He probably said to let him out of jail.

I welcome the legislation and it is timely that it should be brought into operation. As a barrister, as a Minister and as Attorney General, it struck me that the previous legislation was well past its sell-by date and had many defects in it. It is good to have one simple method whereby members of An Garda Síochána who are entitled to compensation have a clear path to compensation which is not strewn with obstacles or unnecessary expense. Second, it seems to me the legislation is designed to, and probably will, achi…

Before the Minister of State replies I ask him to deal with one question. Is it the case that for the first time there will be an appeal from the High Court decision? There was not, until now. In other words, the State or An Garda Síochána could appeal.

That is new.

It is on the Order of Business that we should have no debate on Ukraine and pass a resolution in line with that in Dáil Éireann. I have no argument with the terms of the notice of motion that is there. However, I want to say this. They are very mild in their terms. I am thinking of the number of people who have already been killed and such things, and this is very diplomatic language. It is Iveagh House speak, if I may say so. Whereas I suggested that we could have a motion passed without debate, I believe we could…

Cuirim fíorfháilte romhat, Linda. Déarfaidh mé cúpla focal as Béarla. My grandfather, Eoin MacNeill, was, with Douglas Hyde, the co-founder of the Gaelic League. In 1913, Douglas Hyde was sidelined a little bit from the Gaelic League movement because it was politicised. My grandfather always regretted that was done to Douglas Hyde. I agree with Senator Kyne. One of the great tragedies about the considerable amount of time that has been put into the teaching of Irish in this jurisdiction is that when children put do…

Ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom aontú leis na focail atá ráite ag an Leas-Chathaoirleach i dtaobh bás John A. Murphy agus comhbhrón a dhéanamh lena chlann. Tírghráthóir, staraí uasal agus Seanadóir thar barr a bhí ann. Tá brón mór orm go bhfuil sé tar éis bás a fháil. Bhí sé mar chomhshínitheoir mo nomination paper in 2016. Táim an-bhuíoch de as sin. We are going to make statements on the Ukrainian situation, but we should be adopting a motion. We should be declaring clearly where we stand. Statements are not enough …

We probably do not need another debate on the matter. We could just pass the motion.

I welcome the Estonian ambassador and acknowledge the presence in the Chamber of a student from the Royal and Prior School in Raphoe, Ms Jennifer Holly, who has come to witness our democratic institution in operation. I fully concur with what has been said about Ukraine. As far as I am concerned, the extent of sanctions that must be imposed must be massive and they will cause hurt in the West. We must accept that if we really mean that we stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, we will have to take the econ…

Hear, hear.

No, it is not agreed. I just want to simply say that I will not put it to a vote, but I am not agreeing it for the reasons that I mentioned earlier. I just wanted to put reform on the agenda. Arising out of what the Leader just said, I also want to say that truth is the first casualty in war. For Putin to say that President Zelenskyy is a Nazi, when President Zelenskyy is a Jew, is a pretext for removing him. He will probably try to kill him. That is how evil this is.

I second the amendment.

Generally speaking, I am supportive of citizens' assemblies if they are to perform a function that would otherwise not be performed. On the local government structures for Dublin, for instance, it is a failure of imagination and determination at a political level rather than some issue on which the great majority of Dubliners, however congregated, are to come up with some magnificent formula that is going to change things dramatically. The issues are obvious. It is not an easy problem. The issues arising from divid…

And the planning regulators.

There are a number of issues that we should discuss in this House in the immediate future, one of which is the home retrofitting plan. There are a number of aspects of that plan that need to be teased out. It is all very well to announce that €X billion is available for this plan and that X number of houses are due to be retrofitted, but I am concerned to ensure that the resources involved in this particular area of construction are not diverted away from home building. I would like to see a clear evaluation done o…

Especially when it is in receipt of State funding.

I move: That Seanad Éireann notes the publication of the judgement of the Uyghur Tribunal on 9th December, 2021 and accepts its findings.

On 9 December last, the Uyghur Tribunal, which was a voluntary tribunal established of experts in London which made it its business to amass evidence from around the world, particularly from members of the Turkic indigenous population of Xinjiang province, most of whom are called Uyghurs, published a report which was damning of the People's Republic of China and its policy of cultural and popular genocide which it has been perpetrating in Xinjiang province since 2014. I circulated a copy of the report. I had it pri…

I want to draw the House's attention to pages 33 and 34 of the report which I circulated. It shows that between 2015 and 2019, the fertility rate and reproduction of Uyghur people has plummeted. On page 34 of the report in particular, there is a graph showing the decline in fertility rates of the Uyghurs. Their reproduction is mainly clustered between an increase of 0% and a -60% increase whereas the Han population is continuing to grow in their area. All of these things are completely unforgivable - the abortions,…

It is not good enough any more to say these things are terrible or we support this motion or that motion at the United Nations but we avoid coming down on one side or the other as to whether the substance of this report is true or untrue. That is why the motion that was put in my name, and those of my colleagues, reads: "That Seanad Éireann notes the publication of the judgement of the Uyghur Tribunal on 9th December, 2021 and accepts its findings." It is a clear statement to China that this Chamber was saying that…