As the Minister of State said at the beginning of his peroration, it is difficult not to wake up in the mornings and be depressed when you look at the newspaper or for those of us who are budding insomniacs like myself to lay awake at night listening to the BBC World Service. We hear many things that would depress us, but the one thing we should all try to do in these trying times is not lose a sense of hope. If we lose that as a nation or as individuals, then we do not have an awful lot that can sustain us. The Mi…

Is it Cork city or Cork county?

I fully recognise the Government's democratic prerogative in bringing forward this legislation because it appears it is part of the programme for Government but, of course, there is no compulsion on the Government to pursue all of these things. It would not be an unheard of happening that things in previous programmes for Government were not legislated for. As for the reservations I have about this as a layman listening to the debates and doing a little bit of background work into it, there are some things which ar…

We are left with this debacle that is causing so much angst in this House because fundamentally, it was not given any sort of airing that it deserved because of the importance and gravity the implications therein contained. We hear it is going to be pro-business, pro-Europe and pro-investment and trade but from the Minister’s own figures - the quadrupling of trade in the incidence was one of the figures I caught going up from €3.4 billion to €12 billion over a short number of years - it does not seem there is a cry…

Yesterday, Family Carers Ireland's published its fourth scorecard in which it assesses the programme for Government and gives its response to 34 items that are priorities for the organisation. A quick résumé would be that out of the 34 sectors covering the programme for Government, two report good progress and 15 report limited progress. That is over 50% with good or limited progress but, alas, 13 of the areas report no progress at all and four of them actually report regression in the response to the programme. Th…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an bhfoireann seo ar mo chúl, Senator Malcolm Noonan, and his comhghleacaithe ansin, a thóg an rún seo os ár gcomhair inniu. It is lovely to see the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, again. I am beginning to think he is one of the most clear-headed Ministers I have come across, and very progressive too. I think some of the soundings he made one of the times he was here formally brought music to Senator Flaherty's ears and mine when he mentioned the possibility of having a national park in …

An traonach?

Crex crex , I believe.

I am delighted to see my fellow midlander, the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, here again. He is welcome back. Senator Casey said that the measures taken recently were evidence of "steady considered governing." I accept an awful lot of that because, when taken into the panoply of interventions that are used across Europe, the interventions the Government has made amounts to €750 million and per capita they are as generous as anywhere in the OECD countries. That is to be welcomed. However, there are 300,000 people i…

The expression we sometimes use in politics "pushing at an open door" comes into play here. It is pushing at an open door as we have the legislation and we have the wherewithal. It is now just a matter of exercising our will and giving our say-so to extending this to the two local authority areas of Fingal and Wexford, the Minister's own county. This is just a matter of simple equity. Under the legislation, the people in the north west, Clare and Limerick deserve and of right can take recourse to the legislation so…

I begin by welcoming the Minister. It is the first time that I have met him face to face and I am delighted to be here to make my views known. As someone who was elected on the Cultural and Educational Panel, I found the debate today very educational. I have learned a lot from listening to colleagues. I know for a fact that the assistance package, for want of a better term, that was delivered last week by the Minister, Deputy Heydon, and his Government, in the panoply of aid packages across Europe, is one of the mo…

I ask the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to urgently address the cancellation on only two days' notice of citizenship ceremonies scheduled to take place in Killarney this week and to explain why a remote declaration-based process, already proven and used during Covid-19, could not be immediately reinstated. This was not a routine administrative appointment for those affected. It was the culmination of years of waiting, vetting and uncertainty. I know this personally. Two close friends of my daught…

I am very warmed by what the Minister of State had to say. A couple of things struck me about this. There are people in society who would have rejoiced in a victory in thwarting that ceremony last week. On balance, it was reasonable to compromise and put it back to June. What I am really asking the Minister to commit to is to have in reserve a system where we can go back and use the online declarations, if such an occasion were to arise again. The blueprint is there. It should not be too hard to organise. I am very…

I draw Members' attention to the second paragraph from a letter sent by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Heydon, to Waterford City and County Council. It states: The Department strongly condemns the mistreatment of any animal and takes the matter of animal welfare most seriously. Neglect of or causing unnecessary suffering to animals is not acceptable in our society. Bearing that in mind, despite the ongoing conflict in the region, large volumes of Irish cattle are still being exported to I…

Can I comment?

I second the amendment.

As the seconder of Senator Boyhan's amendment, I wish to voice my absolute support for this. As somebody who spent a lifetime working with children in education, I often wonder why we cavil about these declarations we sign up to. The Minister and Government should be proud to include this amendment because we do not have the facility or advantage of crystal balls here in front of us. There is one thing you can say about knitting in this declaration, which goes back to 1959 and is based on a 1924 declaration, it is …

I apologise for missing my slot. I was held up at other important business in the dining room.

Notwithstanding that, the phrase "pushing at an open door" comes to mind in relation to this legislation. I am speaking on behalf of the Seanad Independent Group. I think there is a general, across-the-board welcome for the Bill. I am delighted to see the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, here again. He assiduously attends our meetings and all the Senators who I am aware of are deeply appreciative of the fact that he comes so frequently to the Seanad. It is good to see him again. There are a couple of things I might as…

I thank the Chair for his nice tribute to Brian O'Shea. Something that was probably not alluded to in his few words and is not known about Brian is that he was a very low-level advocate for the people who were in the St. Phelim Aer Lingus disaster of March 1968, when over 60 people died when their flight from Cork to Heathrow went down just off Tuskar Rock, Wexford. This happened long before most of the Members of this House were born. Brian, because of the proximity of the accident, took a particular interest in i…