That is what the Christmas break is for.

It has been a long process to get to this stage. I feel like I have been working on this for approximately two years, possibly longer. It is major legislation, as people have noted. I suspect I am not the only person who will speak today who has not read the publication we received recently in its entirety. We all agree that while the 2000 Act served well in many areas, it has been amended so often over the years that it has become almost impenetrable and impossible to understand and was creating difficulties. It i…

I got involved in politics because of my interest in planning and because I understand that if we do not have a proper planning system, everything else fails. When you get planning right, people generally do not notice, because things are good, but when you get it wrong an entire generation or generations can live with the legacy. We see some of that in the urban sprawl we have seen in the past 30 to 40 years and the traffic issues, car dependency and climate emissions, etc., that come with that. The decisions we m…

I look forward to tabling a number of amendments and discussing them with the Minister. I will not need any books over the Christmas period. I have my reading list sorted now.

The organic farm schemes in this country have been quite successful and quite attractive to farmers, with the increase in their incomes and the better impact on our environment. I pay thanks to the work of the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and the Ministers of State, Deputy Heydon and Senator Hackett. When will the organic farm payment be paid out? It is coming close to Christmas and everybody needs their payments. When is the closing date for new entrants to the organic farm schemes?

Will the Minister of State wrap up then?

The Bill is the Government legislating for the recommendations of the Electoral Commission. The Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage was presented with the general scheme of the Bill and given an opportunity to carry out pre-legislative scrutiny of it, but we waived that opportunity because committee members felt that the commission was an independent and objective body that had made recommendations. Waiving was the right thing to do. I hope there are no amendments to the Bill, although I belie…

I raise the glamorous subject of septic tanks or domestic private wastewater treatment plants, as they are properly known. My Green Party colleague, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh recently raised some important questions at the Committee of Public Accounts about rates of inspection of septic tanks. Will the Minister of State outline the number of septic tanks there are nationally, the number of inspections of septic tanks that are carried out, the take-up of grant aid for treatment systems in the high status objective catchme…

I thank the Minister of State. I completely agree with him that we need to raise public awareness of this and of the substantial grant increase that has been introduced by the Minister. I did some research and worked out that there are probably approximately 500,000 private domestic wastewater treatment systems in operation. However, a report published by the EPA in June suggests that only 1,147 have been inspected. That is a low inspection rate given the high number of people who use wastewater treatment plants an…

I am aware that in rural areas there is no choice but to have a septic tank and it is important that we assist people as much as possible to fix those tanks. However, another situation has arisen that I have raised with the Department and the Minister previously. We have urban areas that were once rural. A town has grown and enveloped what was once a rural area. We have houses in my town, Bray, and I am sure in many towns in the constituencies of other Deputies, which are still on septic tanks, although there is a …

For the record, I was asked if I wished to wait for someone from the Department of Transport to deal with this matter. It is so urgent, however, I decided to proceed. I thank the Minister of State for coming in to take it. I am concerned with regard to how we are going to protect the east coast rail line from coastal flooding events into the future. We saw what happened in the south west this week and the events in east Cork where people lost their businesses and properties. It is only right to acknowledge the huge…

It is reassuring to hear the commitment and the understanding in the Department of Transport of how serious the issue is and the required intervention that the Minister of State has set out. On the ongoing maintenance she mentioned, I worked on the railway for many years and I know the line very well. I know all the points where it is level and where it is operating at sea level right the way from Dublin. Looking across at Merrion Gates, you can see that the line is almost at sea level. Down from there, flooding oc…

In last year's budget, we announced the roll out of solar panels on our schools. The growth in solar energy in this country is one of the renewable energy successes of this Government. We removed VAT and put in substantial grants. We have a good feed-in tariff and have removed the requirement for planning permission. In the budget, we expanded the tax disregard to €400 for that feed-in tariff. That really promotes the use of solar energy. I was delighted to hear that announcement last year but I am disappointed at …

We set out to make this budget about putting money back in people's pockets, protecting children and families and ensuring our climate and environmental challenges can be met head-on. We framed it as a budget for children, your pocket and our planet. To me, the most significant aspect is the €14 billion infrastructure, climate and nature fund. It safeguards continued capital investment to ensure we keep to our commitments to carbon neutrality, to reverse the loss of nature and biodiversity, and to improve water qua…

The party’s figures do not add up. It comes back with figures which suggest that it will spend less while providing more housing. As I have clearly outlined, the biggest constraint is not the funding but the capacity to be able to do it. This Government is committed to building more cost-rental housing, more affordable housing and more social housing. We have seen the result of that. More social housing is being built than at any time in the past four to five years.

I have been listening to the debate from my office and we have all experienced many of the complaints and issues raised by Members across the House. One of the issues that really frustrates us as public representatives is the poor communication response we get. I am sure the people in the Bus Éireann office are overwhelmed and overrun with queries, complaints and issues. I know they are probably doing their best to answer us, but it really does put us in a very poor position when we cannot even get the answers for …

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I never underestimate or take for granted the absolute privilege it is to stand in our Oireachtas and propose changes to legislation. I want to thank my research team who worked on getting the Bill to this stage with me, namely, Darragh Mowlds, Kate Ruddock and Bríd McGrath. I would not have got this far without them. The Bill seeks to amend the Derelict Sites Act, the Building Control Act and the Planning and Development Act. I introduced the Bill in the context o…

Before I close, on behalf of my colleagues and everyone else in the House, I thank all of the staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas for the incredible work they do. I mean everyone, from the restaurant staff to the porters, from the ushers to IT staff, from facilities staff to those in the Bills Office and the secretariat. Without their work, we could not do our work, and it is important to acknowledge that before we finish. It is always good when a Deputy introduces a Private Members' Bill to hear the words "Not o…

Our fresh water is in limited supply and is complex to manage but it is critically important for our health and well-being. Out of all of the water supply in the world, only a couple of per cent is fresh water. Most of it is salty seawater. Of the 2% or 3% of the water on the planet that is fresh water, most of that is tied up in polar ice caps. As a result, we have a very small percentage of fresh water that we need to manage. Everything that we flush out of our houses, down our sinks or into our drains ends up in…

Deputy Kelly was right to point out this is not just a green issue or a Green Party issue. This affects all of us, and every single one of us in this House. Nature has been going into reverse and into decline for 50, 60 or 70 years and we have all had a contribution towards that. This is an opportunity to reverse and turn it around. While it is not just a green thing, the Greens will always lead on this; we always have done and we always will do. I have been knocking on doors for over 20 years to highlight the degr…