I have a few supplementary questions. Horizon Europe, or Horizon 2020 as it was known previously, provides opportunities for researchers, institutions and society as a whole across the European Union unlike anything that went before in terms of innovation, life-saving drugs, new technologies and viable economic ventures. It is to the forefront of a strategy that makes this region the world's largest economic bloc. On our own small island, the more collaboration North-South the better and the more we can latch onto …

I am struck by the fact that this is yet another lamentable occasion where we do not have the North-South Ministerial Council operating at full capacity. This is the area that is made for that strand 2 institution of the Good Friday Agreement to be running at its best. Within Horizon Europe over the years, Ireland has participated well but it has not got the most out of it. I fear that with the new agreement within the broader UK set-up, Northern Ireland will not necessarily punch above its weight. However, if we h…

I join briefly with expressions of sympathy to the late Tom Burke, a constituent of mine in Dublin Rathdown who up until very recently, I would regularly meet for a walk in Marlay Park to talk about everything that is going on here. On the issue of parks, the programme for Government makes a commitment to prioritise the upkeep and expansion of our public parks. I ask the Tánaiste to work with his Government colleagues to insist that Irish Water makes the new 15-acre landscaped area at the Stillorgan reservoir avail…

I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to these statements and I am grateful to the Minister of State for being here. I thank him and the Minister for Justice, Deputy Humphreys, and before that, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, for the consistent and vitally important work they have done in this area. I have raised several issues in this context before and I do so again. They must be and are central to this strategy. First, there is a requirement to tackle the rise in knife crime across the country. Second, we mus…

I thank Deputy Funchion for bringing forth this motion on an issue that she and I have discussed many times at length outside this Chamber. I also thank the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Madigan and Rabbitte, for their contributions this evening and for the work they have been doing in this area. I say that not as a Government backbencher, but as a man who, unlike Deputy Dillon, has only one child at home. Regardless of what decision is taken on this motion, I will hear about it as…

I appreciate the opportunity to raise this important issue and the Ceann Comhairle's decision to select it. I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy James Browne, for staying so late on a Thursday. As the Minister of State will be aware, in recent days, we have seen an increased amount of footage online and our offices are receiving an increase in reports showing a worrying rise in criminal activity, especially in Dublin city centre. We need to respond to this with a high-visibility polici…

I appreciate the Minister of State’s fulsome reply. I also appreciate the ongoing work of the Minister of State, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, particularly in the context of the recent engagement with various community, policing and business fora. However, people want to see direct action. They want to see the gardaí on the street. They want to feel safe walking down O'Connell street. They want to feel safe allowing their children - maybe not their young children, but their adult children - to be out at night as …

I thank the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the other Ministers for their very helpful statements and commend them on the amount of work that has gone into this area over recent weeks. It is pertinent that we are having this debate a couple of weeks on from the situation in Afghanistan being the headline issue of the time. The time since has given us a chance to reflect on what has happened and to see how other countries around the world are starting to see the real impact on the global community as it starts to seep…

Once again we are struck by the spectre of the British Government playing games with the Northern Ireland protocol. Unionist politicians are doing it down once again today and Article 16 is being discussed as a political plaything in the lead-up to domestic political conferences. What is the Government doing with our partners in the EU to ensure the British Government meet its legally binding commitments?

Every morning when I drop my son off and every evening when I come home to my wife, I am reminded of the very serious challenges posed to our early years sector. While it is very welcome that the joint labour committees, JLCs, have been established under the programme for Government, will the Tánaiste commit to resources being provided by the Government to the men and women, predominantly women, working in this sector and that they will be adequately provided for to ensure they can have a living wage and a true pat…

I thank the Minister for bringing this vitally important legislation to the House and I appreciate the opportunity to briefly contribute to some of the points on Second Stage. Like others, I look forward to coming in on Report and Committee Stages as this is developed further. There is widespread support for this legislation in this House, for very good reasons. This is vitally important to ensuring that the work of An Garda Síochána is completely modernised and restructured in a way that can reflect the modern dem…

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this important motion and to commend it to the House. I thank the Minister of State for her introductory remarks and the work that is being done by her and her ministerial colleagues in the Department of Justice on this vitally important area. As has been alluded to by other speakers, despite the assertions of some politicians, Brexit is very much not done. We are going to be constantly seeing over the next decade, and possibly for an entire generation, little bits and piece…

I concur with the points made by my colleagues in response to the Minister's reply, for which I thank him. I emphasise how important it is that, as we conclude the budgetary process over the coming weeks, the Minister and his Government colleagues be truly ambitious in this sphere. The measures that he announced and that are in place are a good start and stand up favourably internationally, but if we are to utilise the opportunities that the pandemic has presented us in many areas, the best opportunity is to ensure…

I am grateful to the Minister for his reply and constant ambition not just in this regard but throughout his entire brief. He rightly speaks about the cost, but straying into the Tánaiste's ministerial brief, we need to look at the potential benefit in this area for Ireland not just economically but socially to make us the best country in the world for people to work remotely or from home. This is the potential the pandemic offers. Every facet Government can do, working with industry, working with an entire societa…

I know the Minister of State is familiar with this important issue. Carmona school is located in Dún Laoghaire, which is the constituency of my colleague, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. It services the entire county of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Many parents in my constituency are facing an extremely difficult time because they are unable to have the proper services provided to their children in this school. I remind the Minister of State of the meeting she held with the parents and the principal of the school in May when s…

I sincerely thank the Minister of State, not just for her reply but also for her continuing efforts in this regard. We are grateful, particularly for her frankness. We talk about points on a scale and spreadsheets, but the fact is that much of this is beyond stressful and it is down to a breakdown in communication. It is no criticism of the Minister of State, but we all share the feeling that it is simply not good enough. It is not good enough for the children who attend the service and who are at constant choke ri…

In light of Brexit and the increased focus on connectivity and energy security, will the Minister please provide the House with an update on the progress of the Celtic interconnector project?

I very much appreciate that full update and reply regarding what is probably one of the most important projects under way between Ireland and another EU member state. It is also a project that has been going on for more than a decade now. While I appreciate the process is lengthy and that much funding has been put in place, the opportunities this presents and which similar projects could present in the future are massive. They are vitally important, not just in terms of importing energy but also, potentially, expor…

As a final supplementary question, I am quite enthused by the Minister's closing comments on the potential for similar projects in the future. The fact this could come on stream by 2026 and in a total project time of 15 years is remarkable. The real importance of this project is in ensuring we have energy connectivity with the European Union. That is vitally important post Brexit. We do not know what the political winds will be in Great Britain in future. It is vitally important we have that security with our partn…

Last week, the French Government, in an act of solidarity and gratitude, fast-tracked and granted the citizenship applications of 12,000 front-line workers. If France can do it, why can we not do it?