An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-23 ============================================================ Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach I, too, would like to be associated with the congratulations to Senator Ahearn. I congratulated him on Thursday in his absence. We met Liam, his father, last week. He was here a day early prior to the announcement. It is great to have Laura, Daniel and Jamie here. I must shake hands with Jamie and Daniel. From what I have heard, one if not both of them will be future soccer stars. We want to get the photographs in early. I would also like to congratulate Councillor Domnick Connolly, who was elected cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council yesterday. He is supported by Councillor Laurence Fallon. I also want to say a big congratulations to Councillor Liam Callaghan following his year as cathaoirleach. It is coincidental that I am congratulating the Leader, because when I was a young councillor, I met Senator Ahearn on my first visit to Leinster House in July 2024. We spoke about the safe routes to school scheme. He raised the matter that particular week, and I have raised it repeatedly since coming here. A few weeks ago, I tabled a Commencement matter relating to the money that we are spending on safe routes to schools and how immediate measures are needed outside most of our rural schools to try to reduce speed, with speed ramps being the ideal solution and a more cost-effective use of money as opposed to waiting for the big safe routes to schools scheme. A big debate on the topic was held in the Roscommon County Council chamber yesterday. Councillor Paschal Fitzmaurice from my hometown tabled a motion on it in the context of Threen National School, a school with which I am very familiar. I have done a road safety survey with the parents and staff of that particular school. We are looking at measures whereby the speed limit nationally will be reduced to 30 km/h outside schools. We need enforcement. If we cannot enforce such a speed limit, we need measures such as speed ramps. It is a matter that I think we definitely need a conversation about in this House. I support Senator Cosgrove's call for a discussion on women's health. We represent all people, and an open discussion is required. We are all free to talk about that particular topic. It was an issue I raised after the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition last year, and I followed up on it. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-23/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-23