Amendments Nos. 4, 16, 35, 36, 40 and 42 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Amendments Nos. 7 to 9, inclusive, are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Senator Buttimer, please take your seat.

I call the Minister to conclude the debate. I will not restrict his time beyond an hour.

I remind Senator Mullen that we already had a referendum on abortion. The people of Ireland have spoken. This is not a rerunning of a referendum which would require having somebody independent sit in the middle of the whole conversation. We are reviewing laws that have already been enacted. That is the difference. I wish to raise the issue of animal welfare and live exports which have been raised by members of the animal welfare policy group in my own party. Significant concerns were raised this week about the Fino…

The Minister is welcome. I have spoken on this issue before. I will specifically talk about the greyhound industry. To be fair to Senator Daly, he has acknowledged this is a difficult issue for me and a difficulty with being in government. There are certain things we did not get in the programme for Government. We as a party are not supportive of the greyhound industry. It is in our manifesto that we believe in the phasing out of public funding. There are serious question marks over how the dogs are treated, apart …

The Minister is most welcome; it is good to see her in the Chamber again. In the last four weeks, we have seen a 240% increase in those testing positive for Covid among the five- to 12-year-old age cohort. Obviously, that is hugely alarming and has led to significant steps being taken by the Minister's Department. Three major steps have been taken now. One of those is the provision of antigen tests for close contacts, which is most welcome. The second is the provision of additional staff in substitute teaching reso…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for bringing to everyone's attention Romania's national day today. I want to give a shout-out because my daughter's best friend is Romanian and we are delighted to have such a mix of cultures in Galway. The other day was my daughter's birthday and I noticed that very few had come from Galway but they are bringing a rich diversity to our communities. It is important that we mention daily the important contributions that people make to our society. I raise the issue of HEPA air filters. It w…

I am sharing my time with Senator Garvey. If the Bill before us was going to solve the problems of the horticultural industry I would say that. I think people know I am straight enough to do that. However, it simply is not. Making me the enemy by pointing that out is not helping anyone. It is not helping the horticultural sector. We need to distinguish between growers in this country and those who are making money out of extraction. We must point to the fact that ten times the amount of peat is being exported as be…

We are not sensitive.

I want to clarify the Green Party's position on a Bill dealing with peat extraction that was tabled on the Order Paper yesterday. Let us be clear about it. That Bill is not consistent with European law. It will face the exact same challenges that were faced by legislation in 2019. It is giving false hope to growers throughout the country that it will resolve issues; it will not. Ten times the volume of peat is being exported as is being imported. Those are the facts. Those are the CSO's figures. Between the start o…

I welcome Senator Ruane's Bill and I also welcome the Minister of State. The Bill would require companies operating in Ireland to make annual disclosures of greenhouse gas emissions caused by their activities within the State. As many have said, that is not unusual, and there is already a directive in that regard, but this Bill would go further than the directive, and that is important to point out. Whereas the directive refers to 250 employees, this Bill refers to 50 employees as the starting point. Disclosures wo…

When is it proposed to take Report Stage?

The Minister of State is very welcome. We are constantly standing up here to speak about cherishing all of the children equally. This is a classic case where we are failing to do so as a country. In October, 170 children were on a waiting list for scoliosis surgery. None of the explanations give much solace to a parent such as the one quoted by Senator Seery Kearney. It is really frustrating for us but it is a million times worse for a family that has no control over the situation. Such families would do it themsel…

I am sharing time with Senator Garvey.

I thank the Taoiseach for coming to the Seanad. It continues to be an honour to be in a Government party under his leadership. Coalition governments can be seen to be full of compromise, and they are, but in some ways parties can lift each other up and call on us to raise our ambition as we each bring new ideas and policies. I do not want to glorify what we have achieved together as a three-party Government because it has been set against a backdrop of trauma and tragedy for our people. Healthcare continues to be a…

I will talk about transport today. We have very welcome news that there will be a 90-minute fare for Dublin. This is of great importance because we know that the transition must also mean we have a transition in transport. I do not see why we cannot have a 90-minute fare in every city. We would certainly welcome it in Galway. It costs €6 each way to travel between Galway and Athenry and people may then have to hop on a bus. There are no joined-up fares in most of our cities. I ask the Minister and the Deputy Leader…

I am skipping other Senators' speaking slots because I am stepping in for the Cathaoirleach, who has to leave presently. I thank all the members of the committee, several of whom are here for this debate, for their work on this, in particular the Chairman. Apart from the detail of what needs to be done about conviction rates, where we can all recognise there is a problem, let us be clear that nobody should be raped or sexually assaulted. It should never get to the point where these crimes have to be brought to tria…

I thank Senator Hoey and acknowledge the deeply personal nature of her story. I offer my support to the Senator, and I am sure the same will be said for all of our colleagues here. As the Senator said, unfortunately the story she shared is a very common one, but each story is individual and personal. I thank her. I think many people listening will identify with it. It is important to take things out of the purely legislative and overly convoluted way that we sometimes have of speaking. I thank the Senator again. I …

I will allow Senator Conway back in for a moment. I short-changed the Senator somewhat on time as he was supposed to be sharing.