I thank the Minister of State very much. Could I ask her, her Department and the Government to use their discretion in the same way as it has been used in France? I would call it a matter of using common sense. Having looked at a snail and a cow, could the Minister of State please tell me what the comparison is? To me, there is a fair difference. The Minister of State's four-minute reply totally avoided the two main elephants in the room regarding snails. First, a snail, in the Irish Government’s eye, is the equiva…

I appreciate very much the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I understand I have three minutes.

I would like to remind people that I respect all religions and none. I really mean that. Regardless of whether some people hate it, we are predominantly a Catholic country. I am very proud and glad of the influence that religion, including the Catholic religion, has had on all of our lives over the years. I thank people in the religious sector for the contribution they have made to education going back decades. That said, it must be acknowledged that wrongdoing was done by some people. Of course, it was horrible wh…

I will share time with Deputy Michael Collins. I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution on Second Stage of this Bill. The reason we, as a State, are introducing this legislation is because Ireland has had a potentially illegally constituted Marine Casualty Investigation Board for some time. This Bill seeks to rectify the situation following the embarrassing judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union entered against Ireland on 9 July 2020. It is incredible that the European Commission's case agai…

After one of the longest lockdowns anywhere in the world, compulsory mask-wearing for almost 22 months and the highest vaccination rates anywhere, why are Covid numbers so high right now? So far, neither the Government nor the NPHET experts have answered this question in a truthful and sincere manner. The Government was given time and space, through lockdowns and restrictions on people's freedoms, to ramp up capacity in our healthcare system but it failed to do so. That is shameful and bordering on criminal, especi…

At the moment it is your party.

The Minister will not like to be told that Moneypoint and Tarbert power stations have had to reopen. Why did they have to open? The Minister did everything he could to shut them down. It was part of Green Party policy, the same as doing away with a proposed liquefied natural gas, LNG, project. The Minister shut that down. These stations had to open in spite of him and we would be in the dark here tonight if it was not for them.

Will the Minister wake up and admit that? I would like him to answer that question when he is responding later. I will be listening very intently to what he says. He should answer the people and tell them that his failed policies were going to result in Ireland being shut down for electricity. Some people received redundancies, or were on pensions retired at home, and they got the call asking them to come back because the stations had to open up and if they did not we would not have power. That is the Minister's fa…

I have always said and I am sure of the fact that the Minister is a nice and sincere man. However, he and the late Michael Jackson hold one thing in common and that is the two of them lived in Neverland. I would like to welcome the Minister today into the real world where people are struggling to pay for their electricity, home heating oil and children's education and to carry on with the basic day-to-day living. I am not a climate change denier; I will never be accused of being any such thing. I know we have to ma…

The real worry is the Minister believes what he is just after saying. I have 60 seconds to take apart his argument and I will do so. The first thing businesses in Kerry will mention to me is the high energy cost and the costs associated with carrying out their businesses. What has the Minister done to help them? Nothing. With regard to tourism, the Minister neglects the fact that people have to fly and drive to arrive in Kerry to enjoy it. We cannot fall out of the sky. What has the Minister done for those people? …

I also will not support the Bill. Have the proposers of the Bill and those who propose to support it considered the implications it will have for small businesses in particular? Who is going to pay for this? I will set out exactly who is going to pay for it. The people selling the produce will have to pay for it, but they will then pass that cost on to the consumer. As such, the person consuming the goods will pay for the labelling of the goods. I am not sure if Members realise it, but families are struggling. Peop…

I warmly welcome the Bill. It is certainly an issue that I and other people have campaigned long and hard for. For example, many solicitors in County Kerry contacted me. Their offices were closed because of the pandemic, which was necessary for the protection of people's health, but when they and their staff came back to work, they were up against it with their workload. They also had the impending deadline of 30 November by which they were being requested by their customers to register these rights of way. I very …

In advance of Sunday's family farm protest about farm incomes, it is extremely disappointing that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine have failed again, despite calls from the likes of Deputy Michael Collins and others in our group who have sought a debate in his House on the national herd. The Taoiseach has brought a new term into the language: "stabilisation of the herd". This is more gobbledygook. What he means is the cut to the national herd. Why would he not call it as it is? Pe…

The Taoiseach forgot about family farms by not getting-----

The Taoiseach let the cat out of the bag there. He thinks a lot about agriculture-----

My God, if that is the best you can come out with-----

I am not-----

I live in the real world. Why are thousands of people-----

Why are thousands of people coming to Dublin on Sunday?

Because they are worried.