Yes, I am. I commend Deputy Farrelly on introducing this Bill and on his deep and genuine commitment to young people, engagement in civic life and youth work more generally. I have long supported the reduction of the voting age to 16. In fact, I wrote an opinion piece in August 2007 for The Irish Times and in preparing for this I reread it. The arguments I made then are still as strong 18 years later as they were at the time. Deputy Jen Cummins mentioned she was on the board of NYCI in the noughties and said she fe…

That is not true.

Hear, hear.

We have worrying news from Arklow this morning. The Merck Life Sciences plant, which is located in the town, is scheduled to close in 2028. About 100 employes are impacted. I have been speaking with the company. There will be efforts to redeploy. Until now, Merck has been a very good employer. I know many of the people who are working there. It is critical, and I would like assurances, that every support will be given to those workers. Some will have to redeploy but I refer also to any necessary upskilling and retr…

I echo the remarks of Deputy Eoghan Kenny with regard to trans healthcare and, indeed, condemn outright the appalling personalised attack on the Minister of State for her compassion. I have known the Minister of State for a long time, and she is somebody who wears her heart on her sleeve. It is important to have that within the Department of Health. I will always have her back, as I think will nearly everybody in this House, on how she seeks to ensure that Ireland becomes a fairer society. I would also echo that I …

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to regulate the use of the title "accountant", to establish criteria for recognition, and to provide for offences and penalties for misuse of the title, and to provide for related matters. I am happy to be here today to introduce the Companies (Protection of Title: Accountant) Bill 2025. This Bill is about protecting consumers. At present, anybody can describe himself or herself as an accountant. Indeed in the morning, the Ceann Comhairle and the Gov…

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

I echo the views expressed by the Taoiseach and my colleague Deputy Brennan on the fact that we need to continue to show solidarity with Ukraine and support, in every way possible, the people of Ukraine in their fight on the front line against Russian aggression. Whatever support we can provide while bearing in mind our policy of neutrality, must be provided. On cyber resilience and hybrid warfare, we need to work with our EU partners and Ukraine to combat Russian aggression. I welcome the moves we are making to pr…

Will the Taoiseach comment on the possibility of President Zelenskyy addressing a joint sitting of the Houses?

I can, but I will not be able to do so in the time allowed. I welcome the debate. That the Minister and both Ministers of State from the Department are present speaks to a recognition of the seriousness of the challenge facing the tillage sector. I have raised this issue with the Minister on a number of occasions on the floor of the House and privately. I know he is aware of the challenge. Colleagues have outlined that in great detail. I want to specifically take on remarks by my Sinn Féin constituency colleague, w…

I strongly welcome the Taoiseach's commitment to the implementation of CETA and to the growth of our trade relations with Canada. However, I want to raise EU competitiveness. It is over a year since the publication of the Draghi report yet the European Policy Innovation Council, the Brussels-based think-tank, states that only 11% of the recommendations are on the road to implementation. We are seriously falling behind in Europe in terms of competitiveness. One of the areas is network resilience and our digital infr…

We are seeing an expanding war in Europe now and Russia’s campaign of aggression against Ukraine but also others. We are seeing horrific things. Up to an estimated 20,000 children have now been abducted from Ukraine and taken into Russian territory. We also know about the hybrid and cyberattacks from Russia on member states of the European Union and, indeed, other European countries. We have seen drone attacks and violations of airspace in recent months on Poland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Estonia,…

I praise the very considerable investment in sport that has been made by this and the previous Government and commend the Minister of State and his officials on the co-operation with local sports groups on the sports capital scheme and the LSSIF. In reviewing both the sports capital scheme and the LSSIF, I will make a number of comments. It is essential, as colleagues have said, that where sporting codes are sharing facilities, that will be rewarded. Facilities must have equal access for men and women, for boys and…

I am glad to see the Government has agreed to progress with the private wires Bill and the development of a private wires policy. It is critical to addressing the energy deficit we face that we move as soon as possible. It is also important that we ensure we have the necessary digital infrastructure to support the digital economy, and that includes data centres. I am sure the Taoiseach would agree with me that data centres, as a critical part of the economy, would benefit from the private wires Bill, in particular …

It is not an exaggeration to say that the tillage sector in Ireland is facing an enormous crisis. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Heydon, is very aware of this. As part of the Government's climate action plan, it is intended that we will have 400,000 ha in tillage by 2030. We are not going to achieve that, particularly given that, since 2022, 1,400 farmers have left tillage. Despite a good summer harvest, prices are not there for tillage farmers. We are also facing the challenge of cheap i…

I thank the Minister of State for being here to address the question of a national office on artificial intelligence. It is very much within her brief. I welcome the commitments she has made to open a national office on artificial intelligence, establish an AI observatory in order that we will have evidence-based research on the social and economic impact and potential of and the opportunities presented by AI and host an AI summit during the course of Ireland's EU Presidency in the second half of next year. The Min…

I thank the Minister of State very much. I very much welcome the fact that the general scheme is going to be coming before Government, that we will see legislation in place to underpin this office by next summer and that the office will be in place by August 2026. As the Minister of State knows, resourcing is critical to this. During debate on the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, the Minister of State and I talked about Coimisiún na Meán and ensuring that it was adequately resourced. I am not just talking ab…

I welcome that the Minister of State is here to take this debate. However, why are we having statements on this issue and not a debate on the legislation? During my time in the Seanad when we debated the legislation on the prohibition of sales to under-18s, there was promise at that time that we would move on legislation to deal with the issue of flavoured nicotine-inhaling products and that we would deal with some of the marketing issues, yet it has not happened. I really have to ask the question: why are we havin…

I know the Minister of State is personally invested in improving the school transport system. It should be acknowledged that we have seen a significant increase in the number of school transport places. I want to put on record my thanks to officials in the Department, to people in Bus Éireann and to the bus companies and drivers around the country who carry tens of thousands of children to school every day. The Minister of State will appreciate it is not from those that we are hearing the complaints. The issues com…

Will the Minister of State provide an update on the private wires policy?