As the Senator said, a decision will be made this afternoon. If we wish to have some input, we must act quickly. It will be the first thing I do when I leave this Chamber. We are an island and we have the all-Ireland shared island unit, which was established with gusto by the Taoiseach. It makes no sense for these Houses to exclude anybody's opinion, particularly when the issues for which a select or special committee has been established are not parochial but national and all-Ireland in nature. It seems very regre…

Senator Boyhan introduced and acknowledged the ACRE scheme, which will replace the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS. He signalled a slight concern that some people will be left out of the consultation. I will revert to him with a note on that. Senator Boyhan also welcomed the publication of the Bill providing for a scheme of redress for those affected by mica. He acknowledged that there is no pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. The Business Committee waived pre-legislative scrutiny in order to get t…

I move: That, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, in relation to the Regulation of Providers of Building Works and Building Control (Amendment) Bill 2022, it be an instruction to the Committee of the whole Seanad to which the Bill may be recommitted in respect of certain amendments, that it has the power to make amendments to the Bill which are not relevant to the subject matter of the Bill, for the purpose of: (i) amending the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 by providing for an increase of the notice perio…

I do not want to make a contribution yet because there are others before me. I am concerned about the groupings. I wish to propose that we not accept the groupings as put down by the Bills Office this morning for two reasons. First, I believe things are grouped together that are distinctly different-----

I refer to Nos. 1 and 2; Nos. 3, c4a and d4a-----

Okay.

The new grouping that was issued by the Bills Office this morning is not the same grouping.

I am talking about the list of groupings. The proposal that I am putting to the House is that we ungroup the groupings on the basis that we had an incident here a number of weeks ago-----

If I may finish the proposal, the Acting Chair might actually know what I am trying to say, to be respectful.

Are colleagues happy enough to proceed with that?

I will outline the basis of my concerns and my proposal. I do not know if the Acting Chair was present in the Chamber last week when we had an issue with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin being here. There were a number of groupings together. A vote was inadvertently called before about 80% of the amendments in the grouping had been discussed. It meant that Government Members had to vote against things that we would otherwise have been positively disposed towards. I do not want that to happen today in the heat …

Okay.

I do not want to speak on amendments Nos. 1 or 2 but on the question Senator Craughwell has raised. In an attempt to be helpful, I wrote to the chief executive of the AAIU, Captain Jurgen Whyte, with regard to the two direct recommendations of the AAIU on a lack of in-house expertise in the Department of Transport and the IAA. Unfortunately, due to the existing legislation, he is not in a position to be open and transparent with regard to the status of the recommendations made of anybody with regard to the report o…

The Minister of State was kind enough to organise meetings not only for the groups of Senators but also individually with members of the IAA. Genuinely it was one of the weirdest meetings that I have ever been at. Literally the representatives of the IAA were trying to convince me that they did not need further regulations or the ability to regulate an industry for which the authority is responsible. The letter I received from Jim Gavin this week was one of the most bizarre letters I have ever received from a State…

It is sad that we are dancing on the head of the pin of words when people's lives have been lost because of a lack of in-house expertise. I will just say that much. Regarding the Minister of State's response on amendments Nos. 1 and 2, it is striking. I am 50 years old and I have never in my lifetime seen a regulatory authority refuse powers in the way we are seeing the IAA refuse powers in the context of this legislation. It is astounding. The Minister of State said that she wanted the forum to be broader than jus…

I have a query. Twice the Minister of State has stated that if we called it a licenceholders forum, that would exclude the airline carriers that have operating licences to be airline carriers. I refer to the amendment to establish the licenceholders forum, as put forward by my colleagues, namely, amendment No. 1. It provides that the body of the licenceholders forum would include any air carrier holding an air carrier operating licence; any recognised trade union or recognised stakeholder group - which would includ…

I move amendment No. 3: In page 40, after line 37 to insert the following: “ Amendment of Act of 1993 - Crew Peer Support Programmes 59. The Act of 1993 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 14: “ Crew Peer Support Programme 14C. (1) The Irish Aviation Authority shall periodically review the crew peer support programmes provided by the holders of air carrier licences or otherwise made available by them to crew pursuant to the requirements of CAT.GEN.MPA. 215 to Annex IV (Part – CAT) of …

I agree with Senator Craughwell. The whole purpose of us doing this legislation, apart from splitting the functions of the IAA, is to try to make aviation safer. It does not sound like rocket science. An enormous part of making the world of aviation safer is to make sure the people who actually run it are mindful of their responsibility. One of the tragedies we saw in Europe a number of years ago gave rise to the need for EU Regulation 2018/1042 to be implemented by the European Commission. I am relating this part …

I thank the Minister for coming to the House to take the motion although I know it was directed at the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Michael McGrath. We would swear listening to some of my colleagues on the left today that the motion seeks to divide Irish society. I am minded by something Senator Flynn has just said about needing to look after our own. The privilege of my career to date has been to be the Minister for Social Protection for four years, which is the role the Minister is privileged to hold today. As…

The Order of Business is No. 1, motion re address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, to be taken on the conclusion of the Order of Business, without debate; No. 2, motion re arrangements for the sitting of the House on Wednesday, 15 June and Thursday, 16 June, to be taken on the conclusion of No. 1, without debate; No. 3, motion re the Parent's Leave and Benefit Act 2019 (Extension of Periods of Leave) Order 2022, to be taken on the conclusion of No. 2, without debate; No.…