An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-25
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Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel

I add my voice of welcome to the Greek ambassador. I had the pleasure of visiting Olympia, the home of the ancient Olympics, which is a very special place indeed. We have to remind ourselves that the Irish Special Olympics is coming up in June. I know we support all of our athletes from all over the island of Ireland who will then be taking the opportunity to compete in the next Special Olympics World Summer Games, which will be in Chile. Athens actually hosted the 2011 Special Olympics. I had the opportunity to go there and was very appreciative, as was everybody, of the wonderful organisation that was put in place by Greece.
Speaking of sport, I offer my very best wishes to the Irish team ahead of their World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final tomorrow in Prague. It is a great honour for all of our footballers to represent our countries and to wear the green jersey and we are all very proud of their dedication and effort. Those of us who are older will remember the great spirit of Italia '90, a time when the country came together in hope and in belief. I know we are all united in looking for a positive result tomorrow.
The Cathaoirleach mentioned creativity and filmmaking and I am delighted to congratulate Sam Whelan and the talented young people from Patrician Secondary School and Holy Family Secondary School, Newbridge, on the success of their short film "The Wrong Jumper", which has been selected for the all-Ireland finals of the Young Irish Filmmaker of the Year competition organised by Fresh Film. It was nominated for the award for best comedy and also the overall Young Irish Filmmaker of the Year.
As part of the festival, the audience award goes to the film with the most views on the Fresh Film YouTube channel, so I encourage everyone here and everyone in Kildare and beyond to watch and share "The Wrong Jumper" and help these very talented young filmmakers bring home this award.
Coming up this morning I was heartened to see at some stations, though not all, the excise duty drop reflected in fuel costs. Obviously we want to see that panning out over the day but reducing the cost of petrol and diesel was a really important practical step that was made by Government. We absolutely need to offer much-needed relief to motorists, workers and to the many small businesses that rely on transport every day.
The final item I would like to mention relates to the Bord na Móna headquarters in Newbridge. A fabulous new state-of-the-art landmark building on Main Street in Newbridge. It is going to have five storeys. I had the opportunity to look around it recently. Bord na Móna is on quite a large site there and the buildings that are operating as offices at present are preserved. Bord na Móna is a semi-State company and I would like to see the Newbridge community being able to avail of the existing buildings that will not be in corporate use following the move to the new building. I tried to put it in as a Commencement matter but it was not appropriate for that. I would like a debate with the Minister on this in the House.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-25