Tonight's Private Members' motion is linked to a €4 million donation provided to Sinn Féin which, according to the estate of William Hampton, is "for the political party in the Republic of Ireland known at this time as Sinn Féin". I really believe Sinn Féin has some real questions to ask itself and a chance to look at its moral compass, if one even exists, and decide what it will do with a €4 million donation. If the spotlight had not been shone on this matter and if it had disappeared into the ether what would hav…

The Railway Accident and Investigation Unit, RAIU, is the independent railway accident investigation organisation for Ireland. It deals essentially with investigations of incidents and accidents on the national railway network, including the DART, the Luas and industrial and heritage railways. An investigation is carried out for the improvement of railway safety thereafter, establishing the cause of the incidents with the ultimate view of producing safety recommendations that would effectively avoid similar types o…

I was discussing the issue of high-speed rail between the two largest cities on this island, Belfast and Dublin. There are eight direct trains now between those two cities whereas, in comparison, places in the UK involving similar distances, like Liverpool and Manchester or Edinburgh or Glasgow, have between 22 and 32 trains a day. The first train to leave Belfast is at 7 a.m. It arrives in Dublin Connolly, at 8.50 a.m. If one is leaving Dundalk at the same time, it leaves at 8 a.m. and takes 55 minutes. Any train …

As the Minister has to come back in at 1.14 p.m., we have exactly 56 minutes for our seven speakers who have asked to contribute. I ask them to stick to their speaking time of six minutes to ensure that everyone will get in. I call Senator Fitzpatrick.

I apologise to Senators Warfield and Moynihan for calling Senator Byrne before those two spokespersons.

We have 16 minutes remaining and a number of speakers indicating. Senators Cummins and Kyne have kindly agreed to share time, with three minutes each. Are Senators Crowe and O'Loughlin also willing to share time with three minutes each?

Excellent.

I apologise again to Senators Moynihan and Warfield for mixing up the sequence. I am sure I will not be let back into the Chair after that mistake.

You have 15 minutes. I apologise, the Minister has six minutes. I will not be picked as an Acting Chairman again. I will hand over to a more experienced Senator.

The point I will make has nothing to do with the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who is the Government representative in the House today. I have spent the past two days listening to Senators from all sides talk about rushing through legislation. Senator Ward spoke eloquently on this just now. It becomes a little like the boy who cried wolf when we continuously argue that Bills are emergency legislation which we need to get through. As a Government Senator, I find it increasingly difficult to continually defend e…

My apologies. The Senator argued that the regulations may affect the solidarity of people. I do not believe it will. I believe it will actually enhance people's solidarity as I will explain. People have often said to me that they and their family are abiding by the rules and breaking their backs to do the right thing, yet they constantly see people on Facebook and other social media going out of their way to flout the regulations. They ask why there is no deterrent for those people, and why are they not being fined…

That is why this legislation is needed. Senators McDowell and Ward and others have pointed out various flaws. That is a problem that arises when Bills are rushed through the House in a day but I still fully support the Bill. One of the things I find most galling about the anti-mask protests, which I saw on the day I was caught up in one, is the use of our national flag, the tricolour. These self-described patriots are the opposite of patriots. The real patriots are the doctors, nurses, teachers and front-line staff…

What I would like to raise today is the importance of urban regeneration funding for the provincial towns around the country and I will use my own home town of Dundalk as a case in point. The Bridge Street-Linenhall Street area has been a neglected part of Dundalk for the past 40-odd years for various different reasons. It is a part of the town of Dundalk that has the most sincere and genuine sense of community. Other parts of my town have benefited from urban regeneration funding over the past couple of years but …

I thank the Minister of State for finishing bang on time.

The Cathaoirleach is the guy with the experience on the Capitol, that is for sure. I raise the concept of teachers who are considered to be extremely high risk, due to medical issues, and who continue to have to work in our schools. I spoke with a teacher in my home county, Louth, during the week and again this morning as I drove to this House. She is based in a part of County Louth where she is dealing with students who are coming from Dublin, County Meath and County Louth, so that is three different geographical …

Yesterday in the Dáil, the Minister said the climate crisis is the greatest crisis facing our generation. As a result of my role in this Chamber as the Fine Gael Seanad spokesperson on climate action, I wish to focus the majority of my remarks on the climate action measures we put forward in the budget yesterday. The budget had measures in it that were transformative in terms of the green aspect. It will help us to make the move as a society towards a green economy and, more importantly, a low-carbon society. We di…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. To get to the nub of the point I want to make, teachers and parents have made huge sacrifices in the classroom and at home in dealing with the new reality and the new era of Covid. I want to speak about what happens in the event of a level 5 situation. I accept that there is a firm commitment for schools to remain open, even in a level 5 situation. The continuation of education is important no matter the cost. The purpose of this Commencement matter is to ascer…

I thank the Minister of State for the very substantial response. The most important part of it is the last couple of sentences in which he confirmed guidelines will be published in the next couple of days or within the next week on how the continuation of education will happen. It is important that that guidance is published as soon as possible. We acknowledge that schools need to be agile in an ever-evolving situation. We allow schools to be agile by providing them with as much information as soon as possible so t…

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to the Seanad for a debate on air pollution and air quality on the island of Ireland. At this point in time, four people are dying in Ireland a day as a direct result of complications from poor air quality and one in five children suffers from asthma because of it. The roll-out of a nationwide ban on smoky solid fuel would significantly help reduce air pollution on this island. Detailed research has shown that air pollution l…

Some Members spoke for 1 minute and 20 seconds more than their allotted time, which was rude, but I will stick to the time in deference to the Acting Chairman. As we have been delayed again because Senators spoke for too long I will scrap what I was going to say and focus on one issue. Senator Elisha McCallion is absolutely correct in her call for an all-island approach to tackle Covid. That is the one and only time in my career in this House, however long I will be here, that I will agree with Sinn Féin. The Senat…