I will be very brief. Abortion is healthcare and people are accessing healthcare facilities. People can pray wherever they want. This is not about prayer. This is simply about intimidation. It is about a chill effect. It is part of the tactics they always use. Do not buy into this thing that there is an overreach in terms of people's right to pray. There is a very particular reason people are trying to pray outside healthcare clinics and it is to intimidate women who are accessing the healthcare that is available. …

I was not going to come back in but I want to take issue with something Senator Mullen said; that other Members do not care about this issue as much he and Senator Keogan do. We are not going away when it comes to this. We will continue to fight for free, legal, safe and local abortion. The Senator might think he can run down the clock and put a chilling effect on Members in this Chamber, activists outside or healthcare providers but he cannot do so. We are passionate about allowing women access to basic healthcare…

Is it possible to get a copy of the Minister of State's speech circulated? There seem to be a specific number of amendments coming in and, as Senator Warfield says, they have not been addressed. We do not want to see a situation - although this would not be overly problematic - like when the whole forestry section was dropped into the fur farming Bill two weeks ago. It is not a good way to do legislation and it would be good for us to have a chance to look at that. We will work with the Minister of State on this bu…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I welcome this debate and, in particular, the important move on behalf of the State to move towards carbon budgets. While it is important that the budgets are agreed by the Houses for the next two years, I do see competition coming down the line from various Departments that may seek to offset their carbon emissions by using carbon budgets. I do not want that to happen. Offsetting is greenwashing. Collective and sustained action is what is needed. It would be p…

I wish to raise the issue of reports in newspapers this morning on housing Ukrainian refugees in tents and prefabs. While I understand that there needs to be a short-term response I also believe we need to have a long-term housing strategy for the numbers of refugees that we will be taking from Ukraine. Some figures suggest up to 200,000. The figure is probably going to be lower than that but there needs to be a long-term strategy. We know from history that even when people think they are going to go back within a …

I thank the Green Party for giving me the time to speak now because I must leave the Chamber afterwards. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House, and as Senator Davitt mentioned, he probably spends as much time in the Chamber as many Senators. The Minister of State is probably the most responsive person in the Department to us, as he is with this important Bill. Over the years we have heard of scandal after scandal affecting the building sector in this country, including mica, pyrite and fire control …

I support the amendment. Having a Bill that is about one thing and then including an important area around forestry at the last minute is not a good way to do business. The Environmental Pillar has been in touch with all Senators about this. I do not think anybody is doubting the bona fides of the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. However, when we are drafting legislation, are we doing so for whatever Minister can come in and for whatever eventuality arises? The Environmental Pillar has major concerns about unlic…

It is difficult, when we are seeing the images coming from Ukraine, to come into this House and speak about anything else, quite frankly. It is dominating everyone's thoughts and the news agenda. It is horrific and it is worth reiterating that point. I want to talk about the calls from my party colleague, Deputy Bacik, on behalf of those people who are fleeing Ukraine and travelling to its borders. The Irish Government must put pressure on our EU counterparts to accept various forms of ID at borders. Some of the pe…

I welcome the people in the Gallery. I also commend the Civil Engagement Group which, as always, has put forward a well-thought out, policy-driven motion and a Private Members' Bill. I will focus on one specific aspect and type of housing, which is renting. That is where there is huge insecurity and precariousness. Just as we came into this Chamber, the Parliamentary Budget Office put out a report on housing. It states that: The reliance of the State on meeting housing needs through current funded supports to priva…

The images from Ukraine are quite shocking. I never thought we would be in a position where one neighbour would invade another's territorial borders in a modern Europe in 2022 in the way we have seen happen in Ukraine. As I said on the Order of Business the other day, there is a view that it appears to be the greatest act of aggression since the Second World War; it is not. It is worth remembering that in the 1990s we saw the breakdown of Yugoslavia and 100,000 of our fellow European citizens and other people on th…

As are my colleagues I am quite frankly stunned by the actions of a brutal dictator and imperialist, Vladimir Putin, in Ukraine. This very much fits in with the regressive foreign policy Russia has adopted over recent years. For example, supporting the brutal dictator Assad in Syria. I hear a lot of people speaking about the biggest war on our doorstop since the Second World War. It is also important to remember Russia's role in the Balkans. It is not 30 years since we had a brutal civil war in the Balkans. It is o…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Like Senator Currie, I very much support the idea of deliberative democracy. We have inherited an old parliamentary system from the British, which we have not changed in any way shape or form. Having had the marriage equality and repeal of the eighth amendment assemblies, we know there is a value in citizens' assemblies taking those very complex issues and deliberating on them with heart and rigour, and coming up with solutions that had otherwise befuddled political com…

I welcome the families here this evening. I wish to pay tribute to Senator Boylan, who I have watched over the years, as a former MEP and now as a Senator, working with the Stardust families and advocating for them on both national and European levels. Her commitment to this cause cannot be questioned. It goes without saying that the fact the families have been left without answers and forced to continue to fight for justice for this length of time is one of the great shames in our country. While the Government is …

I wish to come in on amendment No. 2. I had expected to hear the bells go off but I did not. Hence, I am a little late. These amendments are related. They are specifically around ensuring that people who are paying the electricity bill, particularly those who are in rented accommodation, are the ones that will benefit from this measure. I understand that it is an emergency measure. I take the Minister’s points about universality being important. However, universality also needs to apply to people who are not necess…

I want to start by expressing solidarity with Poland on the death of Agnieszka due to Poland's restrictive abortion laws. That happened in January and follows the death of a woman known as Izabela in December. As many people would know, the supreme court in Poland rowed back on its abortion laws, as have states such as Texas. I want to raise the issue of the abortion review that is ongoing here. I am quite concerned that it is being set up to not address the wider issues which need to be addressed such as rogue pre…

I welcome the Minister. I always think that debates like this are among the best examples of the Upper House in how passionate people get about passport administration. I thank the Fine Gael Senators for bringing this motion and I commend all the staff in the Passport Office, and across the public service, for their hard work in delivering a timely and efficient service during the pandemic. We all focus on stories where there have been problems and issues, and there have been more problems and issues due to Brexit …

I wish to share time with Senator Wall.

I thank the Minister of State for coming in today. Senator Buttimer was entirely correct when he talked about the significant project the roll-out of broadband will be. The Senator compares it to rural electrification. I would like to compare it to another big project, namely, the late Minister, Donogh O'Malley, making available secondary school education to children, in terms of the potential impact the roll-out of broadband could have. The angle I want to come at it from is the importance of the roll-out of broad…

Like others, I wish to express my sympathies on the murder of Ashling Murphy. For many women, it is difficult to open a newspaper or watch television any day and not see an act of violence against them. We rationalise those things to psychologically protect ourselves. Every once in a while, a murder happens and it strikes a chord with everybody. We ask how we can possibly protect ourselves. Ashling Murphy was going for a run in the daylight at 4 p.m. in her home town, in what seemed like a safe space. When somethin…

I pay tribute to Senator Warfield. It is often not easy to call something like that out but he is a credit to the community that brought him up and rather than pulling up the ladder behind him, he is leading the way on supporting young LGBT men, women and non-binary people coming up. It is a bit embarrassing to follow it up because I will be following up with the technical and local issue of DART+ and BusConnects, which are vital public transport projects we will see rolled out in the coming years. DART+ and the ex…