When is it proposed to sit again?

I rise with extremely good news. In the past three and a half years, while I have been here, I have regularly spoken about the families who have been created through surrogacy, children born by surrogacy and the future children to be born by surrogacy. I am pleased that the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, has brought the legislative amendments to the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill to the Cabinet today and I have every expectation that they will be approved because they have already been through qui…

Recommendation No. 31 in the names of Senators Ruane, Black and Flynn is out of order.

Recommendation No. 33 has been ruled out of order.

Recommendations Nos. 35 to 37, inclusive, have been ruled out of order.

When is it proposed to take the next Stage?

Is that agreed?

I support the amendment proposed by Senator Doherty to the Order of Business to take No. 10 before No. 1, regarding the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) (Control of Nitrous Oxide) Bill 2023. It is incredibly important that we bring this forward. I am chair of a drugs task force and am aware of the increase in nitrous oxide use. The view of some parents that it is safe and that it is a recreational thing to do in the home is really quite shocking when, in fact, it has damaged young people. Young people have received cogn…

Hear, hear.

Shame, shame, shame.

I pay tribute to the Minister for the exceptional job she has done throughout her tenure, but especially since last Thursday. She has spoken with confidence and strength, and for the majority of people who are appalled and who support our gardaí and our Commissioner. I am foursquare behind her. Populism is a definite type of strategy that claims everything is simple, has a really simple answer and a simple cause. Populists claim they are speaking for ordinary people, that an elite is out to suppress them, undermine…

I thank the Minister of State. That is very important. I welcome Elle Lennox and Lucy Reeves to the Seanad. They are here doing work experience with me this week.

I say well done to the Minister of State, and thank her for all of her work in this area. I welcome Minister of State, Deputy Jennifer Carroll McNeill. I congratulate her on her recent lobbying and hard work on our behalf to try to secure a new EU agency for white collar crime. We are proud of her out there in Brussels. I call the Minister - apologies, Senator Conway.

Indeed, he has already.

I congratulate the Senator and the Minister of State, particularly the Senator, for their consistent advocacy and for their modelling of what can be exemplary public service.

Before we take the next Commencement matter - this is of particular relevance to the Minister of State - I welcome the students from Our Lady's School in Ballinteer to the Gallery today. I thank them for coming into the Seanad to see us all. They are here as guests of the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond. Their other Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, is here so they are getting a double whammy today.

Before we take our concluding Commencement matter - this is also of relevance to the Minister of State – we welcome the second group from Our Lady’s school in Ballinteer, who are guests of the Minister of State, Deputy Neale Richmond. They also get the great opportunity of being here to see one of their other TDs, the Minister of State, Deputy Josepha Madigan, in action.

I am here to ask that we have the Minister for Transport come before the House for a discussion on the transport and bus network in Dublin city. When I have submitted proposals for Commencement matters on this issue previously, I have been told it is not the Minister's issue, but the NTA reports to him and this organisation is bringing in major changes in this regard. From next Sunday, there will be eight route changes in Dublin city. In that context, the 17, 18 and 175 bus routes currently connect communities acro…

All of us would agree the Covid vaccination programme was an extraordinary success. It has been fantastic. All of us queued up, got our vaccinations, stayed safe and were kept safe in the main, so it is worrying that today Professor Éamonn O’Moore, director of national health protection in the HSE, has said there has been a low uptake of vaccinations and that we need an urgent uptake in vaccination for both Covid and flu. In Ireland we have the advantage of seeing how the flu happens in Australia and by the time wi…

The Minister of State is very welcome and I thank him for taking this matter. I got an email of apology from the Department of Health regarding this, as it is a very important matter. I have no doubt the Minister of State will deal with it very properly. Last year in March the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 commenced in the Dáil. It passed Second Stage and moved on to Committee Stage. It was paused on Committee Stage to afford the committee on international surrogacy an opportunity to sit and make r…