An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel

I thank every one of the Senators this morning who wished everybody a happy Christmas and gave their thanks and gratitude to Martin and the team, to the ushers and to all who work in Leinster House and have extended across both the Dáil and the Seanad. I want to be associated with that. I thank all of the Members for their collegiality in terms of every time I step into this role as Deputy Leader, mainly every Thursday, but also as leader of the Fianna Fáil group. I thank all of the other groupings within the Seanad for their professional way of doing business. We all hope that everybody has a good Christmas.
Senators Murphy O'Mahony and Craughwell spoke about people who have challenges at Christmas time. We all have to be conscious of those who have health challenges, those who have mental health challenges and those with different difficulties in their lives or even being alone. As Senator Murphy O'Mahony said, if you can be anything, be kind. Senator Andrews spoke about the families in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan. I honestly believe that they are uppermost in all of our minds as they all face yet another Christmas with huge difficulties in their regions.
Senator Fitzpatrick spoke about the issue of illegal substances being distributed and the impact of that on many people and families, particularly over Christmas, when people meet, gather and party. We all know that illegal substances are highly dangerous. She mentioned the fact that there are traces of ketamine within our water system now in Dublin and they are among the highest in Europe. We have a huge problem. We all need to work together in society, both in terms of the judicial system, communities and families, and try to help and support and give the message that this is not acceptable.
Senator Fitzpatrick also spoke about The Complex and how important it is as infrastructure to support creativity and community and all of the wonderful programmes that are delivered through The Complex. We will write again to the Minister to ask him to step in to save The Complex. It would be an awful shame to see any building - it is more than a physical building; it is a community - lose something as valuable as that.
Senator Nelson Murray spoke about the increased cost of business that businesses have and encouraged all of us to shop locally. That does keep money and jobs locally. Local businesses keep our towns alive. We must all remember that and remember the wonderful personal service that we get. When we think of all the charity raffles that are happening all around Christmas, it is the local shops that are giving that amount of money to them.
Senator McCarthy spoke about a recent "Prime Time" programme which featured a very disturbing element in society, namely, children who are using gaming platforms. We all know that young people in our lives, at an increasingly younger stage, are using gaming platforms. It is a huge concern that people go on under a false identity. They can be predators. Over the last 15 months, the Garda has dealt with 55 children. This would tie in with what I have been talking about in relation to catfishing, where people take a false identity or another identity and adults pretend to be children. It is quite shocking. We need to have another online safety campaign in relation to this. We need education, not just for children but for their families and parents in how to detect and monitor. That is something that we will bring to Coimisiún na Meán. We will look for a debate, both with the Minister for communications and the Minister for justice after Christmas.
Senator Andrews spoke about Baggot Street Hospital being sold off. It is regrettable that it was let lie in disrepair for so many years. It could have been used for so many different purposes for the community. I am glad a decision has been made to sell it. The hope would be that something will happen with it, that a private company will purchase and that we will see life coming back into it. He raised the wider point about how we support the built heritage and how important it is not to have dereliction, particularly with significant buildings. We will look for a debate on historic buildings and how the State and the local authorities - the two have to work hand in hand - support them.
Senator Rabbitte spoke about the need for by-laws in some of our towns. That is one of the regrets with the changes that were brought in by a previous Government, the fact that we do not have town councils any longer. Town commissions and town councils were the ones who brought in by-laws in their own towns. When I was a member of both the town commission and town council, we did not bring in a huge amount of by-laws but important and significant ones that are still on the Statute Book. This ties in with the whole rejuvenation of local government and the commitment that is in the programme for Government to bring back town councils. The Senator is right. There are many elected public representatives and groups like Tidy Towns, etc., who do incredible work.
They are doing it in isolation. We need an audit. It is a big job and needs to be modernised but we will ask the Minister for local government to come to the House to have a debate on the matter after Christmas.
Senator Scahill spoke about safe routes to school. It was great to see 140 schools being given the important news - not just good news, but life-saving news - during the week. The Senator mentioned three schools in Roscommon, although there are schools in Roscommon, Kildare and all of our constituencies that still need them. We look forward to seeing more delivery. There is a commitment in the programme for Government in that regard.
