I recently completed my doctoral studies in youth work. I conducted research with youth workers around the country, having been a youth worker myself for 15 or 16 years. Simply put, being a youth worker is the best job in the world. It is as simple as that. Youth work changes lives. Youth workers change lives. However, there is a concern within the sector with regard to the implementation of opportunities for youth, which is the national youth work strategy. Will the Tánaiste liaise with the Minister for education …

I thank my colleague Deputy Whitmore for her excellent work on this. As an overall summary, having sat here for the entire debate, the contempt and disrespect shown by the Government benches with regard to a fully costed and evidenced proposal is quite baffling. The Minister of State just said he encourages people to talk to their suppliers as if that will achieve something, while the CEOs are sitting there laughing at us with the profits they are making. It is just baffling. There is a perception that this Governm…

I thank my colleagues in Sinn Féin for putting forward this motion. I listened with attention to the Minister's opening remarks on the motion. If he can deliver what he just put forward, I will be the first to stand here in a couple of years and say he has done a really good job. There is an awful lot of good in this. The potential and the demand for public transport in this State are very clear. While we struggle to build significant capital projects, what the Minister has before him is a portfolio that offers rea…

I am not criticising the Minister. I am just letting him know that when the question was asked last week, no answer was forthcoming because, it was said, this was a budgetary decision. We have, however, an overspend of €68 million. What are we doing? We are putting €70 million worth of additional fares on the taxpayer. It is simply not good enough. As it stands, while the Minister's opening remarks are very aspirational, and I reiterate that if he delivers on those, I promise him I will be the first to stand here a…

I thank the Minister of State for that reply. It is a bit of a leap to ask us to accept that it is still part of the negotiations. The Minister of State definitely knows by now where that €18 million shortfall is going to be made up and it is not part of the budgetary process. He could tell us. I have asked him to detail to us what that is going to look like for 2027. He is choosing not, and that is unfortunate. We will see it come out in a couple of weeks and that is fine, but this was an opportunity to outline it…

Those policies are working because the fare points are right. We know that increased fares reduce passenger numbers. The Government has made a decision in the last couple of weeks that it knows will be tantamount to a reduced level of service demand at a time when we have climate and affordability crises and at a time when the Department is not rolling out new services. They are facts. Absolutely, there is €900-odd million being allocated and I commend the Department for that, but ultimately it has been levied with…

Increasing the cost of using public transport by an average of 15% is a political decision. It is happening because this Government refuses to invest in the National Transport Authority, NTA, in the expansion of the network and ultimately in its passengers. We now know this is only the start of the fare increases. The Government intends to raise them again and again. While Government backbenchers love the photo-op of opening a new bus stop, what people who stand at those bus stops need the Government to do right no…

I welcome the opportunity to debate this Bill on Second Stage. I look forward to tabling amendments on future Stages. Any debate such as this is always emotional because we often think of somebody we know who has been hurt or whose life has been prematurely lost on our roads and we automatically assume the legislation and enforcement are in place to ensure our safety on the roads. This is a welcome step but as the Minister of State accepted in his opening remarks, no one law or policy will be robust enough to ensur…

I thank colleagues for tabling the motion this evening. It is interesting that we have set the context that much of this is as a result of the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East. You would think the energy suppliers would start to feel that struggle as well, yet what we are seeing is record levels of profits among the energy suppliers. It is impossible to defend when you do not know where the attack is coming from. I am sure the Minister of State is hearing the same from people as those of us on this sid…

I ask the Minister to provide the House with an update on the commitment with regards to Opportunities for Youth: National Strategy for Youth Work and Related Services 2024-2028.

I thank the Minister. If she will indulge me, it is very rare I get the opportunity to speak about my life experience prior to being in here but I have been a youth worker for about 16 years or the guts of three Dáil terms. The day before the general election I submitted my PhD thesis, which was on professional youth work. It asked youth workers many of the same questions that were asked afterwards by the Department. I will happily share the findings with the Minister. Youth workers, in the main, are very satisfied…

It is acceptable that data will be shared with the task force in September but I ask that it be shared more widely once the terms of reference have been agreed. It would be really useful for the academic sector and for those who are in the market of training and professionally qualifying youth workers in the field. I have been around long enough to have seen youth work move from Department to Department. The only conclusion I can come to in terms of analysis is that the Minister has a real opportunity in her Depart…

In the past year, the number of children admitted to Temple Street with brain injuries from accidents on e-scooters has increased by 50%. I think we have agreement across the House that this is an ever-worsening public health crisis at this point. It is clear that the ban on under-16s using e-scooters has been a monumental failure. We need a new approach. As the Tánaiste has just said, instead of a ban, we need regulation that is workable and enforceable. We have some proposals today that the Tánaiste might conside…

I thank the Minister of State for being here. Like my friends, I commend Deputy Quaide on his sincere work on this over recent months. I also welcome most warmly those who are here in the Gallery who for some warped reason have had to tirelessly work and campaign for so long for what is such a basic entitlement. I am really disappointed because today was not a day for either the Minister of State or the Minister, Deputy Foley, to talk to us about strategies, policies and all the great potential work that is happeni…

Neither should we be saying that the course that is set out and laid out will meet the needs because it will not. It is as simple as that. I believe today could have been an opportunity for us to come together, but it is actually a day that will empower the Before We Die campaign to work even harder, grow in momentum and somehow find even further resolve and determination. I do not think that it will in any way give people hope of a brighter or more optimistic day because the evidence shows us that the policy has s…

Is my time up? I apologise.

The utilities regulator recently imposed a €31 million negative revenue adjustment on Uisce Éireann for underperformance and failures relating to its leakage performance target. Meanwhile, Uisce Éireann is giving out performance-related bonuses to its management teams. Its annual report for 2025 shows €18 million worth of bonuses have been paid. How can I explain to people in Kildare, who are so often without water, that the regulator has imposed a €31 million fine on a body that at the same time is choosing to pay…

It has already been said by others, but I am also struck by the pace at which this legislation has progressed and is progressing through the House to a point where it will reach completion this evening. It is fair to say that for the first 18 months of the lifetime of this Government, we have seen very little by way of legislation come through the House. Suddenly, however, we are under dramatic pressure to get this legislation through without any sort of real scrutiny. Providing such scrutiny is why we are all here…

-----and now we are looking to do the same thing by bypassing local authorities and An Coimisiún Pleanála, which are the bodies responsible for making very important planning decisions. They will never be perfect and neither will this House. However, their being bypassed is a matter of concern that I want to emphasise on the record of the House. We are speaking about this in a context where the WHO has recognised that there have been 1,300 excess deaths in Europe in the past month due to the recent heatwave. Every …

I will finish on this. What we are faced with in the context of this legislation is the potential for future Ministers to end up in court as a result of the State's duties under the climate Act not being fulfilled. I look forward to the Minister's comment on that. It is unlawful that what we are trying to do is not only bypass the statutory bodies, but also not fulfil our obligations under domestic law when it comes to the climate Act. That merits further scrutiny, yet in approximately 60 minutes, it will all be do…