George Lawlor

I commend my colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, on bringing this motion to the floor of the Dáil. One line from his contribution this morning is at the nub of everything, where he said, "Poverty should never determine potential." That is the key component of this motion. What is happening to many families throughout this country is nothing short of unacceptable. Every year, parents brace themselves …

At the outset, I would like to join, as everyone here has, in warmly welcoming to Leinster House Cian and Jordan Adams, the FTB brothers, and also Cian's partner, Helen, who played such a vital and key role in the whole 33 marathons in 33 days. They are most welcome. It was a remarkable fundraising odyssey and their extraordinary determination, resilience and love has inspired people across this c…

I strongly support this motion. For too long, families across this country have lived with a fear that most of us here in this Chamber could scarcely imagine. It is not a fear of what will happen today or tomorrow but a fear of what will happen when they are no longer here. They lie awake at night wondering who will care for their son or daughter, where they will live, whether they will be safe, w…

Last Friday, Rosslare Europort was reaffirmed as a port of national importance. This is an issue I have discussed with the Minister relatively recently and I am looking for some sort of update. The Port of Rosslare has grown exponentially in years since Brexit, yet the former customs post, which can hold and park 93 trucks, lies idle after the Minister's Department spent €14.8 million on it. Can w…

The question relates to the issue of static speed cameras on the national road network and whether divergences between the number of fixed charge notices for speed detections at individual locations are compared and reviewed by officials and An Garda Síochána. The Minister will perhaps be aware of the massive disparity in the number of fines issued at various different cameras. One has issued 30,5…

I thank the Minister. I wholeheartedly agree that these cameras are essential, vital and necessary and play an important role in road safety but we need fairness. We need these cameras to be operated fairly. The Minister cannot tell me there is not a problem when one camera in Glenmore, County Kilkenny is reading speeds for 30,599 fines, another camera read 3,000, some cameras read approximately 1…

I welcome the Minister's comments. I am not campaigning for people who are speeding to have their fines rescinded. There is a problem with the signage, particularly in Glenmore. People who are driving in a 100 km/h zone arrive at an 80 km/h sign and are almost immediately captured by the camera and not given a chance to obey the law. People who were driving below 100 km/h and were captured by this…

Like my colleagues, I would have serious concerns about the timescale with regard to this legislation and, as has been said, the notion that we have a dedicated AI committee and yet the only scrutiny, as such, was done by the enterprise committee. I sit on the enterprise committee. The AI committee has done a tremendous amount of work since its establishment and its members are really invested in …

Amendment No. 5 speaks to the promotion of responsible adoption of AI systems in workplaces and protects the legal rights of employees. A lot of people out there are very fearful of AI and what it will bring to the workplace. The amendment is geared towards the protection of existing employees and ensuring nothing we are doing through the establishment of this office will undermine that. It also c…

The Tánaiste will recall a couple of weeks ago I raised the issue of the Glenmore static camera where 35,099 fines have been issued in 11 months. There are about 80 cameras across the country which are exactly the same. I have the results for the other ones and it makes for interesting reading: Carlow - 15,880; Mayo - 11,476; Cork - 3,369; Donegal - 2,925; Limerick - 1,051; Gorey - 1,150; and Galw…

There is problem.

There were 397 in Galway.

Yes.

Signage.

The issue of mass redundancies in the tech sector is very live at the minute. One of the companies we are speaking about this morning is Covalen. The actions of this company have been far from savoury in terms of the treatment of the employees it is making redundant. It has rejected calls for better severance packages and declined a request to start the process of voluntary rather than compulsory …

The treatment of the Covalen workers has been absolutely toxic. We have workers who have been involved in a company that has made millions as a result of their work, including moderating, as Deputy Boyd Barrett alluded to, yet this company is treating its workers with such disregard by offering two weeks statutory pay and saying they are getting bonuses as a goodwill gesture. They have already ear…

We in the Labour Party welcome the intent of this Bill. We are far from the first to say it, as the Minister of State knows, but the emergence of artificial intelligence could be the most significant societal and economic change we will see in our lifetimes. AI is already reshaping how decisions are made that affect people's lives - decisions about credit, employment, healthcare and policing. It i…

Listening to the Minister's comments about the arrears issue, I noted he turned it into a maths equation. I cannot believe how disconnected he is from the reality on the ground. If he needs another reminder, we had fuel protests some time ago. The entire nation was convulsed. Even the former Minister of State Deputy Michael Healy-Rae was so convulsed by it that he stood up and said he had no confi…

39. Deputy George Lawlor asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the revised national digital and AI strategy. [45469/26]

Despite it being early days in the digital and AI strategy, do we have any feedback on how the Observatory for Business AI Readiness, OBAIR, is performing in actively assisting regional businesses to adopt AI? What are the tools it is using to immerse itself in the businesses in regional parts of the country?

This is an important Bill that deals with the most serious of questions, namely, how we keep our citizens and citizens of neighbouring states safe and how we co-operate with our European neighbours to ensure the rights of our citizens are protected. The Minister has publicly stated that the Bill is an important step in demonstrating Ireland's commitment to implementing the EU's e-evidence package …

For a number of years, I have been working with St. Joseph's Gaelic football club in Wexford on the development of a fabulous new facility in the heart of Wexford town on Whiterock Hill. The club is just about to put the final touches to it. It has received assistance over the years, of course, but in the final touches, it has received an offer from Uisce Éireann to connect to water and sewerage s…

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the Chamber on this hugely important yet too often underestimated pillar of our national economy. Tourism is not and should not be a luxury add-on to our economic strategy, nor a seasonal afterthought. It is an extremely important component of our national economy, one that sustains many of our rural communities. It supports small businesses, preserves our cul…

-----but it is a wonderful tourism addition and could be an embassy for our tourism industry. We also need to look to exploit, in a sustainable way, what is available on our doorstep, for example, our seas and rivers. It is estimated that between 8 million and ten million people participate in sea angling across Europe every year, generating an economic impact of between €8 billion and €10 billio…

As we all know, there are moments in the life of a nation when hesitation becomes moral failure. This evening, Ireland stands at such a moment. The occupied territories Bill is not simply another Bill. It is a test of our values and courage and our willingness to act when international law is being trampled upon and human dignity is being denied. As we all know, for decades, the world has watched …