People are right to be passionate and angry about what happened last week. I am angry and disappointed myself because it was an appalling scene to see. Anger, however, is not a policy, and it is disappointing that many people are reducing the issues that faced us last week to hollow slogans and demands for sackings or climbing on their own little hobby horses and claiming that those are behind what has happened here. The reality is that we are in a volatile situation, not only here but across the world, and we need…

The community safety plans can genuinely be transformative because they offer the vision of community Garda teams working to a plan shaped by the local community and backed by activist councils, activist transport companies and an activist HSE. I have two questions for the Taoiseach. Will he update the House on the progress of the three pilots that are already in place? The key to their success will be ensuring those who participate from councils, the HSE and so on are clearly mandated to deliver resources and acti…

I hope the Howlin name continues to be carried with aplomb in Wexford. First, I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Deputy Dennis Naughten to the Dáil in elevating the status of science in our debates. Deputy Naughten has been singularly committed to doing that and it is something that hopefully will continue even though we may not still have him in the Houses. I want to ask for three things in the context of this debate on Science Week. One, I ask, as I did last year, that Science Week be changed to…

I welcome the housing figures announced yesterday. It is really encouraging to see that there has been a 34% increase in commencements in the past seven months, that there have been strong completions and that 30,000 first-time mortgages were approved in the past 12 months. I request that the Land Development Agency, LDA, acquire more sites with full planning permission. It has acquired 2,500 in my constituency, which is a very strong and encouraging sign. Could there be more innovation in using the cities fund to …

I welcome this debate. It is timely. Other Deputies have well articulated the defects in the energy charter treaty. It is important to recall, as the note from the Oireachtas Library and Research Service has underlined, that this emerged in the early 1990s in the wake of the opening up of eastern Europe and following the collapse of the Soviet Union. There were genuine desires to see integration east-west so that energy in particular would be a basis not only of co-operation and mutual benefit but so this could be …

We are seeing a total tragedy unfolding before our eyes. We can see the pain every night on our screens and the fear and anguish in the faces of mothers in particular. It is there for all of us to see. The reality is that the decision by Hamas was a cold, calculated assault designed to kill citizens and create the sort of reaction we have seen. It was carefully planned. It was not the reaction to some individual incident. It was carefully planned and equipped to an extraordinary level, and its target was to see the…

This week the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment heard that sustainability is key to the long-term competitiveness of the food sector, which is not surprising. However, Enterprise Ireland and local enterprise offices, LEOs, report that only one in seven enterprises have taken up any of the Green Offer schemes. At the same time, we have deep supply chain problems in the sector impacting on water quality, the level of food waste, labelling and packaging issues, and carbon emissions. Would the Tánaist…

I, too, worry about my grandchildren. I take a very different view from the last speaker. I believe, for example, that the State's decision to invest in broadband so that every family in the country will have access to high-speed broadband was a good decision for rural Ireland. We have seen the product of that already with increased remote working and new opportunities in rural villages. We will see in the future the delivery of remote health and educational services. There will be real transformation of the opport…

Looking out the back window, we can see that print has collapsed by more than 50% since the year 2000. RTÉ and TG4 together have 52 minutes per day of viewing, which is less than YouTube, as people move away to the à la carte approach and multiple channels of consumption. We have seen commercial income in RTÉ collapse from €250 million to €150 million. I would like to explore with the Minister where these trends are heading in the future, in her view, and what it means for public policy.

What I am trying to get at is the Minister's perception of the direction of the media. Are we going to see a continuing decline in print media which will undermine what we have got used to, that is, local print media and quality printed journalism? Will we continue to see the commercial income of these traditional media decline more and more? Some 55% of advertising revenue already goes to the online platforms and it looks to be heading only one way. The Government has ducked the issue of reform of the funding mech…

It seems the Government has rejected the Exchequer funding model in favour of trying to patch up the leaky licence fee model. It also seems the Government has rejected the idea of a powerful broadcasting commission that, as the developmental body, would not just oversee in considerable detail the performance of RTÉ but also the performance of the other media that looked to it for funding. Is this the future? Does the Minister agree with having a stronger broadcasting commission that would oversee content to the sor…

We are in the worst of all worlds at the moment. A cloud is hanging over RTÉ and the Government is withdrawing the future funding process. Effectively, there will be political decisions about funding in the short term. That is not a satisfactory position. We need to clear the fog rapidly. I commend the Minister on having a review, but there is work to be done by the Government to have a much clearer vision of where our landing zone might be.

The Tánaiste will know that on retirement, people can now look forward to 20 years of further life. That is five times what our parents could look forward to. It is one of the great success stories. However, Covid exposed serious weaknesses in how we think about ageing and the supports we put in place. Recently there have been some appalling cases of vulnerable people not being adequately safeguarded. The number of cases of abuse being reported is about 12,000. Many believe the number is 20 times that in reality. W…

I thank the Minister of State for his presentation. Our committee is now being asked to examine the report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. It makes compelling reading. There is no doubt the intensification of production in agriculture and other industries has had a huge impact on nature. There is a figure thrown around which I have often used. It is that our production and consumption activities are extracting from nature three times what it can restore in a year. That is the direction we are headin…

This is an appalling mess and I am not going to go over the details of what we have heard. I welcome the work of the Oireachtas committees and the Minister's appointment of two reviews and a forensic accountant. It will be important to await the outcome of these works before we draw long-term conclusions. It is clearly important we have a robust RTÉ coming out of this, with proper protocols around how the commercial world of advertising and a body that is predominantly funded by public money must coexist. These eve…

I was amused to listen to the simplistic caricature of Government policy on the energy challenge from my fellow county man. It is important that this House realises that our emissions are already 60% higher than the rest of Europe, we are the most fossil fuel-dependent in Europe and we have the highest import dependency in Europe. We need to undertake transformational change within our energy system and the route for that is not through cutting taxes on fuel. The route to that is the sort of transformation to build…

Earlier, Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin presented the report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. It is vital that we avoid the sort of divisive debate that we are seeing in Europe on this issue, especially as it is both urgent and vital. Given that a committee is to be established within the Oireachtas - it is the climate committee - it is important that it will have the support of resources of Government in order that in the short timeframe available we can turn the assembly's recommendations into worka…

As the Minister will know, 90% of people aged 65 and over are living in accommodation in excess of their needs, much of which is very difficult to heat. I believe that initiatives to support rightsizing are crucial as our population grows older. Such initiatives release larger accommodation, which is badly needed, reduce our overall need for new building and have considerable social gains. Would the Minister consider measures that would create such an incentive, for example, disregarding capital release from all me…

I congratulate the Government on the progress that is being made. When I went into education back in 2016, we set a broad objective to create the best education and training system in Europe. One of the areas where we really did need to pick up our performance was the area of apprenticeships. It is encouraging to see there are now 67 apprenticeships. I understand there are another 30 in the pipeline. We are on a very positive path in respect of this element. The likes of Germany or Australia probably have three tim…

I know from hearing from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage today that quite a lot of resources are being put into trying to tackle those planning uncertainties. However, it remains a concern, as Deputy Ó Murchú said. I also want to ask about the position in relation to ports and whether we are capable of supporting the offshore development. Where are we on developing a strategy to respond to what is criticism from the sector of our preparedness on that front?