On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 535 of 539 decisive votes (0 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| CC | Ceann Comhairle / Chair | 219 | 2023-01-25 – 2024-10-01 |
| FF | Fianna Fáil | 204 | 2020-06-29 – 2026-09-23 |
Membership spells on record: FF 2016-04-25–2020-03-29 · FF 2020-03-30–2025-01-29 · FF 2025-01-29–present
That concludes the round of lead speakers. We will now move to five-minute slots. At this stage, we have more speakers than slots, so I ask speakers to be as brief as possible.
The Minister of State has to come back in at 5.05 p.m. For everyone who wants to speak to get to speak by then, we are looking at three or four minutes each. I ask Members to curtail their contributions to three minutes.
Senators Dooley and Chambers are sharing and I am allocating them five minutes between the two Senators.
The Minister of State without interruption, please.
The Minister of State has 13 seconds. If he wants to have a conversation, he can fire ahead.
When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, and thank him for taking time out of his very busy schedule to deal with this issue on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Noonan. As everybody may be aware, the mink, a member of the weasel family, is not natural to Ireland but was imported in the 1950s as part of a commercial fur production operation. Due to many escapees, and in instances where the commercial entity may not have been as successful as …
I thank the Minister of State for his response. The kernel of the response was on what was in place before and has expired, and that was the bounty scheme. With the greatest respect to the NPWS and its implementation of the invasive species Acts, identifying areas, sometimes very small areas, where there may be a rare species and concentrating on that, does not or will not work. Mink can travel up to 30 km in a night or two. It needs to a national effort. I implore the Minister of State to go back to the Department…
I would like to be associated with the Cathaoirleach's remarks congratulating my political cousin. There is no biological relationship but we can claim cousinship when it comes to politics. I have to admit, it was a great achievement for a man of his years.
I will raise what is a very serious issue for me and many others out there. We are fortunate that we had no fatalities on our roads on the back of Storm Debi over the weekend. I have no doubt that, if we had, I would not be the only one raising the issue of ash dieback in our roadside trees here this morning. It was through lucky fate that there were no fatalities. In my own area, a lot of trees and branches came down as a result of trees having died from ash dieback. There are thousands of such trees in our roadsi…
I thank both Senators for their brevity. It is hard to share four minutes but they have done so excellently. The Minister is very welcome. He has four minutes.
The next Commencement matter is in the name of Senator Rebecca Moynihan, who is not here, so as the same Minister of State is responding, unless Senator Moynihan makes a last-minute arrival, Senator Clifford-Lee is next. I welcome the Minister of State. Senator Clifford-Lee has four minutes.
Senator, let the Minister of State respond.
Before the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, responds, I would like to welcome to the Gallery our special guests from the White House, Matthew McFarland and Kelsey Quackenbush. Fáilte romhaibh; you are very welcome. The Minister of State has four minutes to respond.
I welcome the Minister of State to the House. My Commencement matter also relates to flooding. The exact wording is to ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage that some immediate provisional arrangements be made to allow farmers whose slurry storage facilities were flooded during Storm Babet to empty their tanks without fear of prosecution or penalty, considering the slurry spreading closed period commenced on 15 October. I and the farmers are aware that under the good agricultural practice, GAP…
I thank the Minister of State for his response. There was common sense in his answer, which is unusual at times in these Houses. It is important that common sense prevails. As I said earlier, the farmers who are asking the question are doing so because they are cognisant of their roles and duties to the environment and water. They are compliant farmers. The Minister of State mentioned that local authorities can inspect. It is important that the message goes from the Department to the local authorities that where a …
Amendment No. 1 is in the name of Senator Keogan who is not present and, therefore, the amendment falls.
Amendment No. 2 is in the name of Senator Ruane. It has been organised that Senator Flynn will deputise for Senator Ruane.
Amendments Nos. 3, 4, 15, 16, 21 to 23, inclusive, 25, 34, 35, 38 to 41, inclusive, and 44, 47, 57 and 60 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.