I move amendment No. 38: In page 24, to delete lines 7 and 8 and substitute the following: “(a) subject to paragraph (b), three times in each year at intervals of not more than 4 months, and”.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for taking this Commencement matter. There was a very good article in The Guardian before Christmas about an Irish woman, Isabella Walsh from Limerick. A previous article in The Guardian inspired her to return her late father's collection of 19th century African and Aboriginal objects to their countries of origin. She is from Limerick and 39 years of age. She contacted embassies and consulates in Dublin and London to repatriate ten objects her father had in…

I thank the Minister of State, and the Minister, Deputy Martin, and her officials in the Department for the update. I wish the advisory committee well, including Lynn Scarff, the director of the National Museum of Ireland, and Virginia Teehan, the chief executive of the Heritage Council, and all of the folks on the advisory committee. I wish them all the best. It is a complex issue; of that there is no doubt. It is heartening to see the Department place an emphasis on public awareness around these issues. I almost …

I raise the issue of licensing laws. Last year, in May or June, Sinn Féin brought forward a Private Members' motion urging the Government to save the night-time economy. Fine Gael has made a lot of political capital out of announcement after announcement but still there has been no change. The response from the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to a parliamentary question last November stated that it was now the intention to bring forward "a shorter Bill to provide for key reforms including the standardisation of opening h…

At last, we have a breakthrough in the negotiations in the North of Ireland and we all expect the Assembly will elect a new Executive before the 8 February deadline. That will mean Northern institutions will be back up and running. There will be a fully functioning Assembly and an Executive, as well as the full operation of the Good Friday Agreement. The democratic outcome of the Assembly elections in 2022 will at last be respected. Thankfully, the DUP has moved to explicitly recognise and respect the outcome of th…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The Coroners (Amendment) Bill will ensure that an appropriate number of coroners can be recruited to operate in the Dublin district and ensure that additional temporary coroners can be appointed to the Dublin district and other districts, if required. It is an urgent Bill to ensure the smooth running of the Coroner Service in dealing with personnel-related issues. The Bill will also ensure greater security of tenure for coroners in the Dublin district and transparency i…

I send apologies on behalf of Senator Gavan, who cannot be here, but I know he will be here with our amendments next week or the week after that. This is a hugely important matter for the people of Limerick. This could have been a Bill that offered meaningful reform of local government and local government in Limerick with real powers and real influence but it does not. What is offered is a ceremonial position and a ceremonial mayor. I cannot imagine any other local authority in our State aspiring to this reform. I…

I thank the Green Party for those very kind remarks and I will be sure to pass them on to Niall Ó Donnghaile. It was very generous of Senator Martin. I call for a debate on emigration. Between July 2022 and July 2023, some 21,000 visas were issued to Irish citizens going to Australia. That is double the number the previous year and it makes Ireland the highest recipient of those visas per capita . It is no surprise that people are leaving because housing consumes absolutely everything, affecting the ability to live…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter, which I also raised as a Commencement matter in 2021. I have heard of no progress to date, so I hope that today the Minister of State will have an update for me. The National Library of Ireland is a depository where publications are sent to record the history of the State, but it does not have the same legal responsibility when it comes to digital content and websites. Today, I want to quote the former director of the National Library of Ireland, San…

The Minister of State said that section 108 of the 2019 Act provided that the Government would bring forward a report on the feasibility of establishing a digital legal deposit scheme. Does she know if that report was brought forward and, if not, could she ask the Minister? Would she be able to find that out for me if I cannot find it out myself? I note that section 29 of the copyright Act introduced a provision for copyright libraries to request a publisher to deposit a copy of a digital publication first publishe…

David has been a towering political campaigner, academic and historian. He is the longest serving Member of this House for good reason. I recall reading that his love of performance came partly from his first experiences in the Players Theatre at Trinity College Dublin, but I think it was a meeting of the Sexual Liberation Movement, SLM, in 1973 that seeded his gay rights activism. Like most gay men and women, he knew he was gay from the age of nine, and once described going to bed crying and praying it was all a m…

-----who was responsible for introducing David to that group, I believe, as well as Mary Dorcey, Hugo McManus, Margaret McWilliams and Michael Kerrigan. The SLM campaigned on a wide platform of reform around abortion, divorce, contraception and gay rights. With Belfast's Gay Liberation Society, SLM hosted Ireland's first symposium on homosexuality in February 1974. Within a year of that, there were organisations right across the island, including in Belfast and Dublin. The Senator was instrumental in founding the I…

I plan to speak on the thirty-ninth amendment to the Constitution, on the family, and my colleague, Lynn Boylan, will speak to the fortieth amendment, on care. As a member of the special Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality, I played a very active role throughout 2022 on these issues, as did Senators Alice-Mary Higgins, Lisa Chambers, Regina Doherty and Pauline O'Reilly. I commend the committee Chair, Deputy Ivana Bacik, all the members, the secretariat and the witnesses who came before it. Our job was to examin…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this matter. I am delighted to have the chance to talk about our national cultural institutions, particularly the National Library of Ireland, which on 20 November was granted permission by Dublin City Council for the redevelopment of the Kildare Street west wing refurbishment. The last time I asked out the national cultural institutions on a Commencement matter was 26 May, so I am delighted to be here this year to talk about the NLI. I was looking over the application to Dub…

It is certainly not the Minister of State's fault but the Minister, Deputy Martin, and the Department have spectacularly avoided answering the only question that I asked on when construction will begin. All I can do is encourage the Department and say that I am sure they have the support of this House. The refurbishment of the National Gallery of Ireland led the way. It is a beautiful redevelopment showing what can be achieved with investment. Many of these institutions have never seen overall redevelopment. Promis…

On behalf of the Sinn Féin team, I wish Tom Hickey all the best in his retirement. I hope he finds a new freedom and a new rhythm now and that he can finish all that has been left undone. I thank him for all his courtesy in his time here.

No worries.

I am just shooting the breeze here. Also on behalf of the Sinn Féin team, I wish everyone in these Houses a peaceful Christmas, especially the staff of the Seanad Office, Martin and Bridget, the staff in the Cathaoirleach's office, Members of all parties and none, the cleaners, the ushers, the catering staff, the bar staff, the gardaí onsite and off, the transcript team, and the staff of Bills Office and the OPLA. The list goes on. I wish everyone a merry Christmas. I raise an issue about education on Inishbofin. M…

I know this is a very sensitive issue, and I commend the motion and the proposers of motion, but I cannot help but think about the underfunding of the health service, particularly at a time of surplus. I cannot let the opportunity pass without criticising the decision to underfund the health services at a time of surplus. It is morally wrong. The hospitals named in the motion would probably love the opportunity to invest in improving services such as this and provide scalp cooling therapy during chemotherapy. I cal…

That is not a point of order.