I did not think we would get to this question. The Minister has dealt somewhat with the issue I raise but the fact is we have a school transport fiasco every year. We must ensure that is not the case into the future. A review will need to deal with eligibility and distances, including allowing for circumstances where schools are equidistant, and facilitate as many concessionary tickets as possible.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. At this point, what we want to see is accommodation of all the pupils who previously got concessionary tickets, as well as those in receipt of what are now being called concessionary 3 tickets. For students who have no siblings who ever travelled on the school bus and are the first in the family to enter the fray, I would like to think the numbers will work out for them. The difficulty with all this is that we have been relying on an element of luck. We definitely cannot go back. We m…

Yes, the review needs to look at all the criteria and we must ensure this particular issue is not ongoing. I like to think all sensible politicians would welcome that, as will families. There is no point repeating myself other than to say we need to deliver for people as quickly as possible, accepting the capacity issues and making sure they do not arise next year.

It is obviously vital that we have sufficient security and surveillance with regard to these submarine cables. We all realise how important we are as an international technology hub. However, if we are talking about critical infrastructure across the board, has the State carried out a sufficient audit of our vulnerabilities? Have we determined the correct point Department to take responsibility in respect of these and ensured we have the necessary capacity? We are in a very different world with the Russian invasion…

We all welcome this legislation, although it is one of those Bills that we would have liked to have seen earlier. It is a straightforward requirement that companies realise the service expected of them, particularly those that operate in the telecommunications field. We all know of the issues that existed with Eir. The pandemic brought us into a different world where we had an absolute necessity for as much connectivity as possible in our homes and the many other places where we ended up doing a great deal of busin…

Tá fáilte roimh an mBille seo. Is dócha nach bhfuil deacrachtaí ag duine ar bith leis agus tá achan rud ráite faoin am seo ag an Aire agus ag an Teachta Ó Snodaigh, mar sin níl mé cinnte caidé a bhfuil mé chun a rá. I generally find an ability to fill space. This is relatively straightforward.

We all support the idea of what has happened. This is retrospective legislation. If I was unfair, I could probably make a complaint about that but that would probably be a stretch. We all like the idea that the NSO will be situated within the NCH. I quite like the idea of the three associated choirs feeding into each other. I suppose that is something that needs to happen with regard to the orchestra. It is similar to what Deputy Ó Snodaigh said. The Minister has dealt with the issues of pay, conditions, pensions a…

I ask for an update on the Narrow Water Bridge project. When we spoke yesterday, I referred to the need for a citizens’ assembly, in particular on the basis of the successful Ireland's Future event. The Taoiseach spoke about the shared island initiative. I would like to see how that conversation could be expanded to be all it would need to be. I ask that we look at research and modelling that could model Departments and systems for a united Ireland, and that we come up with a piece of work similar to what Scotland'…

Like my colleagues, I welcome this Bill from the point of view of its dealing with a particular problem we have with people who work in the health and social care sector and have certain British qualifications that should be recognised. However, as Deputy Browne said, we have issues with a large number of health workers from nurses and doctors through to people who work as physiotherapists, speech and language therapists in acute hospitals and emergency departments and right though to disability services. As was sa…

I am well aware of that.

I beg forgiveness.

I also generally welcome the Bill. Why are we dealing with all this legislation? What is the idea of it? What is the benefit of the personal injuries resolution board? The whole idea is that we are creating a framework and a set of structures that will eventually lead to reduced premiums and that we have a functioning insurance market, because we do not really have that at the moment. That is the major problem. The personal injuries guidelines were obviously a necessary step in the right direction. PIAB has seen a …

In Britain now, we are seeing where Tory politics meet the outworkings of Brexit. I have no doubt that the Taoiseach brought up the worries that would emanate from a British economy in freefall. I welcome that there has been changed language from certain sections of the British Government in respect of possibly doing a deal with the EU. It is absolutely necessary regarding the Irish protocol. Obviously, political unionism needs to be sold that particular message. It is also fair to say we had a very successful Irel…

I was considering raising a number of points, starting with unfairness. Deputies will know the example of the person on €135,000 who will get a tax break of €830 and the person on €35,000 who will only get €190. I was going to go through each issue individually, but then I said "Maybe not", because what are we doing here? We all accept that we are in the middle of an energy crisis and the EU, in particular the European Commission, is finally getting around to dealing with it, albeit slowly. We know that the geopoli…

As already said by Deputies across both sides of this Chamber, the reality is there are a very large number of people on very low wages and they are literally being excluded from the social housing list on the basis of anomalies that might appear in their incomes in a particular year because of shift allowances and so on. This may leave them in a set of circumstances where they cannot rent. I am aware of a number of people in Dundalk in the past while who have been refused in a situation where a circumstance has ch…

Everybody was in support of this particular move. We all see that it is an action related to the cost of living but it is also to make sure that more people use public transport. It continues the conversation we had earlier. We had got a response from the NTA previously on this. Again, we would like it to move as quickly as possible on 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds being able to avail of the Leap card. Does this mean they will get the exact same as a 19-year-old would get, from a financial point of view, from the young…

If we ensure this happens as quickly as possible, we will all be happy, particularly those students who have made contact with all of us. I have a question in respect of the commercial bus operators. Are there a significant number of them that will operate this scheme? Does the Minister have any information on that? Will the approximate fare reduction of 20% be continued post budget?

Finally, we are getting to the crux of the matter of online safety. None of us has not encountered to some degree the phenomenon of online bullying, which is consistent and constant. Never could anyone make an argument - at least, a legitimate one - against an online safety commissioner. We all know that, to a degree, there is an element here of legislation trying to catch up with where technology is. We are talking about some of the super-companies if we are talking about the likes of Facebook, although it did not…

I commiserate with the family of Calvin Curley Gray from Dundalk who had an unfortunate accident, as sometimes happens to kids, on 4 September. On Monday morning, we discovered that this 11-year-old, who had a really great smile and who was full of life, had lost his long fight. It has obviously been an incredibly difficult period for the family. If people have been online, they will have seen the salutations and all that has been said by the likes of Clan na Gael and Shamrocks Football Club, with which young Calvi…

It is a line I have used before. Sometimes when everyone else has spoken, you are just repeating what they have said, only not quite as eloquently. It has all been said. We have seen an abject failure to ensure we have sufficient capacity to generate the electricity we will require. A huge number of people became scared over the summer when they heard of amber alerts and that we had not done the due diligence in respect of the gas generators in particular. Deputy O'Rourke and others spoke about the fact that we had…