Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht teacht isteach inniu. Is dócha go bhfuil sé gnóthach mar Aire. I want to use the opportunity to praise the secretarial assistants. I am only a Senator for a year and a half, and I am completely blown away by the role of a Senator. Until I became one, I had no idea of what was involved, even though I have been engaged in politics for my entire life. Not only is my role insane, but the role of my poor secretary is a lot more insane. As a Senator, not only are we part of the Upper…

Tá baint idir leasuithe Uimh. 9 agus 10 agus is féidir iad a phlé le chéile. An bhfuil sé sin aontaithe? Aontaithe.

Ar mhian leis an Seanadóir an leasú a tharraingt siar?

Tá baint ag leasuithe Uimh. 13 agus 14 le chéile agus is féidir iad a phlé le chéile.

An bhfuil an Seanadóir ag iarraidh é a tharraingt siar?

An bhfuil sé sin aontaithe?

Cathain a mbeartaítear an Chéim Dheiridh a thógáil?

Tá súil ag gach duine sa Seomra seo go dtarlóidh sé sin. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht a chuid ama. Tháinig sé isteach sa Teach seo go minic agus táim an-bhuíoch dó. Is onóir mhór dom a bheith anseo agus rud a phlé go hiomlán trí Ghaeilge. Táim ag súil go mór le níos mó Gaeilge a chloisteáil sa Seanad seo, sa Dáil agus san Oireachtas ar fad. Lean oraibh.

I second the motion.

I second the motion. I feel that this is a Lilywhites PR campaign.

Carpe diem . I thank my colleague, Senator Martin, for bringing forward this motion. I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, who committed to trying to get this done a year ago when he visited Kildare. The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries. There are now 42 signatories of the treaty, covering 80% of the world's population. It is great timing because we had an historic maritime Bill passed by this House and embraced by the coalition Government and today we have this great mo…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht teacht isteach arís. Bíonn sé an-fhlaithiúlach. He is very generous with his time in the Seanad. He is always willing to come in and take our questions. This Commencement matter is on the need for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to make a statement on the progress of the taking over of national water services by Irish Water in line with the key performance indicators used by the water advisory body in reporting on the performance of Irish Water, wi…

I would like to know with which Oireachtas committee I can raise this. That is if there is a recommendation in the programme for Government in that respect. Irish Water is the water services authority for the country and all the legislative powers required to provide and maintain water services infrastructure now lies solely with Irish Water. It is totally unsatisfactory that the authority created to deliver such infrastructure has no funding capacity for developments with no existing public wastewater infrastructu…

This is an historic Bill. I think it is about 90 years in the making, but it is historic to get it to this stage. I thank the Minister for his work and my colleagues in the Seanad who sat on the committee chaired by Deputy Matthews. Deputy Matthews has been working night and day on this Bill. We have not seen him because he has been working so hard. He has met with every NGO in the country a ridiculous number of times. The NGOs have played a huge part in this Bill. Many of the NGOs have expertise that we do not hav…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. It is nice to see Deputy Varadkar in the House again. The Irish people care and worry a lot about Covid. They want to protect each other, as can be seen from our high vaccination rate. They are smart people. They do not need to be forced to do anything. They have embraced most of the public health advice. It is very important that we are very clear as to what we are asking them to do and why. That is one thing that we, as a Government, have failed to do. Our communications have left muc…

Hear, hear.

I welcome the Minister of State. It is so great to have the House agreed on wanting to support the horticulture industry. It is fantastic we are all agreed on that. I hope everybody takes that into account when buying their fruit, vegetables and plants so they are only buying off local horticultural growers, as there are many in Ireland who could do with our support. It is great we all agree on that. It is also great how everybody keeps saying they really care about our bogs, which is fantastic. No more than Senato…

I do not know if I have had the pleasure of speaking to the Minister before but I am in awe of the challenges and the work that he has to do in his role as Minister. It is an honour to have him in the House. On paper, the national development plan is the largest and greenest plan we have ever seen. The Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, has said that himself. It is most welcome. It is delivering on the Green Party commitments to future-proof the plan and deliver for climate, communities and equality. It is not going…

This is a very important matter. My son could not find a place to live for college this year so is commuting from Clare and burning lots of fossil fuels because the public transport is not yet there. It is a huge issue. We are all aware of the fact that we need to build more houses, and the empty sites issue is massive.

Dáil Éireann has passed the Child and Family Agency (Amendment) Bill 2021, without amendment.