Senator Higgins, please-----

Please respect the Chair-----

Senator, please respect the Chair. That is not a point of order. The Senator can come back in when the Minister of State is finished speaking and he can respond to her.

It is not a point of order.

This is a debate-----

I ask the Senator to come back in when the Minister of State is finished speaking.

I have long felt that An Bord Pleanála needed reform. I spoke at the oral hearing in relation to the ring road. Although I had no particular personal interest in it, I had an environmental interest. I will wait until our guests have left.

I have concerns around An Bord Pleanála regarding some of the decisions in particular. There are instances of the board's inspector being overruled. While the board is entitled to do that, it is happening all too often. That raises significant questions. Regarding the ring road in particular, before a decision was made by the High Court, An Bord Pleanála conceded that it had not taken into consideration the climate action plan. It has specific obligations as a relevant body under the climate Act. It was aware of th…

As everyone will expect me to say, the Green Party is fundamentally against the greyhound industry. In fact, the party's manifesto says that we believe that public funding at least should be phased out for the industry. It has been a challenge for us. We knew on entering Government that we would have to make compromises. This is a compromise I find incredibly difficult, but it is important that I make the case for the decoupling of greyhound racing from horse racing every year, because they are two fundamentally di…

As I said previously, I find myself completely disagreeing with Senator Boyhan on all of his amendments. As I stated during a previous debate, because my party is in government, there are times when I have to admit that we have had to compromise on some issues and it is difficult. My Government colleagues have had to compromise on other issues and we went into government understanding that would be the case. However, I would never table an amendment in which I did not believe. That seems to be, with respect, what S…

I move: That Seanad Éireann: recalls the: - State’s obligation under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Acts 2015–2021 to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 51 per cent by the end of 2030, and to pursue and achieve, by no later than the end of the year 2050, the transition to a climate resilient, biodiversity rich, environmentally sustainable and climate neutral economy; - Government’s commitment in the Climate Action Plan 2021 to increase afforestation, to facilitate and promote the development a…

The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is welcome to the Chamber. We are delighted to have her here to take this important motion. Two of the big crises facing our country at the moment relate to housing and climate change. The motion deals with both. We know that housing simply is not being built fast enough or cheaply enough. It also involves an enormous volume of embodied carbon. The motion aims to deal with all of those things. It calls on the Government to do three things: first, to establish a working group …

I am very heartened by the amount of support we have received from across the parties and the passion behind the contributions. The reason for the motion is to build that sense of consensus and to create a sense across all the Departments that we need a wood-first approach. I want to reiterate the importance for both the housing crisis and the climate crisis of getting this right and putting a sense of urgency at the core of this. It is almost as if we need to learn again what wood can do in this country. The use o…

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

The Minister of State responded on the section. He just chose not to come back in.

My amendment was one of those ruled out of order. The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, explained his position. However, it is a position that I would not agree with. As a result, my request was that the Minister of State and the officials take a look at this level and see if 25 cu. m is too high, given that 10 cu. m is the level that is used in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which would have similar topography. We clearly have an issue with abstractions so my request was for the Minister of State to se…

Who is to decide what the animal welfare grounds are? That is the tricky part. Any abstraction over 10 cu. m should be registered so that we know what it is. Part of this is a fact-finding mission and at times when there is an issue with water levels, it enables us to get back to everybody on the register. I do not see anything here that would interfere with animal health and welfare at all. In fact, it would have the opposite effect and allow us to manage our water better. I again note that the recommendation from…

I reiterate what I said the last time. I object to these amendments being ruled out of order. They are similar to my amendment, which was ruled out of order. I have written to the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight about my concerns in this regard.

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I rise to talk about Galway and transport. We all know the difficulties in getting a ring road after 20 years of Galway City Council and Galway County Council trying to push this through. We also know we have different opinions on it among the Senators from Galway. It is beyond time for Galway City Council and Galway County Council to look at an alternative because too many hopes have been pinned on this road and it was unfair to the people of Galway to keep them on this promise for the last 20 years. Light rail is…