I welcome the opening statements by the Taoiseach and Ministers which recognise the threats faced by businesses and people at a global and national level. President Trump's "liberation day" did not come as a surprise to anybody. As the Minister for Finance outlined, deglobalisation has been under way for some time. One did not have to be a financial wizard to realise that the tariffs were simply not good news. Thanks to its strategic location, skilled labour force and cross-border connections and links, County Lout…

I welcome the news that the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act will be commenced in the coming days. Following that, I welcome the news that the secondary legislation required for these regulations will also be enacted shortly thereafter. These regulations cannot come soon enough. The establishment of the chairs and the committees are sorely needed in counties like Louth. Without going into a history lesson on crime in County Louth, to say that we, as a Border county, have had a unique relationship with cr…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan. It very much reflects my own thoughts regarding these community safety partnerships. As I said at the outset, these cannot come about quickly enough. The partnerships are part of the community and policing coming together to work for the betterment of the community. Towns like Drogheda are now on the cusp of returning to their former glory. The town has always been vibrant and once attracted people from near and far. We need …

I ask the Minister, in respect of the women's health action plan, what are her intentions and what are the plans, particularly when it comes to endometriosis, as it affects nearly 155,000 women in this country.

I thank the Minister for the recognition of this very important issue. As she said, it has wide-ranging effects on women. Some can live with it day to day; others live in chronic pain. We have to highlight as well that many women have to go abroad in order to get some of the surgical treatment, so I welcome the fact that we will focus on this and get the surgical treatments for these women closer to where they live, because every mile they do is a mile in pain for them.

I wish to return to the women's health action plan, in particular when it comes to young women, specifically young women in County Louth. For far too long in decades gone by, women's health in this country was neglected and ignored, partly because women tend to take care of others ahead of themselves and also because men in general and the State in decades gone by have simply ignored women's issues and women's health and have tended not to ask us how we are.

I thank the Minister and welcome those updates. I turn my attention now to women in mid-life and older women in general. I have realised myself since I entered this Chamber and come down those very steep steps that my bones are tending to creak a little bit more than they were two months ago. There are programmes in the plan for bone health. This is a vital issue, especially for women in mid-life and older age. The term "older age" does not sit right with me as I advance towards it perhaps, but I would like to hear…

I also acknowledge the work being done on the cardiovascular health of women. As the Minister pointed out, the symptoms for women are not the same as those that present in men. Very often, we tend to ignore it. Through marketing, communication and just general acknowledgement these symptoms are different, we can definitely change the lives of many women across the country.

I wish the Minister well in his new role. I will raise two issues with him. The first is the issue of rural housing and the second is the port access northern cross route, PANCR, project in Ballymakenny, Drogheda. I live in an area that is viewed in the Louth county development plan as an area of outstanding beauty and I certainly concur with that as Togher is, in my view, one of the most beautiful sites in County Louth. It has open countryside coupled with gorgeous coastline and a blue flag beach and port. There a…

As it is my first time speaking in the Chamber, I ask the Ceann Comhairle to indulge me a moment as I thank the people of Togher, Dunleer, Ardee, Drogheda, Dundalk, Termonfeckin, the peninsula up in the north side of the county, and of course the constituents in east Meath for the faith they have placed in me and their trust that I will represent them to the best of my ability. I would like to reassure them for the time that I am in this Dáil that I will always represent them as true as I possibly can. I will be pr…