Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

I welcome the president. His speech was inspiring – that is all I can describe it as. It is great to have our guests here in the Gallery, the president's family, in particular, but also people like Ger Ryan. I commend Mr. Ryan for what he does for Munster GAA. I am from Clare. As the uachtarán knows, in 1847, there was a man born in Carran in County Clare, Michael Cusack, who went on in 1884 to set up what, in my view, is not just the best organisation in every parish, every county, every province and nationally bu…

As the Minister responding to Senator Murphy's Commencement matter is not here yet, with the permission of the House, I will move on to the third Commencement matter in the name of Senator Martin.

I thank the Minister of State and Senator Martin for their contributions on an excellent Commencement matter debate. I commend the Minister of State on the campaigning he has done in this House and in Dáil Éireann on this issue. I must apologise to Senator Eugene Murphy again because the Minister still has not arrived. I must bring the fourth matter forward now, which is in the name of Senator Fitzpatrick.

No, I do not believe he is.

It is not the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond. As of yet, we have not been informed as to who is taking the matter, which is completely unacceptable. In order to avoid delaying the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, who is a very busy man, I presume Senator Murphy will not mind me calling Senator Fitzpatrick now.

We have a situation here. I was first elected to this House 12 years ago today, in which time I have never seen a situation like this in which not even a script has been provided to the Minister of State to respond to Senator Murphy's Commencement matter. I checked to see if it would be appropriate to give the Senator the four minutes to outline his case but am told it is not. All I can do for him is bring this to the immediate attention of the Cathaoirleach and ask him to give the Senator top priority in terms of …

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I am absolutely delighted the Minister of State is here, given that he is a busy man running his own Department. However, it is an absolute insult to this House that no Minister for Health is here. There are four Ministers for Health. There are two at Cabinet, and there are two Ministers of State. This is a very important health motion, and not having one of the Ministers for Health here is disrespectful to the House, insulting to the Members and a waste of Minister of State, D…

I accept that. I have no doubt the Cathaoirleach has, and he might do it again, because this is the second-----

This is the second health matter I have raised that has not been addressed by a Minister from the Department of Health. It is a consistent problem with one Department which needs to be dealt with. Here's hoping because I know the powers of persuasion of the Cathaoirleach and his ability to get things done. This issue needs to be sorted. I am raising the issue of haemochromatosis which affects one in 83 people in Ireland. Furthermore, one in five people is a carrier. Despite this, there is no national screening prog…

I thank the Minister of State for reading the reply into the record. Like me, he has constituents with haemochromatosis. He understands the importance of raising this matter. I understand that things have to be done on the advice of the national screening programme. However, the question needs to be put. To try to elicit a more comprehensive response and engagement I will request that Fine Gael private Members' time be used to raise this issue as a motion to see if we can bring a Minister for Health into the House …

I welcome Dr. Ann Marcus-Quinn from the University of Limerick, who is in the House with Senator Maria Byrne. I am sure the Minister of State and Members of the House would like to wish her an enjoyable day in Leinster House. I hope she gets a lot out of it.

I thank the Minister of State for giving his time to deal with Commencement matters that are not necessarily under his brief. It is much appreciated by Members. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, who is taking the final Commencement matter.

I thank the Senator.

I thank the Senator and call the Minister of State.

I agree with Senator Dooley's proposition on the need for a debate on the matter he raised. I also commend the Cathaoirleach on a spectacular contribution during President Biden's visit last Thursday. It struck a chord. From President Biden's reaction, one would know he was very taken by the Cathaoirleach's contribution. Congratulations. For once, I commend the Government on a memo regarding Shannon Heritage that went to Cabinet and got Cabinet approval this morning. However, I have to be critical that it has taken…

I fully support and agree with Senator Gallagher. It says a lot about eye care that we both tabled the same Commencement matter this morning. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, to the House. I am aware of his commitment to this particular issue because we have spoken about it on many occasions. It is a national embarrassment when politicians are taking photographs and putting them up on social media of buses going to the North with taxpayers and citizens going up there to have their cataracts done…

I fully agree with my colleague, Senator Gallagher. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit for his reply. We can eliminate preventable blindness. Look what they have done in the north-east region under Professor David Keegan and the initiatives that they have rolled out there. I very much welcome what the Minister of State has announced but we need to see it actioned. We need to see it scaled up. We need to see our waiting list diminished, reduced and ultimately eliminated. People deserve to keep the eyesight they hav…

My principle reason for speaking today is to pay tribute to Noel Murphy.