I thank the Minister of State for bringing this legislation to the House. I also thank the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage for taking the sensible approach of waiving pre-legislative scrutiny to allow this Bill to progress quickly so that funding for housing can be increased to over €13 billion, which is critically important. This Government has made housing a top priority, as did the previous Government. While we can all quote statistics, one statistic that is really important …

I thank the Taoiseach for coming here today and sharing his thoughts with us. I also thank him for the work he is doing and the leadership he is providing, not just in this House or in this country, but right around the world. We are very proud of his leadership and the way he expresses Ireland's values in terms of equality, freedom and democracy. We would all be greatly appreciative if he could keep that up. The Taoiseach appointed me as spokesperson for local government, Dublin and heritage. The local democracy t…

I thank the Minister for his engagement with us on the Bill. Before I speak to my amendment, I acknowledge the securing by him and his Department of more than €6 billion in the budget this week. That significant amount of public funds will go towards ensuring our State is safer and that justice is served for all our citizens. Well done. It is a big achievement and it should be acknowledged. The Minister has made a firm commitment to increase Garda numbers and this funding will provide for up to 1,500 extra gardaí. …

I thank the Minister for his reply and his consideration of the amendments before him. I really appreciate the thought he is giving to the real-life experience of the potential application of these laws in the retail space. I hear him and I agree with him when he says that spurious allegations should be challenged. They should be robustly challenged and good name should be defended. Unfortunately, there is a dynamic in this retail space, particularly for small retailers. They are independent. They are by definition…

Today marks the second anniversary of the horrendous and brutal attack by Hamas on the innocent attendees at the Nova music festival. It resulted in more than 1,200 people losing their lives and more than 250 people being taken hostage. Since then, more than 66,000 or 67,000 Palestinians have been murdered. The genocide, the famine and the horrendous war that have ensued defy words and defy description. On the anniversary, I want us to think of all those who have been hurt, all those who have lost loved ones and al…

I thank the Minister of State for being here for this important debate. An ounce of action is worth a tonne of talk and no amount of talking, emotion or wishing things to be otherwise is going to change anything in Gaza. The horrors defy description. They defy our words. It truly is a failure of humanity in its rawest form. To think about it is to think of a post-apocalyptic environment. We all share the disgust and horror. I, of course, commend the Government, the Opposition and everybody in our country who has us…

I would like to join the Cathaoirleach and the Leader in congratulating Martin Hughes on his new appointment and welcoming him to the Seanad. We look forward to working with and supporting him as he supports us to do our job and serve the country. I also want to congratulate and thank Martin Groves and Bridget. They were exemplary public servants and we were blessed with their talents, energy and expertise. They guided us exceptionally well. The 80th General Assembly of the UN is taking place this week in New York.…

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for coming to the House this morning. My Commencement matter this morning calls for the Minister for Finance to make a statement on the proposal from Dublin City Council for the introduction of a tourist bed tax and for the Minister to make a statement on his Department's proposals to legislate to give local authorities revenue-raising powers. The Minister of State will be aware that the introduction of a bed tax, accommodation tax or tourism tax - there are many ways i…

I appreciate the Minister of State's response and that this matter falls to the Minister for local government. I will take up the issue with the local democracy task force. I am the Fianna Fáil spokesperson for local government and I look forward to engaging with the task force. One point that is very clear from the Minister of State's reply is that no action will be taken by the Department of Finance on the introduction of new revenue-raising powers for local authorities before the local democracy task force repor…

I mean for budgetary purposes.

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I join in the welcome to our distinguished guests. We stand in solidarity with the victims and families of the genocide in Srebrenica and we renew our call for an end to the genocide in Gaza. On domestic matters, I welcome the announcement by the Minister for justice of his intention to bring a memorandum to Cabinet next week, on 15 July, regarding the personal injuries guidelines. I am sure his communication yesterday will be welcomed and not only by other Members of the House. …

I thank the Acting Chair for allowing me some time. I appreciate the Minister is under time pressures. Like the other Senators, I greatly appreciate his attendance in the House. He is affording us strong attention and I hope the contributions from the Senators merit that. Many of the other Senators spoke in detail about the Bill. I will focus my comments on an issue that has been aired by others, that is, the effect of defamation crimes on retail. I could talk at length about the cause of defamation, other citizens…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I welcome and thank the Irish Postmasters' Union and the postmasters. Some postmasters are in the House this evening but many more are in their post offices. They are in more than 850 communities throughout the country. I know they are very important in Donegal and they are just as important in Dublin. The post office is the trusted face of the State in our communities. I acknowledge and very much welcome the Minister of State reaffirming the Government's commi…

I second the proposal from the Sinn Féin Senator for a debate on the GPO. It is an incredibly important building and important site in the history of our State. The disinformation and untruths being put out by Sinn Féin about the plans for the GPO are alarming. We heard them repeated in this House again today. I do not know whether Senator Conor Murphy has been down to the GPO, but it has been operating as offices, retail and a commercial facility for decades, for more than a century in fact.

It is important then that Sinn Féin stop this dangerous false narrative that somehow there is a plan to sell it off to private enterprise. There is absolutely no plan. In fact, the responsible Minister confirmed that not once, but twice and maybe three times, last week on the record of the Dáil. Sinn Féin has posters up on the main streets of our capital city that say "Save the GPO". It has an online petition - I wonder what it is using that for - asking people to sign to fight to save the GPO. The GPO is not under…

-----so every future generation can be aware of our history.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House today to engage with us on this really important issue. I wish her well in her role as Minister of State with responsibility for drugs policy. I am very confident that she will be an excellent Minister of State and will make her mark in this Department because I know she is a very human individual and she always looks at the human. She looks beyond the policy and the statistics and at the human experience. Drugs affect far too many of our citizens. Senator Coste…

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I too welcome the visitors from Ringsend. It is opportune that the Minister would take this Commencement matter while his constituents are in the House. Ladies, you are most welcome. This morning I ask that the Minister update the House on the community safety partnerships that are due to be rolled out in the 31 local authorities. In the previous Oireachtas term, the Minister for Justice brought through the House the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024. I and my colleagues in Fianna Fáil supported that…

It is encouraging to hear of the efficiency with which the Minister has progressed the regulations and the preparations in train in the local authorities. I welcome the fact there will be five in the city and, to reflect its growing population and expanding demographic, two in Fingal. I echo the Minister's comments on local councillors. They get elected because they know the people they represent and the local area. They care about it. They put themselves forward, primarily in a voluntary capacity, motivated by pri…