Gabhaim míle buíochas le the Acting Chairperson for allowing me to come out here to contribute. I was supposed to be in the Chair so I appreciate that and once I am finished here I will allow her to go down to her seat because I am sure she will have something to say about this Bill. I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and I acknowledge that he makes many visits here. It is nice to see a Minister coming to the Seanad. Fianna Fáil welcomes this debate and we are supporting the Bill as part of the Government. There…

I thank the Minister, his officials and Senators for their contributions.

When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

In the Public Gallery, as guests of Deputy Grealish, we have students from Claregalway. I am a Roscommon man so I know them well. They are very welcome. We are just about to finish proceedings for the weekend and a little Hallowe'en break. I hope they enjoy their stay around the Houses and I thank them for coming to the Seanad. I was going to say there will be no homework next week but that will not work because it is the mid-term break. I thank Ms Bridget Doody and the other staff of the Houses. When is it propose…

Is that agreed? Agreed.

There is an eerie silence around here today because we are all genuinely in deep shock after what has happened in recent events. You look at the blood-splattered faces of kids on the TV, whether they are in Israel or Gaza, and you see them holding on to one another so tightly with fear written all over their faces. I have kept some of those pictures and every night, no matter what time I finish, I look at them. It just rips me apart. I advise the Minister of State to go back to that because you then realise that it…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for seeing the importance of this Commencement matter and for allowing it to be discussed. I really appreciate that. I thank the Minister of State for being here to speak about this national school issue. Keadue National School in County Roscommon is a two-teacher school with a current enrolment of 48 pupils. The pupil enrolment has doubled in the past two years, which is great. The school is, however, now at crisis stage in terms of staffing. The school made an application to the Departme…

I thank the Minister of State. After I compiled the figures I gave him, I received a telephone call to say there is even further good news in that a family is moving into the village with three children eligible to attend the national school. I did not include them in my figures. That family will not be resident in the village for approximately five weeks. I welcome the decision to which the Minister of State referred. It is really important that when that decision is implemented, which may be this week or next, we…

On my own behalf and on behalf of the Senators, I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, to the House. I call on Senator Ollie Crowe, who has eight minutes.

When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank the Minister of State, his officials, Seanadóirí, the staff of the House and the ushers, who are here with us during all our debates and who are of the utmost help to us all.

I echo the sentiments of Senator Martin with regard to Israel and the Gaza Strip, and all that is happening. The cruel things that happened at the weekend were hard to comprehend in any way. I wish to dwell for a few moments on the budget. I am sure that many people are sick and tired at this stage of hearing about the budget but I wish to rebut the argument that the agriculture budget was reduced. The agriculture budget was not reduced. Let me explain. There is a budget of almost €2 billion there. Last year €250 m…

I am not bringing in another item at all. This is part of-----

No I am not.

I do not want to get into an argument with the Cathaoirleach but I am talking about the cost of fuel in the context of people in rural areas and farmers. I am talking about the budget now.

I thank the Cathaoirleach. If a farmer has a sick calf or a sick lamb down in rural Ireland, one cannot put them under one's arm and jump onto a Local Link bus. The farmer will need to use his or her jeep, car and trailer to go to the vet. That is the reality. That is what the farmers need to do-----

I do worry about the cost of taxes on fuels.

I ask for a few minutes of the Deputy Leader's time to speak about the difficulties people have in getting support to put solar panels onto their houses. I held two clinics recently, one in Ballinasloe and one in north Roscommon. In all, I had 14 people. Eight of the queries were from people who simply cannot afford to do this work. Basically, to have any saving on electricity, one needs to spend about €15,000, from some research I have done. The grant is for €2,500. It is completely inadequate. If we are really to…