Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My apologies. I understand the frustration expressed by Members. It is a privilege to serve and to be Leader of the House. I would have liked to get this Bill sooner. We had engagements before the summer. We know the challenges in the Bills Office. It has taken the Government four years to get the Bill to this Stage. The risk of it not passing before the Government finishes its term would be a massive failing on its part. I am sure that it is not perfect in every aspect but, certainly where I am living, planning is a big issue in terms of blockages, delays and how long it takes. It is impeding the country's advancement. We are losing investment because of our planning system. We had to try to do something. I completely understand the frustrations, however. I would have liked to have gotten the Bill sooner.

Even when we finish the Bill this week, it will still be two weeks before it will get back to the Dáil because of its size. Bills Office staff are saying they are struggling to process it due to its size. I do not want to disregard the views of Members. This is a particularly challenging Bill. I know we would like more time and that Members have made their best efforts to be efficient in their speaking time to facilitate other Members coming in. We had more than 20 hours of debate on Committee Stage. We will have two days this week. We are having more debate time in the House per Member than they have had in the other House. I hear what Members are saying but I have a responsibility on the other side to try to get Government business through. As I said, it has been a priority for four years now to get this Bill passed through the Oireachtas to try to made some headway in dealing with what is a broken planning system. One of the key requests from citizens throughout the State is to do something about the planning system. I hope the Bill will go some way towards dealing with the concerns that have been raised with us. I am absolutely not discounting the frustrations that have been aired by Members on that legislation.

Senator Gavan raised a number of issues relating to Palestine and the occupied territories Bill. I dealt with that Bill in putting his position on the record. I concur with the remarks of Members overall on what is happening in Gaza and with the Palestinian people. Our Government, and the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, have consistently been very clear and strong in their language since this conflict escalated towards the end of last year. Even now, as they are in the UN meeting with world leaders, they have very clearly been advocates for the Palestinian people and for a ceasefire. As a small country and a member of the European Union, we have often been in the minority in our position on this. We have led from the front in recognising the State of Palestine and supporting humanitarian aid on the ground. Overall, to paint the Government as somehow not doing its part, or not being in the corner of the Palestinian people, is not a fair assessment of what it has done since this conflict escalated. Of course, we want to do more. As I said, that is being actively considered.

On the issue of Shannon Airport, the Tánaiste's remarks have been very clear. Airlines are not permitted to travel through without permission. An investigation is under way on whether that permission was sought. Airlines will not be permitted to travel through, if they are breaching our rules. That is being taken very seriously. We await the outcome of that investigation. It is being dealt with by the Department of Transport but there will be a response from the Government as a whole on that.

Senator Ardagh raised a number of issues regarding the assisted decision-making Act and that it is quite cumbersome to access something that was meant to be very positive for people. She also raised the matter of the wills registry legislation and delays in the probate office.

Senator Ahearn has once again raised the issue of the N24 road, and the mooting by the Taoiseach of a Ministry for infrastructure. I have my own views on that. It might be too much for big infrastructure projects to be in one Department or under one Minister but we need to speed up the delivery of infrastructure in any event.

I dealt with Senator McDowell's comments and what he said. I do not disagree with a lot of what he said, but I hope he will accept my bona fides when I say that I have absolute respect for the House and it is a privilege to serve here. I am trying to meet all sides and deal with requests from a number of different places. The Senator will understand what I am saying in that regard.

Senator Maria Byrne spoke about small business, tourism and the Christmas markets in Limerick. It is a very important point. Tourism has had a difficult summer because of the weather for starters. The economic figures for tourism are down in most areas. There should be any little bit of an injection to support local and small businesses, especially in light of that. Even though the Government has done some work through the increased cost of business grant and trying to support business, one of the top issues the Minister for Finance is considering in the budget coming up on 1 October is how to support small and medium businesses in particular with the cost of business. There are still significant challenges and their cost base has gone up across the board, particularly in the hospitality sector.

Senator Black spoke about the drugs task force. I might suggest a Commencement matter on that. She again spoke about the occupied territories Bill, as others did.

Senator Craughwell spoke about the Tánaiste's comments on our airspace. We cannot defend our airspace because we do not have sufficient resources in the Air Corps. The Defence Forces are massively underfunded and under-resourced and have been for years. A lot of work is to be done there. At least now we have a Government commitment to increase defence spending to up our level of defence in the country. There has been a maturing of the conversation in the country in the past four years regarding where we are and what we need to do, not just domestically but at an EU level. The Tánaiste has been quite progressive in his approach to that and has not been afraid to take on challenging issues in the area of defence, put his views out there and get the conversation going.