Two years ago, the Deputy was demanding an early budget.

The question was on diesel prices.

I take this opportunity to wish the Minister, Deputy Chambers, all the best in his new role. So far he has proven to be a very understanding and kind boss and I hope that continues for the next few months of the Government. I thank Deputy Doherty for the question. Insurance reform remains a key priority for the Government and the reform agenda has been set out via the action plan for insurance reform. As per the most recent action plan implementation report, published earlier this year, the vast bulk of the actions…

As Deputy Doherty knows, not every ECOFIN Council is the same. Agendas are different. We all know that we are at an acute time in the European legislative calendar. It is not fair to cite two previous examples. They are not all the same.

To address the clear point of the question, in 2021 Deputy Doherty introduced a Private Members' Bill, the Judicial Council (Amendment) Bill, to the Dáil. At its core, this would require insurers to provide information to the Central Bank of Ireland on the impact of personal injuries guidelines through amendment of the Judicial Council Act. On 30 May 2024 Deputy Doherty informed the Business Committee of his intent to move the Bill to the select committee for consideration. As the Deputy is aware, the Bill’s financ…

I absolutely agree with the Deputy that we need to hold them to account and that we need to see downward pressure on prices. The Deputy cited CSO figures. I note that CSO figures, when compared with those from 2019, have gone down exactly 39.6% in motor insurance alone. We have the NCID data, which is the most robust form, that shows a consistent decrease in the price of insurance since 2019. However, we saw a small uptick of 0.5%, an average of €7 per premium, at that latter end of last year. The Deputy made a com…

An awful lot more to do and I very much want to work with the Deputy on this.

I look forward to seeing the survey he said he concluded. Let us talk about that next week to see what we can do.

We are just starting to see the returns now and it is going the right way.

Motor insurance has.

The Deputy used CSO figures and 39% is drastic.

They are the figures the Deputy used himself.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion and thank Deputy Ryan, in particular, for proposing it and providing context for this very important debate. I thank the members of the budgetary oversight committee, especially those who are present for this debate on a Thursday evening, for compiling the report following their examination of the report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare. I also thank the former Chairperson, Deputy Hourigan, and Deputy Cowen, who remains the Chairperson for now, and acknowled…

I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, which I hope is acceptable to Deputy Stanton. As this is something in which I have a strong personal interest, I am particularly delighted to be taking this matter, which I believe is a very worthwhile contribution. It was particularly noticeable in recent local and European elections that the date for those elections was obviously set, essentially, by the European Parliament and that they took place two weeks later in the calendar tha…

I thank Deputy Stanton. The issue of proxy voting is one on which I would personally have a mild concern but I have no issue at all with postal voting because there is an opportunity for all Deputies. We are all practitioners of and fundamentally cherish democracy. We spend our time not just in this Chamber but in going out to schools, community groups and other organisations to encourage people to vote, regardless of who they vote for, and it does not have to be for ourselves. We should therefore be facilitating t…

I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising this important issue and allowing me to update the House on matters relating to it on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. As the Deputy will be aware, a serious pollution incident, resulting in a significant fish kill, occurred on 8 and 9 June on the Allow river, a tributary of the Munster Blackwater river. On Sunday, 9 June, Uisce Éireann was made aware of an incident at one of its wastewater plants, Freemount water treatment plant, in north Cork, with the result of chemi…

I share the Deputy's disappointment, particularly for those local groups in the area that were impacted and in respect of the real loss of sporting opportunity as well as commerce to the region. That is not something that should be stated glibly. Obviously, the Government takes this major pollution event extremely seriously. As the House is aware, farmers have been asked to escalate their efforts around water quality protection, and therefore State agencies must do the exact same, if not a bit more. Moreover, there…

I thank the Deputies opposite for tabling this motion. I welcome the opportunity to discuss it and lay out a few issues. In the few minutes I have available to me, I would like to go through the motion itself, the challenges that have been cited, some of the responses that have been issued, some of the engagement we have had and to take the debate in the round. I would like to state for the record that the Government does not intend to oppose this motion, but I remind Deputies that any decision on all tax matters, …

I have not even got 45 seconds into my speech.

If the Deputy listens to the entirety, he will be given a full response.