I too welcome this amendment. It sets out a very clear strategy. I will speak very briefly about electronic equipment. The Minister will be aware of the "right to repair" movement, which is gathering a head of steam globally. This applies to all of us and our personal consumption, particularly of electronic goods and white goods such as smartphones. The concept of built-in obsolescence is becoming quite painful for consumers. It is annoying that we cannot have recourse to repair for a product we have purchased. The…

I move amendment No. 24: In page 22, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following: “ Requirements in relation to diagnosis, maintenance and repair of electronic equipment 16. (1) In relation to digital electronic equipment sold in the State, a manufacturer shall make available, for the purposes of diagnosis, maintenance or repair of the equipment— (a) to independent repair providers, and (b) to owners of the equipment, in a timely manner and on fair and reasonable terms, relevant documents, parts and tools, inc…

What is the status of amendment No. 25? Is it not in good order?

I welcome this debate and I welcome the engagement of the Minister. Although I am coming to the Bill at a late stage, I appreciate that the Minister has sought to engage seriously with the deliberations that took place on Committee Stage and reflected them on this Stage. The issue I wish to repeat is built-in obsolescence, particularly in electronic goods. If the Minister takes away one thing tonight to bring to the Council of Ministers meetings he attends, it is that we must have some form of critique of the capit…

I welcome and support the motion. I will start by responding to the Minister's response to the point that is raised in the motion about the establishment of a discretionary fund. It is true to say that the community welfare service makes discretionary payments and nobody would argue against that. What worries me, however, is the fact that the number of people who are receiving payments is not very high, especially with regard to exceptional needs payments and urgent needs payments. In a response I received directly…

I want to get the perspective of the Minister on her latest interactions with the mobile phone and broadband task force.

Did the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, attend the meeting as well?

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is here and she attended the meeting, so I am not sure why she is not answering the question.

I understand. The Ministers are sharing the load. I accept that. I apologise. Two key points arise from those deliberations. One is the point about improving outdoor mobile phone coverage. I acknowledge that a lot had been achieved in the key output of the previous task force of improving mobile phone coverage in rural areas and in urban blackspots. As more and more people are taking the modal shift in transport from private car travel into train and bus travel, we must ensure blackspots are addressed, in particula…

I think we all acknowledge the work. We also acknowledge that the coverage of mobile telephony could be improved. There are still some well-noted blackspots. We all know of them within our constituencies. If we could find some mechanism where we as public representatives could notify somebody who is involved in the task force of these specific blackspots, we would be serving our constituents well in that regard. I referred specifically to the Cork to Dublin railway line, where there are significant blackspots, and …

I thank Deputy Funchion for tabling the amendment. As she said, the committee already adjudicated on this very issue in a previous iteration of this Bill. I see no reason that there should not be continuity in that regard for the same reasons the Deputy outlined. The role of the GAL should not be overly prescribed. Should a particular set of circumstances arise, there should be a degree of latitude and understanding. Given a particular type of scenario that might arise in respect of the child, we should ensure the …

May I raise a point of clarification, a Cheann Comhairle?

I understand the time is being allocated to this issue tomorrow.

We are all very concerned with this issue, Deputy McGrath-----

-----so let us not try to hog the limelight on it.

Deputy Bacik raised the issue of passports yesterday. I ask that we might have a further articulation of the issue in the House and I call on the Government to make time for statements on it. First-time applications for passports were taking 40 working days in 2021. We are all now dealing with cases where first-time applications are taking 12, 13, 14 weeks and more. There is a serious issue at play for people who want to travel next week and the week after and who are fearful that they just will not have their pass…

Pat "the Cope" Gallagher was a great man for the passports.

I am loath to interrupt the Taoiseach but we must maintain the speaking times.

The Deputy has one minute left.

Has the Minister's Department engaged in research in respect of the need to devise a disability-related payment to deal with the effects of long Covid? I acknowledge the existence of the Covid-19 enhanced illness benefit payment and that it will be in place until the end of June 2022. My reason for raising this is that we seek clarity as to whether there will be continuity of that payment and, second, given that there is now a clinical recognition of the effects of long Covid, whether the Department is responding t…