Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Will the Deputy Leader facilitate a debate with the Minister for Finance on the decision of the Central Bank to ease mortgage-lending limits and thereby allow first-time buyers to borrow up to four times their income? It is an important decision by the Central Bank which I am sure we all consider welcome, but it raises a fundamental question as to its import and what it means in order that we will not go back to the days of old. I hope we can have that debate as a matter of urgency.

I join Senator Boyhan in asking that the Minister of State with responsibility for forestry at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine come to the House for a debate on the new national forestry programme. I appreciate the work being done by her to date but I come from a county where forestry is very important. We have three major sawmills in Cork and a huge industry is associated with forestry. It is underappreciated in terms of its influence and importance in the local economy. Senator Boyhan is correct in that we had a good briefing earlier on the economics of afforestation and forestry management in Ireland. I met a group from Arbor Forest Management, for example, which employs 20 people in Cork. There is a need for the new forestry programme, which is to expire this year, to be recommenced. A lot of schemes are ongoing but this one is about to end and, as Senators who are far more au faitwith agricultural matters will attest, farming is driven by schemes. I hope the Minister of State will come to the House as a matter of urgency to discuss the important matter of forestry and the new forestry scheme, which has a lot of jobs associated with it. Moreover, farmers are making decisions for next year and this will have an influence on that.

Could we have a debate on the State Examinations Commission and on what I think is a very poor timeline for the junior certificate results? It is unacceptable and I say that as a former teacher who understands what has happened with Covid and the timeline for the leaving certificate. It will now be November before the junior certificate results are released, which is far too late. It is not acceptable. It is not necessarily the fault of the Department of Education or the Minister but there needs to be a re-evaluation of how we can give certainty to students who are anxiously waiting to choose subjects that will have an import on their future careers, whether to go to college or take up an apprenticeship.

I ask for these debates as a matter of urgency.