Is that agreed?

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to the Chamber. I note we had a very engaging debate yesterday in the audiovisual room with Ms Siobhán O'Connor, CEO of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, and many eminent speakers. I thank the chair of the all-party committee, Senator O'Loughlin, for organising that and for the engagement that happened. I ask the Minister of State to open the debate; she has eight minutes.

I thank the Minister of State for all her work and her acknowledgement of the former Minister of State, Jim Daly, who was very well regarded.

As acknowledged already, Senator O'Loughlin is chair of the all-party committee, and I thank her for her work in that regard.

I thank Senator Mullen for detailing his own experience.

I welcome that, eventually, the long overdue defamation laws seem to be progressing. It is very important and has been called for over a long period by those in the publishing industry and the National Union of Journalists. It is very important as it would allow for proper debate and prevent vexatious complaints. I hope we will eventually see swift action in this regard from the Minister for Justice. Equally in the sphere of valid criticism, this night last week in the House we were debating the online media Bill. …

The Minister is very welcome and all the more so because she is bringing forward one of the most far-reaching and significant pieces of legislation ever seen in these Houses. It is much needed for the regulation of media in this modern age. As a member of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, I was delighted over the last year to have been working on that pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Bill, along with my colleagues, Senator Malcolm Byrne, and the Chair, Deputy Niamh…

Next week the largest sporting organisation in the country, the GAA, will hold its annual congress in County Mayo. One club and its chairman have been so motivated by the abuse of drugs they have witnessed within our society and in particular, within our GAA clubs, that they have been moved to table a motion at congress. That man is Tim Barry from Rathdowney-Errill GAA in County Laois and he has called for a ban on players who do not complete courses on substance abuse and gambling because of the cocaine abuse he h…

I support the Order of Business as outlined by the Leader. There is a lot of excitement and pent up anticipation among politicians in these Houses today about the imminent announcement of sports capital funding for our sports clubs, which will allow for much-needed development. Such is the excitement one would think guys in here will be donning tracksuits and showing their own sporting prowess. I am confident that the Minister of State with responsibility for sport, Deputy Chambers, will don his Santy costume and d…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for coming to the House to address this critical issue, namely, the need to reinstate a director of mental health services. I know the Department of Health has competing demands from cancer care to cardio to treatments across the board, but the need for us to grasp in a definitive way the issue of mental health is one I see as a pressing emergency in this country. Nobody knows that more than the Minister of State because, since her appointment, she has been a champion o…

I thank Minister of State for that response. I want to pay tribute to the Minister of State for stating that she is driving this. She wants to see the reinstatement happen. This is because she knows that this will drive the change in policy that she wants to achieve in the whole area of mental health in Ireland. As the Minister of State said, there has been much discussion, in particular about youth mental health, in the last few weeks. As we exit Covid-19, we now see that people, and young people in particular, ar…

Yesterday, RTÉ's director general, Ms Dee Forbes, appeared before the Oireachtas media committee and one of the key issues we discussed was funding of RTÉ and public media services in general. The RTÉ submission yesterday had a section titled "Why the TV current licence fee model is no longer fit for purpose". There is approximately €160 million brought in via the television licence but €65 million per year is lost because of evasion, amounting to over €500 million over a ten-year period, with a consequent impact o…

It is a pity the process was not started five years ago when Fine Gael was in government. It had the opportunity to fund RTÉ.

I pay tribute to my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne, for bringing forward this Bill and outlining his intentions. His motivation comes from a deep-rooted sense of community and his involvement in local government over nearly 20 years. I have been involved for the same time. We were both elected in 1999, and back then the environment departments of our local authorities were probably the smallest components of local government. They are probably one of the largest sections now because of the large swathe of areas t…

The Minister is very welcome. It is sad and unfortunate these restrictions are necessary as a result of the health situation and where we find ourselves. It was such a fantastic period when we had full auditoriums back again. At the end of November and start of December, I was lucky enough to attend three live shows with full houses over three weekends, demonstrating my wide taste in various types of music, as Senator Malcolm Byrne will attest, from our own internationally acclaimed Brian Byrne from Navan who appea…

This morning we saw the publication of Facebook Ireland's revenue for 2020 and it has now reached a record €40 billion per annum. Huge congratulations are due to it and its employees. It employs nearly 2,500 people in Ireland and salaries and pension costs account for some €377 million. That is a huge and welcome investment in this country. The average wage for an employee in the company is €168,000, so it is a huge asset to the country. What it also highlights is that social media giants like Facebook dwarf the tr…

The Minister of State is very welcome. When the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was speaking earlier, he emphasised the fact that the national development plan was all about deliverability. Unlike sceptics who want to deride the vision for Ireland, I am a firm believer that we will see the very essence of this plan delivered and in doing so we will help the communities we all represent. The plan sets out that large blueprint on where we want to go as a country. When it comes to deliverability, which we a…

This morning I want to raise a serious situation that is happening at the moment in Navan. Production has been halted in Tara Mines. People will know that Tara Mines is the largest zinc mine in Europe. It is critical to the economy of my town, but also to the wider north-east area, because some 700 people are directly employed in that mine where production has halted. Many hundreds more people are indirectly employed as well. Yesterday, while drilling a pilot raise borehole for a ventilation shaft, a high flow of w…

The lowest point of the mine is 850 m underground.

I am sharing time with Senator Murphy. Is that acceptable?