The Minister is very welcome. I thank her for taking time out of her busy schedule to be with us today. It is always greatly appreciated in the Seanad.

I thank the Senator and the Minister for her time. I appreciate the Minister coming to the House. As a vote has been called in the Dáil, we will need to suspend so that a Minister can attend the Seanad.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Calleary, to the House.

Before I call the Senator, I welcome the guests of Senator P. J. Murphy to the Gallery. I also acknowledge that earlier we had the guests of the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley. They are all very welcome to the House.

I also welcome the two guests of Senator Murphy O'Mahony in the Gallery. I hope they enjoy their visit here today. I thank the Minister for his time and I thank the Senator for raising his Commencement matter.

I welcome the Minister and thank him for coming before us today to debate the Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026. As the Minister said in his opening statement, it has been a long time coming, but it is here and before us now. In general, I welcome this Bill. I generally support it, but I think there are some concerns. At the very outset, I draw the Minister’s attention to the Bill digest for this legislation. I do not know if the Minister has one to hand, but if not, I will leave one outside. I took up one, because…

I will raise the issue of Bord Bia without touching on the current controversies in Bord Bia, given that they are well rehearsed and well documented, both in these Houses and the media. Currently, our Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, is on a trade mission and may be due back today or tomorrow. The Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon, is as well. This is important. The Seanad had a very good session yesterday regarding the nitrates directive. We touched on all the positive things going on in agriculture. Yest…

I thank the Minister of State and her staff for coming to the House. She has given this a lot of time and I want to acknowledge that. It is important. I received a letter and communication from An Cathaoirleach informing me with regret that amendments Nos. 314a and 314b have been disallowed on account of a potential cost to the Exchequer. I will not get into the process of that today other than to say it is disappointing. It highlights significantly what is the importance of the commission. Section 128 states that …

I thank the Minister of State for that and for taking the initiative to refer the amendments to the Mental Health Commission. I take it from that she is supportive of the sentiment.

Therefore, is it not an awful pity we cannot find some creative, imaginative way through the parliamentary process and legislation to put in what I put forward, which the Minister of State supports? I believe it is a good idea and I have spoken to others who believe it is a good idea. Is it not an awful shame that here we are, making primary legislation in the Seanad, the Upper House, and somehow we are currently precluded from making that proposal? That shows a weakness and anomaly in the parliamentary process. I …

I thank the Minister of State for her frankness and her honesty. She is not misleading anybody. I take it that there will not be any further discussion on this.

Nor on the next Stage.

That will be a consideration for me in terms of support for the Bill. I want to flag that.

I want to follow on from what Senator Black was saying. This was a very important amendment and this is a very important section. It deals with the regulations and registration, operation and management of mental health services. The section deals with a very important area. We have talked about complaints but there are also observations and investigations into the non-compliance rate. It will take a few minutes for me to illustrate my point. If we look at the Mental Health Commission report, I came in here today w…

I thank the Minister of State for her comments. There is no problem with that and these reports are up. I acknowledge the amazing work of the Mental Health Commission. I have learned more than anyone from the Mental Health Commission in the last four to six weeks, as I did from Mental Health Reform and other organisations. I want to acknowledge that too. The point is some of these are classified as non-compliant and others relate to critical on the second inspection. Each of those seven was covered. We are talking …

I heard the Minister of State getting up early in the morning and having a great brief. That is great. Leo was the last person who talked about getting up early in the morning. My next comment will not be a reference to the Minister of State. Rather, this is in a lighter mode because we do laugh, smile and get on with each other. I would not like anyone to think that all of us do not. I said to Leo that it was one thing getting up early in the morning, but it was about staying up all day. He took the point. I am no…

I thank the Minister of State and her officials who have also had to listen to us. We have had to talk but they have had to listen. I particularly thank the people in the audience who came, some of whom followed every bit of this debate and others who tuned in. Clearly, from the interactions of our emails and telephone calls, people were listening and were involved. That is very important. I want to single out the Leas-Chathaoirleach, Senator Byrne. As the Minister of State said, she certainly gave it impetus and d…

I thank our sound people. More importantly, people forget our stenographers and our recorders who record the proceedings which we rely on so much. I will certainly be looking at them in a few days time and seeing what we did and did not say or what the Minister of State said. They give a full and accurate account. I particularly ask the note takers and stenographers, and the person representing them here now, to take that back to the team. They do an amazing job and it helps. It puts on the archive and on the recor…

Hear, hear.

This morning it has been reported in the media that the Government is considering issuing a State apology, to be given by the Taoiseach, to the victims of industrial and reformatory schools. The Leader will recall that we had much debate on this matter in this House. He will recall that I proposed a number of amendments and one of them was that this group would receive the enhanced medical card. He will also recall and fully know the response by the Government and the Government Senators which meant my amendment wa…