I support the extension of this Act because the clarification for the local authorities, An Garda Síochána and the publicans is necessary and very important. I thank the publicans very much because they offer a great service in County Kerry, the county I represent, in particular and because of the excellent way in which they have operated through all types of adversity. I am grateful for the schemes that were put in place to support them. Like everybody else in this country, they have gone through a tough time. The…

Sixteen pubs. It is a lot in one day.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this very important motion before the House. We have all had experiences of hearing from constituents of the crisis in the ambulance service. Before going into that, I thank most sincerely the people who operate the service in County Kerry with whom I have considerable dealings. The personnel in the ambulances are excellent, kind, diligent, hard-working and put in very long hours. I meet them regularly when they are finishing shifts, starting shifts and in between shifts. They are ver…

At the outset, I thank Brian Ó Domhnaill and Mairéad McGrath for their help and work on this most important motion. I also wish the leader of our group, Deputy Mattie McGrath, good luck and health. I hope he gets back on the road to good health very quickly. Through this motion, as a group, we are saying that Dáil Éireann should recognise that as the second winter of the pandemic approaches, we are continuing with a cost of living crisis on a number of fronts. The Government's climate action policies are having a p…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this very important Private Members' motion. We are starting on the back foot when we have a Minister for Transport who says he does not like building roads. There is a massive increase in the cost of motoring and fuel is going close to €2 per litre, which is a frightening prospect because everything is reliant on roads in our country. I recently had a meeting with a number of car dealers in Kerry. A wise man attended that meeting and he is not young but I will not say he is old eithe…

I thank Deputy Harkin and her group for laying this important business before the Houses of the Oireachtas. This Bill would allow a credit union to provide a greater range of financial services to its members. I thank the members of the Irish League of Credit Unions, ILCU, operating in County Kerry, be they in Killarney, Cahersiveen, Killorglin or north Kerry. The other day, I had the pleasure of spending an hour in a credit union in Ballyduff that was having an open day. If implemented, the Bill would allow a cred…

On a point of clarification.

It is on a point of clarification. The Tánaiste keeps using the words "stabilising the national herd".

Will he please stop using misleading language? That is like "reconfiguration of the health service". It is outrageous and he is codding the farmers of Ireland by coming out with that type of statement. Stabilisation means a cut. I ask the Tánaiste to call it what it is.

He should use plain language and not gobbledygook.

I would like the Minister's attention because the very first thing I want to do is publicly and humbly thank him and acknowledge a very important job he did, which was the help, kindness, care and consideration he gave to two small babies, Theo Whelan and baby Kate Mynard. As good as it is to come in here and attack the Minister and fight with him and say, "Minister, do this and do that", I publicly thank him for his involvement in that. He, his officials and others worked and helped to save those babies' lives. I …

I have 13 seconds left. We believe that this extension is a very lazy use of exceptional powers instead of the Government ramping up rapid antigen testing, which the Government has utterly failed to do and which the rural Independents called for at least 15 months ago. The Government has also failed to increase Ireland's ICU bed capacity.

On a point of order, it is very wrong that a Minister would stand up here and say that other people, because they are voting in a different way than he wants, are reckless.

How could that be democratic?

The Chair cannot allow a Minister to get away with saying that because we are not going to line up in a row obediently behind him like little ducks and support what he is saying, we are engaging in reckless behaviour. That is completely wrong.

That is not democracy. That is completely undemocratic.

I do, 100%, as the Leas-Cheann Comhairle knows, but I am asking the Minister to withdraw his remark.

A Minister cannot accuse us of being reckless in advance of our vote.

It is wrong.

That does not happen. A Minister does not accuse people of being reckless in advance of their vote. That is outrageous.