The Order of Business is No. 1, Motor Insurance Insolvency Compensation Bill 2024 - Committee and Remaining Stages, to be taken at 12.45 p.m. and to adjourn at 2.15 p.m. if not previously concluded; No. 2, Family Courts Bill 2022 - Committee Stage, to be taken at 2.15 p.m. and to adjourn at 5.30 p.m. if not previously concluded; and No. 3, Gambling Regulation Bill 2022 - Committee Stage (resumed), to be taken at 5.30 p.m and the proceedings thereon shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 8.30 p.m. by the putting of one question from the Chair, which shall, in relation to amendments, include only those set down or accepted by the Government.

I thank the Leader. I welcome Ellen Brennan, who is with Ms Samantha Long in the Public Gallery. Ms Long is a great friend of ours. Ellen is a transition year student from Our Lady's Bower Secondary School in Athlone. She is very welcome and I thank her for being here. I know she has a busy few days in Leinster House. We wish her well in her studies and in her work experience in Leinster House.

I thank the Leader for outlining the Order of Business, which I am very much in agreement with. I welcome my friends Breege and Sam and their work experience colleagues who are here today. They are very welcome to the House. It is clear Breege has been instrumental in helping Senator Conway, whom I know since my college days. He is very successful in his own right but I know Breege contributes substantially to that. I say "Well done" to her.

The test of a good budget is that we do not talk about it very much the following day. There are no banana skins or big problems. I commend the Minister, Deputy Chambers, who is the youngest Fianna Fáil Minister for Finance ever and the youngest Minister for Finance in over 100 years, on his first budget. Let us all hope it will not be his last budget. Equally, I commend the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, a former Member of this House, who also put in a very good performance yesterday. There is so much detail and positivity in this budget that it is easy to forget how much is in it, such as the emphasis on water infrastructure and electricity infrastructure. I am not aware of any previous budget that has put such significant resources into the electricity grid, but these resources are clearly needed, with the data centres and the increase in our population and so on. I congratulate the two Ministers on that.

Equally, we need to look at the hospitality industry again and see where we can help it out further, whether through VAT, a cut in excise or other measures. It is clear that many restaurants are closing. Parts of the hospitality industry are busy but many establishments are under pressure. A business may be busy on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays but does not necessarily mean it will stay afloat. As a Government, we need to look again at this issue on behalf of the Licensed Vintners Association, the Vintners Federation of Ireland, the Restaurants Association of Ireland and the Irish Hotels Federation.

In my final minute, I condemn fully and outright the outrageous attack of more than 180 ballistic missiles that Iran tried to land on Israel yesterday. It is worthy of condemnation. This is more than a regional conflict; it is becoming a war and it is a challenge for us all. The loss of life and destruction of property on all sides is terrible. I urge de-escalation. We need to dampen down what is going on in that region and reduce the tension. We need to see the hostages released coming up to the anniversary of the outrageous attack on 7 October which was the catalyst for a lot of this. I urge all Members of this House to condemn the escalation of activity by Iran yesterday.

I echo the Cathaoirleach’s welcome to Jagoda, who is in the Public Gallery and has been doing fantastic work in my office. She is gaining very valuable experience as part of her transition year. I also welcome Ellen, who is with a great mentor in Ms Long. The budget announced yesterday was certainly a very interesting and positive offering. Many elements of it are welcome. A particularly welcome measure is the extension by €300 of the credit for the blind and visually impaired. That has not happened in many years. It will make a significant difference for the 400,000 people in this country who suffer sight loss. They have hidden added costs that people do not realise. Unfortunately, many of them cannot drive. Those living in rural parts of the country have to rely on taxis and friends to get to and from work. The measure announced yesterday is welcome. I would like it to have been increased by more and I would certainly like to see further increases going forward.

The free travel pass for partners of OAPs is very welcome. It defies logic that OAPs can travel for free but their carers or minders have to pay an exorbitant price for their rail ticket or fare. That leads me on to another point. We need to see universal charging for transport fares. It needs to be done per mile or kilometre and to be the same across all public transport. There is too much disparity. I live in County Clare. A person can travel from Ennistymon to Ennis on one publicly funded service for approximately €2.

Bus Éireann is another publicly funded service and it costs €6.80. That does not make sense and it needs to change. I want to see a debate with the Minister for Transport on standardised fares in early course.

Regarding the 9% VAT rate that was called for across the tourism industry and the hospitality and restaurant industry, that was a mistake. I would have liked to have seen it happen, but it is not happening. We need to have an informed, mature engagement on VAT in general, including what is subject to VAT and what is not. We need to see some sort of a discussion. I wish to see a debate on value-added tax in this Chamber in the not-too-distant future.

Finally, I agree with my good friend and colleague, Senator Horkan, in condemning outright what is happening in Israel and throughout that region. We need a ceasefire now. Too many people have lost their lives, too many children are dying and too many children are being killed. It is not good enough. We can, as a world, do better. I would like the Minister for Foreign Affairs to redouble his efforts through our diplomatic channels both within the EU and the UN to try to do everything we can as a neutral country to try to facilitate dialogue and a ceasefire.

I welcome Samantha Long and Ellen from Senator Michael McDowell’s office as well as Breege and the intern from Senator Conway’s office. They are very welcome to the House.

I wish to talk about two things, the first of which is the residential zoned land tax, which I talked about yesterday. There has been a bit more clarity in the past few hours in respect of this tax. There is a lot of misunderstanding about this tax. There is no exemption from this tax. One can apply for an exemption if one desires to downzone or dezone, not rezone. That is an important point. We will have another opportunity to debate this, either in this House or outside of it. It will become a big focus in the forthcoming general election, so it is important that we get our facts right. Therefore, I call on the Government to move quickly to explain the rationale for this residential zoned land tax in simple terms that are clearly understood. I also call for the publication of the guidelines to be issued to the local authorities as a matter of priority. I made contact with a number of local authorities last night and today and I am reliably informed that all local authorities will be subject to some of this tax. All local authorities were encouraged to develop land banks by central government. Many of them are agricultural lands and many are potentially serviced. No one has done the sums in relation to the exposure and the tax for our 31 local authorities and where that will be transferred. I am also reliably informed that there is no exemption from the tax for any local authority in the legislation currently. There needs to be greater clarity. I understand that a number of the agricultural and farming representative bodies will be issuing statements about this matter later on, so I leave it at that. Let us have clarity and let us have the facts.

I commend the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, on his valiant efforts with regard to the hospitality sector. I am conscious that the hospitality sector, the hotel industry and the vintners' association have representatives on the Seanad nomination bodies. I encourage them to look at them again and to home in on their representation. They are here to represent that sector. I have not heard too many people up to budget day yesterday talking about their requirements and their desires. I am conscious of a media statement received by all Senators today from the sector, the Irish Hotels Federation, IHF, which talked about the budget and the crisis of the hospitality sector deepening. It is fiercely frustrated and disappointed. Let us have a debate on it. Let their representatives, who are being nominated by these panels, stand up and call for a debate in this House this week. I will call every day for a debate on the hospitality sector until we go to the general election. I will finish on this point. The Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, made valiant efforts but he was frustrated in the process. Questions need to be asked. I look forward to asking him, as Minister with responsibility in this sector, to come to this House and be facilitate by the Leader to do so, to have a frank, open and transparent debate on these issues in the limelight of the cameras in this open political Chamber.

I second that.