Despite the proposed opposition to this section, it is essential to the operation of the Bill. As I articulated on previous amendments, it is technically essential to facilitate the leave process and is one of the core elements of the Bill. I want to deal with some of the points made regarding local authorities. Everything I do as Minister of State is to try to enhance powers of local authorities. It simply misunderstands the genesis of the legislation to suggest that section 177B removes powers from local authorit…

I thank Senators Boyhan and Higgins for their contributions. Amendment No. 13 seeks to insert a provision that provides for the laying of a report by the Minister before both Houses post the introduction of these proposed legislative amendments. Specifically, it seeks to impose a ministerial obligation to lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas within 18 months of the passing of this Act, outlining data on substitute consent applications received and-or granted, any impacts identified in respect of other …

Amendment No. 14 seeks to insert a provision that provides for the laying of a report by the Minister before the Houses post introduction of the proposed legislative amendments. Similar to my response on amendment No. 13, amendment No. 14 seeks to impose a ministerial obligation to lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas, within six months of the passing of this Act, outlining the implications or impact of this legislation in respect of the powers of local authorities in respect of substitute consent proce…

The Electoral Reform Bill 2022 sets out wide-ranging reforms to modernise our electoral structures and processes. It fulfils many of the electoral reform commitments described in the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future. I will now set out the main provisions of the Bill. Part 2 provides the legislative basis for the electoral commission. Chapter 3 of Part 2 sets out the governance arrangements. Chapters 4 to 8, inclusive, of Part 2 provide for the transfer of existing electoral functions to an coimisiún. It…

I thank Deputy Ellis for raising this important matter. While the redevelopment of Ballymun Shopping Centre is a matter for Dublin City Council, I welcome the opportunity to provide the Deputy with an update. The former shopping centre site is an eight-acre main street one, the development potential of which was reviewed as part of the Ballymun local area plan 2017. The site has been identified for mixed retail and residential use development in the local area plan. The front portion of the site will be affected by…

I thank Deputy Ellis again for raising this matter. It is a matter for Dublin City Council, its members and the public to engage in the public consultation for the development of this site. Deputy McAuliffe, who is beside me, advises that the Taoiseach will be visiting on 11 July and I know from our work in the Department that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is familiar with the site and has visited it before. On regeneration, the Department has record funding of ove…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and allowing me the opportunity to outline the position in relation to Irish Water's responsibility on this matter. The Water Services Acts 2007-2017 set out the arrangements in place for the delivery of water and waste water services by Irish Water, and for the scrutiny and oversight provisions that apply in respect of these arrangements. As the Deputy will understand, the provision of facilities in Meath is a matter for Irish Water in the first instance. Since 1 January …

I thank the Deputy again for raising this important issue and outlining the significant growth that has taken place in Ratoath. I will follow up with Irish Water on the contingency issue, which can be frustrating for citizens and residents when there is an outage, in terms of the mitigation measures put in place for that period, as well as in terms of communications. It is active on social media but not everyone is on social media and, especially in rural areas, it can be difficult for citizens to have that access.…

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this Private Members' Bill on behalf of the Government. As the House is aware, new arrangements to regulate the short-term letting sector under the planning code were introduced in July 2019. The principal aim of the legislation was to return much-needed accommodation being used for short-term letting purposes in the designated rent pressure zones, RPZs, to the traditional long-term rental market, thereby increasing supply in the long-term market and helping to stabilis…

I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising her Commencement matter and I apologise for the absence of the Minister for Education. Senator O'Loughlin sets out quite well and very clearly the merit and importance of the educational welfare officer and the repercussions if such an officer is not in situ at a very important time in the development of children. DEIS is the main policy initiative of the Department to address educational disadvantage at school level. Currently, 884 schools and more than 180,000 students benef…

I have detail before me in terms of the Tusla educational support service which is currently working to try to engage and fill that gap. It is stated in the formal reply from the Department that the recruitment process is under way but I do not have a timeline as to when it will be completed. I will revert to the Minister, Deputy Foley, and advise her of the Senator's concerns for her locality which are very-well merited. I know that we have to learn in this country that early intervention is key to determining the…

I thank Senator Carrigy for his Commencement matter which is a very important one and, as he has referred to himself, I am aware of a number of cases in my own home town of Mullingar where there is no capacity at all. This is a shocking situation for families who need certainty and are under significant pressure at the moment in trying to get a place for their children into the future. This year, the Department of Education will invest in excess of €2 billion, or over 25% of the Department's budget, in the area of …

I thank the Acting Chairperson. I also endorse and share the concerns that I have seen on the ground working in my locality. I have seen very vulnerable families who are under significant pressure in having to deal with the burden and stress, first, of getting a school place and, second, getting a school place which is a great distance away. That is not good enough and I feel for those families. Potentially, we should meet the senior Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, again on this i…

I have heard Senator Craughwell raise this issue a number of times in the past. I want to apologise for the absence of a Minister from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Officials in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications are in ongoing consultations with cybersecurity industries. That is obviously at variance with what the Senator said. We will probably have to square that circle in regard to what is stated in the reply. Cyber Ireland is a national industry cluste…

Senator Craughwell raised this issue before and he made a very valid point. I will raise it with the Minister and do a note for the Taoiseach on foot of this Commencement matter. It is not an area in which I have great expertise but I will provide the Senator with what was in the reply in regard to the interactions with industry.

I thank Senator Kyne for raising this very important matter. It is great to see children back into the Visitors Gallery to see the work in the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is very important. The designation of European sites under the nature directives is a formal, legal process with a number of steps that must be followed for each site. The criteria used to set the boundaries of the sites are purely scientific, as is required under the nature directives. They are designated to protect threatened, rare or endangere…

I would like to thank the Senator again for the discussion on this very important topic. Over the years, the steps to designate a site have remained the same, but we have been able to improve and streamline the process. For example, the list of landowners at a site is now provided by the Property Registration Authority of Ireland. However, we still see that not all property is registered with the Property Registration Authority. Therefore, in order to be sure every opportunity is given to appeal, advertisements are…

I thank the Acting Chairperson for placing this item on the agenda of the House and for his invitation for me to contribute. It is important that the Members of Seanad Éireann, who are keenly interested in and strong advocates for local government, have an opportunity to air their views on a recent television programme that examined a wide range of matters in local authorities. The report at issue is the "RTÉ Investigates: Council Chamber Secrets" programme broadcast on Wednesday, 23 March 2022. The programme cited…

I thank Members for their contributions. In the context of this discussion on reforming local authorities and governance structures in the 31 local authorities, it is interesting that 75% of the speakers in the debate were from the Government side, exclusively from my party, Fine Gael, and Fianna Fáil. That demonstrates in terms of debates in this House how much the Government is interested in solving the issues in respect of local authorities. I note there is 45 minutes remaining of the time allotted to the debate…

It is important to clarify that. There is additional time. If someone is passionate and wishes to speak on this issue, the time is there on the clock.