The Taoiseach is losing the run of himself.

Clean up their mess.

Two wrongs.

It is about a deal with Michael Lowry.

Hear, hear.

Why is it being proposed in the first place?

It is a sad day.

Want to try again?

It is Stockholm syndrome.

In preparing for today's motion, I could not get away from the thought that if tens of thousands of children were working in any other industry in this country unpaid, unrecognised, unsupported and unprotected by the State, it would be an absolute national scandal. Yet, day after day, this is happening in homes the length and breadth of the country where young people are, as my colleagues have said, forced to fill in the gaps left by the State. They do it because they care and, in many cases, because they feel and …

I, too, thank the Independent Group-----

-----for tabling this motion. It is not appropriate that we merely have discussions on Government expenditure occasionally when an Opposition group tables a motion. This matter must concern us all the time if we as a Parliament are doing our job responsibly and effectively. There is no need for me to rehearse the various overspends on OPW and other projects that have been interrogated to death in the media and on the floor of the House in recent weeks and which have led to this motion. I know from experience and th…

That is just the preliminaries.

For what it is worth, I think Deputy Doherty’s interpretation is correct. I would also appreciate the Minister of State’s clarification on the matter raised by the Deputy. It seems to me there is a particularly broad definition captured in the amendment. If that is the case, it is very welcome. There was a very wide lacuna in the legislation that was identified quite some years ago by Deputy Doherty and others in opposition at the time. We have individually and collectively campaigned to have this lacuna addressed.…

I am happy not to move my amendment because it has been dealt with effectively by the Minister's amendment.

It is a very welcome amendment and one I considered tabling but I did not manage to do so. I have dealt with cases over the years and I have engaged with the FSPO on behalf of constituents in situations where they were joint holders of a mortgage, the relationship had broken down and there was evidence of fraud, for the want of a better description, perpetrated by one of the people who held the account, which was accepted by the bank. The relationship had broken down and the person on the other side of that relatio…

With respect, the remarks the Minister of State read out are a restatement of the position the FSPO has put into correspondence with me over the years, and with others as well. Deputy Doherty is familiar with these kinds of cases. He has worked on them too. I imagine many other Members of the House have as well. The Deputy is right that we are legislators. We make the law and it is up to the agencies of the State to enforce that law. If the political will is there, it is surely not beyond our ability to develop an …

Just to clarify, this is Committee Stage and we will also have Report Stage.

I understand. We will be dealing with other finance-related Bills over the coming months. It is not unusual for an amendment that is not directly related to the subject matter of a Bill to be accommodated. This might be done in respect of the issue that is exercising me and Deputy Doherty. Deputy O'Callaghan has also spoken about it. This is not the first time I have raised this. We have raised it time and again in the Houses and elsewhere. The Minister of State understands the issue. He gets it. He is a constituen…

Drogheda is Ireland's largest town that is yet to become a city. We do not have a driving test centre. We had a temporary driving test centre for a couple of years, located in a local football club. The RSA decided it would not renew that contract this time two years ago, leaving Drogheda without any form of driving test centre. What did it do? It blamed the local residents when an arrangement was to be made with all of the stakeholders to seek to extend that temporary accommodation to allow for the identification …