I begin by passing my condolences to Senator Craughwell on the passing of his wife. I apologise I missed the funeral over the summer. I was not around. I concur with the expressions from the Chair in relation to my former colleague Enda Bonner, who was a former Member of the House. Rather than trying to address all that Enda was in the small amount of time left for me, I ask that time be allocated on our agenda at a stage when we can invite his family here to hear the expressions of sympathy, as has been afforded t…

I want to refer to the work of Horse Sport Ireland and to wish Team Ireland every success as it prepares for the world championships in Aachen, Germany, which commence on 11 August. Horse Sport Ireland is the national governing body for equestrian sport. It is responsible for every aspect of the sport, from riding centres where thousands learn to ride horses for the first time each year to Olympian and Paralympian teams competing in showjumping, eventing, dressage and para-dressage. These upcoming world championshi…

I welcome the Minister of State. I will address a few of the issues raised by other speakers, although perhaps not the last one, because I did not hear any ideas in that speech. I very much welcome the national planning strategy and what is contained in this Bill. As someone from rural Ireland and a coastal region, I believe the ideas behind this Bill are very welcome and will help to sustain rural Ireland. I listened to the Sinn Féin representative talk about the GAA and rural housing. I have never heard Sinn Féin…

I welcome the Minister of State and I will get straight to it. I have two points to make. As someone with a civil engineering background who used to draw up plans, the first issue I wish to raise is in relation to national secondary routes. I believe they should not be dealt with in the same manner as national primaries, particularly those that have a low annual daily traffic volume. Regional roads that have high traffic volumes need to be looked at in relation to this set of guidelines. We should take a rough aver…

The Minister is very welcome. I thank him for bringing the Bill to the House today. He has very much listened to our concerns. As Northern Ireland spokesperson for the Fianna Fáil Party, I am aware that people closely involved with the inquiry and the bombing in Omagh hold real concerns about the openness of the Irish Government to date in disclosing information and receiving evidence. This is the smartest approach because anybody would be nervous going across the Border to Omagh to give evidence. The Bill even add…

I will continue with the debate.

That says it all.

The fact that Senator Andrews is the only one here representing Sinn Féin says it all for me.

I did not interrupt Senator Andrews.

Such things as the ownership of constituency offices should be investigated in this country because there are people of a certain party who seem to own all their constituency offices or the directors of Sinn Féin own them on their behalf. As for where those moneys have come from over the years-----

-----and those directors and the other properties they own.

Sinn Féin is part of the richest empire in this State.

I am supporting the Bill but I am outlining my views like Senator Andrews did.

The Omagh bombing was one of the most tragic incidents on this island. It is important that we are transparent and open and have a proper investigation into these matters. We support the Minister with this Bill and look forward to deliberations starting in September.

I thank colleagues for bringing forward this motion. It is a very extensive and welcome motion. Like Senator McDowell, I too was a backbencher back in the late 2000s when we went through the Celtic tiger. It was a time when banks took decisions in this country that were not subject to policy we introduced, and they wrecked the economy. I was one of those backbenchers who took decisions that one of my colleagues alluded to a while ago. We took hard decisions, such as closing Templemore Garda College in 2008 to 2014.…

I very much welcome the Minister of State, particularly in view of the announcements relating to roads funding that have come our way. It was good to see those announcements being made. I very much welcome the debate on this matter being brought to the floor of the House by my Fine Gael colleagues. I very much support, as do my Fianna Fáil colleagues, every aspect of the motion. There are a number of ways of looking at road safety and how to counter all the difficulties we have with road deaths. I disagree with Sen…

The Minister is very welcome to the House. I thank him and his officials for all the work that has gone into the scheme. A lot of work was done in the last term under the previous Minister and now I welcome the changes the Minister is announcing today. It is worthwhile having a refresher on the journey we have come on in dealing with this issue on the ground. We all took an awful lot of flak in this House and the other House, especially in Donegal. We had many Oireachtas Members calling for the scheme to be scrappe…

It is the rules of the House.

Standing Orders.

A vote has been called. There are rules in the House.