The Taoiseach:

I thank all Members of the Seanad for their comments and queries.

Aontaím leis an Seanadóir Kyne go bhfuil an domhan trína chéile faoi láthair. Tá guth láidir agus guth neamhspleách ag an tír seo maidir le cúrsaí móra an domhain, agus beidh go deo. Mar a dúirt an Seanadóir, bhí coimhlint sa tír seo agus tá taithí againn ar conas coimhlint a réiteach agus próiseas síochána a chur i bhfeidhm.

I might look at this thematically as opposed to going through the individual contributions. On climate, at no stage did I say that we should mitigate or row back. However, I did say that we cannot litigate our way to address climate change. I said that because there is a growing movement to litigate everything. What that will do is create an opposition to a consensus on the need to address climate change. I am fully committed to addressing climate change and fully committed to the green economy. I am also very conscious that we have to bring people with us. I feel that some in our society believe it is possible to litigate everything. That would be problematic.

For example, we want wind energy, including offshore wind. The biggest challenge is the challenge Senator McDowell outlined. The biggest challenge to offshore wind will be delivery mechanisms. The biggest problem will be an over-regulatory approach. We cannot have it both ways. We cannot say the Government is not pushing to address climate change. The most fundamental thing we can do is reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and get more renewables, but what is the biggest barrier to renewables in the country? It is planning. It is regulatory frameworks. It goes on and on. I have spoken to Keir Starmer and it can take 11 years in the UK to get offshore renewable energy delivered, and it could be as long here. I established a clearing house to see if we could get through the barriers faster and in a more accelerated and informed way. I am not suggesting riding roughshod over things but there is a balance here.

The planet is in deep trouble and offshore wind will help enormously in Ireland's case. We have a huge dependence on imported fossil fuels but everybody will want all of the regulatory frameworks still intact. Solar is being objected to across the country. In the Dáil recently, a Deputy said to me that in their community they were very concerned about a gas generating plant, a solar farm and an onshore wind farm - all three. That begs the question as to how we will provide energy to people. That is an important point and a big issue facing us as a country.

The delivery of infrastructure is an issue. Funding is being put in place and the investment is there. We have now moved from the planning processes dealing with infrastructure to the courts dealing with infrastructure on all fronts. The courts were never meant to be the habitual norm in determining planning, which is an issue for us. We have resourced An Coimisiún Pleanála and we need to resource planning on a continual basis so that the decisions are informed and better arrived at in order to reduce the likelihood of them being overturned in courts. Judicial review is an issue in Ireland; we are an outlier in terms of the number of judicial reviews taking place. It is not just on projects any more, but on legislation and regulatory frameworks. There is a degree of paralysis in the delivery of programmes on infrastructure in modern society. There is no point in saying otherwise. We need to make up our mind as to how we want to do it.

Senator O'Loughlin's profiling of significant Kildare people never ceases. Between St. Brigid and Shackleton, Kildare has a very bright future ahead of it. I take her point on Shackleton. It is fantastic story and journey for him and his teams.

Research and development was identified and it is key. New products and new ideas are key to climate, to the economy and to enterprise. They are key to security technology. How do we protect subsea cables? Yesterday I had a fascinating discussion with people who are experts in seismology at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. That institute was set up by de Valera in 1940, which was probably one of the more far-seeing things he did in physics and so on. In the course of a casual conversation, they said that, through their research and work on seismology, they are now beginning to see how to develop a technology to protect cables. The protection of critical subsea infrastructure is not all about ships; it can be very much about technology.

That is why I am saying we have to co-operate. In my speech, I made the point that I do not think we have assessed, understand or have a proper awareness of what Russia is doing in threatening subsea cables across Europe or what it is doing across the world. There is a kind of an attitude here that it is no problem for us. It is a problem for us and that needs to be understood, unfortunately. Research and development into technology to protect our economic infrastructure is particularly important in terms of early alerts, understanding if something is happening with cables and so forth.

