Artificial intelligence is already embedded in all aspects of our lives. We look at healthcare, education, transport, the creative arts, music, business and Government services. As others have said, there are many practical applications that are useful but, equally, there are a lot of dangers out there which have been referenced. They are now impinging on our basic human rights and we need to protect our children and manage threats to our energy resources. It is not going too far to say there is an existential thre…

This is a Second Stage debate on the general issue of gas safety. That is why I, like others, are raising issues that are related to but outside the scope of this Bill, although I will come to the specifics of the Bill as well. I have been raising issues of gas safety over multiple Dáil terms. It does not appear that the issues have been addressed. We have had complaints sent into multiple agencies. We have had protected disclosures about issues relating to gas safety and enforcement. We seem to have a serious prob…

He should keep going, he is doing well. He is on a roll.

I also broadly welcome this Bill, incremental as it may be. This legislation is a long-overdue partial measure responding to a significant public health concern, especially for our younger people. The Irish and international research has been sounding the alarm for several years. We have had multiple debates about this. The initial measure to clampdown on the underage sales had some impact. It was welcome. The Healthy Ireland survey showed that daily vaping among 15- to 19-year-olds had reached 12.9% in 2023 before…

In every deal a country that is a member of the European Union it is giving up some sort of sovereignty in return for something it believes will be of more benefit. Certainly Mercosur does have a marginal benefit to Ireland as a country in terms of our industrial side but it has a massive downside in terms of agriculture. We give out about the EU but we would not have had a nitrates directive and other environmental legislation without the EU. Ireland got a derogation because we were going cap in hand, so there is …

I would like to thank all of the staff in the Oireachtas for their outstanding work throughout the year. I also wish the Tánaiste, the Leas Ceann Comhairle and all of our colleagues a very happy Christmas and peaceful, prosperous new year. This Christmas some people will be lucky enough to get visits from relatives flying in but many will not and will just have to make do with video calls from Australia, Dubai, Canada and so on. Given staff shortages in Dublin hospitals, Garda stations and schools, why do we not ha…

I ask the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach to give Deputy Fitzmaurice the extra time because of this. To be clear, foxes are wild animals. They can be dangerous. They carry leptospirosis. They have tapeworm and toxoplasmosis. They will bite humans if they are hungry. They will attack domestic animals like cats and dogs if they can get away with it. I even heard a story about one robbing a spice bag off someone recently in an urban area. They will kill lambs, especially weak lambs after birth. Foxes are hunters. They are pre…

Put down an amendment.

Table an amendment.

Put down a Committee Stage amendment.

On a point of order, I raised it before him.

The Taoiseach and others have rightly condemned the horrific attacks in Sydney where 15 people were killed and more were injured. Given the atrocity, there is always a risk that abuse to our own Jewish community may increase and there may be copycat incidents. In that context, has the Taoiseach had discussions with the Garda Commissioner or anyone on the security side to see what can be done to reassure our own Jewish community in light of these attacks? Whatever our views are on the Israeli state's treatment of Pa…

Today I raise the chronic shortage of radiographers and the related fragile state of our diagnostic imaging capacity. As the Taoiseach is probably aware, the HSE has acknowledged that radiology and radiation therapy departments remain under-resourced, with waiting lists for diagnostic scans continuing to grow. We saw earlier this year a report on RTÉ showing that, despite over 200 radiography graduates qualifying annually, many are being forced to emigrate because of appointments not being made. This is not just po…

What the Taoiseach did not go into was what contingency plans are in place or whether he can commit to putting contingency plans in place to ensure that patients are not left without scans because of single point of failure. The diagnostic imaging is hugely important in modern medicine but without some sort of action to have a separate contingency plan in place when the radiation fails, will we have these lists lengthening and lengthening? It is not a good or an efficient way to run a health service. Obviously, I t…

A couple of months ago, we had a discussion on the fact that the Government was working on the so-called spiking Bill, the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person (Amendment) (Spiking) Bill 2023. I asked whether it would progress beyond Second Stage to Committee and Report Stages. At present, the sinister offence of the spiking of drinks is covered only under legislation on poisoning or drugging, such as the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, the Misuse of Drugs Act and…

Our children are being systematically abused and we are letting it happen. It is a simple as that. We go on about the old days of this State where we allowed abuse in various institutions and tipped the hat to the church and allowed abuse to go on under the covers. We are doing the same thing now with social media. We are talking the talk but we are not walking the walk. I have raised this issue multiple times and I am, to be quite honest, underwhelmed by the proposal to use the MyGovID scheme to try to restrict pe…

I take on board the civil liberties and civil rights argument. It is hugely important. However, when we look at how crime has changed over the decades, it has become more and more transnational. I am not just talking about criminal drugs gangs. I know of the work being done by Europol in trying to catch and deal with sexual predators. This is not just about the transmission of images but the people involved in creating the images on location. The sharing of that information has helped to catch the criminals where t…

I do not claim to have a great knowledge of this area, especially in terms of how it impacts families along the western seaboard, in particular. I have spoken in support of my colleague Deputy Ward and I want to show solidarity once again. In Leinster, including in Dublin, where there were defective apartments the levels of redress were much higher. There is huge inequality in terms of what families on the western seaboard in counties like Donegal, Sligo and Mayo are receiving. It is an issue that affects the count…

Tonight, and in the past, this has been contentious legislation. On the one hand, there is always the situation where, if you join an organisation like the European Union, which still has massive support among the people, you give something up in return for getting something. The CETA agreement is like that. The question was whether we were giving up too much. There is the overarching issue of sovereignty. There is the fear the system would allow foreign corporations to bypass Irish courts and challenge laws in int…

I have spoken before about the broken system of needs assessment and delivery of services. Today, alongside this welcome motion, we see the Government making ambitious promises of faster assessments of need backed by new expert teams to streamline processes. It sounds like an early Christmas gift but time will tell whether it is just an empty promise or if it can actually be delivered. The Government tells us that 11 new teams with 44 expert staff have transformed the system, yet we know that across the health serv…