I thank the Tánaiste for that clarification. At this point, is it possible to say where Ukraine has reached in terms of milestones towards membership?

I congratulate Deputy Murphy on his good luck on getting three questions in a row. I calculate the probability of that is one in 1,300. Paul is extremely lucky, unlike me, whose questions are relegated to the bottom of the paper. However, I am very fortunate that Deputy Alan Farrell has allowed me to ask this question. Will the Minister outline his views on the expansion of wind energy and the progress made to date? What are the potential obstacles? The climate council does not seem to have listed having energy sec…

I thank the Minister for his reply. Representatives of the climate council appeared before the committee recently. I have to say there was a note of exasperation about some of the obstacles to expanding our renewables. They included guidelines for onshore wind which seemed to be inordinately held up, spatial planning guidelines, planning delays, the regulatory treatment of battery storage and some others relating to hybrid connections and private wires. We seem to have an administrative problem in getting through s…

To listen to the climate council, it points to other countries which have taken a more robust approach. I know we value the consultative process and the protections we have enshrined in planning law, albeit we are now trying to rationalise some of the excessive delays that occur in it. Has the Minister looked to other legal reforms which would make it easier to reach these decisions quickly? I know the delays in the planning board are inordinate and there is a big effort to bring in new expertise there, but it seem…

Today, we read that new house prices are believed to have peaked at levels like €310,000 in the midlands and €464,000 in Dublin. It is true that, with the assistance of Government schemes, these can now be purchased using mortgages of under €300,000. However, because these schemes do not allow buyers to express advance interest in being purchasers under the affordable purchase schemes, there is no register of likely buyers and developers of multi-unit developments often feel it too risky to put those homes up for s…

Once they are built.

I welcome the changes the Minister is making in the burden being placed on childcare providers. However, it would be remiss not to express the deep frustration many of them feel. I take the point that the Minister must have accountability and transparency for money spent. However, an obligation of this nature to ascertain how he might better spend the money looks to me like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. There are many other ways to find out the make-up of the cost structure of childcare providers in trying …

Although the Minister and the Government have announced changes in respect of new people coming from Ukraine, there is a continuing issue relating to the success of integration policies. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, has the national integration fund, but there is a need for further initiatives in this sphere, given the scale of arrivals, with 125,000 people to be integrated into communities.

I thank the Minister of State. I recognise the extraordinary efforts his Department and the wider Government services have put into this task. At a time when some people are trying to undermine the work of the Government and create division within the community, we need to step up our innovation in the approach to integration. There is a need for funds that involve local community organisations, such as the GAA or partnership companies, which are a very powerful local group. It is about addressing challenging issue…

I welcome the reference to flexibility in the context of Tús and community employment. That can be a win-win, given that many voluntary schemes are struggling to find participants. Perhaps the Minister of State should look at partnership companies specifically. In my area on the north side of Dublin, they are trying to deliver services to support families, but they are very overstretched. As they have that infrastructure and experience, this might be a resource that could effectively channel money from the Governme…

Thanks to Deputy Stanton, who is not in the Chamber, we had a hearing this morning on the issue of shoplifting, which is costing each family in the country €1,000 every year. A very high level of frustration was expressed at the hearing, with massive under-reporting of the problem and a sense that there is no deterrent when people are caught. I welcome the Minister's announcement of an initiative in this area, but one thing that needs to be done is the barring of repeat offenders from certain areas of cities or tow…

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this Bill. This is one of the regulatory challenges of our generation. We are starting on a crucial but difficult journey of coming to terms with the impact of the digital world on the way we live our lives. This really is different from anything we are used to as legislators. Platforms have generated a massive range of data on every one of us, they know how to amplify messages and they know how to find influential hooks to bring influence to bear on us. Of course it…

My constituency has been a significant beneficiary of Government policy and we now have over 2,000 social homes and 3,500 affordable homes in the pipeline. The crux of the matter is that there are not enough affordable homes for purchase. Too many are going in the buy-to-rent direction. I need to see initiatives to change that.

I would suggest two things, if I may. First, the cities fund should be used by a partnership of the LDA and the local authorities to develop the affordable purchase piece. Second, the local authorities should create a pipeline of a substantial number of eligible buyers with provisional approval in order that developers, whether the LDA or others, can have confidence that there will be enough people to purchase homes. The risk factor is the problem and is stopping this option being developed.

The key is to request that local authorities develop a pipeline of people with provisional approval who would be eligible. That is the key to giving people confidence that there will be enough buyers when homes come to market.

They do not advertise them until they are built, which is too late.

The Oireachtas had an opportunity to hear from family carers this morning. While they welcome innovations coming from the Government, such as the carer's pension, they have identified a number of gaps, including in the statutory home care proposal and support for assisted living wraparound services. When will the commission for older people get under way? Can we expect that the home carer legislation will come before the House during this Dáil session?

The Clongriffin station is to be a strategic transport hub serving a very rapidly growing area. Indeed, it is an area where the Land Development Agency plans to develop more than 2,000 homes. At present, it has no park-and-ride facility, the underground car park is shut, the access to the DART station from the Fingal side is in private hands, the lift is not working and the area is not in charge. I ask that the Minister's agencies, the NTA and Iarnród Éireann, get involved in resolving some of these very difficult …

The Minister will understand the sense of abandonment by people in this rapidly growing area where this has been designated a strategic hub. As the Minister has fairly outlined, two of the key strategic assets to enable it are in private hands and are not working. If we want to go ahead with these higher density, more sustainable developments, which we do, we need to put some money on the table to fix these problems. There do not seem to be planning conditions in the armoury of either Fingal County Council or Dubli…

I warmly welcome the Minister's commitment. This really needs to move on. The success of BusConnects and so on all hangs in the balance of getting a hub like this working properly.