I will raise the kidnap and release yesterday of our fellow Seanadóir, my party colleague Chris Andrews. I am thankful he has been released. On 1 October, the boat Chris was travelling on, the Spectre , was illegally boarded by Israeli forces. Over the next two days, all boats in the Global Sumud Flotilla were intercepted. In total, 462 people, 16 of them Irish citizens, were illegally detained by armed Israeli forces in international waters while attempting to bring aid to Gaza. The flotilla was a peaceful humanit…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I regret I do not have much of the same sentiment about the budget as I heard in the statements from him or in the Dáil earlier. This is the first budget of the new coalition and it is easy to see from it that the election is very much in the rear-view mirror of the Government. It has managed to cling on with the help of Michael Lowry and his clique, so ordinary families and workers have now been forgotten. As prices at the tills soa…

I welcome the opportunity to comment on the statement made by the Minister. I notice that like myself, he is moving quickly from one place to another but I welcome the presence of his ministerial colleague. The important matter he raised was setting the framework of the budget and future budgets. There has to be a recognition in doing that, which was not alluded in his statement, of the challenges that families are currently facing, and have been for the past number of years, in relation to a range of matters. The …

I echo the remarks on Bridget Doody. We had an opportunity to thank Martin Groves for his service a number of months back. Bridget was very supportive, particularly of us new Senators, and very patient with her advice and guidance. Cuirim fáilte roimh Martin Hughes and I look forward very much to working with him in the time ahead. Last Friday both Governments published a framework to address the legacy of conflict in the North. This was an attempt to undo some of the damage that Tory Governments had done over the …

I echo the comments of Senator O'Loughlin on the GAA visit. Of course they would like to visit the entirety of the GAA on the island and there is an additional complexity in getting into the North, which I know people are working on. It is hoped they will have success on that. I want to raise the issue of the GPO and the development plans for that. The GPO is one of the most significant places in the revolutionary history of this country. The idea that this historic building would be turned into shopping units and …

Very much more.

I concur with the views offered by Senators Fitzpatrick and McDowell on events in Palestine and the Middle East in general. Last weekend, two very important events coincidentally occurred which reflect the progress that has taken place with the constitutional debate on this country's future. On the one hand, the vision of a new, united Ireland was presented by the former Taoiseach and former leader of Fine Gael, Leo Varadkar, was presented at an event in St. Mary's University College, jointly organised by Ireland's…

I welcome the Minister's presence in the Chamber. This is a challenging issue for any finance minister to deal with, but one that must be faced nonetheless. The political choices involved are undoubtedly helped by the fact of the significant resources currently in this State. I have had this challenge north of the Border as Minister of Finance. I must lay out at the start that it is a different set of circumstances. There are little or no alternative revenue-raising options for the Executive north of the Border exc…

I welcome the motion and the amendment. It is timely that we begin to pursue the conversation about small and medium enterprises and microbusinesses, which, as others have said, make up the vast bulk of economic activity across the country and account for some 90% of employment across the State. We need to move quickly beyond the conversation to more affirmative action. There is, and has been for some time, a need to grow a productive, indigenous, industrial base of microbusinesses, SMEs and family business in high…

I express my condemnation of the racially motivated violent scenes that we have seen in Ballymena over the last couple of nights. It is very clear that rather than let the justice system run its course and deal with accusations of sexual assault and attempted rape, others have used them to stir up racial hatred in Ballymena and attack very vulnerable communities who are making a significant economic contribution to the town and the surrounding area. It has got to the stage where we have vulnerable people posting th…

I welcome the Minister and apologise for not being here for his opening statement. Like many other Members here, I am juggling committee responsibilities with speaking in the House. In that regard, I know we will have an opportunity to speak to him at the committee later on today. I have had an opportunity to read his remarks and I just wanted to make a few remarks in response to them. Clearly, there is a growing recognition of the vulnerability of the Irish economic model and the prospects there are for fiscal ret…

I welcome the Minister. I am speed reading through the Minister's statement to try to respond to a few points on it. We had a similar conversation with the Minister for Finance this morning relating to the economic outlook statement and there is quite a lot of overlap in the issues that apply and a recognition that things do need to change and there are vulnerabilities. We were less than ten years out from the economic crash when were into Brexit, the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, the cost of energy crisis a…

I welcome the Minister of State. It is an area I had some opportunity to deal with in a previous role that I had, when I was responsible for procurement in the Department of Finance in the North. Of course, one of the first considerations is value for money, as the Minister of State mentioned. We need to make sure that the system is not delivering inefficiencies. In that regard, an important aspect that does not seem to be emphasised in the Minister of State's statement is the need for timely production of informat…

Some years ago at the citizens assembly, there was a strong recommendation that the Government give consideration to introducing voting rights in presidential elections for Irish citizens north of the Border and potentially throughout the Irish diaspora. The Government at the time undertook to legislate to do that but it failed to do so in the last mandate. It has not appeared in the programme for Government in this mandate, which is doubly disappointing given there is a presidential election coming up in the autum…

I welcome the Minister. I had the opportunity to hear him speak at Queen's University Belfast a number of weeks ago. I welcome his positive attitude in dealing with my former colleagues in the Department for the Economy and the current Minister, Caoimhe Archibald. I welcome the motion put before us today. One area it mentions is greater collaboration between North and South. The Minister will understand the importance of that. When I was a younger person, which is a long time ago, it was much easier. There was much…

With permission, I will share time with Senator Andrews.

If I stray over time, the Chair might warn me, given that the clock is not working.

I welcome the Minister of State's presence here today and his statement celebrating Europe Day. Senator O'Loughlin correctly paid tribute to John Hume and his role in the European Union over many years. Many others from the North have done so since. It points to a tinge of regret that we must have in celebrating Europe Day that the part of the island he represented is no longer in the European Union, despite having voted to remain and being taken out against its wishes. A number of issues continue to flow from that…

I welcome the Minister of State. As we see an increase in the digitalisation of services in banking and finance, it is important that the Government keeps pace with this with legislation and regulation. There is no doubt that digital banking reduces the carbon footprint of journeys necessarily made to bank branches to do business and it is convenient for those who are competent in using digital services or who have access to Wi-Fi, but this does not relate to everyone in the country. It is important that when progr…

A Chathaoirligh, apologies for the misunderstanding earlier. On behalf of our group, I offer my sympathies on the death of Pope Francis, someone who was considered a courageous leader and who spoke on behalf of the marginalised and vulnerable. It is not surprising, given he was a Latin American cleric, that he followed that doctrine which sees the proper role of the church on the side of the most vulnerable and dispossessed rather than the wealthy and powerful. His nightly calls to the parish in Gaza epitomised the…