The Deputy must have been listening to the Taoiseach.

There is not a great deal to this Bill on paper. There are only two sections to it. In relation to super junior Ministers, rather than saying “appoint not more than 20 persons” it states “appoint not more than 23 persons". Rather than “not more than 3 specified holders of the office of Minister of State who regularly attend meetings of the Government” it states “not more than 4 specified holders of the office of Minister of State who regularly attend meetings of the Government”. It does not say a great deal on pape…

Over the past three weeks, we have witnessed the devastation caused by Storm Éowyn, how the Government failed to build up resilience in advance and then how it failed to mount an effective response in the aftermath. As our climate worsens, so too will these storms and extreme weather events. I am sure everyone will agree that business as usual will not cut it. However, this programme for Government confirms what we already knew, namely, that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have run out of ideas. There is very little new …

I pay tribute to the ESB workers who risked their lives not only after Storm Éowyn but also after the severe snow alert. Eighteen days later, power has not been restored for many. For others, the power returned only to go back out again. Although Storm Éowyn was severe, power cuts are not unique to this storm. Despite paying the highest electricity prices in Europe, many people are regularly left without power. I received an email from someone in the Brosna area of County Kerry who said she can count at least ten p…

Hear, hear.

The impact of the recent heavy snow and of Storm Éowyn has been utterly devastating. It exposed the vulnerability of Ireland's creaking infrastructure. Climate scientists have been warning for years of the increasing likelihood of extreme weather events, yet we were totally unprepared. Households the length and breadth of the country found themselves in desperate situations. In the peak of the aftermath, three quarters of a million homes were without power. Two weeks have now passed and nothing has changed for thou…

Over the past 20 years, 500 people in south Kerry and 400 in north Kerry have participated in the rural social scheme, RSS, providing services such as meals on wheels, care of the elderly, the Valentia lighthouse, social farming and working community centres. The benefit to the participants and to the community has been immeasurable and the value for money, according to a Pobal review, is that for every €1 spent, there is a €3 benefit back to the community. However, the RSS has not been supported enough by this Gov…

Organised crime and its leaders should not enjoy impunity anywhere in the world. Such figures obviously attempt to keep moving to evade international justice, but the Emirates has good connections with the west and the east. It has a large diaspora and English is widely spoken. I visited it myself. My wife worked there a number of years ago. It has therefore been an ideal country in that part of the world for certain figures to do business in. Even if they are forced to move on, it is unlikely that their operations…

As the Minister said, we are mostly dealing with technical amendments here and we will support this Bill. Legal reform and the construction of a dedicated family law court for Dublin are important but any credible family law plan must go further with supports and maybe the Minister should take a White Paper approach to the whole Bill. Not every issue before the courts can be addressed at the point where relationships are breaking down, but significant resources can be allocated to reduce the harm that can be caused…

What exactly were the legal and technical issues with Deputy Howlin's amendment? With regard to the 1989 Act, was introducing the concept of recklessness to broaden it out somewhat ever considered? Amendments Nos. 1 to 7, inclusive, delete reference to the EU framework. With regard to the definitions of "hate" and "hatred", we moved a number of amendments on the definition of "hatred" as the Bill was going through various Stages. Our amendments proposed that the definition of "hate" would include bias, prejudiced c…

I remember being struck by a group of foreign students who came in to the audiovisual room to give their experiences of the level of violence that is inflicted on them. The attacks and the violence inflicted upon them was shameful. The main benefit of the hate crime element of this Bill is that it sends a strong statement about attacks against those foreign students or people who are LGBT or anything like that. It makes a strong statement that this behaviour is unacceptable. I do, however, as I have said before, ca…

We will check the Deputy's voting record on section 31.

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide that information relating to the repairability of certain products be made available and to provide for related matters. Ba mhaith liom ar dtús mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le hOifig na gComhairleoirí Dlí Parlaiminte as an obair a rinne siad ag ullmhú an Bhille seo, go mór mór d'Orla Ryan, Aoife Kavanagh agus Laura McCormack. Given the increasing demands of legal and regulatory compliance when it comes to proposing Bills and policies, having th…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I was contacted this morning by a family in mid-Kerry who are desperately seeking help for their child to fulfil its potential, but the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, clinic has been closed. In the past fortnight, I have been contacted by therapists and families from all over the county, families using the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, whose hurt because of the bad treatment they received has been exacerbated by a refusal to help fund their cases. A family in the Tralee area w…

It is closed to that family.

I appreciate that. I remind the House of a Private Members' Bill that an Teachta Cullinane and I moved at one stage, the Health (Parliamentary Oversight of Certain Instruments Relating to Covid-19) Bill 2021. This would have amended the Health Act 1947 and provided parliamentary oversight over regulations made by the Minister for Health. I am grateful to Dr. David Kenny of Trinity College who presented the idea to the Covid committee at the time, citing the law in New Zealand. That Bill provided for time limits wit…

We will see.

It did. I will bow out slightly gracefully on that point.

On the overall generalities, families have been devastated by gambling addiction. More than 90,000 are estimated to have suffered from gambling harm. Each of these have family and loved ones directly impacted. It is disappointing the Bill does not give a role to people in recovery in determining policy and the approaches to gambling addiction. I know the Minister of State indicated he is not in favour of this, but that is felt by many of those families to be insulting. People in recovery with lived experience have …