The scoping exercise into the death of Shane O'Farrell was established by the previous Government more than three years ago. By their nature, scoping exercises are expected to take weeks, possibly months but not years, and yet three years on from the initiation of that exercise we have no idea as to when that work will be finished. Members will recall that nobody bar the previous Cabinet wanted this scoping exercise. Both Houses of the Oireachtas unanimously passed motions calling for the establishment of an inquir…

Can I get a brief response?

We have seen absolutely horrific pictures from Bucha which, I hope, will leave nobody in any doubt that the illegal Russian invasion and bombardment has crossed the line into war crime. I note Lithuania has expelled the Russian ambassador in response to events in Bucha. I again make the case that we should follow suit and rather than inviting the Russian ambassador to the Dáil, we should be instructing him to pack his bags and leave. We are a neutral country. We should be proud of our military neutrality. Our respo…

That was at the behest of MI5. The difference with this is the call is from the Dáil.

I have a conflict in this area because I am a director of a community crèche and have been for many years, long before I even had children. It was one of the most rewarding but challenging committees to be on because on a weekly basis, we had to deal with parents who were making tremendously difficult choices. Those choices continue to be made by families to this very day. They must make decisions about whether to have a child at all or as to whether one parent stays at home or another cuts his or her hours to bala…

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire. I have long believed a strong regulator is required for the food sector, for the meat industry in particular. The Minister has advocated for a food ombudsman in the past. Recently, he announced instead he would establish an office for fairness and transparency. I ask him to inform the Dáil what the distinction is between the two. What powers does he envisage the new enforcement authority will have?

I hope the Minister will accept that, to date, his response to this matter has been minimal. If he does not accept that, I would be apprehensive about the authority that is coming down the line. I want the new authority to work. I want it to have powers of enforcement that go beyond the current section within the Department which, being frank, has received no complaints since it was established. That establishment happened on the basis of a statutory instrument that transposed the European directive verbatim withou…

The difficulty is the Minister said the exact same thing about the timeframe this time last year. I followed the unfair trading practices regulation at an EU level throughout the entire process. I was a shadow rapporteur on the file and was part of the negotiations. I was disappointed with the final outcome because I feared the directive was far too minimal and member states would transpose it in a minimal fashion. To this point, that is what has happened. It has been transposed through a statutory instrument witho…

The Minister of State will know there are some horticultural sectors, and I am thinking of the mushroom industry in particular, that need peat to survive. I hope an alternative to peat can be found and I would urge that efforts be intensified in that regard. For years we had the scandalous situation in this State of hundreds and thousands of units of peat being extracted from Irish land and exported. Now we have the scandalous situation whereby hundreds and thousands of units of peat will be imported from other par…

On the Minister of State's final line, there is no evidence she is committed to supporting this sector. Every Minister that has responsibility, across three Departments, has run for cover. We have not even been in a position to get the relevant Ministers to come before the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to discuss the issues. Who is the independent expert commissioned by the Minister of State and when was the expert appointed? Last week, the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine m…

I did not say it had. The Minister of State commissioned this working group that mentioned Bord na Móna six different times, yet she is here saying she has no responsibility for Bord na Móna. It is central to the working paper her Department produced. She has appointed an independent expert with a specific remit. The second action in the working paper specifies this independent expert will be working with Bord na Móna, but it already did a deal with an Israeli company before the independent expert was in contact. A…

Because Bord na Móna was shipping it across.

What about the short term?

The Government has not delivered anything.

I thank Deputy Crowe for raising this issue. The Minister will accept that the €15.8 million that has been earmarked for Ireland out of the EU crisis reserve is a drop in the ocean in terms of the supports our farming families need. The first question to the Minister is, naturally, whether he will he ensure that is co-financed to the tune of 200%, as is within his gift. The second question that must be asked relates to what interventions can and will he make with regard to input costs. Fertiliser costs have gone th…

I commend the Deputy on raising this issue. I agree with his final point wholeheartedly. This is one of the areas where any of us who stand on farmyards can see a glaring opportunity for farmers to contribute positively to our climate action obligations and that they want to play that positive role. I agree with the point that farmers must be able to include and sell excess electricity into the grid. I will add that we need to ensure farmers are rewarded for the emissions they save as a result of these actions in o…

Farmers across all sectors have been struggling with increasing input costs. The Government response has been far too slow and underwhelming. For pig farmers, those escalating input costs have been compounded by depressed prices. They are in a battle for the survival of the sector. They are protesting at Kildare Street today and pleading with the Government to intervene further. This is not a month-old crisis. I have been raising it with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine since September, as have man…

I commend Deputy Tully on her tenacity on this issue and representation of those tens of thousands of families who want nothing more than what their child is entitled to. The High Court has ruled that the HSE's AON process is operating outside the law and denying children with disabilities their rights, as set out in the Disability Act. Let it sink in for us all that an Opposition party is introducing a Private Members' motion that essentially asks the Government to stop breaking the law, allowing an agency under i…

Hear, hear.

I welcome the Minister and thank him for being here. I also thank Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan for raising this issue. His doing so probably increased the chance that it would be dealt with tonight. It is an important issue, as I am sure the Minister will agree. It is exactly eight weeks since we had a discussion on the pigmeat sector. At that time, there were very evident challenges over increased input costs and depressed prices. Those challenges have only been exacerbated since the criminal Russian invasion of …