The south and east coasts will be the next step in terms of unlocking offshore renewables. Hopefully with the development of floating offshore technology the west coast will begin to open up. There is no two ways about it; these projects will have a visual impact. There are people in my community, just as there are people in the communities of the Minister and of Deputy Matthews, who are legitimately concerned about the visual impact and concerned about other environmental impacts. I realise there is an onus on the…

I thank the Minister. He is speaking about overreaching national targets, and of course we must think about these, particularly in the context of the carbon budgets passed last night. There is a flip side of the coin which is not strictly related but is very closely related. Last night there was a public meeting in Clonea Power, County Waterford. A large group of local residents came together to voice their concerns about a very large solar project in the region of 145 acres. I could not be at the meeting but I hav…

I too welcome the Bill. It is a much slighter document than the Electoral Reform Bill the House just dealt with, but it is no less impactful for that. Its impact will be felt most by those who need it most. As the Tánaiste noted in his opening remarks, it creates a new right here in Ireland, one that is long overdue. It is still a case of playing catch-up. As the Tánaiste acknowledged, Ireland is one of the few jurisdictions that does not yet have this right enshrined in law. However, the Bill is a significant step…

I ran my first marathon in 2009, which is many years and unfortunately many kilos ago. That might not-----

It was not as funny as that. That might not seem in any way germane to what we are discussing, but I learned a really important lesson that day. I learned what happened when human excuses meet immutable, external realities. I bargained in my training. I told myself I was too tired or busy that day or that I probably had enough done and would catch it up later. I took my excuses out onto the roads of Dublin on an October bank holiday weekend and found out by mile 21 that the road just did not care what excuses I had…

I will not sing it; I will spare Deputy McGrath. It reminds me of my responsibilities in this House, however. Deputy McGrath will know the song; he might join in. It goes: Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don’t stand in the doorway Don’t block up the hall [ ... ] The battle outside ragin’ Will soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin' The times and the climate are changing. It is past time to act. Let us heed the call, as Mr. Zimmerman asked, and support the adop…

That is personal commentary.

I will pick up where Deputy Nash left off and congratulate the Minister on this Bill, which is a significant and overdue piece of work. I want to dwell briefly on something we take for granted, which is just how lucky we are to live in a parliamentary democracy. If one reckons across the whole of human history or even geographically, statistically one is very unlikely to have lived within a democracy of any kind and certainly not within a democracy as strong and as flourishing as this one. It is worth mentioning th…

It certainly is an important issue, but the clock is against us.

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37 and the name of the Member in each case: (1) Deputy Emer Higgins - to discuss expanding school capacity to accommodate Ukrainian children and providing access to a centralised register; (2) Deputy Michael McNamara - to discuss the threat to the continuation of the Spancilhill Fair after four centuries; (3) Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill - to discuss the ongoing water quality issues in Dublin Bay w…

I thank the Minister.

I thank the Minister.

Whatever about the concerns of the islanders, the poor Chair looking at the clock is concerned.

I thank the Minister and Deputy. Our time for this question has elapsed.

I will return to Question No. 73; we are travelling backwards. I remind Deputies that in the event of substitutions, an email should be sent to the office of the Ceann Comhairle to update the House on it. Question No. 73 was originally in the name of Deputy Gould but it will be put by Deputy Ó Laoghaire.

Deputy Colm Burke wishes to come in on this as well.

I will begin by referencing the Taoiseach's opening remarks, which addressed the wider global context. In the face of the humanitarian tragedy playing out in front of us, there is a need in both the short term and longer term to have a look at the global systems that underpin much of this conflict, including with regard to energy security and our reliance on fossil fuels, which needs to be rethought and unpicked for a range of reasons. We also need to consider downstream products, even with regard to the production…

I attended a Wellbeing Economy Alliance, WEALL, event at the weekend. A comment made by Dr. Peter Doran of Queen's University Belfast stuck with me. He said the most successful ideologies are invisible. Sometimes when our friends across the House are successful, they are successful in making visible the ideology that is often invisible to us, namely, the neo-capitalist model. They are absolutely on the money on that.

It is all right. I will send the Deputy some membership forms. The transfer season might be open soon. The circular economy Bill moves in the right direction. It contains measures which move us away from the idea of take, make, waste, which follows a slavish idea of GDP and economic throughput as being the good we always chase after. It is moving us towards a more circular economy model. It will fit well with the move towards well-being budgeting. The two things will sit well together and it is to be hoped we will …

I will give the Taoiseach a quick geography lesson. Kerry, Carlow, Wicklow, Dublin, Sligo and the Mourne Mountains are locations where firefighters were called out to tackle wildfires in the past couple of weeks. It is the time of year when we see a spate of upland burnings, even though the legal season ends on 1 March. There have been none, thankfully, so far in the Comeraghs in my county of Waterford. I recognise and accept there is a distinction between the burning of agricultural waste and upland burning, but w…