The Leas-Chathaoirleach has caught me by surprise.

Today, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, will be in Swinford, County Mayo, which Senator Chambers will know well, launching community hubs, and we welcome that launch very much in Swinford today. This House played a major part in that regard. In 2009 or 2010, when the Courts Service Bill was going through the House, I tabled an amendment to the effect that when changes were made to the Courts Service and some courthouses were closing, they could not be sold off and would be given to the community, with the result tha…

I welcome the Minister back to the House and support the motion extending mandatory hotel quarantine to 30 July. It is a hugely draconian measure and I am delighted that its extension is for only a very short period. I am also delighted that the Minister has taken France, Belgium and the USA off the list. The French are now our nearest EU neighbours and there is a lot more activity between France and Ireland, with more ferries running between our two nations, for example. I would have had a problem with the motion …

I welcome the Minister to the House. I received my vaccination at the Breaffy House complex. It was a massive success and worked like clockwork. The staff were brilliant, there were no problems, no time waiting and it was a great success all round. In 1928, Michael Collins's sister, Margaret Collins-O'Driscoll, had to speak against her own party in support of vaccination against smallpox, a disease which inflicted terrible misery on Irish people at the time. She spoke eloquently about vaccination at the time. Some …

Like previous speakers, I would prefer if we had much more time to go into much more detail on the Bill but the main focus is to get it enacted in order that businesses can access much-needed finance. In many cases, businesses are dying because they cannot get access to funds, and it is critical that they get that finance. We had a good debate on Second Stage of the Bill. In regard to Senator Higgins's amendment, which seeks to include social and environmental criteria, I had presumed from listening to the Second S…

I welcome the Minister to the House. He has had a difficult time in his first year as Minister for Health and I congratulate him on the great work he is doing under difficult circumstances. Many people have had a tough time. We in the public service, including the Civil Service, have been well looked after and all of us on the public purse have much to be thankful for, but many small businesses and people in the hospitality and services industries are at their wits' end. As Senator McDowell asked, when we look back…

The conclusion the Government has come to is that there is no danger in people being outdoors. That is an aspect to be considered. I support what Senator Kyne said. We met pilots and people from the travel industry today. They are going through a very difficult period. On one hand that is an issue but, on the other hand, our tourism industry could suffer greatly. As has been said on numerous occasions, as an island nation we need air transport and connectivity. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and all those countries…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to the House again. He is in regular attendance in this House. I would like to concentrate my remarks on section 30, which is an important section in that it deals with the transfer of powers. I do not agree with the Department's view that councillors cannot comment on planning applications. Councillors spend a great deal of time developing and studying county development plans. In the case of a planning application, which may be controversial or not, on which a decis…

I support the call made by Senator McDowell and others for a debate on cybersecurity and energy security. The security breaches of the last few days are not the first such breaches. A number of local authorities have been hacked in the past year and a half. I fully support the call for a debate. The Passport Office provides a great service. Its online service is very efficient and has helped so many people. There have been problems with the Passport Office over the last week. There is a major build-up of passport a…

I welcome the Minister of State. I also welcome the opportunity to say a few words on this important legislation. The lack of sufficient finance is the biggest obstacle to businesses. I have seen many businesses fail due to a lack of finance or not being able to secure finance. In some cases, businesses do not have enough finance. In others, they are not able to get it and they fail. Nobody has seen more that more than the Minister of State. He has seen at first hand since the crash of 2008 the many viable business…

I welcome the Minister. I wish the Minister well in his chairmanship of the board of governors at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Over the past 20 years we have never seen such changes in banking circles and in banking products. It is a huge change for everybody. Quite a number of years ago, I told the Houses that a new, additional banking facility had opened in Castlebar. It brought to 14 or 15 the number of banking outlets in Castlebar, which at the time was a small town of some 16,000 peopl…

I welcome the opportunity to say a few words about the motion. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, to the House and wish him well. I do not think I have spoken in the House when he has been here. We served together in this House for a good number of years. I compliment Senator Seery Kearney on tabling the motion. It is a great motion. There is very little in it against which someone could argue. It is a very timely motion. As Senator Conway said, changes have taken place over recent years. We cannot be…

I would like to be associated with the vote of sympathy to Senator Mullen on the death of his father. It is not an easy time when one loses a loved one, so I wish the Senator well. We had a great debate here on tourism with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, a number of months ago but we should have a rolling debate on tourism and the opening up of business, particularly small business in the tourism sector, such as small pubs and small restaurants. I presume it will be a while before they open and some may not…

I welcome the Tánaiste to the House and wish him well with his portfolio. He holds a very important brief at this time. He told us: Around this time next month, we will publish the national economic recovery plan. It will present our vision for what the post recovery economy will look like, and how we plan to support businesses and employees in the months ahead. I believe he is the right man in the right job at this time, and is the man to lead us through what will be a rocky road at a vulnerable time. He has the e…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I welcome this opportunity to say a few words on post offices and not for the first time. We have had quite a number of debates on post offices and post office closures over the years. I compliment Senator Dooley on tabling the motion, which is very important, as Senator Chambers has said. This issue needs quite a lot of debate because many post offices have closed, and in recent years there has been a big shift in how business is done in many ways and not just with reg…

I welcome back to the House my colleagues, Senators Horkan and Maria Byrne, and congratulate them on their re-election. I commiserate with the people who put their names forward and were not successful, including two former Members. Will the acting Leader ask the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to come back to the House? We had a great debate some weeks ago on tourism and sport. As several speakers have noted, it is very important that, as the economy opens up, we focus particularly …

I wish to share my time with Senator Kyne.

Yes.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to the House. I thank the Green Party for bringing forward this important motion. I grew up in an area where water was very scarce, and we spent our summers filling water for cattle and digging wells. Then we had the advent of the group water schemes and they played a very important role throughout the length and breadth of the country. They provided a great source of water for farmers and communities at large. Group water schemes made mistakes at the beginning, but t…

I welcome the Minister to the House and wish him well with his portfolio. I sympathise with him on having the most difficult job in this country at this point in time, with everybody watching what he is doing. It will be very difficult, in the two minutes I have, to say a great deal on this matter. I will not go back over the issues raised by the many other Senators but I welcome the return of visits to nursing homes. That is very welcome. Allowing it again is a great initiative, vaccination having been carried out…