Amendments Nos. 77 to 91, inclusive, are related and may be discussed together.

I thank the Minister of State for considering the amendment. Over the past year and a half, there has been extensive engagement between us in the Green Party and the Department in relation to this Bill. I thank the Department for including many of our amendments, coming back to us on occasions to say it has considered what we said and giving us something that might move towards being acceptable to us. The Minister of State referred to Schedule 1. There is a definition of transport in Schedule 1 but it refers to thr…

I thank the Minister of State and his Department for agreeing to consider over the summer all the inputs I have made today. I will withdraw the amendment. I may reintroduce it on Report Stage after the summer.

Since so many Senators are coming in on this point, it is probably a good idea to have everybody's views aired on whether we go for this fully-planned approach to our infrastructure in Ireland or whether we just fly by the seat of our pants and take it decision by decision. I am favour of the former, but I have problems with the draft national planning framework. I went to the committee meeting last week on the first day that the consultation opened to air those views. I encourage everybody, now that it is open for…

I did not-----

May I come in?

It is unfair. If Senator Flynn thinks this has something to do with her, she should realise it absolutely does not.

I am just going to clarify because I believe it is very important. I came in here because I heard Senator McDowell say we do not need the Bill, the national planning framework and these strategies. I am saying that while I might disagree with many of the points in the Bill and the national planning framework, it does not mean I do not engage in the democratic process. That is what we are all doing here. It was to Senator McDowell's comments and nothing else that I was referring. That we are all here having our opin…

It was not personal to me because I was not making any personal comments, so I respectfully say we should leave it.

I welcome the Minister of State. This is the second Commencement matter I have tabled on the Citizens' Assembly on Education, but I have brought the issue up many times with the Minister for Education. As I understand it from the Department of Education, it has referred the matter to the Department of an Taoiseach which is why I have addressed this Commencement matter to that Department. We know from previous citizens' assemblies such as the Citizens' Assembly on Climate Action, in particular, and on abortion, that…

On the terms of reference, I suppose the question is whether input from the Ministers has been sought. I understand the Minister for Education has had an input. Given that the Taoiseach is a former Minister for further and higher education, I hope he and the Minister for Children have also had an input. Of course, we need to pass a resolution of both Houses, but we need a Government decision in the first instance in order to facilitate that. As a Senator and as a Green Party spokesperson on education, I am trying t…

I move: That Seanad Éireann: notes with concern: - that over 20 percent of Irish people reported feeling lonely most or all of the time, the highest level in the European Union (EU), where the average is only 13 percent; - that nearly one-third of Irish adults over 50 feel emotionally lonely occasionally, with 7 percent frequently experiencing loneliness; - the 2018 A Connected Island, An Ireland Free from Loneliness report by The Loneliness Taskforce, established by ALONE and Dr Keith Swanick, which showed that lo…

I wish to share my time with my Green Party Senator colleagues.

We tend to think of Ireland as a very friendly place that is dominated by community spirit. Additionally, volunteerism is very high in Ireland. What is shocking is that Ireland is actually the loneliest place in Europe. The official figures show that 20% of Irish people reported feeling lonely most or all of the time. This is the highest level in the European Union, where the average is only 13%. Even the figure of 13% is fairly shocking and in fact the European Union wants to take action on this. Indeed, the World…

Every time you put forward a motion or a Bill, you worry that people will not get it and will not understand how vital it is to bring forward an issue and to bring solutions to the surface. I thought at the start that I might be standing here alone, a Billy No-Mates, but everybody, from all political groupings, has been passionate about this issue. It does require a little thought. I mentioned to several people that I was bringing forward a motion on loneliness and they had a look in their eyes to ask how it is a p…

Tomorrow at 9.30 a.m.

It gives me huge pleasure, on behalf of the Green Party, to welcome our colleague Mal O'Hara, who is chair of our all-Ireland party. I have worked closely with Mal for a number of years. On behalf of the Green Party, I negotiated our foreign affairs and Northern Ireland policy and Mal joined me in those negotiations along with former leader Clare Bailey. We negotiated with the Ministers, Deputies Coveney and Darragh O'Brien, the all-island group within the Government. It is fitting that Mal is sitting in this Parli…

The Minister of State is very welcome. To our shame in Ireland, we have the lowest rates of breastfeeding in Europe. We have one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in the world, in fact. A recent study by The Lancet showed that 800,000 babies per year and 20,000 women per year die as a result of not breastfeeding. This should be a shock for us in a First World country. We know that measures have been taken in Ireland. We have put in place more lactation consultants and allow for peer-to-peer support on the ground…

I am pleased to hear the acknowledgement that the WHO international code of marketing on breast-milk substitutes has not been fully implemented by Ireland. However, this was adopted in 1981 by the World Health Assembly and more than 40 years later the WHA is now attempting to update it to include digital marketing as well. That is simply what this is about. The fact that Ireland has not fully implemented the code from 1981 is shocking. Is it any wonder that we have such low rates of breast-feeding in Ireland? We ne…

I move: That the Clerk of Seanad Éireann do send to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage notice of a vacancy in the membership of Seanad Éireann occasioned by the resignation of Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, a member elected from the Oireachtas Sub-Panel of the Administrative Panel at the General Election for Seanad Éireann, April, 2020.