I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House today.

I welcome the Minister and thank him for coming here. I would have preferred if the debate had been on the VAT in the hospitality sector rather than the specific 9% VAT because cases can be made about the different services offered by the hospitality sector. I will speak this afternoon maybe not as a Senator but as a hotelier who raised in the hotel industry. I have lived every day of it and every day there is some discussion about the hospitality sector in my family. The industry has suffered its greatest shock si…

Over a long period of time, accommodation has been driven by supply and demand. That is the main driving factor in that regard. This principle is leading to the high cost of accommodation. A few other factors are driving demand. Given the way the hotel sector is at present, we have only 62,000 hotel bedrooms available in the country. More than 42% of them are in four- and five-star hotels and only 32% are in two star or lower. The viability of budget hotels is very challenging in Ireland because of their high capit…

Is the amendment being pressed?

Amendment No. 2 is in the names of Senators Sherlock, Hoey, Moynihan and Wall. Amendments Nos. 2, 3 and 7 are related and may be discussed together, by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next Commencement matter is from Senator Paul Daly – the need for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to consider amending section 42 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 to allow for changes to conditions for the extension of planning permissions for one-off rural housing.

I welcome a group of young boys and girls to the Chamber. I am not sure what school they are from. It is great to see them engaging with politics at such a young age. Some of them might be sitting here in a few decades' time. I extend a warm welcome to them.

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, to the Chamber.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to the Chamber.

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. Those of us who were then Members of the Dáil and Seanad will recall that the commission was established by the Government in June 2015 following approval of a draft order of both Houses of the Oireachtas. Senators may also recall that the commission submitted an interim report in November 2015 which raised significant issues regarding legal professional privilege, banking confidentiality and its terms of reference. As a result, following consultation with all Oireach…

My issue relates to the budget of last week and my disappointment in relation to the extension of the VAT rate for the hospitality sector. At a time when that sector faces many challenges as it tries to get back to the capacity it had before the pandemic, it was unfortunate that no clear indication was given by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and no budget line was made to extend the VAT provision beyond 28 February. Adding to the confusion and frustration for me and the industry was that within three or …

Next Tuesday.

They should download the app.

I welcome the Minister of State. As he has pointed out, this is a very technical Bill. It has passed through the Houses without opposition so Fianna Fáil will be supporting this Bill. The Minister of State is a hard act to follow so I will not repeat anything he has said. As a layman, I will say a few words about the new borrowing arrangements. Interestingly, the new arrangements to borrow constitute a second line of defence to supplement the IMF resources to forestall or cope with an impairment of the internationa…

Next Tuesday.

There is a potential conflict of interest in this budget. It is partly a negative one, so I had better declare it as a negative one as well as a positive one. Today’s budget is further evidence that the number one priority of the Government is to protect all the people and families facing an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis caused by the continuing plague of populist politics, in particular the illegal invasion of Ukraine by the Putin regime. Populism has the easy answers. There is always an enemy of the people …

I thank the Minister of State. Senator Malcolm Byrne outlined our concerns with regard to the Minister of State's response to this issue. The Dublin-Rosslare east coast route has probably suffered from the least amount of investment over the 200 years of its history since it was delivered. It has great potential and provides an opportunity to take people off the road but we are not availing of it. The recently released report stated that we need an additional €230 million just to maintain the track that is in place…

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I know she is only the messenger. I served on the council when the event occurred in 2015, which goes to show that we are not taking the east coast rail line seriously if it took a severe weather event to create an emergency intervention to protect the line. We have known all along that the rail line on the east coast is vulnerable and we have done nothing about it. It took a storm event to get the issue resolved in 2015. Unless we deliver in this regard, realistically, …

A recurring theme is budget 2023, and the single crisis facing us is the cost of living, whether that be for an individual, family, household, community or business. If we can support businesses, we can support employment and a family income. My issue is the second biggest issue in the State, namely, housing, affordable housing and providing pathways to affordability and aspiring to your own home. One of the key measures in that has been the help to buy scheme, which has proven hugely successful for families aspiri…

They have moved a great deal in 100 years, in fairness.