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fishing industry is not just an economic sector, but a backbone of many coastal communities. In 2026, those communities are facing an extraordinary challenge - a 70% reduction in mackerel, a 41% reduction in blue whiting and a 22% reduction in boarfish. These cuts are based on advice from … difficult. That is why these supports need to focus not only on survival, but on maintaining strategic capacity in our industry. We have to remain committed to exploring incentives to encourage landing in Irish ports, examining taxation supports for the sector, supporting diversification in coastal economies, strengthening agriculture

those areas. That is something we need to look at, but that stakeholder group will be convening next month to explore the proposals from the insurance industry in relation to flood insurance into the future

policy. We are continuing to deal with AI in the State. We will be moving on soon to explore issues like AI and justice, AI and the creative industries, which I know the Minister of State is very passionate about, AI and energy and AI and education … long term. AI is having a profound impact. I am really grateful to colleagues. We are committed to continuing to work together to explore all of those issues and to working closely with the Minister of State and the Government to deliver the best for our citizens

market. I have been in London meeting insurance companies to explore the possibility of seeing what level of appetite they might have in this regard. I have also met the representative body in relation to the thatched industry. I am happy to engage with the Deputy further … with a representative of the insurance industry who sits on its flooding task force. I expect a proposal to come from the task force within a number of weeks. It might be in a month or so. The Government will explore that proposal and look at what support

insurance industry. Will he confirm whether his Department's engagements with the insurance industry have included discussions about the role insurers could play in preventing future flooding? In particular, has he explored the possibility of insurance companies contributing in some way to resilience measures such as funding local

concerns raised, the Government has agreed to provide further improvements to these services. These include strengthened access to health services for survivors of industrial and reformatory schools through the appointment of dedicated health liaison officers and better access to counselling and physiotherapy services. Work is already under … State pension for this group of survivors. I discussed this with survivors, and we recognised the complexity of the issue. We agreed to explore ways to address this issue that would be more flexible and easier to access. On foot of this, the Government has approved the expansion

priority actions. Of those priority actions, transparency in the insurance sector is a key priority, with a transparency code for the insurance industry well advanced and to be published in the coming weeks. The code will require insurers to provide simple, understandable explanations of how premiums are formed … insurance market to enhance competition. Meetings have taken place with insurers to address capacity issues. The office has established a speciality forum to explore the speciality insurance sector and examine how Ireland can be effectively positioned and promoted as a leading jurisdiction for speciality insurance business. My Department

goal of the Al strategy is to equip all our people, young and old, with the skills required to manage these potential disruptions. Exploring how Al might reshape our labour market, impact the future prospects of our young people and the skills we need to equip our workers … innovate and scale. The good news is that we have introduced bold measures in the past that have attracted cutting-edge, high-value industries to Ireland. Changes to our corporation tax system, as well as initiatives to educate our population, led to technology and pharmaceutical companies locating

have committed to engaging with colleagues across Government to assess what framework of supports may be available to the seafood sector and to explore options within the constraints of both EU and national Exchequer funding and the relevant EU and national legislation, taking particular account of the constraints … also tasked with developing a framework of measures to respond to these challenges. The Food Vision seafood sector group's membership includes industry representatives and relevant Departments and State agencies. Our aim is to draw on the collective experience and expertise of industry stakeholders to identify practical supports

they are here because they care about the various communities they represent which, some greater than others, have a stake in the fishing industry. There are other counties that do not. We even had Deputy Maxwell who is from an inland county but has an interest … wheel. Historically, there are countries with relatively small amounts of coastline who are mariners at heart and had been commercially fishing. They were explorers back

response, including the option of triggering the unsustainable fishing regulation. Commissioner Kadis advised us at the December Council that measures would be explored by which action can be taken against third countries whose actions have caused such substantial damage to this shared natural resource. I reiterate that … fishing fleets, the processing sector and coastal communities. As the Minister outlined, we saw this right from the start when the fishing industry, the Minister, I and others met with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste back in December. We knew where the scientific advice was going. The Minister