I will probably end up going over some of the same points. Does the Minister of State understand my point? Will he accept that we are clearly disenfranchising the owners of small, independent craft shops across the country with this €75 threshold? They will be the most impacted. I would like him and the Minister for Finance to accept that these are the people this will affect. I fully accept that it does not affect larger businesses. The Minister of State said that Brexit was not our decision, and it was not, but t…

I do not understand why this specific part of the Bill has to be rushed through. We are looking at an industry that has been decimated this year. There will probably not be an English or overseas visitor here before June next year anyway. Where is the panic? Where is the urgency? Why are we rushing this? As Senator Chambers said, why can we not pause this and get further detailed analysis on it? Credible alternatives have been put to the Minister of State today and I am disappointed they will all be ignored. I am n…

We have all heard it said that two wrongs do not make a right. As Senator Chambers alluded to, the previous Brexit Bill was emergency legislation and this level of focus was not put on it. We are focusing on it now. We are identifying the weaknesses in it and putting our case to Government. Again our heads are on the guillotine and we are told that we have to have this done next week. Senator Chambers has made an offer for the Seanad to sit the following week, if that is required, to amend this legislation. The Min…

I will not delay the House too long. I have said nearly everything I could say at this stage. I again express my disappointment that the Government is not willing to accept any amendments, even those from its partners in the Government. I know the Minister of State referred to the fact that no amendment relating to the collective spend was tabled, but I think the result would have been the same even if an amendment had been tabled on the collective spend. The Minister of State came back in on the issue of the €9 an…

Is the amendment being pressed?

Amendments Nos. 9 to 11, inclusive, may be discussed together.

Amendments Nos. 14 to 16, inclusive, will be discussed together.

Senator Currie has ten minutes.

Now.

Now.

Now.

Now.

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House today. One of the greatest challenges for us is how we attract people into public life. When it comes to councillors there are two real components, one of which is their pay and conditions. We have all made our contributions on that. I believe at this stage it has gone above all our pay grades in this House and sits at another level. Hopefully, we will have an answer to that shortly. The second component involves trying to give councillors power that has a direct an…

I thank the Minister of State for the clarification. It is good news that the waiver will be available for the 2022 budgetary process. Nevertheless, on top of what he outlined, there needs to be education for councillors as to what they can and cannot do in respect of the process. The ones I have spoken to were not fully aware of section 15 and the power it gives them. Even if that process could be rolled out with each local authority to advise members what they are entitled to do in the county development plan pro…

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. We have seen him a lot lately and perhaps we will be seeing much more of him in the future. As he will know, we will be supporting this Bill, which has been brought forward by the Government to dissolve the Credit Union Restructuring Board, or ReBo as it has been deemed, because it has fulfilled its purpose. ReBo was established on a statutory basis in January 2013 as a body responsible for facilitating and overseeing the restructuring of credit unions to support t…

I again thank the Minister of State. We will be supporting the Bill which makes amendments to existing legislation, including urgently required changes relating to credit union general meetings to enable them to go ahead during the current pandemic. It also changes the terms of the membership of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council to strengthen continuity and widen eligibility. The Bill also makes changes to enable compliance with certain provisions contained in the SURE loan agreement which provides financial assist…

I am conscious of time, and the Minister of State must come back in. Will the final three Senators agree to five minutes each? Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank the Minister of State for coming here again and for her commitment to the House.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, and invite him to address the House. Each Member will have six minutes after that and we have a total of 45 minutes.

I call Senator Malcolm Byrne who has six minutes to be followed by Senator McDowell.