He knows well there were not tanks. Will he withdraw it or will he not? Will he answer the question? I want the question answered.

I would also like to be associated with the comments regarding Senator Seán Kyne, now Deputy Kyne. I first of all congratulate him and his wider team but also the people of Galway for something very special. Seán Kyne is very likeable but he is also trustworthy. That is the message we got on the doors, when we canvassed in Galway, that Seán Kyne is a likeable fellow and is trustworthy. We see people giving out on social media that he did not get the highest vote and so on. Democracy is at play here and it is strong…

I welcome the Minister to the House. My grandmother was of the era when she was never on the herd number, but she was always the woman who organised what had to be done on the farm. That era of women must not be forgotten. We have seen a change. We in Ireland are the leaders when it comes to supporting women in farming and agriculture. I will go through a couple of statistics. Men and women are equal in most developed countries. The United Nations has 17 sustainable development goals and gender is featured in all 1…

It is lovely to see that kids have an interest and want to be that way. I am so proud that we have kids like that in this day and age. I hope that more kids and more farmers, and especially more older farmers, will recognise the value of the woman in agriculture. There was one thing my grandmother used to say: if you want something done, ask a woman to do it, and that way you will be sure it will get done. I will leave my contribution on that note.

Today, I rise to highlight the conclusion of the journey of two young brothers, the Adams brothers, Jordan and Cian, two young lads who are doing 32 marathons all over Ireland in 32 days. It is a mammoth task. It is to remember their mother, Geraldine, but also bring about awareness about dementia. The response they have got from people in every county of Ireland has been immense. Senator Scahill and other Members of this House met with them in their counties, ran with them and encouraged them to continue. What the…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, for coming today. I will address a few matters relating to licensed firearms. Ireland has approximately 150,000 licensed firearms holders, accounting for more than 210,000 licensed firearms, the vast majority of which are shotguns and rifles used by farmers and game hunters every day in rural Ireland. Firearm ownership is tightly regulated. Ireland's firearms regime is widely regarded as one of the most stringent in the world. Garda superintendents play a central role …

I thank the Minister of State for his response to the briefing we had in the audiovisual room at which the NARGC and others told us that there is no forum to which recognised national organisations are invited as organisations. There is no forum to discuss the serious issues I have outlined. If that is the case, it is not right. I ask the Minister of State to ask the Minister to review how the Department is facilitating engagement with stakeholder groups representing the real day-to-day concerns of licensed firearm…

I want to discuss a problem I have tried to sort out over the last number of weeks. It is the issue of flying the Irish flag by an Irish team. Irish members of the International Sheepdog Society have been notified of a change in policy whereby the Irish team that represents the whole of Ireland at international events will not be allowed to fly the Irish flag when representing Ireland at world events. I have engaged with the new chairman and to say that he has been unco-operative would be an understatement. I would…

I welcome the Minister back to the House. When we mention agriculture, this year so far we have seen so many pitfalls, such as the TB programme, fuel protests, Mercosur challenges, CAP coming in and on top of all that we have the bluetongue vaccine to roll out throughout the whole country, which I hope we do not lose sight of. The backbone of this country is farming and we cannot forget that when we see the amount of money that is made from our exports on an annual basis. These are the people who get up early in th…

I want to just set the record straight here.

I have spoken but I just want to set-----

-----the record straight on Senator Joe Conway's remarks about our live exports. It is important we set the record straight before we go any further. Our live exports are a very important part of our-----

-----agri-sector. They contribute so much to the sector, and I would not like to see any of our people who are exporting cattle labelled in such a fashion. I hope Senator Conway will withdraw some of those remarks about our live exports.

There are strict and stringent rules from the Department, and I hope they will be taken off the record.

Today I would like to speak about the recent protests that we have seen in the capital. These people who were on the streets of Dublin are working class people - farmers, hauliers and contractors. They are people who stood with me in the past when I was in trouble. I would not like to see them labelled as anything else. As a member of Fine Gael, to be honest about this, I think we have got it wrong.

We did not listen.

There are lessons to be learned. We will learn the lessons because the people of this country have spoken. I have listened quite clearly to what has been said. There are lessons to be learned in this House and in this whole building. Going forward, we should certainly not be afraid to say what we mean. That is very important. I hope that the measures will ease the pain for all those people out there because farmers, contractors and small businesses have experienced it. As a Government, it is incumbent on us now to …

That is very collegial.

I also raised this issue earlier on the Order of Business. What have we learned from this whole debate that happened on the streets? What I take out of it is that we have farmers, businesspeople and hard-working individuals who have worked on the land. They have borrowed loads of money because we have invested in them to generate food. They have come across hard times. I will tell the Minister of State about a contractor. A contractor will bale silage this year and the farmer could owe him for last year's silage. T…

I welcome the conclusion of the Bord Bia saga. In particular, I thank the IFA and all the farming organisations for the conclusion. I welcome the review that is taking place within the board. I congratulate all those involved in getting it to this stage. If it has done one thing, it is to strengthen our meat industry, food labelling and farmers' experience within the board. It highlights the concerns of the farming community. We now need to move on, strengthen the food we export and the labelling and get back to th…