Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I welcome the group from Mayo. I was going to talk about Irish Water but I want to return to the comments of Senator Mullen. I do have respect for the Senator, but it is very disturbing that he would see the Chamber as a fit place in which to raise his concerns. When he says there are two sides to a story, perhaps he should go to the other side to find out the story before he raises it in this forum.

How would you get it? You could go to the Taoiseach's office and ask why he left. We all know why you raised it and the purpose of raising it.

It is not genuine.

Anyone who has any understanding of press conferences knows that when a press conference is finished, journalists shout questions and it is pretty much 50:50 whether they are answered or not. They are not alone-----

They are not alone-----

They are not alone as journalists who do not get questions answered sometimes. To portray them as these individuals who are not being answered is totally untrue. Every week, politicians, Ministers and the Taoiseach answer questions - no matter how ridiculous some are - from the floor. It is very disingenuous.

I wish to raise an issue I have raised numerous times in this House, which relates to Irish Water and if we could have a debate with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about it. There is outage after outage of water services in Clonmel. People are at their wits' end. People are coming to and ringing our office the whole time. Sometimes, it might take four or five days to solve the problem and then it is gone again in two days. Clonmel has the most outages and disturbances of water services in the country. The co…

I ask the Deputy Leader to get information on when an announcement is likely to be made on sports capital funding. A lot of sports clubs across submitted legitimate and good applications. They are waiting and anxious to know if they will be successful.

An application of keen interest to me is that of Moyle Rovers GAA club just outside Clonmel. My colleague-----

My colleague, Councillor Michael Murphy, has been working hard on this project to do up the floodlights and get a new mower. The reason I raise Moyle Rovers is the service it provided to the State during Covid. Its facilities and premises were used during Covid as a test centre. Most people would assume the GAA club got money for providing its facilities but it did it free of charge for 18 months. It played a key role for the community in Clonmel and the surrounding area of south Tipperary. While all clubs deserve …

The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber. I thank him for taking this Commencement matter. It is an important one for me. It concerns the N24, which runs from Limerick to Waterford and is a key, strategic route. Work has been done on a future upgrade of the road. The work entails two sections, the first from Limerick Junction to Cahir and the second from Cahir to Waterford. The first is about a year ahead of the other and its proposed route is going through the design phase. The proposed route for the s…

I thank the Minister of State. I would appreciate it if he could take what I am about to say back to the Minister. The Department says the link roads cannot be viewed in isolation, but the Minister is doing that in the context of Tipperary town. On part of the road that is being constructed, the Minister has said that Tipperary town will be looked at in isolation in the context of a bypass of 7 km or 8 km for the town as opposed to the whole project. I am asking the Minister to look at Clonmel in isolation just has…

I thank the Cathaoirleach but correct him on his pronunciation of "Duhill". I welcome all my fellow Tipperary people. I am the only Tipperary person in the Seanad and we cannot have enough Tipperary people in here. I welcome them today. I know they are in good hands with Councillor Máirín McGrath and I hope they enjoy their visit. I am about to bring up a topic in which they might be interested. A number of people have recently come into my office in Clonmel to speak about their pensions. The Government increased p…

About two or three months ago, Transport for Ireland, TFI, introduced three Local Link bus routes in Clonmel, and this has been a huge success. Thousands of people in Clonmel have been using them, particularly over the Christmas period. The bus has got the nickname of the cruise as it brings people around from pubs to restaurants. It has been a real success in giving people options to come into the town centre to spend money, whether it be in a pub or in a restaurant, to go shopping or for pensioners to collect the…

Does Senator Higgins want a copy of the amendments?

Now.

Now.

I move: That, pursuant to subsection 2° of section 2 of Article 25 of the Constitution, Seanad Éireann concurs with the Government in a request to the President to sign the Digital Services Bill 2023 on a date which is earlier than the fifth day after the date on which the Bill shall have been presented to him.

Next Tuesday at 1 p.m.