Senator Tully spoke about the shared island initiative. I remember Notre Dame researchers and others said we should change it to a reunification fund. Sinn Féin is saying something similar. That would wreck it. It would destroy its cross-community appeal. It has reached into every community in Northern Ireland. People accept our bona fides that is not a Trojan horse for anything but, rather, a genuine desire to work out how we can share this island together. If we were to politicise it in terms of the constitutional preferences that we have - I share the desire to unify the people of Ireland - it would kill it. We have unionists and loyalist communities involved in the shared island initiative. It is working and should be allowed to work on all fronts.

We now have an all-island musical archive, with loyalist musicians and nationalist musicians coming together to assemble the archive. One loyalist musician said to us at a presentation that communities refine music but we all draw from the same well. That is what the shared island initiative is trying to do. We have an all-island climate biodiversity group, which is what we want. Quite frankly, we want them talking about biodiversity. We bought the Coillte Geopark through shared island funding. We want to develop greenways, walkways and so on. We want to do more on biodiversity on the island and let people who are involved in that sphere come together and engage. That is the whole agenda. Let us not politicise that aspect of it. Obviously, there is a political domain and people are entitled to advocate for a united Ireland, although I would say that reconciliation between people is the key. We have not achieved that yet. It is one part of the Good Friday Agreement that has not happened to the degree that it should have - reconciliation between people and people getting on easily together.

The previous Government did not have an agreed position on reform of the Seanad. We are a coalition government. That is something we have to explore based on the Manning report. It is not simple. It would be very complex to put to the people. We need to go through the outworkings of the Manning report in terms of the vocational panels and so on. Just think about if that was to go to the people to vote on. We need to be clear-eyed about it.

On agriculture, the nitrates issue is very significant for Irish farmers. It has knock-on effects in terms of land and the price of land if people have to expand. It will affect the tillage sector. It is not just about the dairy sector; it affects all sectors. We want to get a workable solution. Negotiations are ongoing with the Commission but we are still not there. We are continuing our negotiations but the multi-annual financial framework will be vital in protecting the Common Agricultural Policy and the financial basis for agriculture in this country.There are ongoing discussions on the Mercosur deal. For me, nitrates are the key priority.

On leadership, the Middle East and so forth, I must say, and I have noticed it from a certain political view in the Oireachtas and indeed the country, that there has been a failure to be balanced. I think the contributions from Senators Stephenson and Higgins lacked fairness, balance and, to a certain extent, credibility. Everything gets focused on what is the next thing to do. Ireland took a lead. I do not like saying it myself because self-praise is no praise. However, I ask the Senators to ask Palestinians. I ask them to ask the Palestinian Authority and the Arab nations. I attended the United Nations High-Level Week. President Macron and Saudi Arabia came together and pulled six, seven or eight more countries to recognise Palestine. The Secretary-General of the Arab League came up to me afterwards and said that happened because of Ireland and what it did last year with Spain and Norway. That is what the Arab nations say to us. Anywhere you go in the world, there is no argument that Ireland has led on Palestine. It was a member of my party, Brian Lenihan Snr., who was, way back, the first European foreign minister to assert the right of the Palestinian people to their own state and nationhood. We have consistently pursued that position, as have all parties in the House. We were out there recognising Palestine as a state. Prior to that, we legally intervened in the case that was taken by South Africa to the International Court of Justice, ICJ. I recall all the noise around that and people saying we should join. We took a deliberative legal approach, which is the correct thing to do if you want to interrogate the Genocide Convention and do it properly.

We also took the lead on UNRWA. There was a stampede to reduce funding to UNRWA at a particular point when 13 of its members were accused of being involved in the events of 7 October. The Commission and member states were pulling back money. What did we do and what did I do as foreign Minister? I doubled down and gave an extra €20 million to UNRWA. I told many other foreign ministers to stop because we cannot reconstruct Gaza or help the people of Gaza without UNRWA. That is why I said in my speech this morning that we need to reassert the primacy of UN agencies in the distribution of aid and the humanitarian response.

