I am thoroughly enjoying the "GunPlot" podcast series dealing with the saga of the 1970 arms crisis. The third episode of the podcast was released this morning with five more to go and a documentary will air on television on Wednesday night. It is a pity we had to wait 50 years to have that level of investigative journalism, which has come in the wake of the release of Michael Heney's book last year. It is great that we are now getting to the truth of what happened then. It is heartening and enlightening. I look fo…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank her for taking the motion, which I formally second. I thank my colleague, Senator Dooley, for raising this issue today. I remember, when I was a small boy growing up in north Donegal on the Fanad Peninsula, there were nine post offices in an area roughly the size of the part of Dublin that is within the M50. We are now down to one. As has been outlined by the previous speaker, generally what we are dealing with is how activity is not what it used to be. The mea…

I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss this important issue. At the outset, I wish to put one matter on the record, which is the language we use about some of the issues that have arisen since Brexit took place. I very much take issue with a border in the Irish Sea. We should knock that idea at every turn because there is no border in the Irish Sea. Issues arise as to how we export goods to the UK and import goods from the UK, but language is important, in particular when it comes to dealing with Ireland's …

Is Senator Crowe following me? There was an arrangement between myself and Senators Crowe and Murphy to share time.

We are sharing time. So Senator Crowe will take four minutes, I will take five minutes and Senator Murphy will take three minutes with the agreement of the House. The time still amounts to 12 minutes.

Can we restart the clock? More than one minute has gone already.

The Minister is very welcome to the House. We have to acknowledge she has had a baptism of fire in the short time she has been in her Department. We would like to see more of her ability, which we know she has, when we get over this pandemic and she gets to it, and expect to see great measures in tourism. Tourism has evolved in recent years. I come from Donegal, in the north west, where we have seen much more potential for tourism in recent years with the Wild Atlantic Way. However, there are many difficulties bein…

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber to discuss the NDP I am delighted to see him here. He has had very trying times over the past nine months since taking office and it has certainly been a baptism of fire. That fire is far from being put out. Recovery and getting enough vaccines into the country is now to the fore but the consideration of where we go for the next 20 years is vital. The timing of the NDP review is good. Since the onset of Covid-19, there has been a great opportunity for reset in considering how b…

I thank my colleagues across the floor for raising the important issue of housing. I feel that the body of the motion goes to show just how flawed their policy is. There seems to be a paralysis relating to rent when the difficulties in the housing sector are much wider than that. The motion also goes to show the differences in policy. From Fianna Fáil's perspective, the people of this country absolutely deserve to be afforded the opportunity to own their homes. That is one of our key policy platforms. A real differ…

I thank the Minister of State for making herself available at such short notice. It was just last Friday morning that I rose here to ask for such a debate. I am glad it is happening so soon. It is only right as it is a relevant topic that should have the attention of most of us. There has been much good discussion today. I will first discuss our schools. The younger cohort in primary schools do not have the same access to social media etc. and they do not currently have a voice. Before making the rest of my comment…

I wish to raise the issue of mental health. During the whole debate about Covid-19 over most of the last year, there has been a great deal of acknowledgement of the impact Covid would have and is having on our nation's mental health. Many speakers in this House, the Lower House and the Government have alluded to it. It is time we started having a proper wider debate on mental health needs because mental health services have suffered with lockdown and a tsunami of demand for such services is about to hit the nation;…

I welcome the Minister to the House. It is one of many appearances he has made in his short tenure at the Department. I acknowledge his willingness and ability to engage with us as parliamentarians and to listen to the issues of the day. The results and output from the Department in the Minister's short tenure augur well. I listened to Senator Boyhan address difficulties with voids in his constituency. My local authority, Donegal County Council, is one of the most proactive in the country when it comes to housing i…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I welcome the majority of the contents of the Bill and the great opportunities that are being afforded across Departments in the year to come. Senator McDowell has raised one of the issues I was going to talk about, that is, the housing issue, and I certainly agree with some of what he said, particularly the fact that the age demographic of those that now own property in this country is on the increase and it is an issue. What I am particularly pleased about is the p…

I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State to the House. Following the recent election, before the Government was formed, many had their say on higher education and whether there was a need for a senior and junior Minister for the sector. Some said it was not necessary, but tonight's debate shows why it is. As Senator Byrne noted, the regional technical colleges did a great job in their day. They became institutes of technology, which moved everything on to the next level, introducing some research and expand…

I concur with Senator Craughwell's comments about our councillors across this country, no matter from which party they come. I am a former councillor and am all too aware of the work they do. A councillor is as important as a Senator, no matter what jurisdiction he or she is in. A lot of the money available as a result of policies adopted in these Houses goes to local authorities, and councillors are responsible for the oversight of that money. They are a critical part of local government but are not getting the re…

There was also the issue of the gambling regulator.

I am sure the House, like me, has great memories of Italia 90 and that great Donegal man, Packie Bonner, a great ambassador for football in his day and still. The reason I say this today is that Packie was once a director of football in the FAI. He and one of his colleagues and many more staff were turfed out of that organisation at a time when a member of his departmental team was raising financial irregularities within the FAI and taking those concerns to the board of Sport Ireland. Nothing was ever done about th…

I second the proposal of Senator Gallagher about the helpline for those businesses caught up in level 4. As a former Member of the Lower House, I was once appointed co-chair of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly at a time when unionist participation had never taken place in its 20-year history. I spent the next 21 months alongside former Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland, Mr. Paul Murphy and Mr. Peter Hain, doing everything we could to get participation from unionist parties. I am now a member of the …

I thank the Minister for joining us and giving us a most informative and open statement. With her collective portfolios she is going to play a vital role in the development of rural Ireland. A couple of the issues I was going to raise today have already been raised. Senators McGreehan and Ó Donnghaile talked about the cross-Border element of tourism. It is a vital element which we need to develop. In conjunction with the new unit being set up in the Taoiseach's office, it is imperative that the Minister, Deputy Mar…

Much has been said in the past, particularly during lockdown, about front-line workers and I second the proposal by Senator Murphy. We have all seen how hard they have worked. When we think of front-line workers, we think of those who are at the front line in the health services. Without wishing to take away anything from those workers, I would like to acknowledge today the work of our postmen, An Post's workers. During lockdown they were asked to take on extra activities, such as dropping in to the elderly in rura…