I congratulate the new Leader of this House on his appointment by the Government as its representative in the House. I know he will do an excellent job and be balanced and fair at all times. I had the pleasure of meeting his family last week and I could see that his father, his wife and their two beautiful children were bursting with pride on his appointment. It is a great honour not only for him but for them and his supporters throughout the country. I wish him very well. Senator Craughwell raised a very important…

Now.

Now.

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House on this very important issue. Like my colleague, Senator O’Donovan, I have to apologise on behalf of our spokesperson, Senator Niall Blaney, who is at another political event and cannot be here. He asked me to put a few points on the record, which I will do to the best of my ability. First, he wants to welcome the fact that the Government has put in place a €100 million fuel support scheme to assist farmers, agriculture contractors and fishers who are facing unprece…

J. P.

Next Wednesday, 6 May at 2 p.m.

I wish to share time with my colleague Senator Gallagher, four minutes and four minutes.

I welcome the Minister back to the House. This is her second time here in three weeks, which is a great start. That is more time in the Seanad than some of her predecessors spent in an entire session of this House. She is very welcome. She has definitely hit the ground running and I congratulate her on that. Like Senators Kyne and Craughwell and other colleagues, I was delighted to be in Galway two weeks ago to witness the presentation by the Minister and the Chief of Staff of distinguished service medals to Fr. Pa…

I move: “That Seanad Éireann: recognises that: - Irish people take great pride in our Defence Forces and the contribution made by the Permanent Defence Force, the Reserve Defence Force and by Civil Defence; - the single greatest asset the Defence Forces has is its personnel; and welcomes: - significant progress on pay for the Defence Forces with the most recent increase awarded in August 2025; - payment of recruits on completion of training of €41,880 in Year 1, a 51 per cent increase since 2019; - payment of a Cad…

I welcome the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to the House. This is the first opportunity I have had to do so in her new capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Minister for Defence. I wish her well in the years ahead in that position. I welcome the opportunity to speak on an issue that goes to the very foundation of our sovereignty and security. It is a topic we do not debate sufficiently, but we can be proud in this Chamber that we speak about it more often than most. We do so with the benefit of extensi…

I welcome my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Timmy Dooley, to the House, which will be very familiar to him as he started off here. You could call this place the reserve space for Deputy Dooley before he became a permanent Member of the other place.

I started off the debate by saying to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, that defence debates in this place are rational, informed and grounded in the realities of today's world and that I had no doubt but that this would be the case again today. I am glad to report that this has been an excellent debate on defence matters. I thank each and every one of my colleagues who contributed to it. I acknowledge that we benefit here from the expertise of people who have practical experience of membership of the Defence Forces, a…

Now.

On that, a Leas-Chathaoirligh-----

Senator Alice-Mary Higgins should withdraw the accusation that you deliberately stayed outside-----

You did say it. That is exactly what you said.

I have just come from a presentation on pancreatic cancer in the audiovisual room, which the Leader and other colleagues, including Senator Boyhan, also attended. It was hosted by our colleague, Senator Mark Duffy. Today, we mark World Pancreatic Cancer Day, a day to shed light on one of the most aggressive and least understood cancers. Pancreatic cancer is often called the silent disease because symptoms like abdominal pain, weight loss and fatigue can be mistaken for something minor. That silence is deadly. Most …

Go raibh maith agat.

I will be brief. I am representing my colleague, Senator Gallagher, who is on his way here but may not make it in time. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, to the House and thank him for his comprehensive contribution on the motion. Fianna Fáil fully supports the motion. I agree with Senator Kelleher on the difficulties with putting in place CCTV systems to, for instance, find out who is dumping illegally. There is also difficulty in providing CCTV footage coverage in many towns. Data protection or GDP…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As context for this Commencement matter, on Easter Sunday morning just past, 20 April, I was awakened in my house by what I thought was a car alarm. However, I quickly realised it was the sound of a number of smoke alarms going off. While there was no indication of any smoke in the house at the time, because the alarms were going off, I went around the bedrooms first, then downstairs to the living room and kitchen. It was only as I was making my way back upstairs I got …