As spokesperson for enterprise, trade and employment, I want to use my time to encourage people to really think about where they spend their money in the coming six weeks. We spend €5 billion doing online shopping. More than two thirds of this goes outside the country. If we are buying more online, we need to look at the Irish companies. As the Senator said earlier, there is a good article by Conor Pope in The Irish Times . I strongly recommend that people look at it. We also have buyirishfood.ie and there is impor…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is nice to have him here and he is welcome back any time. The issue at hand is the application of the restrictions of funding to voluntary and community sectors. That is what we want to discuss and we are here late at night because we all care about it deeply. I thank Senators Ruane and Higgins for pointing it out. It is important that we find things on which we can work together and have commonality. The Electoral Act is a source of legal uncertainty and significant…

What about Ireland West Airport Knock?

I do not support the motion but I support the amendment to the motion. In some ways I find it somewhat ridiculous and I wonder if we are wasting our time on this motion. I am sure Senator Gavan, like everyone else, knows that Shannon Group is not just an airport, it is a large entity that has assets, so this motion is almost a waste of time. If he had said "Shannon Airport" rather than "Shannon Group" it might have made more sense. I would really appreciate it if he put down his phone and listened to me because I l…

We cannot be double-jobbing and be on the phone and a politician at the same time. We will get into trouble. It is great that Senator Gavan is talking to employees and union representatives. In case he is in any doubt, we have all been talking to union representatives and employees, so there is nothing really amazing about that. We have attended meetings with them individually and in groups all along. Senator Gavan speaks in such a way as to suggest Sinn Féin is the only party that cares. We will be keeping Shannon…

It is great to see another strong woman from the west getting up the ranks. I congratulate the Minister of State and look forward to working with her. I have a few points on the aviation industry and road transport while we have her ear. I am sure she is just as aware as everybody else in the room of all the problems so I will not waste time describing them. Instead I will focus on some suggested actions and solutions. I remind the Minister of State that we are in a climate crisis as well as a Covid-19 crisis. Ther…

I wish to raise today something I feel passionate about and which has come up in many different Departments and realms. It started with us signing up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development goals in 2015. We must now get our heads around these because they are in the Standing Orders for every departmental committee thanks to my colleague, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh, who got them. Our committee meetings commenced this week and everybody will see they are on the Standing Orders. I draw the attention of Senators to g…

We have spent 50 minutes debating the need for more time to debate the Bill, which is a joke. We need to focus on the Bill. If we have to remain here and work overtime - God forbid, we are paid enough to do that - we might get through it in one day. Let us not waste any more time asking for two days to debate it when we have not even started the debate on it. The Bill is very clear. I would be optimistic about getting it through in one day if Senators would stop arguing about it. With regard to the Order of Busines…

I ask Senator Mullen not to interrupt me. He should also direct his comments through the Chair. We should show respect to our fellow colleagues, in particular the Clerk, Martin Groves, who is the wise man of the House. I say that with respect to the father of the House, Senator Norris. We should also respect the rules of the House. If we are not careful, we could bring about a situation where we will not be allowed to raise on the Order of Business issues not pertaining to the Bills before us. Let us be careful. I …

We have so much to debate, but let us first start the debate on the Bill before us.

I will speak today on greenways. As someone who has been working in the area of sustainable travel for many years and campaigning and writing letters endlessly seeking money for such things, I am very happy with yesterday's announcement of funding. I could not let this opportunity go without speaking on this development. Some people think of greenways as a place where people go for a bit of a cycle or just where tourists go. A greenway is far more than that, however. It is the very tool that is missing in rural Ire…

I thank the Minister of State for giving us his time today, which I am sure is very precious with all that is going on. I welcome the employment wage subsidy being extended to March 2021. That is important. The stay and spend incentive is brilliant overall and it is very positive that people can get 20% back on their spending, even if they spend only €25. The cycle to work initiative has already proved fruitful over recent years. It is important that the grant has been raised but I want to say two things on it. Fir…

I have no doubt that the Minister and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs are just as concerned as all the people in this room about the current issue that has been landed in their laps. I will read from a letter by a group of asylum seekers staying in a direct provision centre because their voice is not in this Chamber. It states, "Dear Ministers and IPAS. We are the residents of the direct provision centre in ...". I do not even need to name which one because this could be true of every single direct prov…

The writers of the letter finish up by asking to be transferred to a better place. I have worked with refugees, including Tibetan refugees, in a number of different settings. I was doing work in this area as far back as 1995, when direct provision was first experimented with in County Clare. People were getting stopped at Shannon Airport, due to American immigration requirements, and they were taken to Ennis. That was 25 years ago. Now, in 2020, the Minister must make it her legacy to put a stop to direct provision…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus déanaim comhghairdeas léi as ucht a post nua. Is dúshlán an-mhór é di. Má tá aon duine in ann an jab a dhéanamh, is í an tAire, an Teachta Martin, an duine sin. Nár laga Dia í agus í ag déanamh a dícheall an dúshlán seo a chomhlíonadh go croíúil agus go macánta. I officially invite the Minister to the Banner County. She can come as soon as she can when she is on her holidays. Senator Boyhan made a good point that while we are national politicians, we are from where we are from and w…

Is it?

I thought I had five minutes. Can we examine these measures to see if they can be changed for music venues? We have musicians who are seriously struggling as well. I have requested that the Minister, the Minister for transport and the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage, all of whom happen to be in the Green Party, will come together to look at the devastation that we are dealing with in the Shannon region as a result of the Shannon Group and what is happening in the area. There were issues there lon…

I know the best spots.

I welcome the Minister. I am a maths and physics teacher and co-founder of a school in Ennistymon called Mol an Óige Steiner national school. It has been in prefabs for more than 16 years, and although it got approval from the Department for buildings, it is waiting for one letter from the Department so that it can start the tendering process. My son is 21. He went to school at four years of age and we are still waiting with those prefabs. It would save the Department money if we built permanent structures for thes…

I may not need a full eight minutes. I congratulate the Minister. He has an onerous task ahead of him so he had better roll up his sleeves. His role is a poisoned chalice which has been passed around over the years. Luckily, he has some good connections with Clare so we will do all we can for him. I welcome the Bill. There are some very interesting and useful things in it. It will be really good for children in general and the increased threshold for those over 70 is good. A really important idea which the Departme…