Last year a special envoy position was created especially for Katherine Zappone. There may well have been merit in the position and she may well have been a suitably qualified candidate - unparalleled, according to some - but the issue was a lack of competition and transparency in the use of taxpayers' money. The Tánaiste stated it was a mistake. This year, a professorship was created for Dr. Tony Holohan. There may well be merit in the professorship and he may well be a suitably or uniquely qualified candidate but…

Trinity College Dublin is not in the public service.

Is the Tánaiste happy for it to proceed?

I heard the Acting Chairperson say earlier that there was a danger of people becoming confused regarding what this debate is about and that it is about a carbon budget. This is not about a carbon budget. It is anything but that. This is about a target but how we meet it is not included at all. The sectoral ceilings are not part of this. They will be agreed at a later date. I invite the Acting Chairperson to say specifically that those ceilings will be put before a vote of this House because anything less is fundame…

That is not a good tactic.

Before commencing, I note that a number of additional beds are to be provided in hospitals across the country. Limerick has consistently had the most overcrowded hospital and is not included. It is not acceptable.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and will move on to the Topical Issue debate. I wish to raise the fair at Spancil Hill. I am sure everyone in the House knows it is on 23 June. It is an important cultural institution in Ireland. It is obviously an important horse fair both nationally and internationally. It goes beyond that and is now a cultural icon. It was recently included in Ireland's national inventory of intangible cultural heritage. Like much of our intangible cultural heritage, it is not only intangible bu…

The Minister of State is a master of suspense. I am looking forward to hearing what his proposal is. I would very much welcome any proposal he would have to make, as would the committee in Spancel Hill and the broader community. This event is organised by a committee and enjoys broad, popular support. It is a big event run with the co-operation of the surrounding community, as well as the Garda. It has not given rise to any trouble so it comes as a big surprise to me, as it will to many others, that it is danger be…

What do Barnardos and IBEC have in common? The answer is very little, usually. One thing they have in common is an emphasis on the necessity for childcare, which they both emphasised in the run-in to the last budget and previous budgets. Previous speakers have outlined the impact that childcare is having on the ability of parents to go out to work. There are many parents across the country, male and female but particularly female, who cannot join the workforce. We know that our economy is rebounding well notwithsta…

It is. I would urge the Minister to reflect on that issue as well. Were I not paired tomorrow night, I would be supporting this motion.

Sometimes it is not immediately apparent how important this is to people. These fuel prices are a very significant inconvenience for people who live in cities if they cannot drive, but for people who live in rural areas life becomes an impossibility, so reliant have we become on vehicles. It is in that context that I urge the Minister to examine the VAT rate. The Taoiseach has said that we cannot reduce the VAT rate because of EU rules and I accept his bona fides when he says that if we ask for a reduction in the V…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — the current National Driver Licence Service (NDLS) contract, which was put in place in 2021 while the attention of the body politic was diverted by the Covid-19 pandemic, no longer offers a walk-in service, the walk-in service having originally ceased temporarily in March 2020 to ensure the safety of the service's staff and of the public using the service during the Covid-19 pandemic; — the Road Safety Authority (RSA) awarded the contract to the Swiss company SGS, which oper…

I thank everyone who spoke on behalf of the motion. I thank all my colleagues in the Independent Group and all the Opposition Members, including Deputy O'Rourke, for their support. I also thank the Government for accepting the motion. I note that no Government backbenchers are speaking in the debate, which I take to indicate that they also accept the necessity for the motion. I want to be clear on what the motion calls for. It calls for the Government to instruct the RSA to set up an open tendering process for a wa…

And then just guillotine it all on the last day.

Irish farmers face a dilemma as to whether to borrow money to pay the cost of fertiliser, which has more than doubled, and hope to pass that onto consumers at the end of the year or to produce less food, which will also result in a rise in consumer food prices at the end of the year. I have no doubt that Ireland will produce more than enough food to feed itself but I am less confident about Europe, particularly given the lack of supply from Ukraine, which is the bread basket of Europe. To ward off a horrible scenar…

I also wish to discuss the issue of security. Up to now we have lived in a time of unprecedented peace and security in Europe, including energy security and food security. All of that seems to be questionable and questioned now. I agree with the Tánaiste's vision of bringing offshore energy onto our western shores and storing it in the form of hydrogen because obviously we cannot store energy. I do not know if he has spoken to some of the people involved, but the technology to do it is not there now. Everybody is h…

I welcome the Tánaiste's new-found concern about borrowing the people's money to help them out. To go back to the issue of food security, I never suggested we would have such food shortages in Ireland. I said we would have food shortages in western Europe and that is going to lead to huge price increases in Ireland. Is there a plan for that? What I do not want, in 12 months time, is to see one section of the economy or society pitched against another, with people finding they are being priced out of basic food prod…

And possibly Deputy Pringle.

I welcome the Town Centre First policy document, which I looked at initially when it was launched and in more detail thereafter. I welcome the focus and attention the Minister of State has brought to bear on the need to develop our towns and address the problem of dereliction, an issue many Deputies have raised. I welcome that focus. However, I must say, as other speakers from both sides of the House have said, I am quite concerned by what is not in the plan. To discuss what is in the plan, one of the main actions …

It is not legal advice but it is something to consider. It is done in Scotland and if it is good enough for that country, it might be worth considering in Scarriff and elsewhere.