Will the Deputy follow with a question?

We are well over time, Minister.

Question No. 6 is grouped with a number of other questions. I advise Deputies that if the discussion on this group of questions has not concluded after 18 and a half minutes, I will draw it to a conclusion at that point.

Deputy Pearse Doherty wishes to come in on this issue. I understand that is at my discretion. I call Deputy Doherty.

Thank you, Minister.

Last month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change launched its landmark report setting out in clear terms the urgent need for radical climate action. It did so against the backdrop of the consequences of a climate-altered world being played out in real time, with heat records shattered in Italy, Canada and Northern Ireland, with Hurricane Ida crashing into the Louisiana coast and subsequently flooding the New York subway system, with devastating floods sweeping through northern Europe and with wildfires ragi…

Is there scope to expand the community enhancement scheme to offer financial support to communities that wish to renovate community centres or, potentially, construct new ones?

I thank the Minister of State for the response. He has touched on the fact that there are two issues at play. First, it is a matter of filling in the gaps where there may be no community centres. Tramore is peculiar in this regard. It has a community of some 12,000 people, yet it does not have a community centre to serve it. It does not really have a village hall or shared community space to facilitate a large-scale sharing of views, small theatre groups and so on. The second issue is that running a community centr…

I thank the Minister of State. A dedicated funding source would be one of several steps in the right direction. Many communities have to develop their community facilities in dribs and drabs, and there are small groups of volunteers chasing every funding source available. We should bring the strands together and help put the facilities into the heart of the communities. In my home town, Tramore, there is a significant site for sale. We could lose it to residential use unless it is taken on board. It was formerly a …

Deputy, can I redirect you to the amendment?

I understand that Deputies Canney, Tóibín and Verona Murphy are sharing time.

The programme for Government contains a commitment under the mission of reforming and reimagining public life to establish a unit within the Department of the Taoiseach to co-ordinate social dialogue. The programme for Government states that the unit will "create new models of sectoral engagement". That task of reforming and reimagining public life is a central and key challenge for the Government. It could be taken for granted or overlooked but we have seen in other European countries that without constant nurture…

I was momentarily confused when Deputy Gannon mentioned neoliberal terminology and referenced "service providers" and "customers", so I had a quick check through the Bill and saw that neither of those terms is used within it. To confirm, I believe we are discussing the same thing. I thank the Minister. Although the Bill dates from the previous Government, the pandemic has made us look afresh at the idea of what schools are. They are much more than the four walls of the classroom or the built environment, although t…

Deputy Fitzpatrick is sharing time with Deputy Tóibín.

I call Deputy Guirke, who is sharing time with Deputies Mythen and Ó Broin.

In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 7 July 2021.

I regret it is not the Minister for Transport who I am addressing and that it is to be dealt with by the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, as I know transport is not part of his departmental brief. In one sense, however, it is very positive because I know he is a regular visitor to Tramore and he knows the lay of the land in the south east as well as anybody in this House. I want to share with the Minister of State some of the Bus Éireann services that were disrupted in the south east, out of Waterford in particula…

I thank the Minister of State for his answer. I do not envy him. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, who spoke before him had an answer that was not an answer, but she was able to elaborate on it because she is a Minister of State at that Department. I am afraid that the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, has been handed an answer that is not an answer but it is not his Department. To say that some of the services were cancelled due to increased traffic in June, when schools are finished and the traffic is light…

The social contract is a basic underpinning of our society, along with the hope and expectation that things will get better, that the lives we leave to our children will be better than the ones we have, and that the freedoms and qualities of life that we enjoy are going to be expanded and improved upon. How terrifying it must be to live in a time and in a country where that contract is broken, where there is an erosion of those liberties, and where one observes things going from bad to worse. It might be somewhat g…

Deputy Crowe is sharing with Deputy Flaherty.