I thank the Minister of State for taking the Bill and for allowing it to go forward. I am quite happy for further scrutiny. I am certainly happy for all of the issues in the legislation to be teased out. This is part of the reason I brought it forward in 2021. I appreciate that the Minister of State is acting on behalf of the Minister for Justice. When we went through Second Stage the Minister raised a lot of similar concerns and made a number of the same points but we have continued to see a number of these incide…

Today, as the Acting Leader will be aware, Ireland has taken a very significant decision, along with Norway and Spain, to formally recognise the state of Palestine. That formal recognition will take effect from next week, from 28 May. This has been a long process. In fact, looking back on the records, the late Brian Lenihan Snr., as far back as 1980, spoke about a two-state solution and about recognising the rights of both the Israeli and Palestinian people. I commend the Government on the decision and the work of …

I am opposed to-----

I thank the Minister for bringing forward this legislation. I have absolutely no doubt that the creation of these funds, at some stage in the future, will be viewed as one of his finest legacies. Indeed, it will have a profound impact on this country. I have no doubt - and I say this with respect to my colleague, Senator Warfield - that at some stage in the future, Sinn Féin will sing the praises of the creation of these funds. Much as the party changes its position on corporation tax, it will welcome these as long…

I can appreciate some of the principles that have informed Senator Clonan's amendment. I noted the typo. He previously proposed what we called the Homer amendments, but now seems to seek biblical influence. I understand where he is coming from and one of the challenges is understanding the role of this agency. I am speaking specifically to the amendment. A lot of the focus of the debate has been on funding schemes in higher education institutions. We need to be careful about being overly prescriptive. The agency is…

I appreciate that, although it was sort of identifiable who it was. I think that was very unfair. A lot of good work has been done by the research agencies up to now but we have to think bigger about this. Why was the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science set up in the first place? It was not to be an administrative Department. It was about looking at some of the big-picture challenges that we face as a society and how we are going to respond to them. This is why I am respectf…

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

The Acting Leader may be aware that, at the weekend, the open finals of the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival took place in Athlone. The overall winner was Ballyduff Drama Group from County Waterford, directed by Ger Canning. It had a superb production of The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth. I had the privilege of seeing it when it was in Gorey as part of the festival circuit. Dalkey Players were second and Ballycogley Players from County Wexford were third. I am sure Senators will join with me in congratulating the Amate…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, for attending to deal with this issue on behalf of the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley. He will be very aware that the Minister initiated the first large-scale review of the school transport scheme since it was established in 1967 and that the report on the review, School Transport 2030, was published on 27 February. It is very ambitious. In it, the Government refers to increasing the number of students who use public school transport by 100,000 from about 1…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach. I thank the Minister of State for the response. I guess what I was hoping to hear within it would be more details around the planned pilot scheme. Where the Department states details to the areas to be included will be available shortly, what is defined by "shortly"? Are we to expect this within the next couple of weeks? What are the criteria that will be used to determine what are the pilot schemes to be selected? It is my view that the group that I mentioned in W…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to deal with this legislation and I praise him for how personally invested he has been. It is a very significant piece of work, and I thank him for engaging. The number of contributions here reflects the very legitimate concerns in this House but also among the wider community. This has taken a long time to come into being. As the Minister of State will recall, I raised the fact with him before that, when Senator McDowell was Minister for Justice, Equality and L…

I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, on her appointment and wish her the best in the role. She has shown herself to be very capable and I am certain she will represent us very effectively at discussions in Brussels and other European capitals. I also welcome her officials. The Minister of State is very fortunate in having some excellent officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs who have worked on all of these issues. I agree with Senator Craughwell that we need a stand-alone …

Like others, I welcome the Minister of State to the House and wish him the best in his new role. I know he will put his heart and soul into it. The issue I raise is the HSE cyberattack. Next week is the third anniversary of the detonation of the Conti ransomware, which caused widespread disruption in the health service at the height of the pandemic. This was the result of a malware infection that gained unauthorised access to the system on 18 March 2021. It remained there for eight weeks, at which point the Conti r…

I thank the Minister of State for the response but I am afraid it does not tell us a lot more than we already knew from the reply I received this time last year. I am worried that issues like the elimination of the Windows 7 estate are still appearing as part of the process. There is a lot of emphasis placed on the leadership of a chief information security officer within the HSE but if one visits a jobs website one will see that post currently being advertised at a new national director level. That post has still …

Unfortunately, I was not here on Thursday but I join colleagues in expressing sympathy to the family of the late Michael D'Arcy Sr. I had the privilege of serving with him on the former Gorey town council. In fact, he was the last chair before town councils were abolished. Michael had a passion for his community and politics. You could disagree with him at a meeting but once the meeting was over, he would chat to you about life and sports. He never took anything personally. He loved the community of north Wexford, …

Tomorrow at 9.30 a.m.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 8 be taken ahead of No. 1. This is a Bill that the Fianna Fáil group of Senators is introducing around the protection of retail workers. The Bill would make it an aggravated offence to attack retail workers, particularly where they are carrying out work on behalf of the State, including age verification. It is based on Scottish legislation. I hope it can be tabled for debate in due course. The Leader may be aware that today marks the 25th anniversary of the …

The Clerk of the Seanad should take note.

The Leader has a good relationship with the Minister.

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 to create specific offences for assaulting or threatening retail workers carrying out their employment.