I welcome the Minister to the Seanad. I and my colleagues in Sinn Féin have brought this motion forward because we remain deeply concerned about the rental sector in Ireland and, of course, the Government’s policies which are worsening the housing crisis month by month. The updated homelessness figures will be out this Friday and no doubt the figures will, sadly, break new records. Every month more people are forced into homelessness. More young people end up back with their parents in their childhood bedroom and u…

I have been hearing about safeguards for tenants and renters and Ireland having some of the strongest protections for renters. If people cannot afford to rent a house, the safeguards and strongest protections are not worth the paper they are written on, because people will not have the house to have those safeguards. They will be stuck in emergency accommodation. I did smirk and laugh a little bit while some of my colleagues across the floor were speaking because I found it quite comical to hear that the Government…

No. I am speaking without interruption.

The Government's representatives need to start listening to what the people who come into their offices are saying. They need to actually listen to them, because I do not think anybody across the floor listens. People are in bits. They cannot find somewhere to live and when they do, they cannot afford it. People are constantly in fear of being evicted because the new rules that came in ensure the landlord can up the price once they evict the tenant. It is an absolutely ridiculous rule to have put in place. The rent…

The only thing that does not work in this country is the majority of people's wages. For middle-income earners, the only thing not going up is their wages. The costs of paying for the food shop, car insurance, rent, insurance and tax have all gone up for them. The cost of everything they are paying for has gone up because of inflation. The only thing not matching it is their wages. What do I say to Jane and her husband, who are left with €130 a week just after paying the rent? They have two kids. What if a school t…

I want to refer to the barriers to nursing home care. I know about these from my experience of trying to get a place in a nursing home for my mother, who has dementia. She has the type of dementia where she walks a lot, so she is not the ideal patient who will sit down and be quiet all day. Nursing homes seem to have such long lists of people to choose from that she cannot get a bed in one because she would take more care than somebody who will sit down all day and be quiet. That is the first issue. The second issu…

I wish to briefly speak about two of our amendments that were ruled out of order. Amendment No. 38 sought to add something that the Government has shown its aversion to throughout this whole process, namely, democratic scrutiny. This amendment would have ensured that we, as Members of the Oireachtas, and the public received proper oversight and scrutiny of what the Government is trying to do here and the implications for our legal obligations and wider ability to affect public policy decisions. It would have ensure…

It is because they were ruled out of order so late in the day.

That information is not on the grouping list.

I completely understand that.

It is only because, at the start, we were told we could speak about amendments that were ruled out of order because we received notice so late.

If Ireland ratifies CETA or the EU-Chile agreement, enforcement of awards made by investor courts will become a necessitated obligation of EU membership within the meaning of Article 29.4.6° of the Constitution. This was outlined in the judgment of Mr. Justice Charleton, who highlighted that any domestic legislation permitting the refusal of enforcement would conflict with the duty of sincere co-operation under Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union. If this is challenged in the Court of Justice of the Europe…

I raise a couple of concerns I have about this Bill, particularly the designation of energy projects, including onshore wind development, as critical infrastructure. While nobody disputes the importance of energy security, renewable generation and meeting our climate obligations, there is a serious question as to whether this legislation risks undermining established planning safeguards and the meaning of public consultation. The definition of infrastructure in section 1 is extremely broad and explicitly includes e…

I thank Senator Boyhan and his group for bringing this motion forward. One of the first conversations I ever had with him after I got elected to this House was around the year of the woman farmer, when he told me all about how this was coming in. Since then, he has been providing me with information that I might be interested in. He is an amazing advocate for women in farming, and I have to give him that today. This is an opportunity not simply to celebrate women in agriculture but to finally confront the structura…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, for being here. I know this is not his Department but I was advised that he was going to take this and he should have answers for me. I hope we will get something from this. I am from County Limerick and I travel in and out of the county. I take the train from Colbert Station to Dublin every week. When I heard there was a rail line going down from Foynes to Limerick, I thought it was a fantastic thing to get for County Limerick. However, it is a freight line that is…

I completely agree that having a freight line is very important. I go over and back to Foynes quite often. I would have a lot to do with Foynes and I understand how important it is to have that freight line for the moving of goods. My query is more around the fact that €5 million is being put in. It seems like it is opportunistic for the Ryder Cup. I am all for the business and tourism that will come from the Ryder Cup but I would like to see a guarantee that this will turn into a passenger line. Whether it is from…

It is going to be fantastic.

I will start on a good note by congratulating Senator Nicole Ryan on the birth of her baby girl this morning. Mum and baby are doing well. I wanted to give the House this update. She is absolutely over the moon. The youngest Senator was born this morning.

It is an Irish name - Réidín. I am sorry. There are a lot of e's and i's in it so I am not 100% sure. I will brush up on my Irish just to pronounce her daughter's name. In recent months, I have advocated against and given out about the EU's Mercosur deal. Sinn Féin as a whole has been against it for many years. Last night, it was announced that the Commission has an updated list of countries from which it will accept imports and Brazil is not on that list. It is going against the Mercosur deal that von der Leyen pu…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the opportunity to speak on insurance. I probably come a close second to my colleague, Senator Nelson Murray. We are always bringing up some kind of insurance issue in this House. It is now six years since the Government first introduced an action plan on insurance reform. This was a move that probably would not have taken place if it was not for my colleague, Teachta Pearse Doherty, back in 2019, which kind of forced the hand of the Government to look at…