I am just making the point that they are illegal under the Noxious Weeds Act and that anybody who has them on his or her land is liable to be prosecuted.

In some institutions on an occasion like this, two motions are proposed. One is a motion of thanks to the speaker for his address and the second is that the paper should be printed and circulated. I theoretically propose both of those motions. The account you have given is one that I have not heard in detail before. I am very glad that you have had the opportunity to put on the record the exact circumstances as you saw them at the time leading up to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Some 25 years have elapsed since t…

I welcome the students from St. Pius X Boys’ National School as well. I share what Senator O'Reilly said about the great work done by the Civil Defence. I also share his sense of pride in the record of the Civil Defence over the years as a vital part of our social fabric, but I am alarmed by one thing. In 2015, the Department of Defence published a White Paper on Defence, which stated "The life-blood of Civil Defence is provided by some 4,000 volunteers". That was in 2015. The next thing that happened was that a pl…

I propose the Minister of State explain to us the effect of amendment No. 7. Who is going to get lump sums and payments, and why, and in what circumstance?

I want confirmation of the reason the Title of the Bill is being amended, because this set of provisions is not quite germane to lobbying. When I looked at the Order Paper, I was trying to work out how it all fit together. It is a different carriage in the legislative train. It is nothing to do with the registration of lobbyists.

I did a bit of it in my own time.

I move amendment No. 3: In page 5, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: “Insertion of section 10A into Principal Act 7. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 10: “Transparency relating to the finances of lobbying bodies 10A. (1) Where a person, whether a natural person, a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons, is registered in accordance with the terms of this Act and is in receipt of funding from a state source or sources to the extent of at…

The purpose of this amendment is to deal with a situation I have found perplexing on occasion. We are lobbied by groups, which are largely funded by the Exchequer, to make changes in Acts or do various things. I will provide an example. When it came to the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, an alcohol awareness group largely funded by the Exchequer lobbied us extensively in respect of that legislation but there was a sort of counter-movement among some Members of the House that it was somehow wrong that the drinks i…

I thank the Minister of State for her positive remarks about the background motivation to the amendment. A number of things occur to me. Senator Boylan referred to the Irish Academy of Engineering and she thinks it is pro-fossil fuel. I have a slightly different view. I think it sometimes tries to persuade people to be realistic, that we could have a crisis on our hands if we do not have some reserve of fossil fuel to keep us going. I take the academy as saying that. If, however, the Irish Academy of Engineering we…

I understand where the Senator is coming from. She has been single-minded in pursuit of decarbonisation and in her opposition to the continued use of fossil fuels. To go back to the remarks on the previous amendment, I found the Irish Academy of Engineering analysis quite helpful to my understanding of the matter. I do not think that body was trying to mislead me in any way. Members of the Government parties, or some of them at any rate, support the LNG terminal. Whether they are right or wrong, to do so is another…

Like Senator O'Reilly, I was involved in a lengthy meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight and, therefore, missed the earlier part of the debate, much to my regret. I note what Senator Norris said and wish him well. I join other Members in saluting everything he has done in the past to end the injustice against gay men of more than a century, going back to the 1880s, and the criminalisation of their private lives. In legal terms, the mere fact that a Bill is passed by the Oireachtas repea…

On a point of order, when primary schools visit this House, the Cathaoirleach normally gives them their homework off for the day. Would he give these people a first-class honours in their exams?

I am interested in the answer the Minister of State has given to this amendment. During the past week I had the honour to be invited to the Law Society of Ireland to speak at a seminar organised by its students’ legal publication, the Hibernian Law Journal . This was to commemorate 20 years of solicitors being appointed to the higher courts. In the course of that very interesting seminar, which I very much enjoyed, a number of judges, including Mr. Justice Quinn and former judge, Mr. Justice Michael Peart, gave the…

I move amendment No. 12 a : In page 13, lines 1 and 2, to delete “are suitable for appointment” and substitute “should be appointed”.

In order for the House to understand the impetus behind these three amendments, it is necessary to look at section 13 in its entirety. Section 13(1) states: The Minister shall from time to time as required, request the Public Appointments Service to undertake a selection process for the purpose of identifying and recommending to the Minister persons whom it is satisfied are suitable for appointment as lay members. That is the test that the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board performs at the moment. It selects peop…

I hope they have had a good visit to Leinster House. It was emphasised previously in this debate that the Public Appointments Service will be some kind of independent body which will contribute to the independence of the commission. As we can see, all of this is simply a process for weeding out the people who are unsuitable. That is all the Bill actually does. In section 13(1) and (2), it is stated that certain people will be suitable for appointment. By implication, this means that those who are not recommended ar…

Yes.

No, for the very reason I will outline. The huge pretence in this legislation, which I believe is politically dishonest, is that we are going to have politically neutral appointments made in the future. What we are doing here is vesting in the Minister the right to produce four people, chosen by him or her, to be on the commission to mark the judicial members, so to speak. Let me address the question of why, if one is in favour of discretion in the appointment of judges, one should be against it here. I will explai…

Some interesting points have been raised by Senator Ward. One of them, with which I agree up to a point, is that there appears to be an inconsistency in delimiting ministerial discretion at this point while arguing at later stages for governmental discretion of a far wider kind than this Bill, if enacted, will permit. I would gladly withdraw these amendments if I thought the Minister of State would indicate that he has, on consideration, decided that the whole idea of a shortlist of three people for the position of…

Under Standing Order 62(3)( b ) I request that the division be taken again other than by electronic means.