Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom comhbhrón ó chroí a dhéanamh ar bhás Paddy Moloney, comhbhunaitheoir an bhanna ceoil The Chieftains. Ba laoch mór ceoil agus cultúir na hÉireann é atá imithe anois ar shlí na fírinne agus go ndéana Dia trócaire air.

I thank the Leader for outlining the Order of Business. As other colleagues stated, we will have an opportunity to outline our views and perspectives on the budget in the allocated time this afternoon. For now, I want to raise a number of issues. I welcome the announcement by the EU that it will provide free rail travel passes to 60,000 18- to 20-year-olds across the Union . As they say in Irish, bíonn siúlach scéalach. This is a fantastic opportunity for young people to broaden their horizons, and it is particularly good when it is free. I am sure that the initiative will be welcomed across the board. I will make my own inquiries in this regard, but I suggest that it would be useful to find out if people across the Thirty-two Counties will be able to apply for the passes allocated to this State. It is important that people aged 18 to 20 in the North will not be not excluded from this very welcome and exciting scheme.

Yesterday, the High Court in Belfast found that the refusal by Democratic Unionist Party Ministers of the Executive to attend meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council - a core component of the Good Friday Agreement institutions - is unlawful. That should give us all cause for concern. We should all recommit ourselves to ensuring that we work the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement to the fullest extent. I look forward to attending, along with colleagues from across this House and from across the Oireachtas, to attending the plenary meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly next Monday. The meeting comes at a crucial time for relations between Britain and Ireland. It is also a time of great challenge and difficulty, but we must remember that it is always better to talk.

My colleague, Senator Currie, spoke about remote workers. I again met with representatives from the Cross-Border Workers Coalition this morning. Senator Currie and others have previously mentioned the potential for double taxation in respect of people from this jurisdiction who are employed in the North. We need to ensure that workers can work from home as much and as efficiently as they possibly can. For people who live in Letterkenny, Milford, Muff, Dundalk or wherever and who work in the North, we must ensure that they are protected and that there is no threat of double taxation coming at them down the line. Is é sin an méid atá le rá agam.