I extend my warm welcome and congratulations to the ambassador. It is lovely to have her here again. It is a lovely country. A delegation from the Joint committee on European Affairs visited Luxembourg recently and was very impressed by all whom they met and all that they saw. I was not part of the delegation but we look forward to the continued friendship between our two countries.

The Order of Business is No. 1, Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, which is changed from Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 - Second Stage, to be taken on 11.30 a.m. or on conclusion of the Order of Business, whichever is the later, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed eight minutes, all other Senators not to exceed five minutes and the Minister to be given no less than ten minutes to reply to the debate.

I welcome the ambassador and congratulate her, her country and her community on their national day. I hope they enjoy the celebrations, which are well-deserved.

The media is dominated consistently by negative stories when it comes to housing and it is important for people to recognise the challenge but also recognise the progress being made. On that basis, I welcome the announcement from Government this week of additional funding to unlock more homes through the housing infrastructure investment fund. This €1 billion fund is dedicated solely to unlocking lands suitable for housing, which, for various reasons, be they related to water or roads infrastructure, are not being used. Dublin is part of the much bigger nationwide programme of 82 projects with over 200,000 homes. In Dublin city, this will result in more than 5,000 additional homes on land in Ballyfermot, Balbutcher and St. Teresa's Gardens. It is really welcome investment and builds on the progress made since Fianna Fáil took over in 2020. There have been more than 170,000 new homes built. We see real momentum. In the first quarter of this year alone, more than 8,000 homes commenced.

The second issue I will raise is one I have raised multiple times here: retail crime. The Deputy Leader and everybody else in the House will have heard reports in the news yesterday of multiple individuals on multiple charges in one court in Dublin. There were 81 arrests in Dún Laoghaire for shoplifting. I commend the Garda. It has had a targeted approach to this, is using intelligence and is supporting businesses. However, this is a national issue. It costs more than €1.6 billion per year. There are direct links to organised crime. This is not just casual, opportunistic shoplifting any more; it is an organised activity. The people being hit hardest are small retailers in our villages and towns. I was nominated to the House by the Retail Grocery Dairy and Allied Trades Association, RGDATA. I have called for a debate in this House. I have met with the Minister for justice. He is taking the issue seriously. He has a retail crime strategy and task force in place. I would appreciate if the Deputy Leader could arrange at the earliest opportunity for the Seanad to debate the issue.

My hometown of Dublin is our capital city and it pains me to raise this but it falls far short of what we should be able to expect in terms of cleanliness in the public domain. I have raised the issue many times. Dublin City Council needs to step up to the plate; it needs to stop stepping back from the issue and creating more problems. Today we hear of compactors being overloaded and unavailable, and of the doubling of costs for businesses. I presume all Senators are familiar with Stoneybatter. It is one of the oldest villages in the city. These are small artisan two-terraced houses, two-up, two-down - not even two-up, two-down in some cases - and they are expected to use wheelie bins. Dublin City Council needs to tackle street cleaning and waste management more effectively. Our capital deserves better.

I was also glad to see the Luxembourgish ambassador here today. I was part of the European affairs committee delegation that went to Luxembourg recently. It is a very interesting country given all its minorities, including the many people who were not born there and, indeed, the many who travel there every day to work. It is also a country with a very interesting association with County Carlow because its patron saint is St. Willibrord, as the Deputy Leader probably knows very well. Whereas we often talk about all the monks who travelled from Ireland abroad, this is a man who came from England originally and studied in Carlow for 12 years. According to Wikipedia, he is the only saint who is buried in Luxembourg. Carlow is the county connected with Luxembourg for our European Presidency.

