When is it proposed to take Fifth Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

To follow correct procedures, I had thought the Senator was asking for the last Stage of the Bill. When is it proposed to take the next Stage of the Bill?

Senators will be able to speak after the Bill has passed.

Yes, but I must now put the question that the Bill do now pass.

Senators can speak after the Bill has passed.

The next Stage is to be taken now. The Fifth Stage proposes that the Bill do now pass because we have gone through all the amendments.

That is what I have been instructed by the Seanad Office. I am just following procedure.

Is it agreed that the Bill do now pass?

I am speaking on a point of order under the instruction of the Seanad.

There is no question of Senators not being allowed to speak.

I will allow Senators to speak on Fifth Stage. Is it okay if we keep contributions brief? Many people want to come in and we have an audience who are probably falling asleep. Let us keep contributions brief and we will get this wrapped up.

I thank the Minister for his time. When is it proposed to sit again?

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. We hear a lot of talk now and we have new buzzwords coming in. The word “sustainable” is one, although it has been misused for years, and there is also "climate change" and "biodiversity". A newer buzzword that is coming to the fore is “circular economy”. I know the Minister of State has done much work done on that. I therefore thought it would be appropriate to invite him to the House to make a statement on his work on the circular economy, including on proposed funding mechanism…

This is great. We have seen this work in other jurisdictions for many years. It is brilliant and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, for his work, as well as the work of the Green Party in government, in bringing this forward. When we think in future of single-use plastics, we will ask, "What were we thinking of? What madness." I remember eight years ago I started a social enterprise campaign called Love Your Cup, in which every single business in Ennistymon and many of them in Ennis gave back 30 cent if p…

I welcome students from Naas Community College. Ich begrüsse die deutschen Studenten. Ich habe viel über die Umweltbilanz erfarhen als ich in Deutschland wohnte. Die Studenten sind herzlich wilkommen .

It is good that there will be a new Oireachtas committee on autism. I will be a member of that committee and hopefully it will bring these issues to the fore. Since I came into this House, from day one, I have been approached by so many people on autism-related issues. The fact that private schools do not have any special classes is a serious issue when one considers the fact that they are getting State funding.

In rural areas some children are on buses for an hour to get to the closest place for them. It is horrendous. I look forward to working on the Oireachtas committee on this issue. I thank the Senator for raising the issue again this morning and I thank the Minister of State for his time.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach. Tá obair an-tábhachtach á déanamh ar an dlí seo, mar sin gabhaim buíochas leis. This is an important Bill. I thank the Minister of State for all his work on this. All too often, consumers fall prey to great offers of hire purchase agreements. As someone with a degree in mathematics and physics, I find some of the calculations in hire purchase agreements really complicated. It ends up being much more money than it looks like when agreements state 4% or 6%, since…

Laskavo prosymo. That is "welcome" in Ukrainian. Unfortunately, I have been saying those words a lot recently because we have had so many Ukrainians come into our county. Maybe we should all learn how to say those words for starters. I thank the Minister deeply because from the get-go he has turned on a sixpence and created systems that were never before demanded at such a scale and in such a short time. So far so good. Unfortunately, it looks like we will have a lot more to do, but the response from the Minister, …