I am trying my absolute best to find out what has happened to the 119 bus service from Glendalough, through Roundwood to Bray. It was meant to start last September, as the Tánaiste is aware. One month ago his office told constituents that the service was financed, sanctioned and overdue and that it would come into operation very soon and that there should be a firm date in the next week. That was a month ago. As recently as yesterday I had confirmation from the National Transport Authority, NTA, that there is no mo…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 to provide for the utilisation of curtailed and constrained renewable electricity in order to support the achievement of the national climate objective and carbon budgets, to advance a just transition, and to reduce energy poverty by facilitating access to lowercost renewable electricity for eligible electricity customers; and to provide for related matters. This Bill has a v…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Some 77% of Irish people favour a ban on hare coursing. The reason they want to see a ban on hare coursing is, simply put, that it is cruel. It is completely unnatural to pull a wild animal from their environment, to cage it for weeks and put it out in front of a greyhound and essentially let it run for its life. To do that and to call it a sport is probably one of the things that I have most difficulty with. We need to have a conversation about it. I have been listening to the debate. We need to have a conversatio…

That is ultimately what it is about. As Deputy Paul Murphy said earlier-----

Why is it a nonsense comparison?

Why is it a nonsense comparison?

This is what it comes down to - it comes down to empathy, as Deputy Murphy said earlier. It comes down to whether we can look at a wild creature and feel that we should not torture it or inflict any level of pain or stress where we can avoid it. I am not talking about hunting for food purposes or any of that. I am talking about hunting for sport. For creatures like the hare, I just do not understand how anyone can be happy that their entertainment is worth more than putting a creature like that through a level of p…

I know the Minister of State does.

What it all comes down to is a level of empathy and what we consider to be acceptable in society and what we do not. I also want to respond to the argument about driving it underground if we do not allow it to continue. It is incredible, but in no other circumstances do we hear the argument that something is wrong but we are going to allow it to continue because if we do not, criminals will continue it any way. That is essentially what Deputy Kenny is saying. That makes absolutely no sense. If it is wrong, we deal …

One in seven households is in arrears on its electricity bills. Many have been in that position for months and cannot see any way out of it. Today, 1 July, bills are going up again. Electric Ireland, the State's largest energy provider, is putting up its prices, which means average households will pay an extra €138 on their bills. Some 1.1 million customers will be impacted. Everyone knows we have the highest electricity prices in Europe. We pay 40% more than the EU average and that amounts to around €480 per year …

I congratulate the Minister, her Department and, indeed, all of the artists and designers involved in the new passport design. It is a beautiful document. It clearly shows the importance of nature to the Irish people. Fifteen thousand people were engaged in the process of designing this document. The reality is we as a state have not been kind to many of the species that were illustrated in that new design. Our Atlantic salmon populations have decreased by 90% in the past five decades. One third of our bee populati…

Endometriosis impacts more than 300,000 women in Ireland, with 30,000 of them being very complex cases. This is a condition that is absolutely crippling for any woman who has it. There have been efforts by the Government to bring in a new framework to deal with endometriosis but access is still very difficult. A treatment abroad scheme was set up but a number of countries are not included in it, namely, Greece, Romania, the UK and France. There were plans to look into expanding it to these countries. I also want to…

It is the treatment abroad service. There are a number of countries that are-----

This is a specific treatment scheme for endometriosis.

Over the past week or two, we have seen a fast-tracking of the liquefied natural gas, LNG, Bill through the Dáil. This is a big mistake. There are still a lot of questions about the rationale for this particular project. I understand that when the Taoiseach met with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, he said, "... I'm hopeful that we'll soon reach a deal to sell American liquefied natural gas - and that’ll bring down your deficit a lot - so I think you have to make this deal with us, you better do something." Did tho…

Where he told the Taoiseach to buy LNG.

What we and the Minister need to try to do is bring a level of transparency to this debate and try to engender a level of trust. Trust has been broken between the public and the Government in this regard. When the Minister has talked about all the different elements of this facility, the key thing he mentioned is that it is to be a strategic, State-led, State-owned, State-run non-commercial facility to be used in limited circumstances. These amendments speak to those limited circumstances. It is important that the …

I am taking it up here as well because it is clearly wrong-----

It is clearly wrong to rule out of order amendments that have no money message on this basis. It completely undermines the Opposition's ability to improve, or put safeguards into, this legislation. It is really important that we have safeguards in it and that when Deputies are making decisions in here or when the public is making up its mind about this LNG facility, they are doing it on the basis of full and transparent information. I am aware that the Minister has said that there are energy security risks associat…