I welcome the students in the Gallery, who I understand are from Tullamore. It is good to have them here and I hope they will be impressed by something they hear today. I call the Deputy Leader.

Everyone in the Gallery is very welcome to the Chamber. The Order of Business is No.1, statements on the Safe to Create programme of supports for artists and arts workers in Ireland, to be taken at 12.45 p.m. and to conclude at 2.15 p.m., if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed eight minutes and all other Senators not to exceed five minutes, time can be shared and the Minister is to be given no less than eight minutes to reply to the debate; No. 2, motion regarding the draft regulations made under section 66 of the Data Protection Act 2018, back from committee, to be taken at 2.30 p.m. and to conclude at 3.30 p.m., if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed six minutes and all other Senators not to exceed six minutes, time can be shared and the Minister is to be given no less than six minutes to reply to the debate; No. 3, Air Navigation and Transport Bill 2020 - Report and Final Stages, to be taken at 3.45 p.m. and to adjourn at 5.45 p.m., if not previously concluded; and No. 121(4), Private Members' business - motion regarding transport, to be taken at 6 p.m., with the time allocated to this debate not to exceed two hours.

I support the Order of Business as outlined. I would take this opportunity to talk about a positive decision that has just been made by Cabinet in the last while about the north quays in Waterford city. This is a project that many people have been involved in over the last six or seven years and there have been many false dawns along the way. This morning, Cabinet approved over €170 million for the public infrastructure elements of the project, which consist of the sustainable transport bridge over the River Suir, a new integrated transport hub, including the relocation of Plunkett Station, and new access roads and bridges onto the north quays site. The message from today's decision is that despite the increased costs as a result of inflation in the construction market, the Government is continuing to support this very ambitious regeneration project for Waterford, not only because it stacks up in a cost-benefit analysis but also because it secures Waterford's place as a centre of growth, which is clear from the CSO statistics that were published recently. This news will be welcomed across my county. It will allow Waterford City and County Council to appoint a main contractor for that public works contract and enable that contractor to start on site in the new year.

The CEO of Waterford City and County Council, Michael Walsh, and his team have been doing a great deal of work on this. They have been engaged with private sector partners and the Irish Strategic Investment Fund in respect of the private elements of the site, which are expected to be developed in tandem with the public works contract, which is expected to take about three and a half years. For Waterford city over the three- to five-year construction phase it is going to create upwards of 1,000 jobs per annum. It is a very significant regeneration project, one of the biggest in the country. That green light has been given by Government today. I want to put on record my thanks to all of the Ministers cross-party, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, who have worked together on this project to bring it forward through the various stages. It is a perfect example of balanced regional development and Government parties working hand-in-glove with one another to bring forward a project of this scale.

I offer my congratulations to Senator Cummins. His absolute delight is understandable.

I welcome the students from Tullamore. I am from Rathangan which is just down the Kildare-Offaly border. They are very welcome. I keep up to date with events around Tullamore also.

I have just come from a really interesting exhibition in the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park. It is a national exhibition with a Kildare slant called "As Life Goes On". It is a collaboration between the local history group in Newbridge and a collective of nine artists called SULT Artists. The work they have produced interprets the change that took place over 100 years ago when the British troops left Kildare. For those who may not be aware, in the Newbridge area there were 20,000 troops. Senators can imagine the impact of 20,000 people leaving at the same time, all on the same day, on the local economy and so on. While there was great joy there was also sadness in terms of business, economy and friendships that had been made. Nine artists have come together to interpret all of this. It is really worth going to. It is in the OPW centre in the Phoenix Park until the end of November.

On my way back to the House, I listened to the 11 o'clock news where we heard that 13% of those working in Facebook are going to be laid off. This is on top of other job losses in the tech sector such in as Twitter and Stripe. In Kildare we are very concerned about Intel also. It is very worrying and we are all concerned. We have a highly educated workforce here and we have been lucky to be able to attract high-level jobs to Ireland. We really need to ensure that we retain excellent employment opportunities. We also need to ensure that employees are supported and every staff member gets the full protection of domestic law. It is important that we have a debate in the House with the Tánaiste on protecting existing jobs and also looking at trends for the future in respect of the type of employment we can attract.

I was in Strasbourg yesterday for the handing over of the Irish Council of Europe presidency to the Icelandic presidency. I pay tribute to Ambassador Breifne-O'Reilly and his team in Strasbourg, to Ragnar Almqvist and his team in Dublin and of course to the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, for the leadership they have shown at a very difficult time in Europe. There were more than 65 key events in Ireland, Strasbourg and across Europe. As part of that we made a call for a fourth summit. There have only been three in the 73-year history of the Council of Europe. It is vitally important as we are at a crossroads in Europe, not just because of the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine but also the new generation of human rights, looking at areas like climate change, artificial intelligence and gender-based violence. We should have a debate in the House on those new rights that need to be brought to the forum next May.

I congratulate the Senator on the work she did as chair of the Irish delegation there. Senator Boylan is also a member of that delegation along with myself. We are very proud of what is done in Strasbourg and in Dublin on that front.