I do not doubt the Minister of State's commitment in this area. However, I am not convinced by his statement that this will be an overall approach and principled document. We need to make this a central spine of the climate action plan. We need to have very clear targets, some of which need to be new. The Minister of State has certainly adopted halving of food waste, but what about removing all plastic from incineration or landfill by a certain date? How about doubling the size of the reuse sector? Those sorts of c…

It is very important to state what this Bill is about. It is about creating a framework through which this country can confront a climate crisis that is threatening livelihoods not only in Ireland but right across the globe. This legislation is, for the first time, providing for a clear, transparent, accountable method through which we can identify what needs to be done and make Ministers and sectors accountable for progressing that. It is not going to be easy. Many people were critical of the climate action plan t…

This is not an attack on rural Ireland.

The only way rural Ireland will have a prosperous future is by adapting to these changes-----

I remember when we were dealing with-----

People talk about this Bill being rushed but this legislation was produced in its original form in 2019. We had 50 hours in pre-legislative scrutiny when any Deputy could have come in and contributed. We had 14 hours of Committee Stage debate and none of the issues that are now on the agenda were raised and none of the Deputies who are protesting now contributed to that debate.

This is a challenge that we need to start addressing----

I am quite happy to acknowledge that Deputy Naughten stayed throughout the debate. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae was also there throughout the debate but none of the other Deputies who are here now, protesting loudly, turned up-----

I have no problem in acknowledging that some Members turned up but many of the Members who are loud in their protests did not turn up.

That is the reality. When we could have gone through the amendments line by line and discussed them in a calm environment, which the committee provided for, the Deputies were not moved to discuss them in that way and so we were not able to tease out the arguments that lay behind them.

That is the problem we have had. We did not have that during pre-legislative scrutiny or in the committee rooms and it is extremely difficult to hear all the concerns in that environment.

This question relates to the progress in implementing the policing dimensions of a report by Jack Nolan, a former senior garda, into the problems and "enduring challenges", as he called them, in an area of Dublin 17.

Is the Minister of State in a position to report on whether there is any progress in, as she rightly says, the disruption of crime gangs that are a real problem? In the prevention of young people getting sucked into the backwash of the drugs trade and in the setting up a structured community policing for those three neighbourhoods, do we have concrete evidence of new resources and methods in place?

I very much appreciate that. Can the Minister of State monitor the progress indicators of that initiative over time? Also, is she involved in the action, as envisaged in the programme for Government, of looking at districts like this on a wider basis and mirroring what happened in the north-east inner city, where there could be an education dimension, a youth services dimension, a tenancy policy dimension and so on? That is a commitment in the programme for Government. Is the Department involved in preparing for th…

The Taoiseach will be aware that there are very significant intergenerational issues in respect of home ownership. Will he take measures to promote downsizing by people? In Ireland, 70% of us live in homes that are larger than our needs, which is more than double than in the rest of Europe. For people in my age bracket, 90% of us live in houses larger than our needs. That means that every year 2 million bedrooms are empty at a time there is a crisis. The reality is that if someone seeks to downsize, everything is s…

The greatest challenge we face is managing a recovery from a crisis the impact of which has not been even. Some, as we have heard, have €12 billion in savings accumulated while others have endured open wounds and seen their life's work go up in smoke. The country does not have the option of getting back to all that existed before now, and those who try to say we can go back to where we were would not only put us on a path that would be unaffordable but would stunt the country's future. What we have to work on is a …

Does the Minister of State agree it is a bit ironic that members of Sinn Féin, who continually lambast the Government about its housing strategy, seek, on every conceivable occasion, to oppose the provision of housing on public lands? This is yet another example of that.

In the context of the circular economy strategy the Government is developing, will ambitious targets be set for, for example, reducing the material usage and increasing the sectors involved in the repair, refurbishment and sharing economy, which could affect the adverse impact of our environmental activity?

While I welcome the strategy's introduction, it is disconcerting to see that what has been published to date contains no targets, proposes no specific actions or timelines by which they would be delivered, and provides for no budget through which it would be effected. Does the Minister of State not agree we need to take a radical look at sectors like construction, retail and fast fashion and make genuine changes in the way their activities perform so that we can genuinely see a greater length of life for products a…

I thank the Minister of State and am glad he finds the work I did to be of some use, but I will repeat what I said. We need to see actual actions, for example, banning best before dates being put on food products and only relying on the use by dates, which is the statutory requirement. In large retail stores, 20% of space could be provided for people who bring their own containers. While I accept that establishing the principles is important, we need to go beyond that and see pragmatic actions coming from the strat…