There is a great need. I have not seen the most up-to-date figures but from recollection I believe that about 40% of people in the workforce do not have any pension cover. That applies to both men and women although it is probably more acute with women, so there is a huge gap. The legislation begins to address some of the anomalies concerning how we treat pensions provision. We have a very strong pension in the public service and many parts of the private sector do not have anything like it. There is no doubt that …

I believe the tax system can make a much better contribution to positive ageing, especially around issues such as family caring, working beyond retirement age and the rightsizing of homes. Has the Minister looked at reforms that might promote such positive outcomes?

I agree with the Minister that tax is only one of the levers, but I might give him some examples. Approximately 50% of people would like to work beyond their retirement age but most of them are denied that opportunity. Fortunately, we are not among that group. That is something that could be promoted by making flexible working more amenable for employers to deliver through tax breaks. About 90% of people in my age category live in homes that are too large for their need, but there is no support for rightsizing. The…

To take that example, if a work contract states a person can work to 66, he or she cannot take up the options the Minister is offering to work beyond 66 because the employer's contract will trump the right to take up the social welfare option. There needs to be some innovative thinking, between the Minister’s Department and the spending Departments, to come up with some workable initiatives, because in the midst of a housing crisis, 90% of people aged 65 and over living in homes that are too big for their needs is …

I thank the Minister for being here to hear his debate. Some of his colleagues do not always stay to listen to debates, so it is refreshing he is here. When I was appointed Minister for enterprise in 2011, a total of 1.8 million people were at work. Today, the figure stands at 2.7 million. We have a 50% larger economy in terms of the number of people in employment. That is an extraordinary change in our economy and society, and we are planning now for a much larger economy with much greater infrastructural needs. I…

I come from a farming background. The people doing the greatest disservice to Irish agriculture are those like the previous speaker who pretend that holding out against the change we need to make in agriculture and in all dimensions of our lives will make it easier, that the hold-outs will win the day by resisting, to the very last ditch, the ending of untenable practices and that this will provide a future for Irish agriculture or for rural Ireland. That is a totally blind alley. Every sector, regardless of what t…

Some Deputies in the House seem to portray our need to move to a sustainable path to net zero as some sort of a mean-minded conspiracy by the Green Party. The reality is that we need sustainability in every sector. I put it to the Minister that we are falling behind in our enterprise sector in energy efficiency, waste elimination, reuse of materials, material use levels and so on. I acknowledge that we have launched some good individual initiatives. However, like St. Brendan's pioneering voyage on the Atlantic, the…

Will the Minister consider a cross-Government initiative to see that everyone gets their entitlements in full? People are losing €250 million in unclaimed tax relief on medical expenses, €280 million in carer's support grant, €62 million in unclaimed GP cards and €140 million in unclaimed working family dividend. Many of these are our most vulnerable families. There are 85,000 children in low-income families who should be getting the working family payment. The list goes on of people who are not getting what is due…

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate. We are living at a time when unprecedented forces are conspiring to undermine the values on which our democratic community is built. These values are absolutely vital. They are critical to our society and we need to treasure them. They are the republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity, respect for every individual and his or her right to be treated fairly and in accordance with the law, and respect for international law. Unfortunately, there are …

In any organisation the quality of leadership is the single biggest factor determining the successful outcomes, whether it be in enterprises or schools. It may be said that some leaders are born, but most leaders are created and the skills are learned. We spend too little on developing leadership. I would like to hear an audit of the situation in the Garda Síochána.

I welcome some of the detail but I think there is a problem. Allocating 2% to total training, including initial training, is certainly not enough. Under the heading of Enabling Curiosity and Learning, the Policing Authority, in its most recent review, reported that review of performance is inconsistent and does not focus on outcomes. It points to a gulf with the experience learnt from those on the front line and strategic management in the Garda. It says that notable examples of excellence are out there, but there …

It is essential that we take this more seriously. The reality is that releasing people to attend courses does not deliver improved leadership at local level. Leadership at local level is about leaders having the tools to critically examine what they are doing, to learn from best examples elsewhere, to bring a team with them to make changes, to monitor whether that is happening and to give resources to those who are ambitious. I do not see that happening in our Garda force yet. We need to look very seriously at how …

I thank colleagues for the beautiful tributes that have been made. John was so proud of this House - everything about it - and it is so nice to see him remembered in such a warm way. I thank you on behalf of Finola, Matthew, Juliana, Emily, Mary-Elizabeth and, of course, my sister Mary and, I should say, the next generation: Ophelia, Hugo, Oliver and Robin, who were the apple of his eye, as they say, and buoyed him up, particularly during his long illness. I think it was Kieran who spoke about how Ireland has chang…

I ask the Tánaiste if he will establish a cross-government initiative to tackle unclaimed entitlements. Revenue admits that PAYE workers have left €480 million behind them in unclaimed reliefs. I estimate that the total for unclaimed entitlements for expenditure programmes is far higher, at about €1.5 billion. This is an enormous sum, more than €2 billion altogether, and these funds have been left unclaimed mostly by the most vulnerable families. I will give the Tánaiste a few examples. We know there has been a tak…

I think it will take more than just issuing-----

I will send the Tánaiste a few examples to encourage him.

I think Deputy Murnane O’Connor is first.

First, I am very uneasy about this legislation. We are proposing to consolidate the two agencies here before conducting the evaluation that I understand the Minister of State is planning, if it is not already under way. To have structural reform before doing the research into evaluating how the present system is working seems the wrong way to do things. It said in the blurb that it is driven by the challenge of climate and digital transformation in the document Impact 2030 but if that is the case, why not involve T…

I apologise for being late. I thought the schedule would run on a bit longer. Will the Tánaiste update the House on the negotiations for new membership of the EU, which will include Ukraine, and the implications this will have for institutional arrangements such as membership of the Commission, qualified majority voting and so on?

I thank the Tánaiste and I welcome the Government's position on this. On a matter of clarification, when the Tánaiste mentioned the conventional requirements of membership will apply is it expected that in a wartime society, which is the reality in Ukraine, the same standards will apply or will the system make some allowance for the challenges of that environment? Where is it envisaged that there would be change in the institutional arrangement to meet the fact there will be a much larger membership, will all the c…