Again, I am just trying to put these pieces of the jigsaw together. I might start with some general questions for the Minister of State to address now. A number of commitments were made in the Seanad to Senator Alice-Mary Higgins in regard to amendments she had proposed, so I will just go through some of them and ask, if I can, whether these are addressed in the current lists we have before us. She proposed to amend the definition of "environmental criteria" to ensure the inclusion of environmental conservation, ge…

Is that amendments Nos. 1 and 2 from the Seanad to be replaced by amendment 1c?

Okay.

Okay. The question is whether that is dealt with in these amendments. My second question is if anything has happened in relation to these two amendments. The then Minister of State, now Senator Seán Kyne, committed that departmental officials would liaise with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to see if a comparison made within the definition of "environmental criteria" in the Bill could be replaced with a consideration as proposed by the Senators. Is that dealt with here?

Unless I am misreading it, in which case the Minister of State will correct me, the proposed amendment does not deal with the main problem, which is that there is potential for the dedesignation of a large number of NHAs and allowing peat mining to take place. There is explicit reference in respect of dedesignation to national, regional and local economic needs. This means economic needs could be a reason to abandon our commitment to tackle the biodiversity crisis. That is my understanding. The amendments are as ba…

Tonight at 5.30 p.m., protesters will gather at the Spire in opposition to and horror of the Israeli massacre of people in Jenin. They will be joined by protesters around the world. A general strike has been declared in the West Bank. At least ten people, including two children, have been murdered so far. Hundreds have been injured and 3,000 people have been forced to flee Jenin. There may be many more casualties in the coming days if the onslaught continues, as it appears is the intention of the Israeli state. The…

Will the Government move to recognise the state of Palestine? Will it adopt the recommendations of the Amnesty report into the actions of apartheid Israel and will it stop blocking the occupied territories Bill?

The Government is blocking it.

The Taoiseach is misleading the House.

Please do not.

One of the areas where the State may be compelled to issue an apology in the future relates to decisions taken during the Covid crisis, in particular, the decisions to prioritise private profit over public health. I will raise the matter of a Covid inquiry, which the Taoiseach was reported as saying will be set up this year and for which the terms of reference are being worked on. Will those terms of reference include the issue of long Covid? Unfortunately, this will be a growing issue. Approximately 10% of all tho…

But if you are assessing the overall in terms of what you did during Covid-----

-----clearly it has a negative impact.

The programme for Government refers to the drug and alcohol task forces. It says that they "play a key role" in implementing the drug strategy; that the Government will continue to support them "in identifying local need in communities"; that it will "support targeted initiatives"; and that it will address "drug and alcohol misuse". The truth is there has been limited progress on this commitment to support those who are on the front line in dealing with the problems of drug abuse and addiction. The funding is dire.…

The Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, published the review into senior public service recruitment and pay processes. As part of that, he agreed to the re-establishment of a senior public pay remuneration committee. I read the report and much of it makes sense, including reducing the potential term of Secretaries General from a possible ten years to seven and allowing them to continue in the Civil Service after they have completed their terms. However, a …

The war on neutrality we are seeing in this country forms part of a wider process of European militarisation that is seen in the applications of Sweden and Finland to join NATO and in the unprecedented increase in military expenditure right across the European Union where in 2022 the announced increase in military expenditure was bigger than total EU military expenditure across all the member states in 2020. That is the increase alone. That is a huge drive towards war, militarisation and towards eradicating any for…

It is not agreed to.

Earlier today, People Before Profit Deputies visited workers at the Iceland store on Talbot Street. These workers started occupying the store yesterday. They have been there through the night and staying away from their families. Why? Because, bluntly, they have been robbed by their employer. The workers are owed a collective tens of thousands of euro in unpaid wages and holiday pay. They are right to take a stand, to occupy and to demand that they are paid what they are owed. This situation has all the hallmarks o…

The general public and workers at RTÉ are utterly appalled at the revelations of secret payments to Ryan Tubridy. They raise a number of questions about the public service role of RTÉ. One aspect is the function of effectively secret agreements with companies. In this case, what we are led to believe is that in 2020, RTÉ made an arrangement with the car company, Renault, whereby in order to avoid it appearing on RTÉ's balance sheet, Renault would make a payment of €75,000 to Ryan Tubridy, in return for which Renaul…

I asked the Taoiseach about the Iceland workers earlier and he agreed with me the workers should be paid what they were owed and should go to the WRC to achieve that. The problem, as the Taoiseach knows, is that is not a simple or quick process. The State treats wage theft differently than it does other forms of theft. If I go into an Iceland store tomorrow and walk out with a frozen pizza I have not paid for, the store can call the Garda and I can be arrested and prosecuted. That option is not open to the workers.…