An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-30 ============================================================ Garret Ahearn (FG), Administrative Panel It is UEFA really that makes the decision on it. It has happened already. I cannot remember who Israel played against but it has happened already. I know it is in discussions with other countries in terms of how to deal with it from a security perspective. If you talk to Israel, the country it is most frustrated with is Ireland in terms of what we have done against Israel and in support of Palestine. I support Deputy Andrews on the flotilla and I will make sure the Department of foreign affairs is aware of his concerns and worries for the Irish citizens. We have done a lot and we will do more. I am with him on the occupied territories Bill as well. Senator Martin Conway called for a debate on disability in sport. He has always been very vocal on this. I will speak to the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. The sports capital grants are due to be announced quite soon. With regard to the terms of reference of the sports capital grant, it is important that we make sure funding is available for people with disabilities in sport. There are so many examples right across the country of inspiring people who have disabilities and who can achieve great things in sport. The more funding they get, the better opportunities they have. Senator Conway and I know Peter Ryan in Tipperary who became visually impaired and had a great career in cycling afterwards. He is a real inspiration for a lot of people around the country. He is one example of many people. Senator Harmon spoke about cancer care in Ireland and had very worrying information that 80% of the radiation machines in the country are due to be out of date in the next two years. She has called for a national plan to fund this. I will speak to the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, on this. Obviously we cannot have radiation machines that are not working or fit for purpose. We put so much money into the Department of Health, with funding more than doubling in the past ten or 15 years. At the very least, we need machines that actually work. As the Senator said, 50% of cancer patients have to use these radiation machines. Senator Brady spoke about the Irish sheepdog team and the very strange situation whereby they are not allowed to fly the Irish flag. Listening to what the Senator said, and it is important that he has highlighted the issue in the Chamber, this is stopping someone from expressing their identity. At whatever level it is, people should be able to be proud of where they are from and have the flag they feel is for where they are from. Surely there has to be some sort of compromise in this. We do not really have this situation in rugby, which is a prime example of a sport where some players on the team identify differently from the majority of the team. However, there is a compromise in that. Every game they play, the Irish flag is flying the whole time so I cannot see why the Irish national sheepdog team cannot find some sort of compromise. Senator Ronan Mullen spoke about the 9,000 additional doctors that are going to be needed over the next 20 years. This is an obvious example of the need to invest in education to get more doctors to come through the system to meet that requirement. This is one of many issues that the Government and future governments will have to deal with when dealing with an ageing population. It is great that the average lifespan of a person in Ireland is 82 years. It is higher than most EU countries. However, that comes with other challenges for the Government to deal with. It is important that it does that. I suggest to Senator Mullen that he table a Commencement matter on the issue and I am sure the Minister would be happy to respond. The final contribution was from Senator McCormack who spoke about domestic violence. It is shocking that 65,000 calls are made to the Garda. The Senator said there was just over 1,600 in her county of Laois. A lot of this stems from the Covid period four or five years ago. It has really come to the surface. In fairness to the previous Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, she did a lot of work on domestic violence and abuse towards women in hidden environments and trying to support them. In County Tipperary we have a really good women's refuge called Cuan Saor. The numbers of people they are dealing with has gone to record levels in the past number of years. They have received good investment from Government, which is welcome, but it does not match what is needed to deal with this. In the long term there is an educational perspective on this in terms of how men need to treat women. We think this exists in other countries and cultures but it is right on our doorstep, given there are 65,000 calls made. Some of those could be repeat calls but either way, it is a hell of a lot of calls against predominantly men committing this. It is not always but it is predominantly men committing this. To think that number of people across the country are affected means it needs to be highlighted more, funded more and supported more. As the Senator said, gardaí need to be more training to deal with this. That concludes the Order of Business. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:53+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-30