My issue is trite in light of the previous two contributions. However, I want to raise an issue and ask for the support of both the Leader and the Cathaoirleach in the matter. Heritage and Tidy Towns groups go to enormous effort to ensure the upkeep, care and love for their communities. They are to be lauded. I have a group in the Dublin South-Central constituency that works extraordinarily hard. They have applied to Dublin City Council to build a commemorative garden, which was at the great suggestion of the Catha…

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. We stand in a quite magnificent room that carries with it a whole heap of history and magnificence. Am I proud and do I think it appropriate our Government would issue an apology in the surroundings of the Seanad, given the honour this noble House has? I do. Do I agree with it? I do not. The Minister has done an extraordinary amount. He is no small cog. He has been a big cog and that is possibly the only thing I disagree with. From his coming into office, the Minister h…

We will deal with many other issues on Committee Stage. For today, I join with the apology, as my party’s spokesperson on children and as a Government colleague, and I apologise for the grave hurt these people have been caused, which can never be undone and in respect of which they can never be fully consoled.

Next Tuesday.

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I draw the Leader's attention to the fact that today is the 36th anniversary of the explosion at Chernobyl. It was the darkest day in the history of humanity because of its everlasting consequences. In 2016, Ms Adi Roche was invited to speak before the UN General Assembly on the fact that we need a day of remembrance, that Chernobyl is something which can never be consigned to history and that it is very important we remember the ongoing suffering from generation to generation. I had the honour of chairing the pres…

Senator Moynihan would be finished with what she had to say.

I commend the Bill. I welcome the people in the Visitors Gallery and I thank them for all the hard work they have done on this issue. This amendment is fanciful and deliberately tabled to allow access to people within a building and within the proximity of a clinic. It is laughable, if it was not so serious and the sinister reasoning behind it was not so serious. Anyone with a basic rudimentary understanding of criminal law will know that there are two elements to the prosecution of an offence. For somebody to be f…

I rise to voice my opposition to both these amendments. The fact is no constitutional right is unlimited. They are all balanced against the rights of others. There is also a constitutional provision that we are allowed to regulate for the termination of pregnancy. That is also a constitutional right that we have been attempting to facilitate and it has been thwarted by people who feel it is all right to weaponise faith. That is what this is about. It is about weaponising one's faith by standing in a particular part…

It would not have the two elements of a criminal offence.

Pot and kettle.

I want to commend Senators Moynihan and Gavan and the activists on bringing this Bill forward and for the fact that we are at a place where we are able to have this debate. People have different opinions on abortion and no one denies that. It is reasonable that people take their own personal views on it and there is no objection to that. However, feeling entitled because of one's personal views to stand, even silently, outside of a clinic, a general practice or a hospital in a manner intended to inhibit a woman or …

It is a European Union report.

I will keep an eye on it. Every time the Minister has come before the Seanad to discuss Covid there have been these cautious statements and fears and worries about extending the regulations and whether they involved overreach. I am very grateful and thrilled that we are here today and those regulations are no more. There is, however, still a need for caution and care when it comes to the protocols of mask wearing and washing our hands and, most of all, the booster. One would be forgiven for thinking Covid had gone …

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Sean Fleming, to the House.

When is it proposed to take Report Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

When is it proposed to take Fifth Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

The Bill is a very clear piece of legislation and I thank the Minister of State.