On the planning guidelines, the Minister needs to engage in proper consultation with groups across the country and counties in rural Ireland. I do not believe there has been enough consultation. The Minister knows what we need in Mayo, such as the non-sterilisation of land along the N59, people being able to build on their own sites, consistency in planning. All of those issues need to be addressed. When will people see the impact of that and be able to build homes or live in their own communities? That is an impor…

Absolutely.

I requested that this issue of renewable energy be discussed tonight because I am dumbfounded that we are now finishing another year without having the national guidelines for wind turbines. There are no national guidelines. I just cannot believe that we are in the last week of this session and we still do not have them. It is absolutely outrageous that we are developing onshore wind energy with planning guidelines that are 20 years old. It is crazy. How are we supposed to be taken seriously in respect of climate c…

I thank the Minister of State. That response makes more promises but there is nothing for the here and now and what people are experiencing right now. The damage caused by the Government's regulatory vacuum is leading to a deteriorating situation in local areas. That is a fact. It is also a risk to Ireland's energy security. Meanwhile, households live in fear of their ever-increasing, and already huge, electricity bills. We want to do renewable energy in a very different way. Rather than excessive commodification o…

As we take over the EU Presidency, we have an opportunity to demonstrate the kind of leadership it should embody. The agenda rightly includes competitiveness, security and Europe's economic future. However, competitiveness cannot simply mean protecting profits and expanding markets. It must also mean protecting workers, strengthening strategic sectors and ensuring that European businesses operate to the highest ethical standards. This means legal entitlement to collective bargaining. That is why the continued expor…

I welcome this legislation, which gives effect to the €15 million that was announced earlier in January. I commend all the post offices and thank the post office owners who communicated with me at the time, including those I met in trying to get this vital extra funding. We all know that post offices are far more than just places to send letters and collect parcels. They provide essential public services at the very heart of our communities, where people go to pay their bills and access pensions, social welfare pay…

The majority of Members of this House want to do the preparation for Irish unity. They recognise we have a distinctive opportunity to create a new and united Ireland; to create an island where nobody is left behind; to create an architecture underpinned by our values as an Irish nation; and to create a national health service where optimum outcomes can be achieved by the world-class medical experts we have on this island and where timely access to healthcare is determined by need and not on ability to pay. They rec…

Ireland's EU Presidency is a significant opportunity for the country that must not be missed, but it has to be for the whole island. I was really glad to see our First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, at today's event, because we cannot talk about any of the issues we are going to talk about during the Presidency without taking an all-island approach. We have a chance to demonstrate leadership, advance Ireland’s interests, address the democratic deficit within the EU and to help shape Europe’s future at a very pivotal m…

I have been trying to find out for some time the number of members of An Garda Síochána who have criminal convictions. I cannot get anywhere with the Minister or the Garda Commissioner. The latest response I got was that this information was not held centrally and would require a disproportionate amount of time and resources to address. Does the Taoiseach think that is acceptable? I think it is absolutely shocking. The public expects gardaí to undergo rigorous vetting. Will the Taoiseach tell me if the law currentl…

I too wish to state, as I said to the Minister, how concerned I am about the short space of time we have had to really scrutinise something as important as this. The time is just too short for amendments with all the other legislation at this time of year that is piled on together. I take from the Minister of State’s opening contribution that she will be taking on board the enterprise committee’s pre-legislative scrutiny report and that is a positive thing. I agree with Deputy that we have a dedicated AI committee …

Amendments Nos. 4, 8 and 9 concern small and medium-sized businesses. They aim to expand the statutory functions of the AI office so that it not only regulates AI but also provides guidance, training and technical assistance support for small businesses, particularly SMEs, to comply with the AI Act and to adopt AI responsibly. The AI office should be more than just an enforcement body. It should offer an education and support function to help businesses to understand what is expected of them. These amendments attem…

I thank Deputy Ward for bringing forward this motion. It is no surprise that I and my colleagues are very happy to support it. It is very important we all work together to tackle this. However, the Government is still not listening; it is not hearing what is being said. That is the great tragedy of all this. Since we started this nearly 12 years ago - or more than that - on the Erris peninsula in Mayo, the Government has not listened. If it had listened, we would now have a 100% redress scheme and many people would…

The people of Newport have waited decades for a wastewater treatment plant that is fit for purpose. This is absolutely critical infrastructure. For them to hear now that it may be 2031 before they get this critical infrastructure is absolutely not acceptable for families, businesses or community groups in the area. This is a beautiful town that has waited too long. I am asking the Taoiseach to intervene so that it does not have to wait until 2031 for something as basic as a wastewater treatment plant.

Could the Taoiseach tell them to hurry up?

I welcome the opportunity to mark Pride Month. It is a time to celebrate diversity and inclusion and also to reflect on the journey that has brought us here and the work that remains to be done. Ireland has made significant progress in recent years in advancing the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ people, including, as my colleague Deputy Devine noted, through the work of ICTU. We welcome Deputy Ó Snodaigh's legislation and hope it will be passed by the House in the next couple of weeks. From the historic marriage equa…

Artificial intelligence is transforming our economy, workplaces and daily lives at an extraordinary pace. It offers enormous opportunities to improve public services, drive innovation and enhance productivity but it also presents serious risks that cannot be ignored. We all can recognise the benefits AI can bring to individuals, business and the public sector, be it through task automation, improved data analysis or increased efficiency and competitiveness across many sectors. However, AI is not an inherently posit…

I acknowledge the hard work done by my colleague Deputy Cullinane in this area. He has presented all the proposals and solutions to fix what is happening in dental services. Dental care is a critical part of the health and well-being of any human being but it is not treated as such by the Government, which has failed to address the critical shortage in this area of healthcare provision. Between 2019 and 2025, the number of dentists in Mayo providing care under the dental treatment services scheme fell from just 31 …

I was really pleased to see this on the agenda. It is very important that we have this discussion in the Chamber today because it really matters. On orphan drugs and clinical trials, it is important to have that negotiation power for the leverage we need, and it is really important that we address this on an all-island basis and have an all-island system. We have been looking at this within the Good Friday Agreement as well in terms of an all-island national healthcare system. It is clearly coming through that were…

For counties such as Mayo, tourism is a critical economic driver. The Wild Atlantic Way has helped to showcase the extraordinary beauty of our coastline, our islands, our heritage and our communities. Yet, despite the success of these attraction, there remains significant untapped potential that requires sustained investment and support from Government. I am glad to hear the Minister talk about the oversight group and that the local authorities are part of it because it is often the case that the necessary joined-u…

There is a fundamental flaw at the heart of this Bill. That is the exclusion of services. It is no more complicated than that. I certainly wish to pay tribute to Senator Black who showed leadership when successive Governments refused to act. Senator Black's occupied territories Bill set out a clear and principled position. Before the 2024 general election, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promised the Irish people that the occupied territories Bill would be enacted. Instead, what we have before us is a watered-down versio…