I welcome the budgetary decision to introduce again the €1,000 reduction in the student contribution fee for higher education students. This has been introduced again as a part of the cost-of-living package. Last year, students studying outside our jurisdiction, be it in Northern Ireland, Britain or elsewhere, were wrongly denied this payment and, similarly, were denied the rent tax credit as well. Whatever obstacles exist to ensuring those two benefits are applied to all students from the State should be removed w…

Like Deputy McNamara, I speak with particular reference to the possible impact this increase will have on the levels of illicit trade and in parallel, the loss of revenue to the Exchequer. Probably no other Member of this House over the years has tabled as many parliamentary questions and adjournment debates as I have regarding the need to counteract the cross-Border trade in illicit products, be that in fuel, drink products, energy products or whatever. I am absolutely opposed to that and I have seen the gangs tha…

I thank An Taoiseach for his reply. I welcome in particular the establishment of the shared island youth forum view within the overall shared island initiative. I believe it is extremely important that decision-makers hear clearly the views, concerns and ambitions of young people. We must also ensure that we hear the voices from across all communities, North and South, and particularly from those who are less advantaged and who may unfortunately have limited educational attainment or skills to enable them to obtain…

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. Some time ago I had a quick perusal of the report. I want to quickly refer to the Northern Ireland and terrorism sections. I have had the privilege of representing Cavan-Monaghan over a number of decades. During that time, thankfully, we have gone from a very troubled era to an era of peace, thanks to the Good Friday Agreement and the good work that brought about that agreement. One thing which always struck me was the huge and committed work of our Defence Forces, An Garda Síoc…

I welcome the Taoiseach's visits to Belfast in August and September. The launch of the PEACEPLUS programme is a great development. I know it has been worked on for a number of years by the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and the Minister for Finance. The very substantive funding that is available from the European Commission, the British Government and the Irish Government will be put to good use in communities North and South. It is a worthy successor to the various P…

I welcome the Tánaiste's statement on the total unsuitability of the British legacy Bill. It is appalling legislation. The only thing that can be done with it is to bin it in its entirety. It gives an amnesty to murderers belonging to the British state forces and to murderers from the paramilitary organisations. These people wreaked havoc on this island for too long. I said to the Taoiseach yesterday in the House that a further appeal must be made to the British Prime Minister, clearly stating that he must take cog…

The British Government's legacy Bill is appalling legislation. Sadly and unfortunately, it has passed through the House of Commons and House of Lords. The only credible thing to do with this legislation would be to bin it in its entirety. As I have said in this House so often, it absolves those responsible for conflict-related murders and other deplorable crimes of such evil and vile deeds. To add insult to injury and shamefully, this is under the guise of reconciliation. This legislation dismissively betrays victi…

Despite an increase in the number of school bus tickets issued this year, there are still difficulties for many families through the lack of a bus service or the lack of capacity on existing routes. Some routes were handed back at the last minute by contractors in many instances because of a shortage of drivers. Last April, I raised such school transport difficulties through parliamentary questions and during Questions on Promised Legislation, with particular reference to the likely shortage of bus drivers. I speci…

Today marks the third anniversary of the disappearance in Portugal of Jean Tighe.

Jean is a member of a very popular-----

I will start again.

Today marks the third anniversary of the disappearance in Portugal of Jean Tighe. Jean is a member of a very popular and highly regarded Cavan family who are friends of mine. The family have sought every possible assistance to locate Jean. As the Tánaiste knows, I have consistently raised this case with his Department and the Department of Justice. The family appreciate the work of Irish statutory agencies. Despite numerous requests, it took until last Monday to get Jean's name on the missing persons database. The …

One of the many benefits of the Good Friday Agreement has been the establishment of all-Ireland bodies, including Tourism Ireland, which is responsible for marketing the island of Ireland as a premier holiday destination. It has been successful in growing the tourism industry North and South. The British Government has introduced secondary legislation to put in place its electronic travel authorisation scheme for autumn this year. It will require people visiting Britain to have visas. Irish citizens are exempt due …

The British Government's Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill is an absolutely deplorable piece of legislation. Yesterday, most regrettably, this Bill was passed in the House of Lords and returned to the Commons with amendments. The only suitable amendment to this reprehensible legislation would be to withdraw it in its entirety. This Bill, as proposed, would give murderers and the perpetrators of other heinous crimes the right to give themselves an amnesty for such misdemeanours. That would s…

I thank the Minister of State for giving me some time. I endorse the Minister of State's comments. I was glad to accompany him in County Monaghan to meet members of the A5 Enough is Enough committee, where they outlined in great detail the concerns of the local community throughout County Tyrone and of people who traverse that road going to the north west. Whenever I drive that road, I am always struck by the huge volume of heavy goods vehicles. Far too often I have watched "BBC Newsline" and UTV Northern Ireland n…

As the Minister is aware, community childcare facilities, along with childcare accommodation provided by private providers, has transformed childcare provision over the past 20 years throughout the entire country. Were it not for community facilities, there would be areas without childcare provision. Grant aid was very significant, with some projects being funded to a level of more than €1.1 million. Another such scheme is needed, based on the representations coming to me in recent times.

I thank the Minister for his reply and compliment him on the work he has been doing over the past two and a half years in expanding the range of supports available for childcare. Thankfully, the public finances are in a very healthy state today due to policies that have been implemented over many years in building an enterprise economy and growing our exports. At this particular time, more and more funding should be devoted to the provision of more and upgraded childcare accommodation. We all know that the greatest…

I thank the Minister. I am particularly interested in the capacity measure. I was involved in a getting a group in my constituency a childcare facility in that town. I remember people saying that it would never be used to its fullest potential because there would not be enough children. Thankfully, in one sense, it is not able to cope with the numbers. This is a great sign of how satisfied parents are with the quality of the childcare provided and the great support that is given to parents, particularly mothers, wh…

I heard the Minister speak some time ago about the need to consider providing for future budgetary demands apart from the annual budgetary cycle. We all know that international events can impact very adversely and quickly on the economic health of a country. Not long ago, we all thought we would not have a war in Europe again. We know the devastating impact and loss of life the savage war inflicted on Ukraine by the Russian regime has had. We have also had the Covid-19 pandemic in the past few years. Does the Minis…

I thank the Minister for his response. We are of course all very glad to have healthy public finances and long may that continue. I am glad the Minister referred to demographics and also infrastructure, especially in his remarks of a moment ago. We hear about the pressure from a demographic point of view due to people growing older, which is always welcome. When delivering public services, we do not ever seem to take into account how we are fortunate to have an increasing population throughout the country of all ag…