Micheál Carrigy

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…

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…

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…

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 seri…

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 raisin…

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 environmen…

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 futu…

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.

It was at the very end of the Deputy's comments. I am not going to repeat it. I just ask that she would not make such comments in this House.

No, not in this House. It was unparliamentary language to use in this House and it was directed personally towards a Member of this House.

No, it was directed towards the Minister. It is unparliamentary to make that comment. The Labour Party has 12 minutes. Deputy Smith will be followed by Deputies Lawlor, Wall and Sheehan.

The Independent Technical Group has 12 minutes. Deputy Collins has three and a half minutes; Deputy O'Donoghue has three minutes; Deputy Tóibín has three and a half minutes; and Deputy Gogarty has two minutes.

Deputy, please.

I ask Deputy O'Donoghue to be very careful when making comments in the House. I do not think the comments he made were correct.