I welcome that Government MEPs and Senators are finally starting to speak out about the dangers and harms of nitrous oxide. I hope Government will start supporting my legislation. My Bill is due to undergo pre-legislative scrutiny in November, following a nine-month delay imposed by the Government. In those nine months, we have had 14 cases of spinal cord damage in Beaumont Hospital and €3 million spent on storage of nitrous oxide canisters seized by customs, a matter which I raised with the Tánaiste at the finance committee. Dublin City Council reports a 490% increase in the number of canisters collected. Some 160,000 canisters end up in waste facilities. Veolia recycled 120,000 canisters last year. There has been 130% increase in the number of people accessing addiction treatment for nitrous oxide and a 900% increase in the number of people discharged from acute hospital services because of nitrous oxide. These figures are stark. They are not mine; they are contained in independent reports. In the absence of any solutions from Government, I ask that it work with me in a tangible way to progress my Bill through the Houses.

We will work with the Deputy on this. I acknowledge his sincerity and his work on this, as I have said before. This is a serious issue. I would characterise the Government's position slightly differently in the sense that there was some work that was ongoing in relevant Departments. However, the Deputy's legislation will now obviously go to pre-legislative scrutiny. That is an opportunity to put all of this information and evidence together to look at the Bill in the round. Certainly, we have very much an open mind in working with the Deputy constructively on what is a very important issue.