I thank the Minister for coming to the Seanad today. It is his first time here and it is great to see him. I find him incredibly approachable and ready to listen and engage. Let us have a good conversation on competitiveness today. Ireland is currently experiencing its highest employment levels on record. The number of people employed reached approximately 2.8 million in the first quarter of 2025. This is across all ages. The employment rate for individuals aged 15 to 64 reached 75.3% in the third quarter of 2024, …

Does he win the competition?

Today, we have seen a report from the Injuries Resolution Board that shows motor claims have fallen by a massive 30% since 2019. Motorists must justifiably be a bit fed up with high insurance costs. I will add another point that I raised two weeks ago, namely, that a Central Bank report showed that motor insurance premiums increased by 9% in the first half of last year. I have no doubt that we will see they will have increased for the second half of last year as well. Motor claims have dropped by 30% since 2019 des…

There were 83,000 applicants awaiting a driving test in April, which was the highest number recorded since the pandemic. Navan in County Meath, my hometown, has the longest waiting times of all the test centres in the State, with applicants waiting an estimated 43 weeks. That is, of course, alongside Tallaght, the hometown of my colleague Senator Teresa Costello. Across the border in Cavan, applicants only have to wait for 22 weeks. In April 2024, Navan had a wait time of 16 weeks. In 2025, that wait time has jumpe…

I am here today to talk about women's well-being and sexual health well-being. I am looking for a clinic for County Meath. County Meath has a growing population of about 240,000 people, and we can take it that 120,000 of them are women. Would the Minister of State believe that Meath has only half the number of GPs recommended by the World Health Organization for a county of its size? The county has the lowest number of GPs per head of population in the country at 54 doctors per 100,000 according to recent figures f…

I thank the Minister of State for his response but I knew all of the answers in the response. First, I do not know why the strategy took so long to come to the time where it is nearly launched. I welcome that is to be launched and I hope it identifies that there is a major gap in County Meath. As the Minister of State rightly said himself, maybe some people do not want to be popping into an STI clinic. A women's well-being clinic is definitely what we need. Perhaps people would have to get a bus. That said, young p…

As the Minister of State will know, there is a wonderful organisation called SOSAD, which stands for Save our Sons and Daughters. I raise its case on my own behalf and on behalf of Senator Keogan who has worked with the charity as well. Since 2007, SOSAD Ireland has six full-time offices based in Cavan, Louth, Laois, Meath and Monaghan from which they provide one-to-one and remote counselling, and a 24-7 freefone crisis line. They also work from outreach offices, one of which is based in Navan, County Meath. Since …

The Department of Finance is inviting people to submit their views on the development of a new action plan for insurance reform. In case people do not know, this is very important. This consultation aims to give and gathers feedback from stakeholders to shape the next phase of insurance reform. The Action Plan for Insurance Reform 2020 delivered good progress in stabilising the insurance market, improving competition and addressing key regulatory issues. However, many issues remain. We see it every day when young p…

There are eight now.

Biodiversity is one of the most important and vital issues that we as a global community can tackle to improve our planet for future generations. From the breakdown of our waste to the pollination of the most delicate flower to the production of all our food sources, our biosystem has the final say on the direction our planet will take. Clever design and thought-out plans around our towns can contribute to biodiversity in a positive way, as opposed to placing token flower beds or the odd tree in parking spaces arou…

Yes.

On behalf of my Fine Gael colleagues in the Seanad, I congratulate Pope Leo XIV. This has been a significant moment. We send him our heartfelt congratulations and we wish him well in his role. We hope he uses his voice for peace in an uncertain world. I am sure the Pope will do a lot of good for humanity and kindness. I would like to speak about volunteers who do this every day. Over the last week I have had the pleasure of meeting representatives of Navan Meals on Wheels, the Scurlogstown Haymaking Festival and th…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I hope that he and the Minister, Jim O'Callaghan, hear what I have to say. Yesterday, the Central Bank showed that motor insurance premiums increased by 9% in the first half of last year. No doubt in the next six months we will learn they have risen again. In December 2024, the Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee recommended that awards in personal injury cases be increased across the board by 16.7%. The introduction of the personal injury guidelines three y…

I thank the Minister of State. Some 96% of cases do not even get to court, so we are talking about 4% of all cases. It has been suggested in some quarters that the 2019 legislation provided for the Judicial Council to review the guidelines, that it has now done this and we must accept its recommendation. Why? As the Minister of State mentioned, the Supreme Court made clear in the Delaney case that any changes to awards had to have the ultimate approval of the Oireachtas. For this approval to be meaningful, it has t…

Today's Central Bank report shows that motor insurance premiums increased by 9% in the first half of last year. In fact, since 2022, premiums have risen by approximately €70. That is without the recommendation from the Judicial Council to increase awards by 17%. I will explain to those who might not understand what this is. In Ireland, we have a set of personal injury guidelines that we implemented three and a half years ago. The reason we did this is we were an outlier compared with other countries: our awards wer…

The Minister, Deputy Lawless is very welcome.

I am.

I very much welcome this motion. Coming from a really hard-working family, there was no way I was going to get away with not getting out to work early, combined, of course, with my studies. I worked all through secondary school, taking a break in my leaving cert year, and I then went back out again throughout college. It was not a huge amount of work but it was one or two days, particularly at weekends. This was really helpful for living expenses, as I was away from home, and, of course, for the odd social night ou…

In one of my first speeches in the Seanad, I spoke about community safety. I spoke about the fear people have walking the streets at night time and, in fact, in day time. I spoke of attacks in our local towns and how people constantly live in fear. I used the example of a store owner going to the bank at 3 p.m. who was jumped upon. Community safety was one of the biggest issues I faced on the doors when I was canvassing. It is a known fact that Meath has the lowest number of gardaí per capita compared with any othe…

I thank the Minister for being here. I echo my colleague that the Minister has got off to a fantastic start and we are delighted to have him here in the Chamber. I represent Meath West where there are a huge number of businesses across many of our towns, such as Trim, Navan, Oldcastle, and many of our villages. I am also a business owner in Navan. I am in the leisure hospitality sector, so I have first-hand experience of being in business, all the trials and tribulations that come with that and, unfortunately, meet…