I second the proposed amendment, which is very important. I raise the issue of the high cost of road diesel. Tomorrow, the Irish Road Haulage Association will hold a demonstration outside Leinster House and will probably bring the city and the country to their knees. Many road hauliers' businesses are on the line. It is difficult for them to keep going in light of the high cost of road diesel over recent months. That is not taking into account the carbon tax increase that will be in place from next May. I propose t…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am sharing time on this with Senator Kyne, who comes from the same type of area as I do, as does the Cathaoirleach. There was a huge fire in Killarney during the summer. Fires pose great problems for many people and many farmers. A fire on commonage, in forestry or on any land can be started by fishers, campers, hillwalkers or various people who can be lackadaisical in throwing away cigarette butts or starting a campfire for a picnic and failing to put it out properly…

What the Minister of State is saying is that if a fire takes place between 1 March and 31 August the farmer loses money unless the appeal is successful. Even at that, the farmer will have to go through the rigours of the appeal process. These appeals should be fast and simple. They should not be complicated. Farmers who are not responsible for the fires should be fully recompensed immediately. This is the view of all farmers. As the Minister of State well knows, there can be great hardship. Farmers have commitments…

Like Senator Davitt, I wish to call for a debate on climate change and climate action. There is so much work to be done over the next ten years to meet our targets that a debate in this Chamber would be most welcome. The budget for climate action is going to be €20 billion a year for the next ten years. Ten years ago, that figure of €20 billion represented half the amount that it took to run the country. It is an enormous amount. There are many changes to be made in a number of areas, including those of the parking…

I welcome the Minister of State and wish her well with delivery of Sláintecare. I welcome this opportunity to say a few words about Sláintecare. As Senator Seery Kearney stated, it is not an issue of money. We have never had more money allocated to our health services. The current allocation of €22 billion is an unbelievable amount of money when one weighs it up. It includes the allocation of an extra €4 billion last year. There is no doubt that there is something wrong in the health service. Money is not the probl…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I wish him well with his portfolio. I welcome the debate on this issue. It is an important issue that needs to be debated, so I thank the Green Party for tabling the motion. I agree with much of what the party's Senators have said. There are areas where flooding can travel upstream but, equally, there have been instances in the past where changes have resulted in large-scale flooding and landslides, one of which I will outline. It happened in west County Mayo on the Kil…

I support Senator O'Reilly in his comments on the shortage of work permits. There is a shortage across all enterprises in Ireland. I ask the Leader to raise the matter with the relevant Minister because a solution is badly needed. I call for a debate on Irish Water. It is now six or seven years since the organisation was set up and it would be timely to have a debate on it in the House. Between 2021 and 2025, €6 billion will be spent on water services infrastructure the length and breadth of the country. How is fur…

I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss this topic. It is important legislation. I wish the Minister well with it and congratulate him and the Ministers in the other member states for getting this work done two years ahead of time. The Title of the Bill, the Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021, says it all. It is all about confidence and stability. This is what this Bill is about. It is complicated and technical, and its language makes it very difficult for the ordinar…

I thank Senator Cummins for sharing his time. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Senator Ruane raised a very important issue and a very important aspect of the budget. I share Senator Ruane's view and I support her on this point. This needs resources and I hope it is an area that will be looked at in the future as it is very important. I want to raise two aspects. I cannot let the opportunity go without raising the issue of the closure of bank branches by Bank of Ireland, three of which were in County Ma…

I knew that Deputy Fitzmaurice was in the turf business, but I had not realised that Senator Mullen is involved in the transportation of turf. You find out something new every day. The value of this house is that there is great experience here. We are discussing horticulture and we have two horticulturalists in our midst, namely, Senators Boyhan and Murphy. They have outlined their great experience in many aspects of the horticultural business. The Minister of State should seek permission from the Government to sol…

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the National Ambulance Service. This issue has been raised by a number of Senators over the past while and by various radio stations throughout the country. It is quite obvious that the National Ambulance Service is not working efficiently. I was approached recently by a very worried citizen who was in a desperate state one night trying to get an ambulance for his wife. There was no ambulance available. The ambulance service is not working properly and that is why I ask the L…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and wish him well with the budget. I have seen many budgets come through this House. This is a very fair budget. The Minister of State will be well aware that even in the boom years no matter how much money was available it was not enough. That is the reality. I have seen budgets coming through this House and the budgetary spending provided was never enough for people. In this budget with its package of measures covering personal taxation, the minimum wage, health servic…

It was very lightly struck. I wish the Minister of State well with the budget. I hope he will take on board the latter point I made. It should be taken on board because those derelict listed buildings are eyesores throughout the length and breadth of the country.

I congratulate and wish the former Member of this House and Senator, Deputy Bacik, the best of luck on taking her seat in this Dáil Chamber today. She will be a great loss to the Seanad Chamber but will be a very good gain for the Dáil and I wish her well. I also propose a vote of sympathy for the late Dr. Seán McCarthy from Tipperary, a former Deputy, Senator, Minister and gold medallist in his education when he did his medical exams. I extend my sympathies now to his family. I raise the issue of social media abus…

I am sharing time with Senator Buttimer.

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. He is here nearly as often as the Senators. He could be taken for a Senator if he came in any more often. I wish him well with this Bill. I have mixed feelings about it. We have a lot of State control in the country. Too much State control, in my view, is not a good thing. We have seen where NAMA failed miserably. It was the biggest land development agency in the world and it failed to deliver housing in this country. The whole NAMA situation is shameful. When it w…

I support Senator McDowell in what he said about electricity. There will be more and more dependence on electricity. There will be more and more electric cars and electric bikes and more electric gadgets in houses, so there will be a huge dependency on electricity. Where will we get certainty in this regard? I am delighted that the marine planning Bill is being published. It needs to be put in place, and I ask the Leader that it be brought forward, even if it has to be brought into this House first. It is crucial l…

I am sure the Attorney General has examined the Bill in great detail and covered most angles. In any event, the President could well refer this Bill so I am fully on the Minister's side and am sure all the angles are covered. The President has the option of referring this to the courts if he wishes to do that.

I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his first year as Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann. I wish to raise the issue of driver theory tests. The way candidates are being treated is disgraceful. People who are scheduled for tests go to the testing centre to find out it is closed. They have not been notified that their test has been rescheduled although they should be. I am calling on the Leader to contact the Minister for Transport and the Road Safety Authority, RSA, to ask for an amnesty regarding driver theory tests f…

I welcome the Minister of State. I refer to amendments Nos. 16 and 17 and variations of county development plans. There is no great flexibility in county development plans. The national development plan is running at the moment and trying to grow the regions by cities. Some smaller towns may have zoning for development land for enterprise or industry which is no longer required but it is still in the development plan under a zoning that might not apply for housing. The matrix would not apply to it. There is no grea…