I will have two minutes and Senator Byrne will have three, if that is okay.

I welcome the Minister. As previous speakers have said, these are no longer one-off events. This is becoming an annual occurrence for us all. My sympathies go out to the people of the south east and the south, and in the north, in Donegal, who were affected by the floods last week. We are less than a year on from 760,000 people being without power and water across the west after Storm Éowyn affected homes, businesses and farms. While great strides have been made and a lot of initiatives have been brought on in rela…

The Minister of State is very welcome today. I think it is important that I briefly explain what Rathcroghan is and what the Farming Rathcroghan model project is. Rathcroghan - the fort of Cruachan - is an ancient capital of Connacht and is one of the most important archaeological landscapes in Ireland and in Europe. Rathcroghan is recognised as the oldest and largest unexcavated royal site in Europe, a landscape where history, mythology, farming and community life have existed side by side for thousands of years. …

I thank the Minister of State for his response. He mentioned the National Monuments Service intends to establish in the coming years a support scheme for landowners across world heritage properties in Ireland. The blueprint for that idea is the Farming Rathcroghan project because over eight years it has demonstrated its ability. It has gone above and beyond accessing European funding. As the Minister of State mentioned, between the just transition fund and the European Innovation Partnership, 88% of its funding has…

In April, last year, I highlighted water outages in the village of Cloonfad in west Roscommon. I had a Commencement matter that month. I also highlighted a hospitality business that contacted me unable to open on Good Friday last year because of the loss of its water supply. On Monday last, I was copied on a message by the same hospitality business titled "Enough is enough" highlighting that it was now looking at another high-footfall day on which they would not be able to open due to the fact that it had no water …

I reiterate Senator O'Loughlin's welcoming of the national development plan sectoral plan for education of the Minister, Deputy Naughton, this morning. The plan published this morning outlines €7.55 billion in investment from 2026 to 2030. The big news for education this morning is that 105 projects are to progress to tender or construction phase between 2026 and 2027, totalling over €1.6 billion in investment, as part of the first tranche of the NDP roll-out. This will deliver 27,000 additional and modernised scho…

Last month, the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence published an interim report that argued that the framing of AI in terms of regulation versus innovation is misplaced and that the two can co-exist. We all know AI is here. It is real. It is already shaping how businesses design products, serve customers, manage supply chains and compete internationally. For Irish businesses, from family-run SMEs to our global multinationals, AI is one of the most powerful productive tools of our generation. It can help manu…

I, too, would like to be associated with the condolences to the family of Brian Crowley and to the Cathaoirleach. I will not go over what Senators Ryan, Comyn and Fitzpatrick have said, but I will raise the passing of Grace Lynch as well. Like so many in this House, I have got a lot of correspondence in relation to this matter. One item of correspondence which hit home stated that Grace Lynch is not just a number, a statistic or a headline, but a young girl so full of life and energy who always had a smile on her f…

I also welcome the measures this week announced for active travel. A total of €360 million will be available for schemes like the safe routes to schools, SRTS, programme which is an area on which I worked closely with a lot of councillors in County Roscommon, including councillors in north Roscommon such as Councillor Liam Callaghan and councillors in south Roscommon such as Councillor Valerie Duffy. Thankfully, their advocacy for schemes for particular schools that were quite dangerous have been accepted. I cannot…

I will second the amendment.

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and wish him and his family a happy Christmas. I hope he gets a chance to rest over the Christmas period. Electricity is an essential service that every household and business in this country relies on every day. That is why decisions around electricity pricing, network investment and charges on consumers must be rooted not only in technical necessity but in common sense. In the coming year, electricity customers in Ireland will see increased costs of up to €1.75 per m…

I thank the Minister of State. I will look into the network repair guarantee. This Commencement matter was timely because it is highly likely that before this House sits again, a lot of my constituents and other constituents across the west will have experienced some outages due to storms that may come. Considering that we did not deliver the guidelines for corridors in forestry this year, which led to a lot of power outages, I had to come to the House and ask for some measure to support constituents during outages…

I, too, would like to be associated with the seasons greetings to all of the staff of Leinster House and the Seanad. There was a moment when Senator Andrews was giving out his greetings that I thought he was about to extend them to Government Members. I would like to send greetings to everybody in this House. One of the first times my name was mentioned in this particular House was in relation to safe routes to school. I believe it was Senator Ahearn who raised it when I was looking for access for some local school…

Since I came to the Seanad in February, I have brought up the need for apprenticeships almost monthly. I was delighted to read that the Minister of State with responsibility for apprenticeships, Deputy Harkin, raised a point recently in the Dáil to say that an increase in the number of construction workers was the only way Ireland would meet its optimistic housing targets and an increase in apprenticeships was essential for achieving and developing our renewable energy. I have constantly called the Minister, Deputy…

Last week I called for a debate on the trend of small towns and villages losing financial services. It was covered in local media at the weekend and that resulted in one of the institutes I mentioned, the credit union in Elphin, getting in touch with me. It is closing down the service it was providing in Elphin. That is based on trends it is looking at but the closure still deserves inclusion in a debate in this House. A number of the credit union's members use its online services and a number use services in other…

The Minister of State is welcome. He has answered more of my Commencement matters than anybody else this year. If the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, had been appointed sooner, he would be up there with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. I thank him for that. The local development levy waiver scheme has been one of the most effective measures introduced to support people to begin building at a time of rising cost and uncertainty. It formed part of a wider suite of actions that helped to deliver housing co…

I thank the Minister of State. The number is small. In my own local authority I believe there is a maximum of 40 applicants. Considering this scheme has benefited over 60,000 people, it has done what it was created to do. I understand it was created as a temporary measure. It was designed and introduced to make building viable. Under facilitating investment and addressing viability, the programme for Government that the Minister of State and I, and all my colleagues, signed up for commits to measures such as develo…

Single.

I call for a debate on the wider trend of small towns losing essential financial services facilities. In the recent budget, additional funding was provided for An Post, which was very much appreciated. We have all received correspondence following that. We had a recent debate in this House on the provision of access to cash to try to ensure that those in predominantly rural areas will be served by and have access to these facilities. Despite that, I read last week that the credit union in Elphin in north-west Rosco…

It is the only light.