I am strongly in support of any individual who wants to come to Ireland, make a home here, work and contribute to our society. I count many such among my friends in my community. People who have come from Europe and beyond have found a home in my home town of Gorey, which is a wonderful place to live. They have made a life here. When they want to become a citizen, they are quite keen to contribute. They want to make sure they can go out and vote. They get involved in local community organisations. We need to recogn…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to prohibit the making available of certain artificial intelligence companion services to children, to provide for age-assurance measures and to confer functions on Coimisiún na Meán; to amend the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022; and to provide for related matters. This should be the best and safest country in the world in which to grow up. That principle should apply to all we do. Colleagues here will know I am an evangelist for technolo…

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

I welcome the closer relationship between Ireland and the European Union on one side and Canada on the other side. I ask the Taoiseach to outline to the House how he envisages the proposal of associate membership of the European Union for Canada operating. Will he outline when he expects full Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, ratification to proceed here in Ireland? In practical terms, does he see the possibility, either through Erasmus+ or Horizon Europe, of increased opportunities for educational …

I am grateful to the Minister of State for taking this issue on behalf of the Department of Health. It concerns the digitisation of health records. The current situation, which has existed for quite a long time, is not acceptable. We do not have link-ups between GPs and hospitals in terms of health records; we do not even have links between hospitals. If one health venue or health centre has to get the records for a patient from another, it often requires a clinical practitioner - a doctor or nurse - to physically …

I thank the Minister of State. I totally agree with him. The ambition is to follow wherever the patient receives care. We have to ensure that by 2032, whether you are in a GP surgery, a hospital, a community care setting or a nursing home, the medical records are easily accessible. I am concerned that we are talking about six years; it should be done more quickly. The timeframe has continued to be pushed out. In an era of modern technology, we should not be waiting that long, particularly given many countries, incl…

Once again I am raising the question of the continually poor service on the Dublin to Rosslare rail line. In terms of Topical Issues, Commencement Matters and parliamentary questions over the last six or seven years, I do not know how many times I have raised this issue. I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, is taking this on behalf of the Department of Transport. The rail line between Westland Row, which is now Pearse Street, and Dún Laoghaire is the oldest railway line in Ireland. In fact, it wa…

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I appreciate that he is taking the matter on behalf of the Minister but there is not an awful lot that is new in what he said. Essentially, the response with regard to new carriages is that when we put new carriages on some of the other lines, the hand-me-downs may be passed on to the Rosslare rail line. In the response, there are no plans for improvement with regard to the N11. There are already serious difficulties with traffic jams on the N11. In fact, people will rec…

I very much welcome the Government's intention to proceed with a youth culture card, as committed to in our manifesto and in the programme for Government. This will help to build youth audiences for the arts. I would be grateful if the Minister could outline the timeframe for the introduction of the youth culture card and when applications will open for the proposed arts capital programme.

I share the Minister's ambition that this should be the best country in the world in which to be a child. That should apply to every child and they should be able to access whatever services are needed as quickly as possible. I disagree with some of the arguments being put forward about a Government effort to massage figures. If we look at the figures, which are widely available, the scale of need has grown. When the current model for assessment of need applications first opened in 2008, there were 2,535 applicatio…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Public Health (Tobacco) Acts 2002 to 2024 to prohibit the sale and supply of tobacco products, nicotine products and nicotine inhalation products to persons born on or after 1 January 2009; to provide for related offences, enforcement and penalties; and to provide for related matters. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this. The purpose of this Bill is to amend the Public Health (Tobacco) Acts 2002 to 2024 to introduce smoke-f…

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

I welcome this debate. As I indicated during the discussions on Irish unity last week, we should always be open to discussing any possibilities for new constitutional arrangements or co-operation on this island or between these islands. At all stages, it is critical that the discussion be evidence based, fully transparent and honest. It cannot just be a discussion purely about the economy. It has to be about society more generally. As the Tánaiste indicated at the start, what is important at all times during our di…

As we are moving towards the recess, I thank the Ceann Comhairle, and indeed, the officials in her office and all of the staff across the House for all of their work during the year that has made this place run so smoothly. I wish to raise the question of Bunclody Community College. I have had to do it on a number of occasions. This is an excellent and very inclusive school in Bunclody, County Wexford on the Wexford-Carlow border. It has 310 students. It has had a 42% increase in enrolments since 2019. It has an in…

I appreciate the Minister of State is responding on behalf of the Minister but the response provides nothing new. It is almost a carbon copy of the response I received when I raised this issue in January last. We talk about the NDP allocation, and the Department's response refers to "a strong emphasis on provision for children with special educational needs" and those who are disadvantaged. This is a DEIS school with a large Traveller population. The school made clear, including in a meeting with the Minister of St…

The Taoiseach is right that the bilateral relationship between Ireland and Spain is very important, as is our partnership in the EU. Following on from that point, my sister lives in Seville and every summer she travels back. She takes the ferry from Bilbao to Rosslare with my two young nieces. The challenge is because of heat. It is becoming increasingly difficult to live in parts of Spain where temperatures regularly exceed 40°C during the summer months. I fully expect that more tourists will come to Ireland to es…

While we have a very strong economy and, in overall terms, full employment, I am concerned about the fact that youth unemployment has now hit a rate of 10.8%. That is in the region of 37,000 young people. We are also seeing a situation now where graduate unemployment is higher than the national unemployment rate. Some of this is obviously because there is reduced hiring in consumer-facing sectors. There is a concern about ensuring that work pays, but we are living in a time where we are seeing more access to educat…

Given that one of the greatest challenges for Irish farming continues to be the ageing demographic and the low percentage of young people who are involved, will the Minister provide an update on measures to support farm succession and generational renewal?

I welcome the Minister's personal commitment to succession and generational renewal. He is right to say it is not just an Irish issue. He will know about the commission on generational renewal. He has been very strong on its recommendations. Some of them apply to the next round of CAP. The Minister will have to work with his fellow Ministers and with Commissioner Hansen to achieve some of those goals. Others are domestic, however. The Minister is correct about access to land and finance. These are key measures to s…

I welcome that commitment. I certainly agree with the Minister. It is interesting that the European Commission's proposal aims for 24% of farmers to be new or young farmers by 2040. That is very ambitious. With regard to the strategies, we need to ensure that agriculture is sustainable. That is the kind of goal we need. I praise the work of Macra na Feirme. The Minister will be aware of how Macra operates in his own county. From regular engagements with Macra in Wicklow and Wexford, I know it is very active in this…