I wish to be associated with expressions of sympathy both to the wife of former Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Brian Mullooly, and Senator Buttimer on the recent death of his dad. I join with Senators McDowell and Martin in calling for a debate on construction and how the green economy and the grants announced by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, last week will fall in together and what should get priority. As Senator McDowell said, there is a lack of specialist trades and construction workers in the country. When we couple…

I ask the Acting Leader to arrange a debate in the House on the Future of Media Commission report. I understand that this report has been with the Government since last October. It has not surfaced around Leinster House. It has not gone to the joint Oireachtas committee responsible for discussing the report. I ask the Acting Leader to find out where the report is at this point in time, and to ensure we have a debate on the future of the local media in this House at the very earliest opportunity. It is very urgent t…

I thank Senator Kyne for sharing his time with me on this very important topic. I welcome Deputy Cahill, the Chairman of the joint committee, to the House. While he seems very comfortable in his seat, I do not think he has any great ambition to come to this House other than in his capacity as Chairman of the joint committee. I also welcome Senator Hackett in her capacity as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for forestry. This is a great report, and I complim…

I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on this section. I also welcome the Minister of State to the House. I would like to say that whatever the Minister of State does here, she will be setting a precedent for whatever may come in the future. Therefore, she has to tread very carefully. She should listen very carefully to the very serious questions and issues that have been raised by many Senators. There are two aspects to this: first, the redundancy level that is being paid to the people who are employed and …

I compliment the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Government on the recent announcement of the new package in regard to heat insulation and retrofitting of houses. I would like the Acting Leader to invite the Minister to this House as a matter of urgency to discuss that package. Many people will not be able to avail of the deep retrofit, but I know many of them could carry it out over a timeframe of four or five years. For example, they could over time insulate their attics and have solar panels and heat pumps instal…

I would like to be associated with the vote of sympathy for the late Member of Dáil Éireann. Noel Treacy was an excellent contributor in this House as well and attended here on a regular basis. He was always very cheerful. I wish to extend my sympathy to his wife and family. I wish to raise an issue with the Leader, namely, the recent huge increase in ESB bills and the ever-present public service charge that still features on every single bill issued. The public service charge was brought in to extend the service t…

Oh no.

It is very apt that the Acting Leader is here as Acting Leader on this St. Brigid's Day. We wish her well. To carry on from what Senator Cummins said, there is no reason every local authority would not be as good as Waterford City and County Council because they have the tools, as he said, to do this. They should be monitored and they should be made to do those things. I would like to compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, on the changes that he intends to make to the Planning and Development Acts. I…

I welcome the Tánaiste to the House and wish him well with this Bill. I think Senator Casey raised a very valid point on the question of how Revenue is going to deal with this issue. This Bill is about ensuring tips are not part of staff's wages. The point Senator Casey made is that tips will be part of their wages. Perhaps that is the way Revenue is going to treat it. More than likely, Revenue will stay silent or play dumb for a while on the matter. However, it is a very important question because it could well be…

We must be close to an election with this type of heated debate becoming evident. I ask the Leader to arrange for a debate on credit unions. There was a commitment in the programme for Government for something to be done on how credit unions operate. I presume the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, who has responsibility for credit unions, will soon publish a draft Government policy on credit unions. Credit unions are seeking various outcomes. They want to do community banking, which would be a great asset to them.…

I support Senator McGahon in his call for a debate on a one-stop-shop for climate action and climate control, which is taking in some local authorities. The initiative will be a great addition and warmly welcomed. A debate on the matter in this House would be very worthwhile. I ask the Deputy Leader to arrange a debate on tourism in the not too distant future. It would be timely to have that debate now as we are at the start of the tourism season. Plus many people seem to be going away on holidays and we should deb…

I thank Senator Dolan for sharing time with me. I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on the national broadband plan. I must say, I think it was great foresight on the part of the previous Government to start the campaign and the roll-out of rural broadband. One would have to ask the question now of where we would be and where we would be going if some decision was not made at that particular time when we see the vast advances that have been made in online technology over the past two years in particular sin…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The Finance Bill comes around fairly quickly. It does not feel like it has been 12 months since the last Finance Bill. I have a few questions for the Minister of State. I missed the opportunity to ask some of them of the Tánaiste when he was in the House earlier. The Department of Finance estimates that we will have spent €48 billion helping businesses and workers by the end of 2022. This is the largest intervention by the State since the bank guarantee scheme. In relat…

I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on the work he has done on the restructuring of facilities and payments for local authority members. I thank the Cathaoirleach for bringing forward the provision whereby panel-elected Senators can table a motion. It is a great idea because, in this case, more than likely, the motion has had cross-party support from the moment it was put on the Order Paper. Given the five panels in the House, it is a great idea. The Seanad was set up in the first instance in order…

Like Senator Blaney, I welcome the scheme in regard to the mica and pyrite issue and I hope it can be finalised. We are close to putting in place a good scheme. I hope that the Minister and all those involved can find a resolution that is suitable to everybody. I note that the Deputy Leader, Senator Chambers, was involved in this and that she is hopeful that we can get a final solution to it. We should also look at how all of this came about. At the end of the day, the only people who appear to be accountable are p…

I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on this Private Members’ motion. It is almost 12 months since this House unanimously agreed a motion in regard to the unlawful detention of Richard O'Halloran, an Irish citizen in detention in China. As Senator Craughwell said, Richard O'Halloran should be at home and if diplomatic relations were working properly, he would be at home. There is no reason that the Chinese authorities could not let Richard O'Halloran go and it would still be in consultation on the issue wit…

I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on this issue. I welcome the Minister to the House and congratulate him. He has had a very difficult period over the last two years as the Minister for Health. No Minister for Health in the history of the State has suffered as much he has or encountered so many difficult situations. It is a great task to get on top of this pandemic that befell the whole world and great credit is due to him, and the Government, on so many different occasions. With being hit by so many dif…

I welcome the Minister of State. I have two issues to raise. I think that we should regionalise our energy production. On the west coast, we had the finest wind speeds in the world, yet there is not a single pylon or wind turbine along the west coast. If we regionalised the production of wind energy along the west coast, then we could move our data centres and big energy users to the region. Getting things done in this country, though we have all these plans and so on, is too cumbersome and slow. If this Government…

I support the case made on behalf of secretarial assistants. If a level in the Department must be agreed with then secretarial assistants should be moved to a different level of pay within the structure of the Department because we all know that the work done by them is without question. I support the call made by Senator Buttimer yesterday for a debate on amateur boxing. The Senator mentioned Councillor Andrew Duncan from County Westmeath who has a genuine interest in promoting amateur boxing throughout the countr…

I call for a debate at some stage in the near future with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, on roads infrastructure. I welcome the new contract awarded for the road from Frenchpark to Scramogue in the west. I hope that parts of the road will have a two and one design, where traffic can overtake safely on single lane roadways. A significant number of other single lane roads throughout the country, particularly the road from Castlebar to Frenchpark, have certain parts where second lanes could be put in for sho…