Well, I most certainly did.

With regard to the Bill, the idea of one constituency - I will come back to this - is absolutely unmanageable and would lead to a kind of gerrymandering because young people would be gerrymandered out of the process. There are references to various institutions in the Bill but I think it should now be the technological university that is mentioned. There is no question that the register is defective but there is no solution. Young people get jobs, move around, go to England or America, come back, go off on holidays…

I have asked Trinity College several times to give us access to the email addresses of constituents. I do not see why it would not. It is a way of communicating with them. I would like that to be included in the Bill. We should have access to the identities and email addresses of our constituents. That would make democracy considerably better. The Bill states, "In order to be eligible to be nominated as a candidate for the institutions of higher education constituency, the person shall be required to hold a requisi…

That is a fairly big amount. I would not like to have to contact 800,000. I know we get postage-----

I certainly would. That is another issue. I was going to ask what happened to the envelopes. I recall when we got 2,500 envelopes; that is now down to 350. That is absolute nonsense, particularly for people like myself who use the envelopes to contact constituents with newsletters.

I commend Senator O'Loughlin on bringing forward the Bill, which is very necessary. I am unusual, at least I hope I am unusual, in the House, in that I have personally known nine men to have been murdered. Among them I include Declan Flynn, with whom I was quite friendly. Declan was a shy young man. He worked in Aer Lingus. He went to Bartley Dunne's, which was a gay pub at the time. Some of his colleagues from work were there on a jaunt and saw him and started teasing him about it. He was ashamed and he never went…

I said "effing".

Anyway, I thought this was rather odd because I was the one who was supposed to be unbalanced, ill, abnormal and so on yet here was this creature ringing me up. Many years ago, one of the free newspapers in Galway put out an edition which was full of homophobic rhetoric. It was violent, aggressive and appalling. I tried to get that looked at by the Director of Public Prosecutions and I was told that there was no basis for doing that because there was no hate crime. That is a good illustration of how it is very nece…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan. I was a little taken aback when, as I understood it, Senator Cassells attempted to draw a comparison between the university seats and President Donald Trump. I have heard everything now. My God almighty. I have been campaigning for Seanad reform for more than 40 years and the parties did bugger all about it.

I know the Senator did, but the parties are the ones who are responsible for it. I have been campaigning for it. Among the points I made all the time is that the University of Limerick and Dublin City University, DCU, should be included. Of course they should. I have some reservations about this business of diplomas, which I noted is not defined in the definitions section. We do not know what a diploma is or where it comes from. If one looks at the definition of a university, as I understand it, and I taught in a u…

I am a young 76. I think that is a point worth making. I do not know whether it is true, but I was told that neither Fine Gael nor Fianna Fáil is supporting this Bill. We will wait to see. That would be interesting in and of itself. I have campaigned over many years for reform of the Seanad and I would like real reform, that is, reform of the entire institution. I think that is unlikely for the reasons I have stated, but there we are. In any case, we did manage to save this House. It is a very good thing for this c…

Hear, hear.

Normally in this House, we raise the death of former Members or distinguished public figures but today I raise the death of a six-year-old boy, Cathal Martin. Cathal died on 10 October. He suffered from metachromatic leukodystrophy. He was extremely fortunate in his loving and caring family: his father Les, mother Linda, brother Ciaran and sister Holly. Some weeks ago, I introduced the National Screening Advisory Committee Bill 2020 in the House, which would allow for the screening of up to 40 disorders and save th…

That is all I need. I welcome the Minister to Seanad Éireann. I have been contacted by a constituent who is concerned about this matter. She is concerned about the apparent lack of consultation and I wonder if the Minister will comment on that. The other issue is that all the administrative files which show how the abusive system worked will be withheld. That is a mistake. My view is that people should be entitled to information about their background. That is a natural and absolute human right. Under the Bill, som…

Hear, hear.

This is a most unusual budget, which was introduced in the face of the coronavirus. For a start, that makes it extremely unusual and extraordinary. We are extremely fortunate to have this Government in place, in particular this Minister for Finance. The Minister knows very well I would say very clearly if I thought he was useless, but I have watched his career with great interest since the days when he sat in front of me here in Seanad Éireann. I remember his very clear grasp of financial matters, which was extreme…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I should first explain my appearance. I was in hospital yesterday and I had a surgical procedure to remove some blemishes from my forehead, as a result of which I look as if I had measles. I want to assure colleagues that I am not infectious and that I do not have measles. I realise also this has been a very busy day for the Minister. I greatly appreciate that he has taken the trouble on such a very busy day because of Covid-19 to b…

I supported abortion rights.

Today will do.

We got rid of it.