I also welcome the recent announcement by the Minister of State, the Minister and the Taoiseach of the €1.318 billion investment in the forestry programme and many of the concepts therein. I am a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which has deliberated on the forestry sector too many times to mention. I know our focus was mainly on the backlog in licensing. I welcome the numbers given by the Minister of State and the fact that there has been some alleviation of the problem…

I asked about the proposal for nature restoration.

I welcome the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, to the House to deal with this issue. It is straightforward. As the Minister of State is well aware, the targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, better known as TAMS, have been modified. I warmly welcome the exceptional opportunity afforded to farmers to avail of a grant of up to 60% to install solar panels, up to a maximum expenditure limit of €90,000, and believe the initiative is brilliant. However, by virtue of the fact that the money is EU money, with asso…

I accept the Minister of State's answer. As I said in my initial summation of the issue, the Department at least needs to put the question to Europe. A lot of money is available and is being expended. Neither the State nor the European Union is getting full value for it. The terms and conditions of the scheme stipulate that farmers cannot supply energy to any organisation outside their holding. Those requirements were probably penned long before the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and before many of the probl…

I too welcome the Smith family and compliment the Leader and Senator Seery Kearney. As someone who has a little angel of a sister whom I never actually had the pleasure of meeting, I was very moved by Senator Seery Kearney's contribution. Some 50 years later, I still try to live her life in my head and my imagination and to think about where she would be now and how things would have progressed. I compliment all of those involved. I will raise an issue far removed from that emotion. As the Deputy Leader will be awa…

I welcome and thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for coming in to take this Commencement matter. I will read the Commencement matter again to highlight some issues in it. It is to request that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage would relax the conditions for the extension of planning permission for one-off housing under section 42(1)(b) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 in light of delays caused by Covid and now the inflation in construction costs, which could result in many pla…

The response was informative but not very positive in respect of my query. I ask the Minister of State again if this matter could be addressed. I am not looking for extensions to planning permissions across the board. We are all aware of the two years we just had. People are trying to get back to normality. While a five-year window may sound like a long time, it becomes a very narrow window when the two years of the pandemic are subtracted, especially in cases where people's circumstances have changed. There is a c…

This morning I want to discuss again the latest narrative on potential energy shortages. The Minister with responsibility for energy needs to come to the House for a debate on the issue. I would like to see the debate focused on the role of the energy companies in this potential and threatened crisis. I can give a number of examples. I have been contacted by somebody who installed solar panels and is prepared to supply energy to the grid. To get this energy accepted and paid for is an unbelievable task. The power g…

I welcome the Minister of State and our guests in the Public Gallery. I apologise for the fact that I did not make it out to them this morning due to prior engagements. I compliment Senator Martin on his enthusiasm in promoting this Bill and bringing it to this Stage. I am a firm believer that a stitch in time saves nine and that prevention is better than cure. While it is timely now, to an extent, it would have been preferable to have had this Bill ten, 15 or 20 years ago. However, it is never too late. We need to…

I also welcome the Minister of State. I thank her for taking the time to come in and deal with this issue. For the record, the question is to ask the Minister of State whether the rate of pay for those who use their homes for the HSE boarding out scheme for elderly people under the boarding out regulations of 1993 could be increased in light of the increasing cost of living and associated costs of running this type of accommodation. It is pretty self-explanatory from the conversation we have on a daily basis in eve…

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that she is here on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. I welcome in her statement the commitment by the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to review this. However, my specific question was about pay rates, which should be addressed sooner rather than later. The regulations were introduced in 1993. In her statement, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, said that is now being recommended that we would look at enhancing this model. The numbers are dropping off…

The HSE is on record as saying that this needs to be done through legislation.

I will raise one simple issue. As the weather gets a little finer and our lands dry up, each year we seem to have increasing cases of wildfires and forest fires. I would like the relevant Department to start an early awareness campaign on this. I warmly welcome the statement from the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Noonan, in which he knocked the fact that Irish farmers are often hammered online for being the cause of these fires. While I do not want to get into…

A number of students will undertake oral and practical exams over the Easter period. It would be remiss of us before the House goes into recess not to acknowledge the great work that teachers, supervisors, boards of management and, indeed, the Minister for Education and the officials in her Department have done throughout the pandemic over the past two years. Most important of all, I wish to acknowledge all of the students. I wish each and every one of them the very best of luck. Some students must sacrifice what s…

Considering the Cathaoirleach's words, I will be as brief as possible. I want to be associated with the congratulations to Senator Clonan. I look forward to working with him. I would like the Minister for Foreign Affairs to come to the House to debate seasonal work permits. At a recent meeting with the Association of Farm & Forestry Contractors in Ireland, its representatives highlighted to us again the difficulties contractors have in recruiting people to operate machinery, particularly during the silage season. W…

I welcome the Minister to the House for this important debate. I condone his condemnation of the illegal and unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. This will create trying circumstances for us here in Ireland, in our agricultural community in particular. However, these are mere shadows of the turmoil, the pain and the grief that are being suffered by the Ukrainians. I would like to be associated with the Minister’s remarks in asking for the Russians to leave as soon as possible, without any conditions. Many people…

I will be brief because Senator Burke has said a lot of what I was going to say and there is no point in repetition. For the benefit of my colleague, I never read any statement I make in the House. It is a gripe I have. If a Member is reading a speech, who knows who wrote it? I try to keep on top of my brief, come into the House and speak. I will do that now. I compliment the Minister on being in the House this evening. Since our respective appointments to our positions, this is the issue on which we have had most …

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I will be brief because the remainder of this evening's proceedings will be very much determined by the Minister of State's response and contribution. I will not pre-empt that. The majority of the money that has been invested by the three farmers involved was invested on the basis of specifications provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. They went to enormous expense to create the fantastic facilities they have, which have satisfied the Departmen…

Next Thursday.