I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the most recent meeting of the European Council. I am grateful to the Taoiseach for his report on the meeting. There is much to cover, as there always is with these Council meetings. I suspect all Members could make different speeches on different topics relating to the meeting. There are three issues on which I will offer my thoughts. The Minister of State may wish to respond on some of my questions. The first issue relates to the notion of a European political community …

I appreciate my colleague, Deputy Higgins' generosity in sharing time. I apologise to the House for missing a previous speaking slot. I rise very much to support the Bill, which is good not only for workers and customers but, crucially, employers also. As mentioned by, I imagine, every Deputy in the House, there is an acute shortage of staff in all sectors, particularly in the hospitality sector. We need to make sure it is a sector that has lucrative and rewarding career prospects for all employees. The Bill is not…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute briefly to this debate. I thank Deputy Higgins for bringing forward this Private Members' Bill. I know it has been in the lottery, as such, for some time but not nearly as long as the EU has been waiting to pass the relevant directive. We are all disappointed by that, but it makes eminent sense to combine the two efforts. I hope that it can be done in an expeditious manner because, unfortunately, we do have an issue when it comes to transposing European directives in that the…

As the special Joint Committee on International Surrogacy reaches its conclusions, will the Government accept its recommendations? Will the Government amend the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022? More importantly, will the Minister lay out a timetable for the many families, many of whom are outside the gates at the moment, to ensure that they can be seen as truly equal in the eyes of the State as soon as possible?

I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate. While I agree with and support the three motions before us, I am slightly disappointed that we are only now moving from participating in one PESCO project out of a total of 60 to five projects. That is grossly unambitious. If we are serious about the security of our State and the European Union and if we believe in the true essence of European solidarity, we need to have a real assessment of our role within Europe. That is why I welcome our commitment to pa…

Will the Minister lay out the number of members of An Garda Síochána currently serving in the State?

I am grateful to the Minister for that update and the specific numbers in her response. I was very lucky to attend the centenary celebrations of An Garda Síochána in my local Garda station in Stepaside in the past few days. Having spoken with current and former members of An Garda Síochána who had been stationed at that station, as well as others, there are two issues they asked me to bring back to this Chamber. The first is the desire among serving gardaí to get out into communities and practise on-the-beat polici…

I appreciate that. While Covid got in the way of many of the operational aspects of reform, in many ways it also showed potential positives for An Garda Síochána, not just with on-the-beat policing but also with smart policing. We will hopefully have 15,000 gardaí in due course. Leading up to the budget discussion, will the Minister ensure those gardaí will have the necessary equipment and supports to carry out the role? I am thinking not just of the obvious such as cars and stab vests but also ICT equipment and mo…

I appreciate the opportunity to come in on this. I thank the Minister for her kind words. More importantly, I thank her for driving this through with the Government. This is fundamentally a very important scheme, not just for the work it will do but also as a demonstration that crime does not pay. Does the Minister agree that perhaps this could be viewed as a pilot scheme? While the substantial amount of funding involved is very welcome, it is still considerably less than the amount of cash being seized by An Garda…

I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this very important debate. We have all accepted it is wide ranging. The expeditious nature and requirement of passing this legislation is not lost on anyone in this House, but there are a few points and questions I wish to put to the Minister and the Minister of State, and perhaps they could respond in due course. We should never let a difficulty be lost with regard to justice and the parts that allow for alterations and efficiency in terms of the registration of peopl…

I ask this question on behalf of Deputy Carroll MacNeill. What measures are being considered by the Department to make the Defence Forces a more family-friendly environment?

I thank the Minister for his detailed reply. I have no doubt he could provide much more detail and perhaps he will in due course by way of a supplementary response. Deputy Carroll MacNeill has asked me to focus on one or two areas, to which the Minister has alluded. First, remote working is not realistically going to be practical considering the nature of the work members of the Defence Forces undertake, particularly military as opposed to civilian staff. Will there be a focus on the nature of domestic postings? We…

I agree with the Minister that there are extremely exciting times ahead for our Defence Forces. The report of the Commission on the Defence Forces provides so many avenues, not just in terms of operational capacity but in terms of structural reform. The Minister mentioned the position of head of transformation, and we need to learn from the lessons that have sadly worried us in terms of the treatment of certain members of our Defence Forces over the years and the importance of having a people-focused, soldier-focus…

Briefly, my question is to ask the Minister what supports his Department has given to the people of Ukraine.

Briefly, I thank the Minister very much for that fulsome reply. When he mentions ambulances, a question I would put to the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, is to ask that An Garda Síochána might follow the example of the PSNI, which has been asked by the Ukrainian police to send surplus equipment. In the Minister's own opinion, does he believe that we could be doing more? He mentions that we are constantly reassessing the provision but I have been contacted by quite a number of people who have looked at other …

There is a busy weekend ahead in Dublin. What immediate action can the Government take to address the fact that 72% of Dublin taxi drivers do not wish to work the peak hours on Saturday evenings and Sunday evenings, and to ensure that action can be taken in the next couple of weeks to address this? The solution of the National Transport Authority, NTA, simply to increase the fares by 12% and shove this onto the passengers and customers who are waiting an hour or 90 minutes to get a taxi in the first place, is both …

I wish our visitors from Cork the best of luck today. Unfortunately, I think the Dubs might have the measure of Cork this weekend, but I would say that, would I not? I really appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I am on the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach of which Deputy Paul Murphy was previously a member. This is an issue that has come before us and the Minister of State has given us a great deal of time, as have his ministerial colleagues, to debate it…

I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this very important debate in an important week. There are only two points to which I would like to refer ahead of the European Council. The first is in relation to Russia's ongoing brutal war in Ukraine and the very welcome news that the European Commission has recommended candidate status not just for Ukraine but also for Moldova and Georgia. The Joint Committee on European Union Affairs is currently in Georgia, having previously visited Moldova a number of weeks ago …

On a point of order-----

The Deputy can make a speech without making this personal.