I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh, to the House and take this opportunity to congratulate her on her recent appointment. I wish her all the best in her new role. I raise an issue of significant concern to many law-abiding firearm licenceholders throughout rural Ireland. Ireland has approximately 150,000 firearm licenceholders, accounting for more than 210,000 licensed firearms. Firearms ownership is tightly regulated and Ireland's licensing regime is widely regarded as one of the most stringent in Euro…

I thank the Minister of State very much for her answer. Although I take on board what the Minister of State has said, there is no doubt but that there are glaring inconsistencies right across the country, even from division to division and from station to station, in the implementation of the existing rules on the granting of firearms licences, particularly for young people who want to enter the sport. We have to tighten up regarding the inconsistencies. People need to know where they stand. At the current talks in…

Not in my jurisdiction.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. I wish to raise the matter of a fantastic email I got from a local group in my own hometown of Gort. Four campaigners, namely, Pat Flaherty, Ryan Smyth, Thomas Nash and Anne Mahon, facilitated by their supporting staff officer, Carol Arcos, call themselves the Gort Advocacy Corlann. They contacted me asking for my support in calling for the removal of online booking and seat reservation fees for free travel pass holders using Bus Éireann services. They mentioned that althoug…

I second the motion.

I second the motion with great pleasure. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to discuss it. Since the early days of the State, electricity generation and the ESB, along with infrastructure such as Ardnacrusha, has been one of the great success stories of the State. We are almost unique in western Europe in that we as a State retain ownership of 97% of our national grid and in excess of 95% of our main electricity supply company. The ESB has been a shining light in terms of State companies since it…

Maidir le halt 6, tá a fhios ag gach duine sa Teach seo go bhfuil fadhb mhór i ngach ceantar Gaeltachta timpeall na tíre le tithíocht. Tá a lán oibre le déanamh ag na húdaráis áitiúla agus comhlachtaí cosúil le BÁNÚ i gConamara agus Tinteán i ngach ceantar Gaeltachta timpeall na tíre. Tá an chumhacht ag Údarás na Gaeltachta le bheith ag oibriú leis na húdaráis áitiúla i leith fhadhb na tithíochta i ngach ceantar Gaeltachta. Is mian liom mo thacaíocht féin, agus tacaíocht mo pháirtí, Fine Gael, don Bhille seo a chur…

Anois.

Anois.

I thank the Minister of State for coming into the Seanad today to discuss the very important subject that is rural planning. Coming from County Galway, a strongly agricultural region within convenient commuting distance of Galway city, I can safely say that, throughout my time in politics to date, the subject of rural planning has been the single most contentious and divisive subject that I have dealt with. I welcome the Minister of State's willingness to discuss this topic here today and the Government's ambition …

I thank our MEPs for being present. I thank them for all the work they do on our behalf. I was delighted Ms Walsh mentioned the farm retirement scheme. She absolutely hit the nail on the head regarding the flaws in the previous farm retirement scheme. My grandfather availed of that scheme. While it helped to transition the use of land from generation to generation, it was filled with flaws in requiring the retiring farmer to step away. We need to achieve two priorities from any new farm retirement scheme. The first…

I welcome the Minister to the Seanad. I thank him for being here for this debate this evening. We need to look at the question; why would anybody be a landlord? Why would anybody put their hard earned money and savings into buying a second or third house and renting it out? Why? They would do it to make some profit is the obvious answer. What is being proposed here is that all of these small landlords, who saved their hard earned money over many years to buy a second or third house, would no longer be in a position…

I appreciate the selection of this Commencement matter. I have been attempting to raise this for a number of months and feel particularly strongly about it. I thank the Minister of State for coming in to take the matter on behalf of the Minister for agriculture. In October 2021, Senator Vincent P. Martin introduced a Bill that unanimously passed this House to ban the import of honeybees into Ireland. To give a background reason for wanting to implement such a ban, northern Europe, from Poland to Ireland, France and…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Speaking as somebody who worked for over 20 years as a commercial beekeeper, I am aware of the fact that bee imports into Ireland are reducing, but reducing is not enough. They have to be stopped completely. When it comes to introducing disease, parasites and breeding that cannot be controlled once it is in the country, the only acceptable number of imports is zero. That can only be achieved with a complete ban on the import of bees. NUIG fulfilled the requirement of ans…

I propose that the House suspends for the duration of the vote in the Dáil.

I will do well to follow that. I ask the Cathaoirleach to bear with me for a few minutes. I wish to speak on a matter that I have spoken about in the House four times in the past three weeks. This is s problem facing the people who wish to cut turf on the turf banks in south-east Galway. I ask that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage apply to the High Court to get it to lift the injunction he obtained from it in June 2025 against a contractor by the name of Mr. Darcy as a matter of urgency. This…

As a direct consequence of this injunction against the contractor, dozens of families were left without turf for heating or cooking last winter. Now they are facing the same situation again during a fuel crisis. In the interest of justice and fairness, I again call on the Minister to do the honourable thing and go to the High Court to ask for this injunction against this turf-cutting contractor to be lifted.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House to discuss matters related to the OPW. In the few minutes I have, I want to discuss three items of interest to my own area of south Galway. I would first like to speak about an issue raised by Senator Rabbitte, the south Galway-Gort lowlands flood relief scheme. As the Minister of State will know, the south Galway-Gort lowlands area is a low-lying karst landscape. There is no direct river running to the sea from a huge geographical area in south Galway. In the event of a…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, for coming in to hear this Commencement matter this morning. I am here yet again to speak about something I have spoken about a number of times previously in this House, which is the cessation of the turf-cutting compensation scheme. In particular, I wish to speak about the situation involving the 80 families in my own area of south-east Galway, who have traditionally cut turf on three bogs, namely Barroughter, Ardgraigue and Clonmoylan, who entered into an agreement…

Yes indeed, my own office has over the past number of months been in touch with both the Minister and the NPWS on the matter on behalf of the 80 families in question in south-east Galway. To a point, I agree with what the Minister of State is saying. This scheme has been very successful for the protection of the peatlands. It just has not been successful for the people on the ground who co-operated with the scheme in good faith. These families co-operated with the scheme in good faith on the clear understanding tha…