I thank the Minister of State for all the positives, with which I have no difficulty, but the Commencement matter was intended to ask her to establish a national forestry authority. There was no mention of such an authority in the response, which is what the Commencement matter focused on. It was a simple question of a few lines. Is the Minister of State supportive of the principle of looking at establishing a national forestry authority? Again, I acknowledge the positivity of all the key points she made and I ackn…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for facilitating this engagement with the Taoiseach. I warmly welcome the Taoiseach to this House. I will start by acknowledging the very significant and excellent speech he made at the United Nations General Assembly on 22 September. He gave a very passionate speech. He touched on the issues of dignity, equality, solidarity, environmental responsibility and social responsibility. Therefore, I am not surprised that he has made central to his theme here today the issue of child poverty. Tha…

Hear, hear.

When the Senator is ready.

I thank the Senator. I will have to wrap up on time.

I thank the Senator. The Minister has four minutes to respond.

I thank the Minister of State very much. The time provided is quite tight to cover all of the information.

I know. The Minister of State will have more time.

I greatly appreciate the Minister of State coming to the House today and for giving us her time. I know she has a busy schedule. I thank her for seeing through the four Commencement matters; it is appreciated. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Fleming. It is great to see him back.

I thank the Minister of State. Senator Blaney has one minute to reply.

I thank the Minister of State. I also thank Senator Blaney for raising this very important issue. We have dealt with the five Commencement matters selected by An Cathaoirleach.

I raise the Government legislative programme that was published today. I thank the Leader for arranging with her office to have it circulated to all Senators in the past hour or so. I had a quick look and a substantial amount of legislation at various Stages is scheduled for the autumn session. I thank the Government Whip for pulling all that together. It reminds us that Governments can initiate any legislation in Seanad Éireann. We need to send a clear message that this Seanad is ready, willing and able to process…

I do not think Senator McDowell is underpaid.

Hear, hear.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am somewhat glad that he is a Dublin Minister because I want to touch on some issues in relation to the draft Dublin city transport plan 2023. Deputy Chambers is someone who lives in the city and, therefore, he would be more familiar than most with the challenges around that. It is important we are having this debate here today. We cannot do justice to it, as we have very limited time here today, but I will touch on six key thoughts that I had. Can the Minister of Sta…

First, I thank the Minister for the comprehensive laying out of her statement in response to the issues centrally raised by the Private Members' business motion by Fianna Fáil. I commend them. I concur and agree with them. However we have to be consistent. One of the smallest lines at the back of their motion is to call for a dedicated transport unit of An Garda Síochána. They will recall that we had a number of debates on this. I proposed it and proposed amendments and I refer to the Irish Daily Mail on 5 Septembe…

I take that point of course and would not doubt for one moment that anyone here today does not do their homework.

Sorry, Senator Chambers, Leader of the House, I take that point. It is a valid point. What I will say is, as it will save me from eating into my time, I strongly recommend people get a copy of the Irish Daily Mail . There were 311 words published on 5 September 2022. I will circulate it to everyone this afternoon so therefore that sets out some of the record. The rest of course can be linked to on The Plinth website and to the documents here. I am just making a point. I support every aspect of the motion and am gla…

I welcome the Minister of State. I thank the Irish Women's Parliamentary Caucus for its very detailed motion, which I support. I will point out a few issues because it is important that we have some consistency in our approach. That is why I will touch on a few issues. I start by saying "Well done" to the Irish Women's Parliamentary Caucus. It has done a lot and it plans to do a lot more. I very much stand in solidarity with its key objectives, which include making this Parliament a better place but also bringing t…

That is what happened. No tellers were appointed to the Bill.