I support that call for the change on Chesterfield Avenue. As convener of the Ireland-France Parliamentary Friendship Group, I support any move we can make to solidify that historic and cordial relationship we have with France. I acknowledge the increase in our diplomatic footprint in France that the Minister outlined. We have a great team on the ground, and that is yielding results in its own way. It is a stated aim of the European affairs committee to advance negotiations to make Ireland part of L'Assemblée Parle…

I support the increase of Ireland's diplomatic footprint generally. In the European Union it is hugely important that we invest in those relationships. There is no EU country that does not have an embassy here and there is no EU country in which we do not have an embassy. In relation to accession states to the European Union, an issue that, as part of our Presidency, is hugely important, there are at least three that will come into the accession process, hopefully quite soon, or are completing it, where we do not h…

I entirely agree with what the Minister of State has said about the importance and I also recognise the number of new embassies that have been opened. I was in Moldova last September during the parliamentary elections and I met the ambassador who was setting up the embassy there. Just this week, I attended an EU enlargement conference in Tirana in Albania and I met our Greek ambassador, Ciara O'Floinn, who was not just there and present for the conference in Tirana but was clearly very well connected with Albanian …

I thank the Minister of State and I agree with what he said about our missions on the ground. They provide consistent, excellent service to Irish citizens there and here because of the work they do. The Minister of State mentioned trade and there is also cultural engagement, the presence on the ground and increasing the profile of Ireland in these countries. I also recognise what the Minister of State said about the excellent work done by ambassadors who have responsibility, on a non-resident basis, for countries s…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht teacht isteach chun an cheist seo a fhreagairt. HVO is hydrotreated vegetable oil. Essentially, it is a substitute for diesel. The interesting thing about HVO is that it does not require engine modifications or new infrastructure. People who wish to use it as a substitute for diesel do not need to spend money on changing their engines or modifying systems in order to use it. What is even more interesting is that it can achieve a 90% reduction in carbon emissions when it i…

I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge what she has said. I note what she said about the commitment in the programme for Government to examine taxation in relation to HVO. I agree with her in relation to EVs, and I welcome that EVs were the more sold vehicles in 2025. I presume, and hope, that this will be even more the case in 2026. In relation to carbon tax, I acknowledge what the Minister of State said regarding it not applying to biofuels, as is appropriate. The notion that this is the only incentive that…

This country does not function without foreign workers. If the people who come here to give us the benefit of their expertise, hard work and experience were to leave, we would not have a healthcare sector, hospitality sector or tech sector. Let us put that to bed straight away. We need people to come here, and we are incredibly lucky that we have a coterie of hard-working people who are willing to come and make their lives here by contributing to our communities, society and economy. This is why I think the use of …

If the Tánaiste or I want to get a Bus Éireann bus or an Iarnród Éireann train, including a DART, we just turn up at the station, buy a ticket and get on. Wheelchair users cannot do that. There is an expectation that they should give up to 24 hours notice to use an ordinary transport system that is provided and subsidised by the taxpayers of this country. Surely it is not beyond us to provide a better facility for wheelchair users. I acknowledge that there are new DART carriages coming, but they are up to two years…

I broadly welcome the Bill. It is not a very long Bill but it is important insofar as it sets out important minimum standards. One thing on which we can all agree is that we must make this process easier for the people who need assistance. We must make it easier for people to get the assessments and to get help in place so that they can then reap the benefits of that assistance. We know that there are people the length and breadth of this country who need assistance and who, in reality, are not getting it or not ge…

I thank the Minister of State for coming in to deal with this issue. He will be aware that his Department put in place a number of years ago an interim remediation scheme for apartment buildings built during a certain period to deal particularly with fire safety issues. This is right and it is important to put it in place. Most importantly it deals with fire issues. There is an urgency that comes with that, which there might not be with poor upkeep or other structural issues. The idea behind the scheme is that resi…

I really appreciate what the Minister of State said at the end of the answer. I appreciate his positive engagement on this. As he says, we had a conversation about this earlier today. I appreciate his undertaking to raise this with the officials because there is a gap, in fairness, in this situation. I understand what he has said about the validation process but he has to remember that these people, through their OMC, wrote in, applied for the scheme and were told yes. It took nearly two years before the Housing Ag…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an mBille. Is Bille mór atá i gceist: tá a lán rudaí tábhachtacha ann. There is a lot in this. It is a timely update of many of the rules around driver and vehicle licensing. I might touch on a few points of the Bill. The first relates to the check my vehicle facility provided for in section 7 of Part 2. It is important to make that information available publicly. Somebody who works in my office bought a second-hand car recently and used the private vehicle checking websites, which cleared the v…

In April 2022, I was pleased to support the cut in public transport fares in the aftermath of Covid by between 20% and 50%, depending on what kind of ticket passengers were using. At that time, the rationale was expressed that lower fares made public transport more attractive and more accessible and, therefore, more people used it. That is obviously desirable. It now seems that the Government is suggesting that is not the case or that there is not an evidence-based approach that suggests that lower fares allow more…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce the Road Traffic (Amendment) (Jax’s Law) Bill 2026. Earlier this year, Deputy Emer Currie and I met with two women who had direct experience of losing a pregnancy as a result of the criminal activity of another person, namely, dangerous or careless driving as the case may be. This Bill is named for Jax, a baby who was never born. His mother and father, as the Ceann Comhairle mentioned, Saoirse Aylward and Nathan Murphy, are in the Gallery, as is Colleen Langan, whose aunt,…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Broadly speaking, I welcome the Bill. I have heard what other Members have said about it, and I have some sympathy with the idea that it is a modernisation of Garda powers. It is necessary for us in the context of how technology and possession change to have regard to what powers gardaí need to do the job they need to do. For example, in the case of legislation that had previously been introduced to empower gardaí to demand passwords and access to those phones and things like that, I have misgivings about them but …

There is little doubt about the positivity we associate with membership of the European Union. Some 82% of Irish people favour membership of the European Union, the highest rate of approval of any European state. However, a lot of people talk down the European Union in the public discourse, suggesting that it is somehow a bad thing or that it does not do things the way they would want it to. I would join with them on certain matters. No multinational organisation like the EU is ever going to be perfect. It will nev…

I acknowledge all of the factors the Minister of State set out. I welcome them all and it is really important that we spread that message. The second part of the Minister of State's response is really important and that is the EU jobs part. I would not necessarily limit it just to the European Union. There are other international institutions within Europe where there is a transmissibility between them and the European institutions. As Chair of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, I visited Luxembourg ear…

Cuirim fáilte aireach roimh an mBille seo. Níl mé cinnte go bhfuil gach rud atá sa Bhille i gceart. Tá roinnt fadhbanna agam leis freisin. I give a cautious welcome to the Bill. I recognise what it is attempting to do but I want to raise a couple of issues with the Minister of State. The first one is something I raise in general about legislation, which is a drafting issue. It is not specific to planning legislation. When the Bill becomes an Act, if a citizen tries to read it, almost every single section describes …

I might start by recognising a very strong European who was a former Member of this House and who passed away on Monday. David Andrews was a TD for Dún Laoghaire and was somebody who showed on a number of occasions as Minister for Foreign Affairs his commitment to the European project and his commitment to the ideals of Europe. He is a great loss. I wanted to pay tribute to him. I have not had an opportunity in the House to pay my respects to his family, to his wife Annette, his sons David and Barry, and his daught…