Thomas Byrne

That is not my group.

I will say that I am not an EPP member.

As a point of clarity I am in Renew Europe, and I am proud to be part of Renew Europe. At the outset I return briefly to first principles and set out the reasons behind this legislation. The Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2025 seeks to put Ireland, which is a country that greatly benefits from international trade, in a position where it can decide to ratify the range of EU trade and investment agre…

It is not the same. It is a different system and people keep quoting the previous system, which the Canada trade agreement has actually worked to improve and to make it more transparent. That is important. Irish companies need access to effective international remedies abroad and companies investing in Ireland want similar reassurance. The Irish Government is working to make the economy more compe…

I do believe.

Deputies have raised a number of cases, none involving Ireland. In fact, there was a letter in the newspaper today which criticised me for describing these cases as relatively rare and then it went on to give the reason in the same letter why we have relatively low numbers of cases involving Ireland. We have very few. The cases that have been talked about are not related to CETA. Even the example …

Exactly. That is my point.

That is my point. These examples have been given as if they are directly related to the ratification of CETA or the passage of this legislation. The cases the Deputies mentioned have not been decided under the investor court system. They have been decided under the old, long-standing system of investor state dispute settlement, ISDS. I have already outlined the difficulties with that. We felt ther…

I had nothing to do with the scheduling of the debate on football. I presume that is a matter for the Business Committee. As Deputies are aware, the Costello judgment prevented Ireland's ratification of CETA and other mixed EU trade agreements containing similar investment provisions. The Supreme Court in the Costello case not only identified constitutional concerns that prevented the ratification…

I will answer.

To be clear, as one Deputy said, there is an element of repetition. That is what happened on Committee Stage when there was no time limit whatsoever and yet, quite frankly, the debate ran out of steam. This is a Bill that is not even two pages long in total. It is a very short piece of legislation. It is a very net point. We have not seen much debate on the individual amendments tonight to get thr…

Sé sheachtain ó shin, dhúisigh muid go léir san Eoraip agus trasna an domhain le radharc nua is drámata de bhuamaí agus cogadh sa Mheánoirthear. Dá bharr seo, tá taithí ag gach tír san Eoraip le méadú ar phraghas an ola mar aon le ganntanas. Baineann sé seo le gach duine. Tá sé seo ag tarlú na mílte míle ón tír seo, ach tá éifeacht láidir aige ar phobal, ar ghnóthaí agus ar theaghlaigh na hÉireann…

I met my Polish counterpart, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Mr. Ignacy Niemczycki, in Warsaw on 13 March. This was the first of many engagements I had during my three-day St. Patrick's Day programme in Poland, which was followed with a visit to Ukraine and then to Moldova. The Secretary of State, Mr. Niemczycki, and I discussed the excellent bilateral relations between our two countr…

What the Polish people have done in supporting refugees from Ukraine, as well as giving military support, has been extraordinary. At the start of the war people arrived off trains or off transport and were met on the platforms by Polish residents and brought to their homes. We can account for millions of people who have benefited from that. There is a strong desire in Poland to see Ukraine accede …

Belarus is an issue of considerable concern to the Polish Government. The Deputy is right. It is a major security concern for them. I think pretty much all of the major figures in the Belarusian opposition are based in Warsaw at the invitation of the Polish Government, so there is a strong link between them. At all levels of government, be it with Prime Minister Tusk, the Taoiseach, Deputy Prime M…

You never mentioned the Irish citizens.

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta as ucht an t-ábhar seo. Increasing the provision of disability specialist residential services is a key Government priority and there has been significant investment in residential services over the course of the last number of years. The overall budget increase in recent years, from €1.7 billion at the close of 2017 to almost to €3.8 billion in 2…

I will gladly ask the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, who cannot be here, to send that exact information to all the Deputies and representatives in Fingal. That is a reasonable request but I just do not have it to hand.

Once again, I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue, which is a priority for the Government. The Government recognises that there is more to do to improve the lived experience of those with a disability. The increase in the disability budget for 2026 further demonstrates the multiple commitments made in the programme for Government commitment to improving the lives of people with disab…

I will take this question on behalf of the Minister. I reassure the Deputy that the regeneration of the Naval Service is one of the key priorities for the Minister and the Department. To that end, the Minister has had detailed discussions with the Chief of Staff on the need for a regeneration report on the Naval Service. The Defence Forces are working to have this report completed in the coming we…

The Deputy asked specifically about the LÉ Gobnait. That ship is scheduled to enter service in the third quarter of this year. We acknowledge that it would have been preferable to have it in service much sooner. It is the case, however, that the readiness and capability of and the activities carried out by the Naval Service have increased substantially over the past year. Work in that regard is go…

Thankfully, there was no more serious damage. The damage was minor in nature. The Naval Service remains satisfied that Carlisle Pier meets its needs. It has pointed out that the berth has recently been refitted with a modern fendering system, which should add to our ships' ability to withstand damaging impacts. In relation to the potential use of Carlisle Pier as the new forward operating base, t…

I will answer this one on behalf of the Minister. As the Minister has already set out, the defence (amendment) Bill is included in the Government legislative programme for priority publication. There are also some other amendments to the Defence Acts in the legislation. What the triple lock legislation or the defence (amendment) Bill will do is remove the requirement for the UN Security Council ma…

We want to make sure our Defence Forces can, first of all, engage in their primary function, which is the protection of the security of the State and, when called upon, to go abroad to serve as peacekeepers, as they have honourably done. Removing the triple lock will not change this in any way. There are many neutral countries and I do not think any of them have as restrictive a law as we do. I ag…

The reason we have a constitutional amendment is if we want to change the Constitution. We are not changing the Constitution, it is simply changing legislation. What was agreed at Lisbon is still in the Constitution by virtue of the protocol to the Lisbon treaty. This does not affect it in any way. I am quite sure that whatever referendum the Government would put forward on Europe or defence, Sinn…