I welcome the Minister to the House and wish her well with the passage of this important Bill. I congratulate her on the tremendous work she has done over a difficult period in recent months. I support Senator Craughwell in what he said regarding Oireachtas Members. I would add that while we pay PRSI at the K class, which is the same rate as an S class, there are no benefits to us from it. It does not even qualify a person to sign for credits. A person who lost his or her seat in the Seanad or the Dáil at the last …

I ask the Deputy Leader to arrange the attendance of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, for a debate in the near future on the issue of energy. It is a very important and exciting area. As Members are aware, the cost of generating energy from fossil fuels depends on the price of the fuel and the cost of the power plants that use those fuels, whereas it is completely different in the case of renewables. We have the wind and the sun. Basically, the only cost is that of th…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I welcome the Finance Bill and wish the Minister well with it. I highlighted an issue concerning redundancies to the Minister of State, Deputy English, at a previous debate in the Seanad. There is a problem for small family-run businesses that are sole traders or self-employed and that employ people. The Redundancy Payments Act 2003 introduced the provision that two weeks per year must be paid in redundancy. It is right that a person who is made redundant gets two weeks…

I raise an issue that has been raised a number of times, namely, cases involving multinational utilities companies, such as Eir and Sky, where people try to break a contract or stop making payments for one reason or another. On telephone services, I have been contacted by someone who has a number of mobile phones and is trying to eliminate some of the mobile contracts but cannot get through to Eir. Other people cannot get through to Sky. They cannot cancel contracts and the money continues to be taken out of their …

It is a long-term strategy that will be in place. To address the amendment, it is necessary to read the original Act in conjunction with the amendments. This Bill is amending the original Act. The original Act planned for public meetings anyway, so this Bill would only add meetings that are online. This Bill, which has been brought forward to amend the existing Act, is going to introduce online meetings and we would have public meetings under the original Act which has been in place for many years.

It is important how the message is communicated to the public if there are going to be online meetings. How will that message be communicated? In some areas, we have local radio and newspapers. In other areas, there are few means of communicating that these public meetings are going to take place. The Minister of State might address that point.

I welcome the Minister of State. As Senator Murphy stated, this matter is in good hands with him and the Minister. I have no doubt that they will bring this to fruition in the not-too-distant future. I was the recipient of the free education and school transport introduced by the then Minister for Education, Donogh O'Malley, in 1967. That was the first year it was available and it was my first year in secondary school. I do not think anybody going to secondary school in 1967 realised the enormity of what Donogh O'M…

I would like to discuss governance. I can speak about governance because the Mayo campus of GMIT was at a huge disadvantage for quite a long time. When the ETBs were changed, local authorities put members on their governing bodies. Mayo County Council appointed members to the Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board, but the board responsible for GMIT was the Galway and Roscommon ETB. As a result, the Castlebar campus was downgraded every year for many years. The new president recently addressed Mayo Co…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I concur with everything that has been said about this great debate and I wish the Minister of State well with all of the proposals that have been made today. I have a different issue to raise with the Minister of State. I think it is partly in his area of responsibility but it mainly pertains to the Department of Social Protection. It is an issue I have raised before with the previous Minister for social protection. I am referring to redundancy. While I have been invol…

I again raise the issue of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. This was debated at great length in the House a number of years ago. This month, a number of provisions of the Act were commenced in law. There was great division among Members and great debates when the Bill was going through the House. Ultimately, the Bill was passed. One matter every Member agreed on was minimum unit pricing, but that is the one aspect of the Act that has not been commenced. This week, Tesco is selling cans of alcohol for 70 cent p…

I welcome the Minister back to the House. I wish to share my time with Senator Currie unless she gets time herself.

The Minister has said that the Bill will not be a cost to the Exchequer. However, section 3 of the Bill states that he must do this in consultation with the Minister for Health and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Why, if the Bill will not be a cost to the Exchequer, must he consult the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform? Is it just a case of the Department of Finance shoving its weight around the place? I would say that is probably the case. I welcome the Bill and wish the Minister well with…

I am not. This Bill will place an extra workload on local authority members.

The Minister knows what he must and should do. The Government has very ambitious renewable energy plans for up to 2030, particularly for the east coast from Wexford to County Louth where it is planned to generate 3.5 GW of electricity. As of now, we have only 25 MW generated by a very small offshore farm on the Arklow Bank. The Marine Planning and Development Management Bill will come before the House shortly but there is a crossover concerning An Bord Pleanála. Has An Bord Pleanála the expertise and resources to d…

The Leas-Chathaoirleach might name those of us who did not have the time to contribute to the debate.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill and I welcome the Minster of State to the House and wish him well. There are three main parts to this Bill, whose purpose is to dissolve the Credit Union Restructuring Board, to transfer certain functions of the Credit Union Restructuring Board to the Minister for Finance, and to amend the Credit Union and Co-operation with Overseas Regulators Act 2012. Those are the main parts of the Bill. The restructuring board was brought in when this country was in a much poorer s…

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I have some brief questions for him. First, I welcome the legislation. With regard to the European Union facility included in the Bill, is this specifically for the credit unions or does it apply to many other institutions? Does it apply to all institutions that are lending? Do the main banks here already have that facility and is the Minister of State extending it to other institutions such as the credit union? Second, with regard to holding meetings, whether it i…

Which parties did that?

That is an outrageous assertion.

I have been here since 1979 and I never saw that take place.