An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-26 ============================================================ Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel I start today by congratulating Deputy Kyne. It was a privilege to work with him as Leader of the Seanad. I have no doubt that I speak for all of the Senators across the House when I mention his sense of fairness to everybody. His office was always open, his phone was always ready to deal with an issue or a problem that anyone had, and he carried the role with great dignity. I wish him very well in his time back in the Dáil. I wish to raise the wonderful campaign being carried out by Jordan and Cian Adams in raising awareness for frontotemporal dementia. Through their remarkable marathon challenge across Ireland, the brothers have raised really significant awareness as well as over €1 million for dementia research and support services after tragically losing their mum to the illness. I know that the campaign has resonated really strongly right across the country. Tomorrow, we are looking forward to welcoming Jordan and Cian in Kildare where we expect very large crowds to turn out to support them on the second last day of their journey through the country. The support that has been shown around the campaign really shows the strength and depth of compassion and solidarity that exists in Ireland for families affected by dementia. Unfortunately, both Jordan and Cian carry the inherited gene linked to the condition but they have transformed their huge personal tragedy into a campaign of hope, awareness and fundraising that has inspired so many. I would like to ask the Minister of State with responsibility for older people to come to the House to outline and debate what further investment and supports are being considered for dementia research, awareness campaigns and services for families living with neurological illnesses. I commend Dublin Bus on its recent Books on Board book club initiative aimed at encouraging reading among commuters. When people are spending long hours commuting every day, the joy of being able to pick up a book and leave back a book is really important. It helps make it a far more positive and engaging experience, while promoting Irish literature and providing books at a discounted price. It has been a positive initiative, and we would like to see more of it. I would also like the Acting Leader to ask the Minister for Education and Youth to outline how similar community-based initiatives can continue to be supported, including supporting young people reading at an early stage. There was a presentation in the audiovisual room approximately two or three weeks ago about the importance of reading and of libraries having new books. I hope that will be addressed in the budget. It is important that we ask the Minister to come in to look at these initiatives that promote reading across public transport and across the community. --- 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/2026-05-26/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-26