Is that agreed? Agreed.

Like others this morning, I welcome the announcement of the €79.5 million towards the crop affected by ash dieback and the growers who have been affected big-time on this. It is an issue I have raised previously. I warmly welcome today's announcement which will go some way to compensate those people and help them to get a crop reinstated. As everyone will be aware, nothing could compensate the people for what they have lost in their investment and the hardship they have personally gone through. I commend Limerick a…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, to the Chamber.

Senator Murphy is sharing time with Senator Chambers. Is that agreed? Agreed.

As there are no further contributors indicating, I invite the Minister of State to reply.

Today, I raise an issue that I have raised previously. Almost every other colleague has raised it before too. It is the infamous issue of passports. We have got away from the pandemic and the backlog it caused. Everyone was given the benefit of the doubt in that situation. I have been contacted by a person who applied for a passport for a child. The application was signed and stamped at a barracks, as required. The person has just received an email stating that as there was no answer when the Passport Office phoned…

Before calling the Minister, Deputy Burke, who will have ten minutes to speak, it gives me great pleasure to welcome him in his role as a full Minister. As a former Westmeath County Council colleague, he and I go back a long way in politics. It was not by design but it is brilliant that I actually happen to be in the Chair when he comes in for his first engagement here. I sincerely congratulate him on his appointment. I wish him the very best of good fortune and good luck going forward in the role.

I thank the Minister. Our first contributor is Senator Micheál Carrigy who is sharing time with Senator Maria Byrne.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Chathaoirleach. I welcome the Minister. The topic of today's debate is statements on agriculture which is a very broad church. It is such a vast sector with so many integral sectors within it. The Minister's speech has highlighted that the key topic at the moment is the weather and the issues pertaining to the prolonged spell of wet weather we have had since almost the start of July last year. I compliment the Minister. It is unusual in this Chamber – it is nearly a first for me – for …

I welcome the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to the House this afternoon. I appreciate that the senior Minister has taken time out of his busy schedule to deal with this Commencement matter which states that there needs to be a review of the grant reference costings from the Department when it comes to the allocation of TAMS grants, in particular as they relate to building projects. I raise this because of one instance I am aware of where a farmer is developing a shed. The Department estimates the price, on which th…

I appreciate the Minister's response and his outline of how the system works. I plead with him to consider a more immediate review. I will not rehash the figures I mentioned other than to say they are genuine. There is a big gulf in funding at the moment, particularly on the concrete, steel and building side, more so than in terms of equipment. A number of farmers with live applications are only now beginning to realise the difference. They were using the Department's reference costs to calculate their potential ou…

Even as a culchie, I can agree with everything Senator Fitzpatrick says about the cultural and historical value of Moore Street.

That concludes Commencement matters. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, for his attendance.

Today, I want to request that the Leader would ask the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to come to the Chamber for a debate, specifically on the climate action plan targets and the national retrofitting plan. I will pre-empt the Leader's possible answer to me that I should put down a Commencement matter. It is on the back of having such a Commencement matter down last week that I feel the need to raise this here today and for the Minister to come in to address a number of issues. The issue I…

Senator Mullen is deviating slightly from the amendment.

How stands amendment No. 1?

Will the Senator speak to the amendment? With the greatest respect, we are not talking about the overall Bill.

We are not discussing section 2. The Senator knows the rules as well as I do. We are discussing amendment No. 1 to section 1.

We will get to section 2.

The Senator is deviating from the amendment.