An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-10 ============================================================ Garret Ahearn (FG), Administrative Panel The VAT rate was introduced to support hairdressers in particular. I accept people who are out of work for a long time do not know where to go or for what they qualify. That is our job. We should promote that more. I find that is what we do when we are in our constituencies. Senator Pauline Tully spoke about ash dieback in Cavan. A Commencement matter with the Minister would be worthwhile because there is a financial support package for people who have ash dieback. It does not apply to hedges along roads. It could be worthwhile to bring the Minister in on a Commencement matter. Senator Sarah O'Reilly spoke about the Bill before the Dáil today regarding counselling notes that can be shared with representatives of alleged perpetrators in courts. The Bill will come to the Seanad and we will have an opportunity to have that debate. Senator Aubrey McCarthy spoke about the Irish Rail IT project and listed five or six projects that have been overpriced or which were not value for money. However, there have been a lot of value-for-money projects that have been completed on time for less than the allocated money. The obvious example is broadband. It was delivered on budget and on time. There are a lot of road projects that have been delivered on budget and on time, albeit I accept that he named a number of projects where that has not been the case. All of these matters can always be dealt with at the public accounts committee. Where there is public spend, the committee can bring anyone in to seek accountability. Senator Linda Nelson Murray spoke about Tidy Towns and how well Navan was doing in comparison to its neighbours in the county. That happens everywhere. In my village in Tipperary, we always compare ourselves to our neighbouring villages and whether we beat them every year. Obviously, that encourages more people to get out to help their community, which is important. Stickers from vapes being put on bins is a simple thing. It seems so small but if it is constantly done, it has a big impact. We will talk to the Minister for the environment, Deputy O’Brien, to see whether we can get something done on it. As the Senator said, it is like chewing gum. People need to be aware of the visual impact it has on the area. Senator Eileen Lynch spoke about the INTO briefing. A good Tipperary man, Brendan Horan, is now the president of the INTO. Its ask for an increase in teacher numbers to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio is reasonable. Obviously, there has been huge investment at a capital level in education. Over the number of years when the Minister, Deputy Foley, held this portfolio, there were reductions in the number of pupils per class. The more we do and the better we do, the better kids’ education in schools will be. That is what we are all fighting for. It is a good opportunity for the Minister, Deputy Naughton, as the new Minister for education, to come to the Chamber to have a pre-budget debate on this. We will try to make that possible. Senator Rónán Mullen raised LGBT colours being used in public buildings. He answered it himself at the end when he responded to Senator Andrews. In this building, the committees on Members’ interests make decisions on behalf of all of us. There are groups within different public Departments that make decisions. One person alone does not decide to put up a flag. With regard to costs, I cannot imagine it is a great cost to a Department or this building to put up a flag, whether it is the Ukrainian, European or LGBT flag. Everyone has different views on this, and I totally respect that. Certainly, in this building, we have colleagues who are on the committees on Members’ interests who make decisions on our behalf. Senator Joe Flaherty raised the retirement of Dr. Ali and the contract for his replacement. An agreement was put in place that there would be three half days included to service the area of Lanesborough, but that is not being done. Obviously, if it is in the contract, it should be followed through on. The Senator may wish to discuss this with the Minister because it is not something we would have a debate on in this House. He could submit a Commencement matter on it. I am more than happy to write to the Minister on the Senator’s behalf to deal with it. As the Senator said, if we can fight the Rotunda to follow through on contracts, it should happen in Longford or anywhere else. --- 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/2026-06-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:02+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-10