I apologise for not being here earlier. The House is very efficient and speeding through the work. A key long-term investment for Ireland is to build a much stronger culture of entrepreneurship and stronger hubs around it. Will the Minister consider updating the strategy put in place some years ago? Time has passed considerably since then and it needs to be looked at again.

During the deep recession when we lost 300,000 jobs we would have lost 400,000 jobs were it not for the fact that people set up businesses that in the most difficult times created 100,000 jobs. Almost 10,000 businesses a year are formed. The obsession with high-potential start-ups is misplaced. There will be only 100 of them per year and this will be pushed up to 120. We need to look at wider elements of entrepreneurial strategy, such as a culture that promotes entrepreneurship in our education system, mentoring, t…

I appreciate the Minister's commitment to this area. It is one area where we would benefit from a set of succinct policy proposals that are built around stronger leadership, a stronger culture towards entrepreneurship and better opportunities for people to decide to set up their own business from within companies that are successful. A sustained focus on that, with policy instruments around it, would repay in the long term. It was something we did in the time of deep crisis in the 2011 to 2016 period and it is not …

Ireland has not been good at either constructing buildings or enterprises that put sustainability at their core. We have 50% higher emissions and a low uptake of renewables outside of electricity, poor material and waste management systems and the lowest rate of circularity, bar Romania, in Europe. Does the Minister agree he has a central role in addressing this?

While we have now decided that is where we want to go, we are certainly not very advanced on the path. We passed legislation providing that every sector should have a strategy for circularity but I do not see sectoral strategies being evolved. The Dutch, who are the leaders in this field, have such strategies. We need to offer enterprise and consumers much more information on the sustainability of their choices. I ask the Minister to consider bringing forward strategies in building, food, manufacturing, and the man…

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the Bill. There is no doubt the world has become a much more dangerous place. It is very important that Ireland and the EU as a whole take a consistent approach to the sale of goods that might come into the wrong hands and have an adverse impact on the human rights of people across the globe. The Bill is welcome. It is a good structure that is being put in place, with lists of items and a system of authorisation, particularly in regard to items that have a dual use, giv…

When I was Minister for Education and Skills, when education and skills were harnessed together, I set a target to make Ireland the best education and skills provider in Europe by 2026. I do not know whether that is still monitored. An important approach to governance is to have such bold ambitions. Ireland has a lot to be proud of in this context. We achieved the fastest expansion of third-level education anywhere in Europe. We are at the top of the table in mathematics and reading. We have created hubs where the …

As interest rates continue to rise and borrowers are coming under very severe pressure, it is very noticeable that the net margins of banks are also growing significantly. Yesterday the stock value of one Irish bank rose by just 4% in just a day. Would it be timely for the Government to review consumer protections and to sit down with the Central Bank, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to review consumer protection in financial services?

I am interested in that question because I recently had the opportunity with the Committee on Environment and Climate Action to visit the Netherlands. It is interesting there, where there is a very high cycling culture, that they make less use of red lights and allow many more what would be left turns for cyclists here and in their case would be right turns where the light is red for oncoming traffic and it is safe to do so. They have zones where there are sharks teeth signs to indicate to motorists to yield to cyc…

In the context of the council's role, I want to ask the Minister of State whether he believes it would be helpful in terms of promoting recycling if there was more information on the rate of contamination of collections to be provided through the various providers. I refer to greater clarity on the destination of the different waste streams and perhaps better clarity on the labelling of packaging so that people would have a much clearer view of the way in which they should treat different items.

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed reply and commend him on the progress being made. Has his Department or any body across the public service created a vision for broadband technology to deliver public services more effectively and reduce the carbon footprint of providing those services? One of the neglected areas is creating a vision for how rural Ireland, in particular, can be transformed by this technology.

We are in an unenviable position but while we are on the road to eliminating fossil fuels, it is not ideal that we have had to bring in diesel as a short-term measure to deal with our difficulties. I am interested to know, in the context of the McCarthy review into the failure of be able to deliver some of the planned facilities, whether we can see a pathway to more effective delivery of some of these large-scale projects, which are crucial to the transition, on the most cost-effective and environmentally sound bas…

Does the Minister agree that Deputy O'Rourke is distorting the picture somewhat? The reality is that the one-stop shop scheme requires applicants to go to B2. People will not get those additional supports unless they go to B2. Would the Minister also agree that even if the warmer homes scheme does not deliver B2 ratings, very substantial reductions of between 60% and 70% in the fuel costs of households can be achieved for those most vulnerable families by some of the interventions? In the long term, the ideal is B2…

I thank my constituency colleague in the Chair for her generosity. This question refers to an interesting report, which I am sure the Minister has seen, from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. The authors showed that if we measured our consumption, including the vehicles we buy and the goods we import for buildings, our carbon footprint would be 75% higher than it is on the activity measure that is in conformity with Paris. I am interested to hear the Minister's view on the policy implications of thi…

I invite the Minister to consider giving the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, a more prominent role in respect of promoting this sort of thinking within the climate plan. For example, the choice between a sports utility vehicle, SUV, which has 35 tonnes of embodied carbon, and a standard car, which has only 10 tonnes, can have a huge impact in the global context. Does the Minister agree that Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which has responsibility for much of our planning regulations, i…

It is encouraging to see today that the Central Bank is reporting a reduction of 5% in motor insurance in the first six months of this year. We also read today that the 188,000 uninsured drivers over a five-year period are adding €175 to premiums, effectively 6% per year. Can more effective action be taken to detect uninsured drivers?

Given that wholesale energy prices are down quite sharply, can we be assured that energy users are being treated fairly? I have three specific questions in that regard. I welcome the 75% windfall tax, but can we expect additional measures for energy users on foot of that? Does the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, police the hedging policies of different energy companies to ensure that there is not price gouging so that when they say they have to wait before cutting prices, it is on a valid basis? Finall…

I thank the Tánaiste for bringing this report before the House. All Deputies can only feel shock and dismay at the findings of the report. I refer to the constant belittling of women, the unwillingness to counter bullying, the immense figure of 88% reporting sexual harassment among women, the abuse of power and the contempt for many of the skills women could have brought to the Army. The description of it as a "man's army" summed up much of what seems to have become the norm. It is chilling to see the conclusion th…

The level of the shouting down of Government speakers illustrates the motivation behind this debate. This is a reactionary debate. We have heard shrill and strident shouting, hollow slogans and cheap caricatures of the motivations of Government speakers. It does nothing to solve the housing crisis and assures me this is not the time to change Government. There has not been a word about climate, migration or enterprise, some of the key global issues that face this country. It is all about the Opposition being dazzle…

We hear the Opposition continue to shout to prevent the reality from being spoken about. We are facing very difficult issues in housing, but to pretend the Government is not committed to public housing rings absolutely hollow. Last year, 60% of the homes in Dublin were social housing. That is the reality. We need more private construction and to support home buyers, but the Opposition denounces any support that goes to home buyers or private construction. We will not solve our housing problem on that basis. I do no…