Senator Conway spoke about the Minister of State, Deputy Canney's announcement yesterday that he would not be splitting the Road Safety Authority, RSA, into two different organisations. He also spoke about the fact we needed to have a different approach to road safety. All of our sympathies go to the families bereaved by accidents last night in Limerick and Tipperary. I note that, in Limerick, three teenagers were very badly injured. The Senator was right, in that many people are not killed in accidents but instead have life-changing injuries. I know that from personal experience and from extended family experience. It is shocking to see the number of accidents we have had on the roads, considering we have not had very bad weather conditions; we have not had a lot of ice or frost. There most definitely needs to be a serious debate on this. We must appeal to everybody to be careful on the roads over the festive season.
Senator Dee Ryan took the opportunity to reflect on how we could support our businesses, which is very important. Our local businesses are the heartbeat of our local economies. As the Senator said, we started off this year with concerns about tariffs and trade wars. We have some, but not complete, certainty relating to that. I appreciate that the Senator commended business and political leaders on navigating to where we are now. However, there are still uncertainties. We need to look at diversification of our markets. The Senator mentioned the UAE and the wider Gulf area. I would also suggest Canada, having had the opportunity to visit there recently. Canada is wide open for business with Ireland and the rest of Europe. Senator Ryan made the valid point that we needed to have more connectivity with Shannon to serve all of those areas. We will certainly look for a debate in 2026 on that with the Ministers for enterprise and Transport, as this crosses those two areas.
Senator Clonan spoke very movingly about Caitlin Hassan, and our heart has to go out to her and her mum, Louise. In very difficult circumstances, Louise is doing her very best to care for her daughter, who sadly was raped while in care. She is now at home with no help or support from the service provider. We will urge the Minister to intervene directly and personally in this situation. It is completely wrong that Louise is on her own and trying to deal with a very traumatic situation.
The Senator also mentioned - I hope I get the name right - Friedreich's ataxia, which is a difficult condition that affects 200 people in Ireland, and the decision made not to support the funding for something that would help to alleviate that. It is quite difficult to get funding through for rare diseases but it is something we will have to continue to work at. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan has put a huge amount of work into this and has set up a cross-party group. That is something we will bring to the Minister's attention and the different groups that are being dealt with.
Senator Murphy O'Mahony spoke about the register of electors and the fact there is still talk about it at every single election but nothing sizable has been done on it. It is difficult for people whose family members have passed away to get the voting cards for them. The Senator also made the valid point that this inflated the numbers so that it looks like there is a much lower turnout, etc. That is something people are very quick to jump on. The Senator is right that something needs to be done about it. I have always felt that post offices are in an ideal position to do that. Years ago, the local postmaster or postmistress would know when somebody was 18 and they would go on it. I remember our postmistress, Molly Forde, doing that. It is something that post offices could validly take on as a service. We will look for a debate on the matter.
Senator Duffy spoke about the benefit of community policing. It is one of the best systems within the overall policing system. It provides a wonderful service to many people. I remember when Kildare had no community garda and I was looking for one. When I see what Brian Carroll, John Dunne and Seán O'Mahony of the Garda do on a daily basis, it is incredible. The Senator says there is a vacancy in Belmullet. Rural areas need to have that point of contact. In my experience, these community gardaí will go out into the community all the time and speak to all of the different community groups. They drive people up to Leinster House in buses to be in the people's Parliament. They do incredible work and I support the Senator on that issue. The Senator also mentioned Councillor Munnelly was trying to do the same for Killala. We will write to the Minister on that.
I have to congratulate Knockbride. This day last week, Senator O'Reilly spoke about the team coming up and wished them well. I noted the result over the weekend, so I congratulate them. It is wonderful to see small communities developing and growing up.
The Senator also spoke about what she called the hypocrisy of People Before Profit in relation to its differing stances on fox hunting and abortion. We have had the long debate on repeal and I do not propose to go into it now. The people spoke in the referendum and we had legislation go through both Houses to effect what they voted for. However, the Senator spoke about Baby Christopher, which was one of the saddest situations I have ever seen. For a family to go through that, it will never leave them and it is shocking something like that would happen.
That was it. Senator Craughwell wished everybody a happy Christmas. We are over and out for 2025.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18