Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Maidin mhaith daoibh. Everyone is welcome to the public session of our meeting. I will read some formal notices. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the place in which Parliament has chosen to sit, namely Leinster House, in order to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where they are not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate from outside the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting.

I propose that the petitions we consider at this meeting and previous meetings will be published and that any replies from Departments and other bodies will also be published. Is that agreed? Agreed. Before we get to the consideration of the seven petitions before us, I remind the meeting that we have had correspondence on the issue of pet theft. We have had correspondence from the Department of agriculture and from the Department of Justice. On the basis of that correspondence, that this is not a matter for the Department of agriculture, I propose that we schedule a meeting at the earliest opportunity with the Minister for justice and-or his officials to consider further the issue of pet theft. We had a very detailed discussion on it here and we could benefit from having a further discussion, particularly with the Minister and his officials. Is that agreed? Agreed.

We have seven petitions before us this morning. The first, No. P00081-25, is entitled "Equal parenting time/shared parenting to become the default in Irish family law". We have correspondence from the Department of justice. Because this is a function of the courts, the Department has outlined in detail that it does not have role in this matter and that it is entirely in the purview of the courts. Therefore, we cannot progress this petition. I propose we close this petition. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00086-25 is entitled "Declare one-off national holidays for World Cup qualification play-offs". While it is a very nice idea, it is somewhat redundant. Perhaps it is something that we will need into the future but on the basis of the current state of play, we are not in a position to progress this petition this morning. I know I speak on behalf of the committee, and possibly the island, when I say we all generally agree it would be a very good idea, even if we do not necessarily need it this time. Beidh lá eile againn. Perhaps we will get a chance to discuss that at another date. On the basis of events having overtaken the petition, I propose we close it as we cannot progress it. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00091-25, in relation to Irish airspace safety concerns, is from Mr. Christopher Gaffney.

We can see there has been some exchange of correspondence with the Minister. We have a response from the Department of Transport. Our proposal is that we will publish that response and send it to the petitioner, who is with us this morning, for his response to come back to us within a fortnight. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00092-25 is entitled "Reform visa rules for parents of Irish citizens". We have had an exchange of correspondence. We have written to the Department of justice and we have a response. The proposal is that we will forward the response to the petitioner and seek their comments to be returned to us within 14 days. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00093-25 is, to my mind, a very interesting one on a topic that is very current. It proposes a ban on student and teacher use of AI and AI chatbots in educational environments. We have a response from the Department of Education and Youth. The proposal is that we will forward that response to the petitioner, publish it on our website and ask the petitioner to respond to us within two weeks.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Can we forward this to the artificial intelligence committee for its response? That committee might have a lot of work done on this issue.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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That is a very good point because we have a very active artificial intelligence committee. If the committee agrees, we will forward the petition to that committee for its information and to see if it has any input or anything it would like to add. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Chair.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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No. P00094-25 is entitled "Only allow cars with more than one occupant on the N11 during rush hour". We have had correspondence from the Department of Transport. It is proposed that the correspondence will be forwarded to the petitioner for their comment within two weeks. I think we all agree there is definitely an issue with congestion and not just on the N11, although this petition is specifically related to N11. The proposal is that we will publish the response and forward it to the petitioner for their comment within two weeks. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Aubrey McCarthy (Independent)
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I often sit in traffic on the N7. It is in gridlock. I am also involved in a charity with a base in Greystones and the N11 is also in total gridlock. Something has to be done, but I do not know if a petition on just one particular road is helpful here. This has been tried in other jurisdictions and it has not always worked, and there have been complications.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Yes. I think we agree this is not an easy matter to resolve. Notwithstanding that, Mr. O'Dea makes a good point about the frustration of motorists who might have three or four people in their car. They look at the next car and the cars after that and see they all have just one person in them. We know very well there are reasons people have no choice but to take their car in some instances. We will await the response from the petitioner and see what he says in regard to their petition.

Our last petition, No. P00095-25, relates to the regularisation of asylum seekers who have worked and paid taxes for three years or more. We have had a response from the Department of justice. The proposal is that we will forward that to the petitioner, get comments from the petitioner and publish it on our website. Is that agreed? Agreed.

That concludes our consideration of public petitions for this morning. I invite members of the public to submit petitions via our online portal, which is available at petitions.oireachtas.ie. A petition may be addressed to the Houses of the Oireachtas on a matter of general public concern or interest or an issue of public policy. As members have no further issues to raise, I propose that the committee adjourn until 6 p.m. on Tuesday, 19 May, when we will meet in private and public session.