I second the amendment. The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber. I also welcome Councillor Joe Malone. I thank him for the work he is doing, along with his colleagues in LAMA, which represents councillors right across the country. I listened to the contributions at the start from Senators Black and Flynn. They had 16 minutes to speak and, in the space of that 16 minutes, they gave no acknowledgement or recognition of what has been done in the last number of years. Amazingly, as well as giving no recogn…

-----they know-----

Perhaps because they were not councillors themselves, they are not aware of this.

The Senator brings in Councillor Joe Malone----

-----but then claims that councillors did not get any pay when his organisation was fighting hard to get an increase in pay for councillors.

For her own benefit I will not give way to Senator Flynn because the information is incorrect. Just so you know-----

I became a councillor in 2019, six year ago-----

----- and I was paid €17,000 a year. As of 1 August this year, councillors are paid €31,000.

That is an increase-----

-----of €14,000. I suggest the Senator talks to Councillor Malone who was invited here tonight. He will confirm it because LAMA played a key role in increasing that. When we talk about actually wanting to do things to support councillors we need to recognise that over the past five or six years from previous Ministers, the Minister, Deputy Burke, and the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins at the moment, there has been more changes in support for councillors than ever before. That is not recognised by Senator Flynn's…

We will try to get the Senator back there.

I propose that we suspend the House until that vote is finished.

I gave a list of what has been done not what needs to be done.

There was an extensive list of what has been done.

The list was about what has been done.

I am delighted Senator Andrews said it was a long list.

On 24 January of this year, Storm Éowyn hit our shores and caused considerable devastation right across the country. If our incredible public servants, from gardaí and members of the Civil Defence to staff of the ESB and local authorities, had not been on the scene in the many affected counties to restore power and support people and communities at a very difficult time, things might have been very different. Local authorities, in particular, played a key role in putting money in place as quickly as possible to fun…

The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber. Ireland's whole-of-government circular economy strategy commits us to reducing waste, extending product lifespan and embedding reuse and recycling in every aspect of how we consume and do business. These are ambitious though necessary goals, but in reality our current system is being undermined by global e-commerce. Irish consumers now make more online purchases than almost any other nation in Europe, yet too many of those goods come in from distance sellers who…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. As he said during his contribution, it is important he recognises there is unfairness within the marketplace at the moment. Is it is possible to get further detail from the Minister's office on the legislative proposal that will be published next year? It is important we work with our EU market. This is essentially about fairness. We are talking about small and medium-sized businesses in Ireland that have a competitive disadvantage in relation to other businesses acro…

The Minister of State is very welcome. It is very important to have him here to outline the work that has been done in the area of overseas aid. Obviously, it is welcome that we are increasing our annual funding up to €840 million. Hopefully, over the lifetime of this Government, that money will continue to increase. It is important to have a debate for the benefit of the Irish public. We know that the money is going to overseas aid but many people do not really know where it is being spent, who is benefiting or wh…