I appreciate what is happening, but when we passed that circular economy Act it was enshrined that we would have the second circular economy strategy within six months. The Government has not activated that section, so as a result the six months did not start. That is a sleight of hand. In countries that have been successful in this field, they had voluntary compacts developed before the statutory obligations came in, particularly in the Netherlands where sectors came together. I put it to the Minister of State tha…

There were loads of things that could be done. Some 60% of what we discard goes into the wrong place where it cannot be recovered. There is no question of recovery, recycling or reuse. That was an early win. We do not have to wait for statutory obligations to come in to get the sectors around the table eliminating things like that. That is where my frustration comes from. It is a lot of the stuff before you get to the point of obligations, regulatory impact assessment and all of that heavy artillery. You could be g…

The Tánaiste will have read that today the Climate Change Advisory Council remarked on how progress in transport emissions has been arrested, the inordinate delays in, for example, getting BusConnects through and the need for a better planning model for compact development in urban areas. However, the big wake-up call related to EVs, where progress has been arrested. There needs to be, as the council recommends, a concerted programme from the Government to promote the switch to EVs, particularly in rural areas wher…

I welcome this debate and the work the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is doing in this area. In my view, longer lives is one of the greatest achievements of humanity but sadly it is too often portrayed as a period of decline or even of burden. We need to see this issue through a different lens. While I welcome the Commission on Care for Older People, I would have to say that again its emphasis on caring and the suggestion of decline is the wrong emphasis for our society at the moment. We need to look at ageing a…

The US Surgeon General sought tobacco-style labelling on social media this week. He cited the damage to mental health and well-being for younger people due to high levels of exposure to social media which damages self-esteem, causes feelings of depression and a decline in the quality and quantity of their relationships, particularly for young women. He cited that these are not a failure of willpower or parenting, but rather the unleashing of powerful technologies without adequate safety measures. There are two ques…

I will preface my remarks by stating what a remarkable institution the European Union is. It is unique. It was formed by statesmen determined that in future, difficult global problems would be resolved co-operatively and peacefully among the countries involved. For Ireland, membership of the European Union has been the gateway to take our place among the countries of the world, as Parnell spoke about. For a small country to exercise sovereignty in a meaningful way on global issues is to share in decisions and in ma…

It is reported that agriculture is substantially off target for its carbon budget and that it would have to achieve cuts of 8% per annum to stay within budget in the remaining years. I would like to understand from the Minister how successful we have been in terms of the take-up of all the measures in the Teagasc list and if we can do more to enhance that.

I agree with the Minister that we need new approaches and we need research, but we do have known measures that could be implemented. My interest is in how successful we have been. We have slurry spreading, clover planting, protected urea, multi-species sward, incorporation of straw and afforestation cover in winter. Many of these things are not new and do not need research; it is a question of encouraging the take-up. My concern is that the price of fertiliser was a big driver of the progress and the risk is that w…

I worry that there is no sense that, because we are now off target, we need to take some pretty sharp corrective action. It seems to me that farmers respond to financial incentives. They cut their nitrogen because the price went up. If there were more rewards for the plan that would reduce their emissions numbers, I think we would see farmers responding much more quickly. I go back to the old theme. We do not have the incentives in place that will give the signal to know what your emissions are and then pay for the…

A decade ago we had 1.8 million at work, and adding 100,000 to that was deemed wildly optimistic. Today, we have 1 million more at work than then. What we need is a strategy to build the capacity of the public service to deliver for this bigger and more ambitious working population. We need to build at scale, both public infrastructure, the move to net zero, and harnessing AI. This is an incredible opportunity but it needs bolder ambition and greater innovation. I welcomed the Taoiseach's signalling at the national…

I welcome the establishment of the task force to rejuvenate Dublin city centre to make it thriving, attractive and safe. David McRedmond will come up with innovative ideas and will integrate across agencies, including, local authorities, the NTA and the HSE. The key to success will be the provision of a budget to fund cross-sector and cross-silo initiatives. I would be keen that, in preparation for the budget, significant moneys would be made available for this particular initiative as well as for the community saf…

As the Minister well knows, artificial intelligence will rapidly disrupt established ways of doing things as it integrates into our world. It will disrupt education and its delivery, but it will also disrupt many workplaces and create skill needs. To what extent is this now anticipated? What planning and strategies are being put in place?

I appreciate that there is a strategy in place but that strategy is four years old and, with the pace of this, changes occur within months. The enterprise committee, of which Deputy Stanton is also a member, heard this week that only 5% of companies are engaged in any sort of reskilling for the onset of artificial intelligence. We need an accelerated programme in areas such as Skillnet Ireland and the Springboard programmes to look at workforces that need to adapt rapidly. We know it is already hitting journalism, …

To give the Minister an example, we had the major consultancy firms in before the committee. They have every staff member now going through a process of understanding and equipping themselves to deal with the disruption, and opportunity, indeed, of artificial intelligence. Will the Minister consider putting some of his senior staff through a programme such as that in order to build the capacity and the capacity to anticipate? This is going to break on us at such a pace that conventional ways of planning educational…

I will make one comment. To paraphrase the OECD, the leaving certificate is preparing young people to be second-class robots. Now that we have this new pace of change crashing upon us, we really have to take it very seriously.

First, I welcome the 52,500 new housing starts in the past 12 months, acknowledge the progress the Minister is making and welcome his openness to new ideas. In that context, I ask him to seriously consider a housing trust dedicated solely to promoting right-sizing for people who want to do so. Ireland is a country where 90% of people in my age bracket are overprovided with homes and would be better in smaller homes more suited to their needs. That amounts to 400,000 homes, so if we could see even a small fraction o…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak during this debate. First, I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and wish her well. Business and, indeed, all of enterprise is going through a period of rapid transition. Just looking out the back window, there was the financial crisis, followed by the Covid closures, the Ukraine crisis and the impact that has had on supply chains. Businesses have been buffeted repeatedly and, in the longer term, two huge transformations are coming, namely, th…

It is encouraging to see 52,500 new starts up to the month of April and 30,000 mortgage approvals in the past 12 months to first-time buyers. In my own constituency we have a strong pipeline on State land of 2,500 social homes and 3,500 affordable homes. However, I want to underline a problem generally in Dublin. The Minister needs to examine carefully the situation emerging because, last year, 72% of the 12,500 homes built in Dublin were apartments. Of those under construction in Dublin, 82% are apartments. Howeve…

I congratulate the Minister on her initiative of bringing in a pension for those on carer's allowance, but I would like to see progress on two other programme for Government commitments. I refer to the proposal to extend free GP care to those on the carer's support grant and to develop a carer's guarantee that will provide a core basket of services across the country. I ask the Minister to sit down with her ministerial colleagues to develop that. What we need at local level is a family care partnership for family c…

I welcome the publication last week of the future framework for offshore energy. This was described by the Taoiseach's predecessor as Ireland's Moonshot but it illustrates how much of an onus is on the State to be aligned if it is to deliver this planned approach. There is a seven-stage D map, a marine area consent grid connection, planning approval, state aid-approved auctions, ports and accompanying storage. Does the cross-Government task force have a line of sight on the capacity of the State to deliver on this …