That would be the one piece that I would really like to see happen. There is no doubt that we are completely congested at this stage. I will share the following little anecdote with the Minister. I love it when Ministers come to Galway We have to go into the university hospital to meet them and then they ask me for the quickest way to get out to another part of the city. There is nothing like putting them across the Quincentenary Bridge to get them caught for at least an hour to experience what every other person l…

Before I call the Minister, I welcome guests of Senator Fiona O'Loughlin in the Gallery. They are a group of ladies from Kildare who are celebrating International Women's Day. You are all very welcome here today. Women are the main topic of what we are discussing.

I thank the Minister. I call the proposer, Senator Nicole Ryan.

I thank the Acting Chair.

I do not mind at all. I thank the Minister. He is very welcome to the House this afternoon. I also welcome his opening comments. I thank John O'Meara for the tremendous effort he made and the diligence he showed at a time of great loss to him and his children. He found the composure to address the loss and he had the state of mind to recognise how more people could benefit and what the lack of recognition in legislation could mean. I am a person who had a loss also, but we were married. I cannot imagine what it is …

I move that the House suspends for ten minutes.

Next Tuesday.

I thank the Minister of State for attending and the Cathaoirleach for facilitating this debate. It is appreciated that we are having this conversation. I am glad to be joined this evening in the Public Gallery by my postmistress from Portumna, Sinead Salmon, and my former postmaster in Mountbellew, Peter Kitt. Listening to all the valuable contributions, and having a financial head myself, I was looking at the statistics. An Post assists in gathering €400 million when it comes to fraud, believe it or not. There is …

The compulsory purchase order, CPO, system is there to support development. I wish to raise a road that was developed in Galway, the N63. When a local authority serves a notice to treat, that is when it has entered into an arrangement, on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, or the National Transport Authority, NTA, to purchase land to develop it. In this instance, the notice to treat was served in 2014 but, to date, the landowners have not got paid. They have made numerous representations regarding wha…

We will now address the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2024 on Committee Stage. This has been restored from the previous Seanad, just to put it in context.

I thank Senator Ryan for a very powerful contribution this afternoon. Senator Noonan is indicating that he wants to contribute to the discussion on this amendment.

That is correct.

Thank you very much, Senator Kelleher. I welcome Norah Patten. I think that is her in the green in the corner. She is very welcome. She is Ireland's first woman astronaut and is the special guest in our Visitors Gallery. I thank her for joining us.

I thank the Senator for her powerful contribution. As it is Committee Stage, if people indicate, I will allow them to come back in.

I thank Senator Harmon. I welcome the Crumlin-Drimnagh group to the Gallery. I also see John Bourke, chairman of WALK, which is a fantastic disability organisation. He is accompanied by Deputy Ardagh. This also gives me the opportunity to thank Sarah Benson, the chief executive of Women's Aid, for being here for all the contributions today on the Bill and the very important amendment. It is great the Government has accepted it. Most speakers have used Women's Aid statistics in the context of their local area. I tha…

When is it proposed to take the next Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

When is it proposed to sit again?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Yesterday was a proud day for us in Portumna, where we opened the historic courthouse. That was thanks to the investment of rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, moneys. Some €3.2 million was spent on it, of which €2.9 million was allocated from the Department. This goes back to the then Minister, Michael Ring, fighting hard for recognition of the need to invest in rural Ireland. It continued under the former Minister, Heather Humphreys, and under the current Minister, Deputy Calleary. Reinventing these bu…