The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, is very welcome. It is nice to be able to support a Bill that he brings to the House. We will support this legislation. The Bill will wind down the Credit Union Restructuring Board, ReBo. When the board was established many feared that the credit unions would be the next to collapse on foot of the banking crisis at the time. While many difficult years followed for the credit union movement, it got through this difficult period less damaged than many people expected. It came ou…

Sinn Féin supports this Bill. The financial year end for credit unions is the end of September, with annual general meetings, AGMs, subsequently occurring between October and January, as required under the Credit Union Act 1997. As a result of the current public health measures, it would not be possible to proceed with physical AGMs and special general meetings. In addition, the uncertain direction of public health measures into the future makes planning for such meetings difficult due to the time lag between notic…

I agree wholeheartedly with everything Senator McDowell has said. That is not easy for me to do because we come from very different political perspectives. The fact of the matter is that I find myself, not for the first time, in complete agreement with him. There is something very worrying happening in the Chamber. There are not many of us in opposition. There is a large conservative bloc across the way. The two conservative parties are together, along with the Green Party. We do not have much in the way of speakin…

I will make some brief points. I welcome this Bill, especially the fact that it includes our brothers and sisters in the North of Ireland. We hear much about republicanism, but true republicanism means giving everyone in Ireland a vote and a say, and this Bill does just that. It is not a perfect Bill but, as many previous speakers said, it is worthy of support because it brings us a long way down the road of real reform of this Seanad. I am very disappointed by what I have heard from the other side of the House. I …

As Senator Buttimer so eloquently put it, there have been 14 reports. Forgive me, and I am not doubting the Minister of State because he strikes me as a very decent man, but I do not believe there will be Seanad reform because the two conservative parties - his party's partners in government - will move heaven and earth to ensure there is no reform. Those parties are past masters at talking about reform in Parliament after Parliament and then ensuring that nothing changes. I commend Senator Craughwell on making a c…

The Minister of State is very welcome. As he might expect, I want to focus on Limerick. He will be aware of the massive problems with flooding in the city and county as well as in Newport in Tipperary. Three years ago the then Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, arrived in our village of Castleconnell and declared that millions of euro would be spent on badly needed flood defences. That was a very welcome announcement but three years on, we are still waiting for those flood defences to be built or even to …

The Order of Business states we will take the motion regarding appointment of the chairperson and an ordinary member to the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, without debate. Like my colleague beside me, I do not think this is a healthy practice. I propose a change to the Order of Business whereby we have a debate before any appointment is made. Sinn Féin will not accept this motion without debate and nobody else in the Chamber should either. Unless people have been in a coma for the past fortnight, they …

Yes.

I commend the comments of Senator Black. I put the support of my party behind her call for a Minister to come to the House on this issue. The indifference of the Government and the previous Government to the apartheid regime that operates in occupied Palestine is, frankly, unforgivable. I wish to raise the issue of the pension age. As the Leader will know, Sinn Féin was a proud supporter of the Stop 67 campaign. The reason for that support was very simple. We do not believe it is right to tell workers who reach the…

It is nice to see the Minister of State back. How is he doing? I will start by contextualising the conversation we are having today because it is important to do so. Sinn Féin has supported the move to level 5 lockdown. We have done so because we believe it is always best to follow scientific advice wherever possible. As the Minister said earlier, we very much welcome that the numbers are coming down. It shows that level 5 is working and like him, I hope for further sustained progress for the rest of this month. We…

I second the amendment.

I commend the last speaker and agree with everything she said. It is important that we have a debate on foreign affairs. Many things are happening in Europe, not just in Poland but also in Hungary and Bulgaria and, regrettably, with sister parties of Fine Gael in the latter two. I also agree with what the Senator said about the United States. Let us hope that there is a change of President at the end of today or, please God, in the next couple of days. At the same time, we must acknowledge that it was not a good da…

I welcome the Minister; it is good to see him here. When we are talking about railway safety, investment is very much linked to that. As my colleague said, we will be supporting this important technical Bill. I will highlight the situation in Limerick and, in particular the Ballybrophy-Castleconnell-Limerick line. The Government has invested in that line and upgraded the track but it has not given permission for the trains to go any faster. It still takes two hours to get to Ballybrophy from Limerick and it takes 4…

Hear, hear. Well said.

The Minister is right.

Hear, hear.

I will try to be brief. I have to follow up with the Minister on this section. As this debate takes place, we are learning that the Data Protection Commission was asked for and gave information to the Department regarding the legality of the Bill. I have a simple question. Can the Minister tell us what the commission's observations were? If not, he must explain to us why he does not know them.

How can we----

On a point of order,-----

Yes. Our amendment No. 11 would fix this issue. The House needs to vote for it.