Next Wednesday at 10.30 a.m.

I wish to be associated with the fine comments of Senator Kennelly in relation to the late Jim Finucane. He was an absolute gentleman and a pleasure to meet. As the Senator said, he did incredible work supporting Ukrainian citizens coming to Ireland initially. I extend my condolences to his family and friends. I ask that we have a debate with the Minister for housing on wastewater treatment. In Tipperary, we have ongoing problems with water quality and capacity. Huge investment is being made in Irish Water to build…

I will be very brief. I am just coming from the sports committee, so I am slightly out of breath. On a serious note, I wanted to speak on this really important debate. I welcome the Minister of State here. Post offices are the lifeblood of the community. I see that in Tipperary on a daily basis. I see the work they do and the support that they give to their communities. We have a very good post office in Cahir town. The postmaster there, Henry, does incredible work. Postmasters really appreciate what was done in th…

I am wrecked.

I am on the sports committee. I ran up the stairs.

I thank the Minister of State for being here this morning. I am looking for an update on conversations that have been happening with the European Commission on tariffs with America. As we are all aware, an agreement had been reached a number of weeks or months ago of a 15% tariff for the EU with America. There had been a certain level of fear that that might change for pharmaceuticals and the medtech sector. Thankfully we have got clarity that it will remain at 15% even though other countries seem to be up at 100%.…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. When the Tánaiste and our diplomats have discussions with the European Commission, I hope it takes on our concerns particularly in relation to medtech and pharmaceuticals. As the Minister of State said, there are still possibilities for lower tariffs in certain areas. Medtech is one that needs to be highlighted on behalf of Ireland. A lot of work has been done in the past ten years or so to try to develop our economy. We have built it into the fastest growing economy …

Before the Minister of State responds, I welcome guests of Deputy Edward Timmins from Wicklow - Annamoe, I believe. I hope they have an enjoyable day and I wish them well.

I, too, welcome the Speaker of the Parliament of Finland. Funnily, I was actually talking this morning to a Finnish citizen who lives in Ireland. She came back from Finland only yesterday. We are lucky to have her. I wish the delegates well on their visit. There was some very welcome news for my home county, Tipperary, this morning. Lonely Planet came out with its annual review of destinations to visit across the world and it recommended 25, including Botswana, Peru and Mexico. Tipperary was also on the list. This …

I second the amendment.

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. About six years ago if I were told I had to stand up to talk about childcare, I would not have had a clue what I was talking about. Now that I have two boys who are five and three I feel like I am an expert on childcare, the cost of childcare and, particularly, the thing I learned very quickly, childcare providers. The two providers I know very well are the Play and Learn creche in Clonmel and the Busy Bees after-school serv…

The Taoiseach is very welcome to the Chamber and I thank him for his contribution. He spoke about the budget first and I acknowledge the budget. It seems from the outside that the budget seeks to protect the economy, jobs, FDI, that this is one of five budgets and that not all measures that were in the programme for Government can be delivered. Initially, some were, such as 9% VAT rate for businesses because that is critical at the start, and other measures will be delivered over time, like the fee for higher educa…

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber this morning and thank him for agreeing to take this Commencement matter. It is important to point out that, in last week's budget, the Department of agriculture - the Minister of State's Department - received a 9% increase in its overall budget. Aside from the Department of Defence, which was obviously going to get a massive increase, it is the highest increase of any Department. I acknowledge the obvious good work the Minister of State and his colleagues put into wor…

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed reply. He is correct. His Department has been very supportive over the past number of years in introducing new schemes to support the tillage sector, in particular the straw incorporation measure and the protein aid scheme. Those schemes, in the last year, amounted to roughly €10 million each. The announcement of the €50 million is very welcome and there seems to be, within the tillage sector, a kind of understanding that, of the €50 million, €10 million will go to the…

I follow on from colleagues who have spoken on the motion of confidence in the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, in the Dáil today. This is clearly a populist move at a time when a presidential election is happening and there is only one candidate from the Government side - from Fine Gael - running in the election. This is being used to try to attack Heather Humphrey's campaign and the Tánaiste and leader of Fine Gael. It comes from a person who has very little credibility in this. He was out in the past week or so sa…

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber, his old home. I thank my Fianna Fáil colleagues for tabling this very important motion. Obviously, we in Fine Gael support it. As Senator O’Loughlin mentioned, we had a very good and productive meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador here in Ireland that finished about an hour ago. I welcome her and thank her for all of the work she does on behalf of Ukrainian citizens in Ireland, and for keeping us informed on what we can do to help. It is lovely to see some Ukrainian …

Opening up new markets across the world was mentioned in the budget statements yesterday, and one aspect of that is getting direct flights between different countries. I ask that we have a debate with the Minister for Transport about that. Obviously, relationships with America are unstable - that is probably the best way to put it - and we need to diversify our markets. Tokyo and Japan are really good opportunities for Ireland. I was there last week as part of the foreign affairs committee. Japan is very similar to…

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and thank him for being here for this very important debate. I thank my Fianna Fáil colleagues for putting forward this motion today. As has been said, it is important to acknowledge that what happened on 7 October was wrong. It was outrageous. More than 2,000 people were murdered. Hostages were taken and that was all done by a terrorist organisation, Hamas. Those hostages need to be released but we need to see a ceasefire. It is important to say that because it is tru…

As it is 1.15 p.m., according to the order of the House, progress must be reported.

Is the Senator pressing the amendment?