind him that Ardmore is the seat of St. Declan, who converted the Déise tribe to Christianity, which was how the name "the Déise" came to be synonymous with County Waterford, including this part of the county. Ardmore is 23 km from Du…