I register my disappointment and that of many people over the passing in the Dáil last night of Second Stage legislation that proposes to remove the three-day wait for abortions. I spoke about this yesterday but what I did not mention was the rather lopsided situation whereby the two party leaders in Government, Deputies Martin and Harris, signalled at an early stage their intention to vote in a way that does not represent the position adopted by the majority in their own parties. While they say this is a matter of a free vote, in fact they are creating a lopsided situation because they are conspiring with other parties – left-wing parties – that do not allow a free vote. If everybody had been allowed a free vote, I wonder what way it would have gone yesterday. For example, I was in contact with one member of a left-wing party yesterday and I said I encouraged people to vote against the proposal, and that we need to give women the chance to at least pause to reflect, which would save many lives. The person responded to me that was certainly a positive thing they supported, and that they had stated so in their party, but that they were not prepared to lose the whip. It is fine for people like the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, to pretend they are somehow great democrats, but in fact what they are doing is working behind the scenes with the other parties to move the dial on a very sensitive social issue in a way that does not reflect what their own membership expects of them and what the majority of their members would support.

I commend in particular those Ministers in leadership positions who went the other way last night. I renew my call for a debate in this House, but also for the opportunity to put on the agenda that we need to work together to reduce the number of abortions. It is a tragic thing that the likes of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who were in favour of legalised abortion, used to talk about abortion being safe, legal and rare, but we are not even allowed to say that now. The Taoiseach will not say that abortion should be rare. Why? It is because he, like the Tánaiste, is captured by an abortion lobby that seems to be calling all the shots. The pile of bodies is rising higher, with over 10,000 babies losing their lives every year. These people do not seem to care. They portray themselves as people who want to create a cohesive, united, caring society and they have nothing to say about the fact that our abortion numbers are rising. This is a massive tragedy and a massive loss of human potential. There is a human cost, as Deputy Tóibín spoke about, not to mention the hurt caused to very many women. There are women who have spoken out. I recall in particular the remark of Moya Brennan, whom we all admired as a great artist. She said she wished somebody had told her before she had her abortion. There are testimonies like this that need to be heard. Please, can we have better leadership from our Government on this to at least allow different sides of this debate to be heard?

In response to Senator Mullen, I for one am delighted to see that the legislation might pass and the three-day rule might stop because I do not know of any man who walks into a doctor’s surgery and is told to go home and think about it for three days. Yes, there is strain and mental stress for women on both sides: women who may have had an abortion and maybe were not 100% swayed that way and maybe regretted it afterwards, but also women sent home for three days, with the stress on their bodies that involves, who are told to have a think about it. It is absolutely disgraceful for anybody to be told to go and think about it when it comes to their own healthcare. I am delighted to see that there is cross-party support for the legislation.

On childcare, there is a serious issue with core funding. I am sure this does not just arise in County Limerick and that it is widespread in every county. The rates were reduced last week. The fee reduction for parents of a mere €14 per week was not what we wanted but it was something. Two TLC Childcare crèches in Newcastle West, County Limerick, have done their books and have realised that while the €14 a week is going to come off for each child, what they can claim back works out at €5.80. Regarding what they can claim back under core funding, they are going to be nearly €10 short per week per child. Core funding was supposed to be reviewed. I understand there is a review beginning, but it is only a review of year one. We need a review of the four years of core funding to see how this is affecting childcare facilities.

The parents from one of the childcare facilities have all contacted me. TLC Childcare charges €140 and €150, respectively, for its two childcare centres in Newcastle West. It needs the fee increase assessment to be opened. The assessment does open but the provider has not been given a date. Through it, the provider can show its books and accounts, show where core funding is not meeting what is needed to stay sustainable, and show that it needs to increase its fees by a small amount. It needs to increase its fee to €180. If not, it says, it will have to leave core funding, which would see its fees increase to €240 per week per child. The parents are not going to be able to afford that and will end up leaving. There are many nurses living in Newcastle West and they use this childcare facility. We are talking about HSE staff having to consider giving up work because this childcare provider cannot afford to stay within core funding. I ask that the core funding be reviewed for all four years. Could we have a date for the opening of the fee increase assessment so the provider will at least have some sense of when it might be able to look into this and determine whether its fee can be increased while staying within core funding, which is what we all want?