I agree with the Minister of State on the effort being made. I acknowledge the work done by the Department of foreign affairs and European Movement Ireland. I also acknowledge that Noelle O'Connell has left as the head of European Movement and has been replaced by David Geary. We wish him the best of luck there. They do a particularly good job in terms of advertising jobs and making people aware. While I acknowledge that there has been success there, many of our highly qualified capable graduates are not aware of t…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an mBille seo. Tá sé thar a bheith tábhachtach. Tá gá leis na rudaí atá sa Bhille. This is welcome legislation. I want to particularly paraphrase what my colleague, the Sligo county councillor, Fergal Nealon, said in the media this week. He talked about psychedelic nicotine pushers. He was talking about shops in Sligo town that his own child was trying to get him to go into, even though they were vape shops. He said that the windows are designed essentially like a cartoon shop, a Disney shop or …

I will start by welcoming the Bill. Given that it amends the Air Pollution Act 1987, it is somewhat overdue in terms of updating a lot of the terminology. I have looked through it. While I welcome the Bill, its contents and the idea behind it, I want to start with a criticism. This is a criticism that I frequently make of legislation, particularly updating or amending legislation of this sort. When we look at the table of contents of this Bill, it amends the 1987 Act. Every section refers to things like,"Amendment …

The issue I want to raise with the Minister today has some similarity to the last issue in that it relates to Garda action, particularly in respect of juvenile antisocial behaviour cases. "Antisocial behaviour" is an umbrella term that covers many different activities. Some will say that antisocial behaviour is just that, antisocial, but of course it encompasses criminality as well. I fear there are certain young people who are behaving antisocially, but by extension criminally, with impunity. They are not being he…

I thank the Minister for his acknowledgement of the work gardaí in Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock are doing. I was delighted to welcome him to Blackrock when he visited recently. I appreciate his attention to the issue. I also acknowledge what he said about the progressiveness of the Children Act. That is important but if we are relying on Oberstown or incarceration for children, the system has already failed at that stage. There are people locally who tell me that there are young children who will say to them when th…

I join with other Members who have talked about the value of football and what it does for communities and for the nation. I congratulate both our men's and women's teams for their successes on the one hand and their disappointments on the other but their effort in both cases. Beidh lá eile acu. We have a great foundation to build on despite the disappointment in Czechia recently. I will focus on football at a local level. In Dún Laoghaire, we are blessed to have more than a couple of really excellent local footbal…

I welcome these measures and recognise that they are not enough to cushion everybody in this country from the effects of the greatest global energy crisis we have ever seen. It is unrealistic to tell people that the Government is in a position to do that. Let us be honest with people. Deputy Collins and I were on the radio this morning talking about this and he said he did not block anyone. I am not saying he did, but he supported people who did. Let us be honest about it, because those blockades stopped people get…

-----we would be calling on.

They have helped us in the past. We have relied on them in the past.

When the economic crash came, we relied on the international community to keep us afloat and ensure Irish workers could put the country back where it was. Let us be honest about this. Being part of an international community is not only about taking and taking.

It is give and take. I am very proud of the work we have done as a country to help to provide for Ukraine. I have been there and seen what they have come through. The same argument could be made about Irish Aid and the work we do in much more under-developed countries, where children are starving. Is the Deputy saying we should take away their money as well?

Why does he not go over and join Donald Trump's USAID cuts as well?

Let us be realistic and honest and get on with the fact that these are resolutions that will do the people of Ireland good and that is why we should support them.

I have been listening to the debate and it has been astonishing to hear the variety of opinions, concerns and misapprehensions about this Bill. On the one hand, I think it does represent progress. I remember when the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act was passed in 2006 and how that was a step forward in terms of bringing those strategic infrastructure projects into An Bord Pleanála, as it then was, rather than having them always going through local authorities and being delayed that way. In ma…

I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Peter Roche, who unfortunately cannot be here. His brother, Vincent Roche, passed away yesterday evening.

Yes, I am taking it. It was originally a question put down by Deputy Roche. He cannot be here today because his brother passed away last night. I extend my sympathies to the family at this sad time. This question relates to the idea that we would have community assistance officers in local authorities to help community groups to apply for funding and short-circuit the administration and bureaucracy involved in making those applications and help them to get what they need for the local communities.

I acknowledge what the Minister of State said about the amount of funding and supports there. The Minister of State and I know that Deputy Peter Roche, in particular, has done a huge amount of work in this area. He has worked particularly in the context of helping to support community organisations in his area. The difficulty he has identified, and other colleagues tell me they see it all over the country, is not a lack of funding, because there is a huge amount of funding there for the very communities the Ministe…

I welcome what the Minister of State said about there not being a wrong door. He is absolutely right. Applications should not be cancelled because of an administrative error or something like that. At the same time, we both recognise that this is public money, and there needs to be transparency and things need to be done right. That is important too. Even in relation to what the Minister of State said about online applications, very often we are dealing with small community groups. There might be one person or a sm…

The Minister will be aware of many community organisations around the country which focus on social exclusion. Are better supports available for them, conscious of the supports already available? Social exclusion is an issue that permeates society and has a massive effect. It is incumbent on us to deal with it. If we do not, it creates all kinds of other problems. Can we create greater supports and funding for those organisations?

I thank the Minister of State. We in Ireland consider ourselves to be a fairly happy nation. Even the happiness index published recently shows that we are up there. Yet, report after report shows that loneliness in Ireland and other countries in the western world is growing all the time. Organisations such as men's sheds, community groups and church groups do amazing work bringing people together, avoiding social exclusion, providing a vehicle for people to communicate with each other and build networks and friends…