I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Several of my colleagues have spoken on it over the last week or so. It is not an understatement to say migration, emigration and the policy that supports the area are complex issues. There is no doubt about that, but the policy we develop in here that finds its way into the legislation on our Statute Book cannot be done by simply appeasing the views of bar stoolers who get their news from Facebook. There is far too much of that in the reactive response we see to thi…

I raise with the Tánaiste the extension of the living cities initiative to five regional towns, including two in my constituency, Drogheda and Dundalk. When he has the opportunity he might state exactly when the initiative will go live for the new areas provided for under the Finance Act.

I thank the Tánaiste. We can all agree that vacancy and dereliction are a scourge in communities up and down the country. There is a particularly pronounced problem in my hometown of Drogheda. The Tánaiste will be aware of the extent of the problem in the historic core town centre of what is a very historic town, with some very significant buildings from an architectural and heritage point of view. Louth County Council did an analysis last year of the inner town centre area and identified approximately 58 vacant an…

It is one weapon in our armoury. There is no doubt about that but we need to take a varied approach to this. Another initiative, which was announced in the budget last year, was the transitioning of the derelict sites levy to a derelict sites tax. By definition, the responsibility for the collection of that tax will be given to the Revenue Commissioners. I have been campaigning for that for years; it makes sense. I always made the point that business owners who can afford to allow a building to become vacant and de…

I thank my colleague Deputy Ahern for providing me with some time to address a matter the Minister of State knows is very close to my heart and the hearts of the people of Drogheda. I have a very straightforward question for him. Where is Drogheda's new permanent driving test centre? He and I have engaged on this on a number of occasions in recent weeks. I appreciated the helpful updates he provided. For the benefit of the House, it is worth recording that in July of last year, the RSA said that the new driving tes…

I am pleased to have the opportunity to support Deputy Healy's motion. The contents of the motion will not be unfamiliar to those in opposition who have tabled broadly similar motions week in and week out over the last few years. What will not be lost on us either is the nature of the rather routine response that we receive from the Government, as we saw in the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon's, response to the motion earlier on. With respect, I have no doubt that in his response in closing the debate, the Ministe…

We disagree.

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to introduce the River Boyne Task Force Bill to the House. The Bill seeks to establish a committee of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly to serve as a River Boyne task force with the function of proposing and promoting policies and priorities for the protection and enhancement of the environment of the River Boyne and of its natural habitats and wildlife. While they are not in a position to be here I acknowledge the support of colleagues like De…

Yes.

I thank the Minister of State for his response even though it is not a response that I would agree with. It is disappointing that the Government has decided not to send the Bill for further examination on Committee Stage or delay its next reading, but to actively oppose it. I do not think that sends out the right the signal. It is very disappointing and in some ways upends a practice that has been in place for some time. I believe the arguments that the Bill makes merit and warrant further consideration. The Minist…

The Labour Party deliberately decided to align transport issues with the Government's chronic track record on providing a right to working people to access remote work. We get an insight today into this Government's thinking on remote work, for two reasons. The first is that the Government's response to our motion is effectively silent on the question of remote work. The second is that Ministers and their Secretaries General are actively working to ensure public and civil servants who worked, in some instances, one…

The Minister will be aware that in 2017, I introduced legislation to provide for an exoneration for men who were convicted of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual activity prior to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993. As he will recall, the first part of that process was the historic State apology issued in both Houses of the Oireachtas in July 2018 for the way in which this State and this society treated their LGBT+ citizens. The second element of that process was the initiation of a process to set as…

It is a year since the new Dáil met and almost 11 months since the new Government was formed, yet we still do not have the medium-term economic plan that this Government is obliged to submit to Brussels. The media were briefed earlier this week that the Cabinet would approve the plan on Tuesday. Is that the case? Has the plan been approved and when will it be published?

There is simply no valid reason this plan has been delayed for several months. We were told to expect this plan in the summer. We expected to see it before the budget. We did not see it before the budget. I think at this point, politics and media management is getting in the way of the publication of the plan. It will be published tomorrow. That is an interesting and important point. It should have been published this week so the Dáil would have been able to scrutinise and interrogate the plan and have a full debat…

The Minister has laid out the principles of what we can expect to see tomorrow. We knew that already. We understood that. Those of us who are members of the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight met with the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, this week. I know the Tánaiste met with them when he was appointed.

They were, rightly, scathing about this Government's approach to budgeting. They said that the Government was budgeting like there was no tomorrow. The Tánaiste acknowledged there are no forecasts or horizons beyond next year. That is no way to budget. Our view in Labour is that key to this plan is that we should be prepared to reflect on the plan. Perhaps the Tánaiste can confirm to the House this afternoon whether the plan will include the commitment to the introduction of a net spending rule, net of tax changes.…

Where is this going?

I will speak today on behalf of the Labour Party to express our strong support for the Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Fox Hunting) Bill 2025. I want to thank our colleagues for proposing it. This legislation is not about point-scoring, nor is it about rural Ireland versus urban Ireland. To say it is actually diminishes the points that some who oppose this legislation are seeking to make. It is fundamentally about decency, ethics and whether we are prepared to legislate in line with what we say are stated public …

I want to draw the Ministers of State's attention to very serious concerns over a multiplicity of issues brought to my attention by fishers I represent at Clogherhead in County Louth. Last month, as the Ministers of State will be aware, a trawler sank off Bettystown. Two Egyptian fishers in difficulty were rescued by the Coast Guard helicopter and the Clogherhead lifeboat. This is not an isolated case; it is the sixth such incident in recent times. There is a very concerning pattern. Exactly two years ago, an Egypt…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I recall the rushed nature of the debate on the corresponding Bill on the eve of the general election last November. As has been said on many occasions over the years, this legislation is, to some degree, a housekeeping exercise, as reflected in the Minister's comments, but it is nevertheless important that we have a Dáil debate on the matters the Bill addresses more broadly. As previous speakers noted, it was not that not long ago that the Dáil did not debate appropr…