It was not on the agenda.

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." It is important, perhaps, to note that on 1 February 2018 the then Taoiseach, now Tánaiste and Minister, Deputy Varadkar, came to this House and endorsed the principle of the Manning report and announced his intention to establish an all-party implementation group and spoke strongly in favour of the principle of amending the way Seanad Éireann was elected. He indicated that he was going to establish a group which over an eight-month period would come forward with p…

They will have to buy more stamps.

On a point of information, the number of Irish passport holders amounts to approximately 800,000.

Will the Senator give way for a point of information?

I always put on the record the fact that the efforts to have the Citizens' Assembly, which came up with a diverse set of proposals, to consider this proposal were stopped as well. The assembly was prohibited from discussing the matter.

I thank the Minister of State for his remarks and I thank everybody who has participated in this debate. It is important that this debate should have occurred. I do not have as heavy a heart as I had when I stood up to move the Bill. The reason is that I accept what the Minister of State has said, that he is committed to reform of the Seanad. The fact that there was not unanimity on every point in the Seanad reform implementation group does not mean there was not agreement on the Bill that was produced. We had our …

The point I am making is that the number of Senators allocated to each of those panels under the present constitutional framework is variable. One could slash the agricultural panel to five Senators and increase the allocation to those involved in voluntary social services on the administrative panel to ten Senators. There is nothing sacrosanct about the present distribution of seats. Senator Burke and others have spoken about cost. Cost is dealt with in this report and we reckoned it would cost roughly €1 per vote…

I want to hear the answers.

This motion raises important fundamental points. Although there has been considerable crossfire in the Chamber this evening, there are historical matters which must be addressed too. I was in Weston Park in Britain in 2001 when the Irish Government was informed that senior members of the republican movement were in Colombia. They were selling military know-how to FARC, a Marxist guerilla group there, in exchange for approximately $20 million, which was funded from the narcotics trade by FARC. That was in 2001, thre…

Hear, hear.

I welcome the Minister of State and thank Senator Cassells for his very generous encomium, which is not entirely deserved. I reiterate my thanks to him, along with Senators Warfield and Higgins, for their enthusiastic and totally committed support of the Seanad implementation group process. If we are talking about between 800,000 and 1 million people as part of this electorate for six seats in the Seanad, we should bear in mind, as Senator Byrne has said, that this is an increasing proportion of the population all …

The Minister of State will not be missed.

I wish to move an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 8 be taken before No. 1. This concerns the Children (Amendment) Bill 2020. On the issue of voting for business next Tuesday, I appreciate the problems we face with accommodation, votes and the like. I have tried to be constructive, as has my group, on all of these matters. Some people feel that in these Covid days, we must make concessions on parliamentary procedure to facilitate the doing of business in safe circumstances in Leinster House. The recent …

Yes, I suppose so.

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Children Act, 2001 to permit the publication and broadcasting of reports and images identifying or likely to identify persons accused or convicted in proceedings for certain offences against children and to provide for related matters.

Next Friday, 13 November, since Tuesday is all blocked off.

I will be supporting the amendment, which has been tendered to this motion, to extend the legislation only to a date in February. I do so because I think it is important for this House, and Dáil Éireann for that matter, to keep the Government accountable and keep all of the emergency measures under constant review and that we do not find ourselves effectively being run by Government-imposed regulations on lockdowns without adequate accountability. Senator Ward says that on 5 June we will have plenty of time to look…

I second the amendment.

I welcome the Minister and congratulate him on his appointment. I have not had the opportunity to do that. This Bill is a technical one and deserves the support of the entire House. Two points occur to me. On cross-Border railway operations post-Brexit, will there be special arrangements for the extension of these EU powers or will this have any implications for that? I would like to hear the Minister on that. I will not ask him about metro underground. I will save that for a more relevant occasion. However, may I …