I wish to discuss with Senators a couple of files that will be particularly important to Ireland and during the Irish Presidency. The first one is the AI omnibus. The original AI Act was a genuine achievement passed in 2024, a landmark attempt to govern artificial intelligence in a way that protects fundamental rights, ensures legal certainty and supports responsible innovation. The omnibus is the Commission's proposal to amend it before it is even fully in force. This requires careful scrutiny. I should say that i…

On the issue of air transport, as a former TD for Clare and somebody who makes their way from Clare to Brussels, I lament the concentration of all air navigation in Dublin at the moment. The removal of the cap will be a further step in that process. All Senators and TDs, including those from the mid-west, will get to vote on that in the very near future, it seems. Even if it goes through, it will offer opportunities for other airports because the infrastructure simply is not there for Dublin to expand in the way so…

I just hope there will not have to be an unconditional surrender in the case of Ukraine.

Maybe the Senator arrived late, but I addressed the issue in my previous contribution. I will not repeat what I said. On Ireland's ability to defend itself, there has been a lot of talk about what we are going to do. However, our level of investment in the Defence Forces is both incredibly low and inexcusable. That said, there is a lot of discussion about it in the Irish media. I am always quite surprised about that because I have never really met anybody – it might be different for Mr. Kelleher, Mr. Kelly, Ms Func…

The people are more important .

I wish to return to an issue which we have previously discussed. I refer to the oversight of the international protection accommodation services, IPAS, spending on direct-provision accommodation. Last week, I asked the Minister responsible how many inspections had been carried out by the compliance team or by independent inspection companies in the first half of 2024. Within three days I received a reply that stated, "My officials are collating the information sought and will respond in due course". Of those inspec…

So would I, or politicians either. I might even be counting the days.

Will the answer be factual or creative?

So do I.

It is a bit like being invited to speak at your own funeral here today. Usually, we talk about political careers after people have passed away. I am conscious I did manage to be late for this, which is possibly something I had never thought I could achieve, alive or dead. I thank the people of Clare for electing me to this House. I think everybody in this Chamber would say it is a unique honour to be elected. I would say it is a particular honour to represent Clare. When you walk around the corridors of this House,…

I raise the case of a young man which exemplifies much of what is not working in our asylum system. His name is Tayeb. He lives in Scariff, County Clare. The Taoiseach will know Scariff; he was there a few months ago to announce public expenditure and forget to invite public representatives from outside the Government parties. That can happen.

I was there. People in Scariff are hospitable and few would remind the Taoiseach of that. They are generally kind and forgiving people. Tayeb quite likes it there but there is no university in Scariff. He has been offered a place in UCD which he wants to take up. He wants to get on with his life. He applied for asylum on 5 January along with his parents. He made his way from Gaza to Egypt and from Egypt to Ireland. He has asked if he can transfer accommodation to Dublin so he can attend university, where he has bee…

It was all the other public representatives who were not there.

I completely understand the State cannot accommodate people where they want to be accommodated. That is not my complaint; my complaint is he cannot work to earn the money to pay for accommodation in Dublin. The Taoiseach says people can apply after five months and then it takes ten weeks but they have a right after six months so the Taoiseach is implicitly acknowledging the right to work is being denied. That right was gained in a Supreme Court case. It was fought tooth and nail by the Government at all stages but,…

That is not what I asked, in fairness.

Deputy McGrath has done a bit better than that.

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I also thank Deputies McGrath and Healy-Rae for their kind words, and Independents across Ireland South who helped me in the recent election campaign. In the limited time available to me, I will very much focus on this motion, which is very important. I find the Government's rationale around GDP and the proportion of GDP spending to be somewhat unconvincing in that the use of GNI* as a measure of the Irish economy is contentious in many respects. For example, the Government has …

I wish to raise again the Francis Street development in Ennis. These are the six houses that were purchased with a view to knocking them down and eventually building a mixed-use development. On 23 March last year, I raised the matter with the leader of Fianna Fáil, the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, who stated: "we should be making those houses fit for habitation and allocate them because development of the kind the Deputy mentioned will take a long time." Nevertheless, in March of this year, the day before a cha…

At the start of April, the Minister for Health announced the new nursing unit built in Nenagh to replace St. Conlon's would be instead used for step-down beds. Families were expecting to go in there from across north Tipperary and east Clare. At the same time, the Minister announced Cahercalla nursing home would take 20 step-down beds. When Cahercalla's representatives were asked about that, they said they knew nothing about it. It is almost as if there was no forward planning in the Department of Health by the pre…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I wish to bring to the attention of the Taoiseach a worrying trend that has come to my attention and give one example of it. It concerns a young man from the Indian subcontinent who travelled to the United Kingdom on a valid student visa issued by the UK Government. That visa allows him to work for ten hours a week only. He obviously hoped to work much more. He went to an agency in the UK which told him it could get him full employment permission in Ireland and arrange travel and a work…