I thank Senator Craughwell for bringing this important matter to the House. As the Senator will be aware, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has overall policy responsibility in relation to public service occupational pension schemes payable to retired public servants. For all new entrants to the public service on or after 6 April 1995, the date of the introduction of full social insurance for public servants who now pay Class A PRSI, and before 1 January 2013, the date of the introduction of the single public service p…

Retired members of An Garda and the Defence Forces are entitled not just to respect from the State but also to great gratitude for what they have done, and they should always be treated with dignity in dealings with the State after they have served. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has acknowledged that there is a problem and that the interaction with the Department of Social Protection and attendance at Intreo offices are presenting difficulties. He is trying to find a way through that, so he acknowledges there is an…

I thank Senator Ahearn. The Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding regarding the national roads programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015 and in line with the national development plan, NDP, the planning, design, improvement and upgrading of individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. TII ultimately delivers the national r…

The Minister is very keen to reduce traffic in the centre of towns. He is also keen to look at ways, including putting in bypasses or any type of local projects that can help in that way. I take the Senator’s point that he wants Clonmel to be treated in the same way that Tipperary town and that he would like it to be prioritised compared with the rest of the scheme. I will bring that request to the Minister and ask him to come back to the Senator on it. It is important to note that over €15 million in capital fundi…

I thank Senator Boylan for raising this matter, which I am taking ,on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Jack Chambers. The use of private jets during the climate emergency for leisure and luxury is clearly an obscenity. However, such use is mixed up in the general figures for aviation, as the Senator understands, in the context of everything that is not a commercial flight. It includes such things as Defence Forces flights, medical flights and cargo flights. The question was what impact private jets are havin…

I thank Senator Boylan and I am glad that she agrees that we should be looking at emissions rather than passenger numbers and at emissions per capita . I will look to see whether I can get a good breakdown of general aviation so we are not mixing up private jets with medical flights, cargo and so on. Much of this debate emerged with a provocative and noisy campaign by Ryanair saying it would like the Minister or the Department of Transport to intervene in planning conditions which it knew was not legal or possible …

I am pleased to address the House on the Second Stage of the Gas (Amendment) Bill 2023. As Deputies and Senators are aware, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications is the Minister with responsibility for gas policy and all legislation relating to gas and energy policy. The European natural gas directive, Directive 2009/73/EC on common rules of the internal markets in renewable and natural gases and in hydrogen, in relation to the unbundling of ownership of generation, supply and transition syst…

I thank the Senators for their contributions. As Senators are aware, this Bill has been introduced to reorganise Ervia. Ervia was a holding company that owned Irish Water, and it also owned Gas Networks Ireland. Irish Water has been spun out and is now an independent company. We are now left with a structure where there is simply a company called Ervia that owns Gas Networks Ireland which then performs its functions. We are eliminating Ervia and we are folding the functions of Gas Networks Ireland into Ervia. It is…

Given the importance of the electronic communications sector to both the economy and society, robust regulation of networks and services in a manner that enables investment, ensures operational resilience and trust and appropriate consumer protection requires a fit-for-purpose communications regulator. Both my officials and I meet regularly with ComReg to discuss a range of policy and regulatory issues, including the timely and adequate resourcing, and indeed funding, of the regulator to enable it to deliver on its…

I am glad to hear that the Deputy has taken the time to meet ComReg. It has 156 employees at the moment and has sanction for 177. ComReg came to my Department looking for an additional 55 employees. It was looking for specific increases in grades and salaries and so on, and that is under consideration at the moment. However, it does have sanction to move to 177. The Deputy mentioned some of the important functions ComReg has. One of them is stopping the public from receiving scam texts and calls. I worked with the …

Communications networks are part of our critical infrastructure, of course. We can see that they are a target. The biggest target is the energy system, with communications probably second after that. We see the example of Vodafone Portugal being taken down for a number of days. This is the kind of thing we need to protect against. The function of ComReg will be to ensure that communications companies are carrying out all the tasks they need to protect themselves. The National Cyber Security Centre will continue to …

I move amendment No. 1: In page 6, lines 24 to 26, to delete all words from and including “insofar” in line 24 down to and including “purposes” in line 26 and substitute “insofar as the activity relates to telecommunications”. The purpose of this amendment is to insert a saver provision to maintain the existing ministerial consents that were given to Ervia to carry out telecommunications-related activities. Such ministerial consents were previously granted under section 17 of the Gas (Amendment) Act 2000. However, …

I move amendment No. 2: In page 11, line 28, to delete “Maternity Protection Acts 1994 and 2022” and substitute “Maternity Protection Acts 1994 to 2022”. This amendment corrects a typographical error.

The amendments propose to amend the definition of the 2014 Act, which clarifies that the Act of 2014 means the Companies Act 2014, to include various climate policy terminology already provided for in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act of 2015; to add additional obligations into the functions of GNI to factor in national policies on decarbonisation such as the climate action plan and emissions reductions into its operations; and to change the terms and conditions under which applications to the regul…

I am not saying this is all covered already. What is outlined in amendment No. 4 is covered already. That amendment seeks that GNI complies with the terms of the climate Act. I am saying GNI is already covered by that. It absolutely is. GNI is not covered under what is referenced in amendment No. 6, which seeks the right to refuse connections and so on. What is outlined in that amendment is coming in under the gas package. That is what we need to transpose. The changes outlined and the rules as they have been writt…

I move amendment No. 5: In page 13, lines 13 to 21, to delete all words from and including "Subject" in line 13 down to and including line 21 and substitute the following: "Subject to subsection (2), the majority-shareholding Minister may, by order, confer on the Board such function of developing, maintaining and operating telecommunications infrastructure as the majority-shareholding Minister thinks proper and specifies in the order, and any such order may provide for the performance of the function subject to con…

I move amendment No. 7: In page 17, line 15, after “notice” to insert “in writing”.

I am appalled by the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the scale of civilian casualties with more than 18,000 people killed and approximately 1.9 million people or 85% of the population displaced. The Government utterly condemned the heinous attacks by Hamas on 7 October, which saw 1,200 Israelis brutally killed. The Government continues to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, for an increase in humanitarian access and for the protection of civilians. Hostages held by Hamas in Gaza must also be released i…

I think the focus at the moment is to achieve peace, to achieve first an immediate and lasting ceasefire and then second to provide humanitarian access into Gaza. Our focus at the moment is not on recovering lost sums of money, damaged property or interrupted projects, as distressing as that may be. The first priority has to be to achieve peace. I agree with the Senator. Although Israel, of course, like any country, has a right to defend itself, it has gone too far. It is at the point now, I think, where Israel is …

I thank the Acting Chair and Senator Warfield. I will provide an overview on reimagining the National Library of Ireland, NLI, capital development project under the national development plan as the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, cannot be with us today. On completion the project will be the most significant investment in the National Library of Ireland since the main building on Kildare Street opened in 1890. To date, significant progress has been made on the NLI redevelopment project with the completion of the…