Very good.

If I could make mention since the Minister of State has raised the issue, I was unaware when I came in that there had been a tragedy. I had been working in my office. Last weekend, I went down to the memorial site in Drinagh Business Park because on 8 December it will be the 20th anniversary. Some local people have organised a commemorative event to mark 20 years since that awfulness of opening that truck container in the business park in Drinagh, just outside Wexford town, to find dead bodies, and living people to…

May I make an observation first?

My apologies, I did not see the Deputy there.

This is the one controversial part of the proposals. Like Deputy Connolly, I read the Seanad debate in some detail. Section 9's humanitarian assistance defence, as I said on Second Stage, is of the utmost importance. It would be absolutely unacceptable to anybody in this House, Government or Opposition, if humanitarian organisations or those who were directly involved in providing humanitarian assistance were in any way criminalised. The Minister of State explained in his Second Stage contribution that the reason f…

However, there is no guillotine motion on this either.

Thus we can simply adjourn the debate.

That is fine.

Deputy Connolly makes a very strong point. There is a need to fix an obvious problem with the existing legislation. It has again been indicated, and the Minister of State indicated in his speech on Second Stage, that only two prosecutions for smuggling have happened in the past 20 years. That is preposterous. If that is correct, it is a clear indication our laws in this regard need altering. The question is how we ensure those who are exploiting and smuggling people for profit are prosecuted to the extent of the la…

Will the Minister set out the action he and his EU colleagues have taken to date, and, more importantly, will take, to address the growing humanitarian crisis on the border of the EU and Belarus where, as everybody will be aware, thousands of men, women and children are trapped in dreadful conditions?

I thank the Minister for his reply. It is well and good to denounce the dreadful Lukashenko regime in Belarus. He is clearly a tyrant with no democratic legitimacy, but the problem is for the thousands of people who are now, as one migrant described, a football being kicked between Lukashenko and the border protectors of the EU. The Minister is right to increase the pressure and sanctions against the Belarus regime and Lukashenko, in particular. I understand the outreach to countries of origin to diminish the flow,…

It is perfectly understandable. The EU did not bring those people there. However it is disingenuous for the Minister to say that they are on the Belarusian side. They are standing looking at coils of barbed wire, yards away from the European Union. The Union cannot say that they are not ours and we have no responsibility there.

Well, that is the point that the Minister made. He said they are not being pushed between two.

I quoted one of the Iraqi migrants. He said that he felt like a football. His opinion is more valid than the Minister's or mine in how he feels in that condition. Of course the Lukashenko regime has to be challenged on every level. However, I have seen pictures of the Polish authorities denying access to its border to do a humanitarian assessment. What specifically is the intention of the EU in respect of these people? Is it to allow them some form of processing as migrants or is it simply the expectation that they…

What is the intention about the people who are there?

We are all aware of the historic importance and significant of the Curragh military camp, presumably none more so than the Acting Chairman, Deputy Berry. I want to ask the Minister to set out his plans for the development of this important national facility, including the capital allocations and the specifics of what he proposes to do.

I thank the Minister for his reply as he needs to set out exactly what he is intending to do. If I understand the reply correctly, the Government expects to spend €16.5 million on the Curragh Camp in 2022. I know that in the other House the Minister previously described the Curragh Camp as the flagship of our military establishment and while many people will agree with him on that, there are issues. There are 43 derelict buildings in the Curragh Camp. What is his plan for those? If a camp has 43 derelict buildings,…

I welcome the Minister's assurances on this but he will accept that the public image when visiting a camp is important and the fact that there are 43 derelict buildings is not acceptable. That should be prioritised. The important new developments he outlined to the House are significant and important, but the basics are more important. This includes providing adequate showering facilities for all personnel. The old adage relating to a fur coat and no underwear comes to mind. We need to ensure we provide adequate ho…

The issue of land transfer is not.

I am glad to have an opportunity to say a few words on this rather unusual legislation. First, I must refer to the Minister's final scripted sentence, which was, "Time is short – we have just under two weeks." I welcomed her back yesterday but, in her absence, I raised on numerous occasions with the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, the fact that a series of Bills was introduced here to transpose EU directives, some of which dated back almost 20 years. We were told that we had to do it because there was a dea…