An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel

I support the Order of Business. It has been wonderful to see so many Brigid events around the country, particularly in Kildare. I congratulate Kildare County Council, Solas Bhride, Into Kildare and the dean of St. Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare, for all the wonderful events that were hosted, despite the bad weather, across County Kildare. They were a pleasure to attend, particularly the inaugural Spirit of Kildare Awards ceremony, which was the brainchild of Mayor Carmel Kelly. That was held on Sunday night. Several awards were made. All were noteworthy, particularly that given to Sr. Rita Minehan. Together with Sr. Phil and Sr. Mary, she has done wonderful work in the spirit of Brigid at Solas Bhride and by reaching out.
Despite all the bad weather, there was a lot of light and hope over the weekend until last night, when we heard the sad and tragic news of the passing of Vivian Carroll. He was a wonderful community man and businessman in the town of Newbridge. Like myself, he was from Rathangan. He learned his trade as a barman in the Silken Thomas in Kildare and his ambition was always to have his own pub. He owned two very fine places in Newbridge, namely Judge Roy Beans and Harrigan's. Vivian lived with his wife, Breda, and four children in Kildangan. He was a leader in every community he was involved with. He was kind. He was the best of us. He was a good person but, sadly, the light and hope in his life left him yesterday evening. To say that we, as a community, are absolutely distraught would be an understatement. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. We always need to have hope and to be able to reach out to the Samaritans or whoever we can, because there has to be a better way.
I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, on bringing Grace's law to Cabinet in recent days.
A number of us about the tragic passing of Grace Lynch last week and people indicated that they wanted something to be done. This just shows that where there is a will and support, things can happen. It was good to hear the Minister talking about that matter this morning. Since 2023, over 1,000 scramblers have been taken off the road. It is not that nothing was happening, but it is important that stringent laws are put in place to seize scramblers and to make our roads safer.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04