It is incredible.

I welcome former President, Mrs. Robinson. It is wonderful to have her here. Her words were inspiring and really direct. She has given us a powerful message here today. I want to address a couple of points that were made. The first one arises from the last point of my colleague, Senator Higgins. How can it be, if we are serious about addressing climate change, that there are no targets relating to the EU military in terms of carbon emissions? There is none whatsoever, even as war rages in Ukraine, even as genocide …

Always. The Minister is welcome. I put on record Sinn Féin's support for all these amendments. It is an area I am particularly interested in and I am grateful to Senator Higgins's office for sending me the relevant video of that committee meeting. I was shocked to see confirmation in effect that Irish taxpayers' money is going to a fund which is contributing to military companies, including companies that export to the apartheid State of Israel. In his response, I expect the Minister to say that these amendments ar…

I appreciate being able to speak on the motion today. I literally came off the campaign trail because I wanted to show my support for this Bill. It is extremely timely and important. It is important this debate is taking place. As I came in today, there was tremendous solidarity outside the gates of Leinster House. It is great to see it. It is hard to know where to start. On a number occasions now, we have heard Senator Ned O'Sullivan talk about things that are happening in the world in a way that, to me, is entire…

It was centre-stage for a number of years.

Were any inspections carried out?

I do not think so.

Well said.

Well done.

I second the motion. The Minister of State is welcome. I want to start by quoting an email I received this morning. It is from a woman in Limerick who is overholding her current property because she has nowhere to go. She says she has a daughter who has her junior certificate coming up: She recently got mental health breakdown at school as this housing situation is stressful for both of us. We have three cats so there is not an option for us to live in some hotel. Especially these places [that] are below minimum st…

Well said.

The Senator does not like to hear the truth, so he is interrupting.

Well said.

I will speak about the issue of airports in the west of Ireland. I was at Shannon Airport last week. It is good to see the car park there full again. However, there is still plenty of unused capacity at Shannon and Cork airports, and there is certainly potential capacity at Kerry Airport, yet 88% of all flights that leave this island do so from the east coast. We know all the challenges that brings with it, including car parking spaces and congestion. It saddens me that every day when I leave Limerick, I see people…

As the Cathaoirleach knows, I am spending quite a bit of time in Cork at the moment and last week I had a very good conversation with one of the local taxi drivers there. He was telling me about how tough it is in the industry at the minute, of the huge hours they have to work, issues, unfortunately sometimes, of antisocial behaviour and the fact that it is very hard to get younger drivers to join the industry. He also told me about an organisation called Taxis for Ireland which, despite the title, does not contain…

As the Acting Leader knows, yesterday was May Day, a day of celebration and solidarity for workers and a day to recognise the achievements of our trade union movement. One of the most important sectors of our economy is construction, where unions, including my own union of SIPTU, have fought valiantly to establish a sectoral employment order. This is an order to underpin rates of pay and decent benefits, for example, pensions and sick pay, and it puts a floor under the industry. It is essential for the construction…

Well said.

Well said.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 6, between lines 24 and 25, to insert the following: “(b) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1): “(1A) Where a European Works Council stands established pursuant to the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act 1996 in relation to the employment in which it is proposed to create collective redundancies, the employer or responsible person shall, in addition to the requirements of subsection (1), with a view to reaching agreement, initiate …

I appreciate the Minister of State's response. I acknowledge, in fairness, that whenever I have engaged with him, he has always given me a thoughtful response and engaged in a meaningful way. I do not often say such things but I do so now to be fair to him. However, I genuinely disagree with him on this issue. The fundamental point is that EWCs are not allowed to operate here in the same way as they operate in the rest of the European Union, with specific reference to their recognition as a collective body that can…