I welcome the Minister of State to the House and acknowledge the presence of the Tánaiste earlier in the debate. As Senator Horkan stated, there are some serious matters in this Bill that need to be addressed. I will come back to them in a moment, but to put the Bill in context, it is being put before the House at a time when the Defence Forces are crippled by at least a decade of neglect. It raises the question whether it was ever wise to do away with the separate Minister for Defence. The Defence Forces have been…

Section 11 provides for the insertion of the following as part of a new section 1A in the principal Act: Without prejudice to the Defence (Amendment) Act 1990 and any regulations made thereunder, a member of the Permanent Defence Force shall not- (a) while in uniform or otherwise making himself or herself identifiable as a member of the Permanent Defence Force- (i) make, without prior authorisation from the member's commanding officer, a public statement or comment in relation to a political matter or matter of Gov…

However, I can well imagine that this lacuna would allow Independent candidates for Dáil Éireann to have Defence Forces members supporting them. The provision is badly drafted. I certainly will support a Government amendment to close the lacuna it creates.

Someone would have to go to Limerick now, I take it.

I want to be associated with the opposition to the Government's intention to guillotine the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill in the House this session. This is important legislation. Members of this House have not been given adequate time to consider it. I do not believe it was adequately considered or debated in Dáil Éireann either. This Government has always claimed it would allow legislation to be properly debated and considered in this House. It seems it has felt entitled to renege on that promise. I w…

I am not accusing anybody, if we are not being lied to about the intention not to have a general election before next year. If, on the other hand, this is yet another instance of the Government saying one thing and deceiving the Irish people about its intentions, and ramming through this and the Planning and Development Bill in order to renege on its commitment, made publicly by the Taoiseach, not to have a general election until early 2025, so be it, but there will be retribution.

Party spokespersons were given 12 minutes. The Minister should be given at least the same speaking time.

I have a peculiar relationship with this legislation. At one stage the Attorney General was kind enough to instruct me in the case of MR and DR v . An t-Ard-Chláraitheoir in the Supreme Court, where my function was to uphold that the mother of a child to be registered on a birth certificate was the person who actually bore the child. At that time, the Supreme Court was informed and was shown draft legislation, which was then in place, to deal with surrogacy coming, I think, from the Department of Justice. I am not …

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that No. 10 on the Order Paper be taken before No. 1. No. 10 involves seeking leave to introduce the Health (Scoliosis Treatment Services) Bill 2024. It is seven years since the then Minister for Health and current Taoiseach, Deputy Simon Harris, promised that all scoliosis treatments would be afforded within a period of four months. He recently stated on radio that he had the enthusiastic support of the HSE for dealing with the crisis relating to scoliosis treatment.…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to impose on the Health Service Executive certain special duties and powers in relation to the establishment of a specialised treatment service for the inpatient and outpatient treatment of children and adults of spinal scoliosis who are resident in the State and to confer certain duties and powers on the Minister for Health in relation to the service to be established and to provide for related matters.

Next Tuesday.

I welcome the Minister. Senator Burke made the point that Paul Kenny, the former Pensions Ombudsman, and Colm Fagan, a very distinguished actuary, have a radically different proposal for managing pension funds of this kind from what is set out in the Bill. The proposal advocated by them received an international award for excellence when it was devised and published. Reading between the lines, it seems the Government's attitude and that of the Pensions Council has been to disregard their proposal on the grounds tha…

It will apply to contributions.

Yes.

I am grateful to the Minister of State for taking this operation today. The background to this matter is a letter that I received on behalf of the Belgrave Residents’ Association regarding the proposed closure of Rathmines post office and its transfer of services to another location in the area which is, as yet, unknown. The matter is the subject of much disquiet in the locality. At a Green Party meeting on May 2, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, said that no decision…

I looked very carefully the text of the Minister of State's speech, which states that Rathmines post office is being converted from An Post-operated to contractor-operated, but the question I asked is about whether the building is going to be closed. I also asked, to use the phrase that was used by An Post, if another premises will be opened, which will be "a bright, modern purpose-fitted office nearby". Is that is in contemplation - yes or no? The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications told a pub…

I thank the Labour Party for introducing this motion. I support what Senator Boyhan said. I believe in competition. It works better than the municipalised system used to work. Nobody has talked about the economics of what is proposed in the motion. Nobody has said it will be cheaper for householders if the system is municipalised. Nobody has put forward any quantification of the economic implications for householders of getting rid of competition and municipalising the system. I note that the motion calls for a wai…

I share with the Cathaoirleach a devotion to Marty Whelan and the other great presenters on Lyric FM. On one occasion, he recounted a story about a three-legged dog going into a saloon in America. The bartender said, "What are you doing here? We don't serve dogs". The dog replied, "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw". That always stuck with me. On a serious note, the Joint Committee on Justice has just finished its consideration, which was very accelerated but at least we got two sessions in the time allocated…

Yesterday, I referred to a peaceful protest outside the House here as being probably extremist. I want to apologise to the people who participated in that protest. They were, in fact they were an entirely legitimate and well-intentioned group of people who came to protest. I received an email today from Michelle Keane, who organised it. I want to acknowledge that it was unfair of me to draw that inference from their presence at the gates. I wish to move an amendment to the Order of Business, to delete the words “wi…

I tried.