We also supported the ICJ. The Attorney General went in on the illegal occupation. We did the same with the International Criminal Court, ICC. Substantial funding has been given to the ICC for its examination of and investigation into the illegal occupation and what has been happening in Palestine. We have done much more than that. The occupied territories Bill has completed its pre-legislative phase. I said there are issues around its implementation. That was what I said in the Dáil. There are issues around implementing it, and there are. We must be honest with people. On the goods side, about half a million has been imported from the illegally occupied territories in the past five years. That is apparently the scale of the goods that have been important - €500,000-worth. On the services side, no one knows, and the Oireachtas committee has said it does not know, that it is unknowable. That is one of the conclusions of the Oireachtas committee. I have read it. Senator Stephenson should not shake her head. That is in the report. The Oireachtas committee does not know. That is fair enough. The committee has asked the Government to try to find out. All I am saying is that we need to be clear-eyed, honest and upfront with people. The services aspect of the Bill will be difficult to implement.

Someone referenced that I mentioned companies. I have to protect people's jobs in this country and I have to be honest with people. US companies based in Ireland may face difficulties in the United States because of the boycott and divestment laws there. It has nothing to do with us. It is in the US that those companies may potentially face challenges. These are not any old companies. They provide thousands of jobs in Ireland. We can ignore all that and pretend it does not exist, but that is not being honest either. This is the reality. We can be clear-eyed about it so we all know what decisions we are taking, and then take our decisions in light of that. That is all I am saying. It is a bit more honest to raise these issues than to try to pretend they do not exist. They do exist, unfortunately. I do not believe there should be such boycott and divestment laws in the US, but they are there. Many of the companies that are located here will face that pressure. That must be worked out. The Bill as presented had to be reformed and those who advocated for the Bill accepted that. The goods can be done easily but the services are more complex. Let us not pretend it is not complex. How do you track financial consulting, for example, and assess whether it is in the occupied territories or not? How do you deal with the area of email technology? It is not simple is what I am saying. It is not right to pretend it is.

The homelessness issue was raised by Senator Harmon and others. The Minister secured €50 million during the year. He is developing a strategy to see if we can focus on families in emergency accommodation and get them out of emergency accommodation as quickly as possible. He has received more funding in the budget to enable us to do that. That is important. The homelessness issue is different now. It is complex. People are coming in from within Europe and so on and they must be accommodated immediately. There are many challenges facing us. There is a much different composition underpinning homelessness than there would have been ten years ago. I will put it that way. That creates its own challenges. We do need to focus on children and families and to ring-fence funding.

I will follow up on biodiversity. We doubled the NPWS staffing when Senator Noonan was the Minister of State. The current Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, is also committed. I hope that we can use the climate and nature fund and do stuff there, particularly when the report comes back in respect of the nature restoration issues. We need to look at the marine area, reserves and so on. I believe we need to acquire more land, as we did during the term of the previous Government. We acquired the national park in the north east and Conor Pass. We did the Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark through the shared island initiative. We can acquire more land to re-wild or to have as nature reserves, which was the kind of strategy we pursued, as the Senator knows, in the previous Government. I am anxious to pursue that strategy in this Government as well.

I may not have got to everything. A number of people raised trade. The Ireland House concept is a winner. I was in Japan recently, but wherever it happens you get greater synergy between the Irish agencies and the embassy.

I would be enthusiastic about all-island soccer. I have attended Setanta Cup finals. I will talk to the Senator about it again sometime. I understand it has been difficult to get the associations and everybody on board. It would be remarkable if we could pull off association football on an all-island basis. The shared island unit would be amenable to that and would respond to it. That would bring people together in a clear way.

I note all the individual county mentions. University Hospital Limerick has made a lot of progress. There has been additional investment, but quality and safety in healthcare outcomes are very important, as is reform of healthcare. As I say, funding is now at €27 billion. It has doubled in ten years. Are we getting the same productivity? Are we getting outcomes? The safety and quality aspects are key.

I think I have covered most issues. Perhaps I have not covered everything.