Senators Michael McDowell and Gerard Craughwell are sharing time. I call Senator McDowell.

On a point of information, the Senator is not in order but I would like the Minister of State to have the opportunity to reply now to the entire debate.

I do not know if it is comical but it says something that we are celebrating International Women's Day on 9 March, a day after International Women's Day. I cannot for the life of me understand why we did not have space for this yesterday, which was actually International Women's Day. I cannot wait to hear why that happened, why it was not a priority and why we got bumped up by a day. It says a lot about the situation for women in Ireland. I am laughing but it is quite serious in some ways. It goes beyond a joke, gi…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht teacht isteach. Tá an-chuid gnó le déanamh aici so táim fíorbhuíoch di as a chuid ama. Is Acht stairiúil í Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla (Leasú), 2021 agus cuirim fáilte roimhe. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire agus leis na daoine a bhí ag obair ar an Acht seo. Tá sé uaillmhianach agus beidh orainn oiliúint agus teagasc na Gaeilge a fheabhsú chun na spriocanna atá leagtha amach againn a bhaint amach. Is í an phríomhsprioc ina leith seo ná go mbeidh ar a laghad 20% d'earcaithe nua s…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. She has done very well since taking up office. She was handed a poisoned chalice, as were many other Ministers, unfortunately, and especially during a time like Covid. As someone who has worked with many young people, I have always come across the mental health stresses young people have. We have never had enough supports for them but we need them now more than ever before. I acknowledge the great work the Minister of State did in fighting for an allocation of €24 million to menta…

The Minister of State and his family are welcome. I wish to raise an issue around the circular economy. The term "circular economy" will become one of those new buzzwords like "climate emergency" and "sustainable" everything. I want it to be explained in a very clear way so we do not think that if we keep mentioning the word "sustainable" it will make a difference. The circular economy is where we look at the amount of waste we are producing, be it from clothes, cars, rubbish or food, and do something about it. Rec…

Cuirim fáilte roimh na feisirí. Tá sárobair déanta ag Seán Kelly ó thaobh ár dteanga álainn. Tá an meas atá tuillte aici san Eoraip faoi dheireadh. Bail ó Dhia air mar gheall ar an tsárobair. Tá sé sin an-tábhachtach dom. Gabhaim buíochas ó chroí leis. Labhróidh mé inniu mar gheall ar athrú aeráide amháin. Mary Robinson, one of my heroes, was in recently to celebrate 100 years of the Seanad and she said it would be remiss of us not to discuss climate every single day in the Seanad. So I choose to do so today. I am …

We would all like to go over time. We have so many things to say to the MEPs.

We will have to bring them back again.

Hear, hear.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an tAire Stáit. I thank the Minister of State very much on behalf of all of the people in Clare, for all of the sports capital grants that the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, and the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, gave out. Everybody was very happy because after two years of no fundraising it brought a lot of joy to people all around the county. Go raibh míle maith agaibh. It is important that we have these citizens' assemblies. The climate action plan would not be here now only that we …

I thank the committee for all its work on this report and I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to attend this debate. We could talk about trees all day, and it is great that everybody now recognises the importance of trees. I remember planting trees about 25 years ago. We had recycled a load of aluminium cans. A fellow from Longford town, John Crossan, had a dream that one could turn cans into trees. He recycled 250,000 cans and bought 5,000 trees. We went all around Ireland planting trees with schoolc…

Yes, this is quoting the report. It is what prompted me to raise the issue. The report states: "The pandemic has highlighted the recreational importance of forestry as the public increased their use of public forests and trails to be closer to nature". I am sticking to the report strictly. It states that trees give us clean air, prevent flooding and mitigate water movements, prevent soil erosion, provide habitats and biodiversity and are a great public amenity for recreational use. I was totally on point with the c…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Minister of State, Deputy Burke, as teacht isteach inniu. It is good to see him in the House to take this Committee Stage. This is a very important Bill. Even though it is quite a short Bill, it is very important. As the Green Party spokesperson on rural development and as somebody who has worked with schools for 14 years trying to help them to be greener, this day has been a long time coming. I look forward to hearing about the progress that the Minister of State has for us on this Bill, a…

I wish to clarify something. I appreciate that everything has to be done properly and in the context of ecological constraints and so forth. Most of this is going on existing sheds, so there is just the issue of the on-the-ground stuff. The glare issue has come up in the UK and that has been covered, so it is not as if we have to reinvent the wheel in that regard. To clarify, we are waiting for the ecology report to come back and we do not know when that is due. Have we to wait for that to come back before starting…

The issue with anti-glare is the same in every airport in the world.

I am not saying we should be dismissive because it has been done in the UK. It is just that the glare issue-----

Yes, I understand that. I thank the Minister of State for the timeline. It gives us more of an inkling.

It is a good day for Ireland and the retrofitting plan we will see announced this evening is a positive step. We could have done with it about ten or 15 years ago but back then only the Green Party was talking about this kind of stuff. Finally lots of other people are catching up and we have prioritised it. Since my first week in the Seanad I was having meetings with officials and advisers about how we could do this better and make it more affordable. I suffered from fuel poverty as single mum when my son was small…

This is another great day for the Minister of State whose portfolio includes biodiversity and land use. This Bill is so important. Not only did the Green Party get this included in the programme for Government, we now see it coming to fruition. Everyone knows that it is barbaric to have fur and skin farming and such farming will no longer take place in this country. There will be a complete ban on fur and skin farming, thanks to the work of the Minister of State, with support from the Government. As someone who liv…