I am anxious to allow the Minister to continue, because he was going in a certain direction. He said something important that I had not taken into account. While the amendment is very important for all of the reasons we discussed earlier, if it were to be accepted, I imagine the Bill would have to go back to the Seanad, which may stretch out the Bill and cause us to miss the timeline. As much as I want to make sure we have pre-planning consultation, I want to see an end to the SHD process. Therefore, we cannot miss…

In speaking to the amendment, I have great sympathy with the point that we want planning decisions to be made in local authorities. That is why I said on the previous amendment that I particularly welcome this Bill. It is a fundamental delivery of our commitment in the programme for Government to restore the two-stage planning process. I do not want to rehearse the comments I gave on an earlier amendment. However, it is important that when we speak about these amendments, we acknowledge that what we have done here …

Ceann Comhairle, apart from that being a disgraceful slur on many public servants, I ask Deputy Ring to correct the record of the House. The State was not founded 100 years ago. The State was founded when the Republic was declared by the first Dáil.

At yesterday's meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, informed us that more than 90% of people who had initially claimed the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, have now signed off that payment. There was also a great deal of discussion around the reduction in the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, in particular for the hospitality sector. While the Government is no longer in the business of restricting particular activities, it is recommending to people that they r…

Earlier this year, Dublin City Council published a report, titled Ballymun - A Brighter Future, which outlined the impact of the drugs industry on that community. Core to that report were actions which we believe many agencies, including An Garda Síochána, need to take. The resources An Garda Síochána has are crucial to the successful implementation of that report. Will the Minister of State outline the number of community gardaí available to the community of Ballymun at this time?

I welcome the Minister of State's commitment to this issue along with that of his ministerial colleague. Deployment is a matter for the Garda Commissioner but, on his appointment, he said that crime is not like rain in that it does not fall evenly everywhere. It was therefore very surprising when we discovered, through the report, Ballymun - A Brighter Future, that the Dublin northern division has the eighth lowest number of gardaí among the 28 districts. If we remove the 50 gardaí who are based in Dublin Airport a…

I appreciate the update from the Minister of State. It will help to continue to inform the implementation of the report. It does not, however, significantly increase the resources available to the community. I welcome, however, the Government's commitment to implementing this report on Ballymun. It is crucial that communities see reports like this being implemented rather than just being published. I also record the commitment that the Taoiseach gave, when he met me, to engage with agencies in Ballymun regarding th…

This is an important day for the many people who come to our clinics because often they are on two sides of the development coin. On one side are the many people who are looking for and who need housing, often in very difficult circumstances, and on the other side are communities concerned about the impact of planning and development on their area. The solution for one side is met by ensuring we bring on a solution for the other. That is what this Bill does. It is significant that we are ending the SHD process, whi…

If Miriam Lord is to be believed, the Minister was once involved in a bribery allegation involving His Holiness the Pope, a family member and a puppy.

I raise with him the issue of animal welfare. Yesterday, the DSPCA said we need to do far more on the issue of exporting puppies bred on puppy farms. Representatives of the North Dublin Cat Rescue have told me that we need to do far more to support voluntary organisations spaying feral cats. Will the Minister raise these matters with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, as I also will?

Sometimes in this Chamber we face deep levels of frustration and I wonder whether we are making any progress on the issues before us. Today is not one of those days. While this is a very wide-ranging Bill that in many ways will help us meet some of our key climate action targets, I want to focus on the amendments relating to scrambler bikes. The term Teachta Dála, messenger of the people, is an interesting phrase because who knows what messages were sent here from the people? We meet many people during an election …

This morning, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage completed the pre-legislative scrutiny of the local government (directly elected mayor with executive functions in Limerick city & county) Bill 2021. It was clear that that legislation would be utterly unsuitable for the Dublin area. Yet, Dublin has been promised a directly elected mayor in the programme for Government. Can the Tánaiste say when the Government might bring forward either legislation or a convention with a view to …

When we speak of cancers in this House, we hear that they come to nearly every home. It was breast cancer that came to our house. While my mam tried to stay very strong while she was dealing with it herself, I will probably never forget the kick in the stomach that many of us felt in the house, and also the huge sense of relief when five years had passed following her treatment. That is a story or journey that not every woman gets to make. However, breast cancer is a very treatable cancer, and it is a journey that …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the report. The assembly has become an important part of our democratic process. Yet again, it has produced a nuanced representation of the state of gender inequality. I thank everybody who was involved in the assembly vote, both men and women. Sometimes men feel excluded from this debate or they feel that we need to be defensive in responding to the debate. This is an issue, like all inequality issues, which disproportionately impacts women. It eats away at all of society like…

The programme for Government contains a range of commitments on education, not least the recent reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio. However, to do that, we first need a teacher, and I know many principals across north Dublin are struggling to recruit teachers at the moment. They are also struggling to find substitute teachers. There was an arrangement in place previously where special education teaching, SET, hours were allowed to be banked and those classes could be covered. Could the Taoiseach do everything he …

I always make the mistake of responding to the debate instead of just reading what I have prepared. Yet I find myself compelled to respond to the debate again.

On one side of the House we have the Opposition talking about the problem of inflation and spending more in order to tackle it. Does the Opposition not realise that one of the principal causes of inflation is injecting more money into the economy? The more the Government injects more money into the economy, the more inflation increases. It is about striking a balance between Government spending and inflation increasing. It is a basic economic principle, going back to the French Revolution or the Weimar Republic. Go…

At last night's Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting, speaker after speaker stood up and spoke about the need for a universal childcare system and for us to start the journey in doing that. I ask the Minister to outline to the House the steps he intends to take to put that in place both in the forthcoming budget and in the lifetime of the Government, as it will make such a significant impact in the lives of children.

I did not expect the Minister to give away budget secrets but it is good to hear the trajectory he is on. I suppose the proof of the pudding will be in budgets in years to come because he is right in that significant investment is being made. Nevertheless, significantly more investment must be made. The EWSS in the childcare sector has given us a taste of what a significant State investment in the staffing costs of childcare providers could do. I welcome its extension and I would like to see it extended further unt…

This is one of the first debates I have had the opportunity to sit and listen to given the restrictions we have had since I was elected. I acknowledge all the contributions and particularly the commitment of the two Ministers of State, Deputies James Browne and Naughton. I welcome the publication of the strategy. I do so because many of the communities we discussed in this report are ones I represent in this House. They are proud communities. They hate the stigma that much of this brings on them but they know that …