The Minister of State is welcome to the Chamber. I commend my Fianna Fáil colleagues on tabling this Private Members' motion. It is timely in advance of the budget. There is no doubt the cost-of-living inflation is to the fore of everybody's mind as we approach budget day. There is possibly a long winter ahead. The cost of energy and fuel is of particular concern. We all hope we have a mild winter. It would be excellent if that were to happen. We hope to avoid a winter similar to that of 2009 and 2010. I remember a…

I thank the Cathaoirleach's office for selecting this Commencement matter today. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, to the House. I am raising this issue for two reasons. First, our climate action plan has ambitions in respect of the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels, particularly in energy production. The ambition is to generate significant renewable energy from wind, with a major focus of the plan being to decarbonise the electricity system and to generate 80% of electricity using renewable energ…

I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive response and I welcome that MARA will be operational from next year. It will have a body of work to do on new applications which are made for wind energy. I also welcome that there will be, if I can put it like this, a screening of those projects which are going to be developed and a robust assessment of the potential offshore developments which apply, whereby only the most viable offshore projects will have the opportunity to apply for development permission from…

I welcome the ambassador to the Chamber. She is very welcome. I wish her well on her national day. I also take the opportunity on behalf of the Fine Gael group to thank the offices of the Cathaoirleach and the Leas-Chathaoirleach for their work and co-operation over the course of this term. I hope that all staff get a good and well-deserved break as well. I spoke previously, as did many others, on the need for a debate on the Defence Forces. I welcome the announcement yesterday and the official announcement today o…

On Wednesday.

On Wednesday.

Senator Higgins raised a number of important queries. I will slightly contradict myself. One could argue that if all anonymous complaints were being treated with the same level, and if they were all automatically being pursued, that would increase the level of anonymous complaints and there may be more vexatious complaints, on the one hand. On the other hand, and this is particularly in smaller organisations, it would provide greater protection to the persons making a complaint if the right to anonymity in that the…

Amendment No. 9 is interesting in the context of this section. The section provides that a worker may make a report to the relevant Minister if one or more of a list of given conditions are met. It then goes on to talk about the head of the public body. To use the example of a Department, the Secretary General would be in charge. If an assistant secretary has engaged in wrongdoing, is the worker precluded from writing to the Minister? I know the Secretary General is the Accounting Officer and is in charge of the De…

To be honest, the insertions are a Bill in themselves. There is a lot of information that the Minister of State is adding at this Stage. To start with, the power to prescribe definition amendment No. 1 states, "The Commission may, by order, prescribe such period as it considers appropriate to be an election campaign period ...", and the definition, in amendment No. 84, of the "election campaign period", states "the period commencing 3 months prior to the latest date when an election is required by law to be held an…

I thank the Minister of State but he did not provide clarity in respect of concerns relating to disinformation and bots today being as relevant today as they are during an electoral campaign period. I ask him to comment on that. Amendment No. 27 refers to protecting the integrity of elections and referendums against disinformation. What about protecting political parties, the political process and candidates, be they Members of this House, the Dáil or the European Parliament or councillors on local authorities? Tha…

This area must be kept under constant review. The provision is welcome during the defined period. Certainly one can have a set period for local and European elections and we have a good idea when they will take place. The date when a presidential election will take place will be known in advance as well. We have an idea when a general election might happen but we cannot say for certain. One cannot define a three-month period in advance of a Government collapse when one does not know when that will happen. In terms …

I support the sentiment behind all that has been expressed. Having been a member of the previous Government, I know that there was a concerted attempt to ensure more equality in the appointment of members of State boards, for example. Ministers and Secretaries General were always very much conscious of the need to ensure that if three or four appointments to a State board were to be made, there would be at the very least a 50-50 gender balance. That is important. There is a recognition within the Government that th…

We all have relations, and I have nephews and nieces aged 15, 16 and 17, who work, thankfully, in hospitality during the summer period, Easter breaks and weekends. Of course, it is a sign of a buoyant economy and plenty of jobs because there is full employment. That is a reflection of the Fine Gael Government putting measures in place during the early part of the Covid pandemic to ensure these businesses survived and all of that. Senators will not hear that but-----

It was in the early part of 2020. That was before the coalition.

That is only a side point. There is no doubt about it, there are very mature 16- and 17-year-olds and very immature 18-, 19-, 20-, 30- and 40-year-olds.

Age is no definitive sign of one's maturity. That is quite clear. Interestingly, based on surveys, if 16- and 17-year-olds in the UK had the vote during the Brexit referendum in 2016, evidence shows the result would have been different. Clearly, they were more enthusiastic about the European Union, more pro the latter and had more to lose by being outside it. That is one of the sad points of that. I know 16- and 17-year-olds had the vote in the Scottish referendum in 2014 and probably will in next year's plebiscite…

May I respond?

It was not my intention to say that. It was anecdotal that younger people may vote left. To quote the phrase in American politics, all young people vote Democrat until they start making money.

I thank the Cathaoirleach's office for accepting this Commencement matter. I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. As he knows, 22 August will be the 100th anniversary of the death of General Michael Collins. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste will address the annual Béal na Bláth commemoration on Sunday, 21 August, as a sign of reconciliation in this decade of centenaries. It is perhaps reflective of the new reality of politics in this country in the context of a coalition Government involving the two great ri…

I thank the Minister of State for his very frank response. I was not at the event in Woodfield. I know from media reports it was suggested that a statue would be commissioned. Did the Taoiseach give a commitment on that day that a statue should be commissioned or that he would look into the matter? According to the Minister of State, the Taoiseach has not requested that the Minister of State look into this matter and commission a statue. Is the Minister of State saying that the OPW would be quite happy to commissio…