Is that agreed? Agreed.

I have received notice from the following Senators that they propose to raise the following matters: Senator Linda Nelson Murray - The need for the Minister for Education and Youth to make a statement on the status of the review of the assistive technology scheme for primary and post-primary schools. Senator Ollie Crowe - The need for the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to make a statement on the streamlining and modernising of the Garda vetting system. Senator Robbie Gallagher - The need for the M…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, to the House.

I am delighted to welcome our colleagues from the European Parliament Midlands-North-West constituency, particularly in light of Ireland's Presidency of the EU. To be clear about the seats because I know people are very precious about seats in this House, the other House and any other elected body, the seats are allocated in alphabetical order and the speaking order will also be in alphabetical order to ensure impartiality. I welcome Ms Nina Carberry, MEP, Mr. Barry Cowen, MEP, Mr. Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, MEP, Mr. Ci…

I thank Ms Carberry. Anois, I invite Mr. Barry Cowen, MEP.

I will give you 30 seconds.

We will bring you back in as well.

Go raibh maith agat. Anois, Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, MEP.

I thank all our MEPs for their contributions and for sticking more or less to the time. For the next round, we will have group spokespersons from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Independent Group, Sinn Féin, the Cross-Party Group and the Civil Engagement Group. Senator O'Loughlin has the first five-minute slot.

As luck would have it, Ms Sanna Lepola and Mr. Jesús Gómez are here. Ms Lepola is the director general for parliamentary democracy partnerships for the European Parliament, and Mr. Gómez is a director. They are visiting here today in advance of our Presidency, so it is most appropriate that they would be here for our debate with our Members of the European Parliament. Thank you for being here.

I am conscious of time and know we are running over time. I will ask the Leader to propose an extension of time, but I will ask the remaining speakers to limit themselves to one minute each. I will then bring in the MEPs again. If Members want to take a sos, we can do so. We are scheduled to go until 4.30 p.m. We can keep going, depending on what Members would prefer.

The Acting Leader has a proposal. We have gone a small bit over time. We were supposed to finish at 4.30 p.m.. If it is all right with Members, we will extend it by a small bit.

Go raibh maith agat. Is that agreed? Agreed. Before I call our Members back in for their final contributions on a wide range of questions and then ask the Acting Leader and the Leas-Chathaoirleach to make their concluding remarks, I welcome from the great state of Utah my good friend, the president of the Utah Senate, Senator Wayne Harper; Jeff Moss, director of the governor's office in economic development; his wife Kim; Franz, the director of the centre of international business and diplomacy; Anthony from the Ut…

Mr. Mullooly, without interruption.

Mr. Mullooly has possession. I ask him to continue without anybody interrupting.

Please, out of respect for our guests, I ask Members to let them finish their contributions.

Sorry, could I ask-----

Everybody gets their time.

This part is for the MEPs to finalise their contributions to the questions that were asked.

Hold on. Please. Sorry-----