A document on well-being measures is progressing through the Cabinet. It is based closely on the OECD Better Life Index. One of the factors measured is education. One of the other things measured in the OECD framework is the idea of different forms of capital and of human capital being one of them. Investing in education is investing in people and in society. I went to college at the same time as Deputies Ó Ríordáin and O'Reilly. I benefited from those structures as well. Much of the economic jump forward we experi…

I thank Deputy Duffy for agreeing to share time with me. I will start with a nod to Waterford because it is mentioned throughout the report. The report is excellent and should be important if its recommendations are implemented. I hope it will become important. Waterford is rightly mentioned in that it has led the way under the repair-and-lease scheme. This features mainly in our urban centres, precisely to whose heart there is a need to bring people. Waterford has also led the way with high-quality public-realm pr…

Funnily enough, this is what it sounds like when the Green Party talk among themselves. We bring a different lens to issues of this kind. We have made a significant contribution in this Government to reimagining how we approach the issue of housing. We take an ecological approach or a systems-based approach where we see these things as they knit themselves together. I hope we are bringing an element of policy coherence when we discuss housing. It is not just housing alone, and it is also the Town Centre First polic…

If we leave property out of that equation, it leaves a huge lacuna. Nonetheless, I am not convinced that the local property tax as currently constituted does all of the jobs that we need it to do. The taxes that are proposed in this report - the derelict sites tax and the vacant properties tax - are perhaps supplemental but I am not sure it is the direction we should actually be going. We have long been arguing for a site valuation tax, which would be a much more complete and powerful tool in taxing wealth, but als…

Ba mhaith liom ceist a chur ar an Aire maidir leis an mBille um Athchóiriú Toghcháin, 2022, atá ag dul tríd an Oireachtas faoi láthair. Luaigh mé laigí sa Bhille sin nuair a labhair mé faoi ar an Dara Céim, sé sin, nach bhfuil sé láidir go leor, mar a sheasann sé, maidir leis an nGaeilge agus an Ghaeltacht. An bhfuil an tAire tar éis labhairt le daoine san earnáil Ghaeilge faoi na laigí sa Bhille? An bhfuil sé ar intinn aige leasuithe a thabhairt isteach ar Chéim an Choiste chun an ghné seo den Bhille a neartú?

We move now to Question No. 9, which is in the name of Deputy Lawless.

It was not communicated to me that the Deputy intended to do so, but I will allow it.

The Deputy is well over time with his response.

I thank the Minister of State. We have spent a significant amount of time on this question.

We have spent a large amount of time on questions on this issue this morning.

The Deputy has exhausted his interventions.

That is not as I understand it.

Can I clarify-----

I am prepared to give the Deputy another minute. The Deputy has four interventions, but will he console himself with one additional minute?

I hope to reach two further questions if Deputy Durkan promises to be brief.

I am hoping, as I indicated, to reach two more questions. If Members could be economical in their use of time, I would appreciate it.

I will be concluding the session at 10.30 a.m. but I will allow Deputy Naughten to put his question.

I am apt to quoting song lyrics in this house. Today, an obvious one leaps out as a good fit, which is Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi". It goes, "Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone." We cannot continue to make these lyrics true. We cannot allow or precipitate the collapse of the biosphere that has sustained, shaped and nurtured us as a species and pave paradise to put up a parking lot. We need to normalise the protection of our natural world. We cannot look back and lame…

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate. It is a conversation we will need to rehearse over and again in the coming years and decades. A just transition has at its core the principle of solidarity so that, as we make changes to our economy and society in response to the existential implications of climate change and biodiversity breakdown, we protect our most vulnerable. That must be in terms of both climate mitigation and climate adaptation to include those impacted by the structural changes…

The Minister referenced employment laws. Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act 1998 states that certain institutions, including schools, should not be taken to discriminate against a person if their decision is made in order to maintain the religious ethos of the institution. I know that is still felt in staffrooms. I have taught with people who have felt like they had to obscure their sexual identity for reasons that fall under that provision. We know that over 90% of our primary schools, in particular, are ba…