The world is changing, and national defence is becoming more important by the day. The Government is slow-walking change, though, to the pay and conditions of our Defence Forces, particularly for our cadets. It is simply unacceptable. The question I want to ask the Minister today is about the timeline for the increase of cadet pay in the Defence Forces.

Those improvements in accommodation and other physical places, such as barracks, etc., are welcome. I and Deputy Ó Laoghaire have just come from the Joint Committee on Defence and National Security, and that came up and was complimented. It simply is not enough to talk about action when it comes to pay. I accept the Minister's bona fides in terms of wanting to improve this but it is worth putting on record that cadet pay remains the lowest in the Defence Forces at just €503 per week compared to €550 for a recruit. …

Certainly, we are trending away from the recruitment and retention crisis that we have seen in the Defence Forces. We are not quite there yet and still have a bit to go. In terms of cadet pay, the long-term impacts of it and why it needs to be resolved, it can become financially illogical to become a cadet. Under the single pension scheme, earnings are averaged across an entire career meaning that paying cadets the existing poverty-level wage does lasting damage to their pension entitlements. It is not as enticing …

I ask the Minister to comment on the fact that Ireland remains stubbornly at the bottom of the EU table for defence and security expenditure, and what plans she has to ensure that Ireland does not remain at the bottom and continues to improve its investment in this area.

Successive Governments, for decades, have underinvested in our Defence Forces. Beyond that, wider politics needs to take some responsibility. We have used our commitment to military neutrality as a reason not to invest in our Defence Forces and our national security. We do need, at this time, a greater degree of sophistication in terms of how we discuss this. I hold our military neutrality very dear. I do not ever want to see Ireland join NATO, a common defence union through the EU or any other composition that wou…

Defence and security experts are clear that we are not at a major risk of a kinetic attack but that our infrastructure is under constant threat. It is important to ensure that the debate is taking place in that space. Last week, Dr. Paul Davis from the DCU Business School appeared before the defence committee on the topic of defence procurement and raised how defence procurement needs to be looked at differently. There is already a degree of exceptionalism to it, but we must look at it from outside the general proc…

Why has the conciliation and arbitration scheme for the Permanent Defence Force has been without an adjudicator since June last year? This is the only place Defence Forces members can have grievances addressed. This process is being held up because of the lack of an appointment. I would like an update please.

The continued delays and the recurring nature of this issue risks undermining the integrity of the C and A scheme in general. Given the unique restrictions places on the Defence Forces personnel, I have to say in the strongest terms, it is absolutely essential that this mechanism operates without interruption and with the confidence of all parties. I will bring this up at every Oral Question session having been making continued representations to the Minister and I will work with the representative bodies as well t…

I will be sharing time with Deputy O’Donoghue and we will have five minutes each. I will pick up on one of the final points the Minister of State made. He said that 76 years on, Robert Schuman would probably recognise the instability that exists now. I agree with him in that regard. If we look to the east, we can say that what is happening now represents the realisation of the worst fears from back then. Russia has literally rolled tanks into Ukraine, is carrying out proxy attacks, proxy wars and cyberattacks, and …

It was incredible for the Minister of State to say our motivation for calling for the introduction of a mini-budget was impatience and that it was because the Government is not bringing in its budgets quickly enough. We do not support the programme for Government. If its first budget is anything to go by, the Government has no interest in helping ordinary workers and families given that it prioritised the hospitality sector. We are proposing this mini-budget because it is pouring down on people out there. We are in…

Now that Ireland is lamentably at the top of the list in terms of the highest cost of electricity, and people are pinned to their absolute collar, there has to be an emergency debate and discussion for a mini-budget this week. We cannot agree to the Order of Business on those grounds.

We, in the Labour Party, also welcome the International Claims Commission for Ukraine being established and the Irish support for the same. In a world where the international rules-based order is unravelling and disintegrating, it is instruments such as this that we need to support and hold firm with, along with many others. Of course, as stated by the Minister, the success of this instrument will be reliant upon the Russians themselves signing up and the Russians themselves funding the compensation as it is calcul…

I raise with the Tánaiste Loreto College in Swords, a State school that was not included in the roll-out of 105 new projects to progress to tender or construction earlier this year. This omission is not without its immediate consequences. Existing students and staff will continue to work and learn in overcrowded conditions. Most pertinently, up to 16 girls will be unable to take part in transition year during the upcoming academic year. Transition year is crucial in the context of people's educational and personal …

In the long history of this Dáil there have only been two debates on football. This is the second, and the first was in 2023, put forward by the Labour Party. This debate is only happening because of a request from the Labour Party to put football front and centre in terms of much-needed funding. Our colleague, Deputy Ged Nash, is convening a cross-party group on football in the coming weeks, which we hope will have input from Members on all sides, to push the agenda of grassroots League of Ireland men’s and women’…

I move amendment No. 3: In page 3, to delete lines 11 to 13. I will be pressing this amendment.

This amendment will delete section 2. Section 2 inserts a number of references to the new section 25A which would be inserted into the Arbitration Act 2010 under section 4 of this Bill. A separate amendment to delete that subsection itself has, unfortunately, been ruled out of order. The new section 25A provides that awards made pursuant to Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, and the Chile-EU Advanced Framework Agreement would be enforceable in Ireland in the same manner as a judgment or ord…

It is worth clarifying that we know the difference between an ISDS system and an investor court system. There is not much of a difference. The investor court system really formalises the previous ISDS system, but in effect they do the same thing. We have had this at committee. It was an absolute disgrace that we did not have pre-legislative scrutiny on this. It was remiss of me to not commend Lynn Boylan on the briefing she arranged a couple of months ago, as referred to by Deputy Ó Laoghaire, which Deputy Gibney a…

I move amendment No. 4: In page 3, to delete lines 14 to 18.

I move amendment No. 11: In page 4, to delete lines 3 to 13. This amendment would delete subsection (2) of the new section 25A, to be inserted to the Arbitration Act 2010 under section 4 of the Bill. The purpose of the amendment is to allow us time to consider whether subsection (4)(2) of the new section 25A is compatible with agreements such as CETA. If CETA or any other international agreement like it was to be ratified by Ireland and all other member states, it would then become EU law. We cannot then rely on ou…

We did not have much time to debate this even on Committee Stage. The Minister of State accused us of putting forward hypotheticals to scaremonger even though we are basing them on a number of cases that have taken place internationally. He has constantly told us that X, Y and Z have to happen, ultimately this is really rare and probably will not happen anyway so what is the big worry but this is going to happen. The ICS will come in under this and we will be vulnerable. It is a risk we do not have to take because …