Longford has untapped potential in terms of tourism. A number of projects have been developed to address this. I have been a director of Longford Tourism for the past 14 years. We have established our tourism network and a new strategy website aimed at increasing the awareness of what our county has to offer. Its rich and often untold story forms a backbone of this vision. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy 'Boxer' Moran, who was here earlier, for his support over the years with the formation of the Hidden Heart…

I acknowledge Jordan and Cian for coming here for the statements. Helen is here also, along with Jordan's wife Agnes and their dad who has been such a major part of the journey so far. Deputy Sherlock said they are an inspiration. They have been an inspiration to us in Ireland, in bringing the area of dementia to the floor of our national Parliament. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for making sure these statements happened prior to the summer recess. When I…

These incentives that are being put in place are about activating the development of the 30,000 to 40,000 apartment planning permissions that have not been developed. In the housing committee, of which I am Chair, we recently had some of the largest developers in the country before us. "Developers" and "investors" are not bad words. We need them or we would never build. We would never get building the houses and apartments that we need if we did not get the investment either. What is being put in place by the peopl…

I want to raise a query on behalf of a constituent about sarcoidosis, a disease that affects the lungs, heart and nervous system. We have one of the highest rates of it in the world in Ireland, even higher than cystic fibrosis, but it is not very well known. It is not on the long-term illness list. Not everybody suffers from it long term, but some do. There are extremely high costs associated with it for those who will have it for the rest of their lives. I would ask that the system and the long-term illness specif…

Seanad Éireann has passed the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2025, without amendment.

Amendments Nos. 1, 13 to 16, inclusive, and 20 are related and may be discussed together. Amendment No. 16 is a physical alternative to amendment No. 15.

The first meeting of the board of trustees of the new family resource centre in Longford takes place next Monday. I put on record my thanks to Veronica Brennan, the chair, and the rest of my fellow members of the steering committee who worked on this project for the last couple of years. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use recently published its final report containing a wide-ranging series of recommendations on how Ireland should respond to drug use and addiction recovery, including proposals on decriminal…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. While some conditions are more widely known than others, both common and rare diseases have far-reaching impacts across our society. In recent times, awareness and advocacy campaigns have brought these issues to the forefront of public and political discourse. We have seen this through initiatives such as the FTD brothers' campaign raising awareness of dementia and through the courageous efforts of families affected by Friedreich's ataxia who have spoken p…

The next slot is for the Independent and Parties Technical Group but there are no Members from that group present. Therefore, we will move on to the Independent Technical Group, with Deputy Gogarty up first.

I also congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh, and I wish her well in her new role.

I welcome the Bill. As Chair of the housing committee, I am disappointed that some of the cross-party recommendations that were put forward by the committee have not been included in the Bill. The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026, which came in on 1 March of this year and which I supported, is about giving certainty to tenancies but it is also about creating an environment where we will see further investment in the market to try to unlock all those tens of thousands of planning permissions…

The Minister is very welcome. As he probably knows, I have been the chairperson of Longford Tourism for 12 or 13 years. When I started, County Longford probably had the lowest visitor figures in the country. We grasped that negative and we worked with the local authority and stakeholders to build the tourism product in our county. Last Christmas, we launched a new tourism network to drive the future of tourism in Longford. Our statement at the launch noted the following: Longford’s rich and often untold story forms…

I thank the Deputies. I call on the Minister of State to move the Government's amendment to the motion. He has ten minutes.

Yes, copies are available now.

I ask the Deputy to please let the Minister of State speak.

The Deputies are on the speaking rota. They will get an opportunity to speak. I ask them to let the Minister of State speak.

Deputies will have ample time to make their contributions on the speaking rota. I ask them to let the Minister of State finish what he is saying.

Sinn Féin has ten minutes. Deputies Ward, McGettigan, Ní Raghallaigh agus Newsome Drennan have two and a half minutes each.

Next we have the Social Democrats speaking slot. Deputy Gibney and Deputy Gannon are sharing time.

Just before I move on, I want to point out to Members that Deputy Gibney's comment at the end directed towards the Minister of State was unparliamentary.