The difficulty is that a predecessor of the Minister's agreed at European Council level to opening the negotiating mandate. It was at that point that the original sin in respect of Mercosur was committed because, since then, we have been on the back foot. Even now, as the Minister rightly outlines, he has to work with others across the European Union. There is a very real threat his voice will be a minority one and, because of the qualified majority voting rules, he will not be in a position to block this. There ha…

I would love to hear an argument being put forward by an agriculture Minister anywhere that would suggest that the Mercosur trade agreement would benefit farmers in any part of Europe. This is more about auto parts and the car industry rather than anything else. In terms of what it means for Ireland, this allows Mercosur states, which do not adhere to anywhere near the same level of regulations and restrictions with which our farmers must comply, to import 100,000 tonnes of additional beef into our market. We know …

In respect of afforestation rates and the amount of land that has been afforested in the years 2020 to 2024 and to date in 2025, what is the target for this year and how does the Minister of State intend to increase substantially the level of afforestation in line with Government commitments?

The Minister of State can be absolutely assured he will have my support if he implements a policy and a strategy that actually deliver on the ambition that is required. The previous Government set a target for 8,000 ha per annum over the lifetime of the Government. It did not come close. It did not even reach half that in any single year, despite the fact that we had a Green Party Minister telling us it was a priority. The Minister of State and I were on this side of the Chamber lambasting the target of 8,000 ha an…

Of course it is.

Yes.

I can say it is better this year compared with the worst year ever on record. I absolutely welcome that things are not further deteriorating but we are basically back to where we were in 2020 in terms of afforestation rates. My question and my appeal to the Minister of State is to be ambitious and not just set a target which should be set, but meet it and work with members of the Opposition. Let the Minister of State not fall for the old trap of his predecessors and think that he knows everything just because he is…

The Minister may know that I introduced a Bill to the House in June, entitled the Victims of Sexual Violence Civil Protection Orders Bill. It was drafted by my office in response to discussions we held with a number of victims and survivors of sexual violence, who made it clear to me that having a provision to protect them after the release of the perpetrator of their attack would have a profound positive impact. Is the Minister inclined to support the Bill when it comes before the House?

While I welcome the statement by the Minister that he will at least consider the legislation, I can tell him, from speaking to victims and survivors with real-life experience, that there is a legislative gap in place. What this means in reality is that for many survivors of sexual violence their fear intensifies the longer the sentence of the person convicted of the offence goes on. They fear that on the release of the perpetrator they could end up having an encounter. They have told me about the impact this has on…

The Minister is on the record as acknowledging the trauma often involved for victims and survivors going through the judicial process in the first place. The system essentially makes it necessary for them to go through it again to seek a protection order on the release of the perpetrator. This is why this legislation allows the victim and the State to put in place the protections at a much earlier stage. We have had many discussions on this. The committee was dealing with a miscellaneous provisions Bill last week a…

The Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report contains a chapter on asylum accommodation that details a litany of issues in respect of the management of contracts for IPAS accommodation. As the Minister of State will know, the State is due to spent approximately €1.2 billion on such accommodation this year. The report is what I would call a damning indictment in terms of due diligence and cost controls. Will the Government now initiate a thorough review of how public money has been spent on IPAS accommodation…

That was a long way of saying the Government does not plan to carry out a full review of every single contract. A full review is required. As the Minister of State rightly said, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report deals only with a sample of contracts. From this, it has found that pre-contract due diligence records were significantly incomplete. In more than a third of the cases examined, invoice rates were not clear and could not be verified as signed contracts were not available. There was clear evidence…

None of that is good enough. Every single week, we hear about another scandal in respect of an IPAS contract. Huge sums of money were paid to people with no track record and there is no explanation as to why this was the case. We do not get these revelations from the Minister of State’s Department, by the way; it is usually journalists who give us information that is in the public interest and that we as a House should have control over. Take, for example, the most recent issue, that of Ryevale House in County Kild…

How is the Ryevale House issue arising now?

A number of weeks ago I raised with the Minister the Government's approach to stamp 2 residency permits in respect of student visas as they are known and whether there are any plans for the Government to examine these types of residency permits as part of the overall management of migration. In particular, given the pressures on housing and on student accommodation, is it the Government's intention to introduce measures to reduce the number of stamp 2 visas granted annually?

Of course international students are an important part of the dynamic within our third level sector. However, as with all areas there needs to be management of it and it seems to me there is none at the moment. The number of these stamp 2 residency permissions more than doubled between 2021 and 2024, with more than 60,000 of them granted. Then there are anomalies in the system. According to the Economic and Social Research Institute's, ESRI's, most recent report on migration and asylum, 45% of first residency permi…

Absolutely, that point is not in dispute. That is why these visa allocations should be based on educational and societal benefits. I fear that in many cases the international students are being used to make up for the funding shortfall in third level institutions. They are seen as a mechanism by which money can be made - money which the universities are starved of. Second, there is this new private sector, namely English language schools with very high proportions of students coming from countries outside of the EE…

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.