I commend the Cathaoirleach. He has had a competent and capable two and a half years. It has to be acknowledged that the House has worked really well. The Leader and Deputy Leader have managed the show appropriately, and it has been a pleasure to work with them. It has been a good experience. It all comes down to teamwork. The Seanad staff are the most brilliant team one could ever deal with. It is a privilege to deal with them. I acknowledge Martin and the team for all they have done. This is a sad morning because…

The score is 1:0.

I apologise for being late but I had to attend a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is unfortunate that-----

-----the committee meeting and this debate were scheduled for the same time. I compliment the Senators who sit on the aforementioned committee. They do amazing work. We all bring our own little bit of knowledge to these Houses, but we have a Senator here who brings exceptional knowledge when it comes to the issue before us today, namely, the welfare of dogs. We have had committee hearings on this issue, and it is clear that Senator Boylan's knowledge is exceptional. I chaired some of those meetings. The learning cu…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, to the Chamber. It is great to have him here. My Commencement matter this morning concerns the potential and capacity in the veterinary sector. We have one veterinary school in the State. It has been in place for more than 100 years and University College Dublin, UCD, has done a phenomenal job during that time. What I wish to debate today, though, is building capacity in this sector. We have a veterinary industry which has served society competently over the last 10…

My real worry here is that we are just going to expand the service. At the moment, UCD, in the middle of Dublin city, provides the veterinary courses for Ireland. If you look at the actual demographics, particularly for the bovine population, the majority are in Munster. We need a geographical spread of placements when it comes to veterinary colleges. I would be concerned if the Department was looking just to expand. We need to look to the future and future-proof this model. We need a new campus with a new universi…

I welcome the Minister of State. It is great to have him in the Chamber to discuss Clonakilty and the need for secondary school places to be provided for the academic year of 2023-2024. Clonakility is a thriving town with a thriving hinterland which feeds into the educational hub that is Clonakilty. We have two dynamic secondary schools. Both the college and the convent provide top class subject choice across a wide range of topics. There has been a major redevelopment of the college campus under the stewardship of…

The Minister of State highlighted a particular problem. Children have applied to Clonakilty Community College and been told they will find out on 15 December whether they have a place. They have been further informed that, after that date, there will be a waiting list. Most of the children affected are boys. The difficulty is that there is no other secondary school in the town for them. This is a significant issue for the many parents who have contacted my office in the past ten days. We have a scenario in Clonakil…

As we come to the end of the decade of centenaries, which started in 2012, we have celebrated the major facts of history such as Home Rule, the Land Acts, the 1913 Lockout, the 1916 Rising, the struggle for Independence, the Civil War and the foundation of the State, which have all been part of that decade of commemoration. This afternoon, I wish to raise the story of Seán Hales, a west Cork Deputy who, on his way to Dáil Éireann on this day 100 years ago, unfortunately, was assassinated. He was one of only three D…

I wish to acknowledge Terry Brennan’s enormous contribution and his family as well. As I entered Leinster House in 2016, I did not have the privilege to serve with him. I probably entered local government in 2003. I remember Terry on the Seanad campaign well. I remember the ability he had, even though he was a long ways from Cork, to communicate with people. That is Terry’s legacy. There is a great legacy in Leinster House for his five years. I just want to put that on the record. For a person who never served with…

The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is more than welcome. I appreciate her attendance her. This morning I raise the significant issue that has emerged with CoAction in west Cork in the last ten days. I know the Minister of State's office has been made aware of it. This is the significant issue in terms of what is happening to the services CoAction provides locally in west Cork. It pertains to the plans for Bayview House, which is to be renovated, and how that is to be moved forward. The proposal, which has been…

I thank the Minister of State for her passionate and powerful response. For the families affected by this issue, particularly in the past ten days, it has been upsetting to say the least. I have been understated in the terminology I am using about the implications of what has happened and how it has knocked confidence in system. It would be wonderful if the Minister of State could find time in her diary to meet the parents in question. They are a wonderful group of people. They are passionate and courageous and are…

Like the previous speaker, I would like to acknowledge some good news. We often stand up here and we criticise and say things are not good enough. However, over the last five years, I have been raising the case of Bandon Grammar School and its inability to access funding from the Department of Education for a special class for autism. There is an issue regarding the ability of fee-paying schools to access this funding. This has meant that for the last decade, in particular, Bandon Grammar School could only provide …

I second the motion. It is a very practical one. It has been brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas and the joint committee so this is not my first time to speak to it. The motion is debated in the Houses of the Oireachtas on an annual basis. That is an appropriate way to deal with the issue. It just gives one the level of scrutiny that is required for this motion. I did not attend the joint committee meeting on the day of the hearings because I was somewhere else, unfortunately. I watched a recording of the d…

This is a very important motion. I am very interested in this motion because I did a lot of reading on this subject over the summer. I will talk about the significant challenges in the forestry sector in a minute but I will start with the actual product and the potential it has. People have mentioned timber frame houses and modular homes. It is much bigger than that. We are talking about multistorey buildings. New York could have 20 or 30-storey buildings built out of timber. The technology, particularly in the pas…

I thank the Chair. I welcome the publication of the Bill and its passage through the Houses. It is a significant statement of intent by the Government. I welcome the boost it will give to the economy. It is significant legislation. It is nearly 250 pages long and, with legislation of this nature, there are always anomalies within it that the Minister of State might look at. I will reference two of them. One is the issue of the VAT rate pertaining to publications. It is a significant development that a 0% VAT rate o…

I wish to discuss the human tissue Bill. This is legislation that has been talked about for decades. The original report that brought the legislation forward was commissioned by the then Minister for Health, Mary Harney. The legislation has been sought since 2005 or 2006 and there have been false dawns all the way regarding the legislation. I mention in particular the Kelleher family from Cork who have campaigned online for the legislation to be put in place because they experienced a terrible and horrendous situat…

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Harris, to the House.

Before we continue to our next speaker, I welcome visitors from Our Lady's College, Greenhills. It is great to see visitors back in the Chamber. We hope that the Minister will be part of their future in setting the parameters and putting funding in place for higher education.

It is good to have the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine here. I sought this debate to get an update on the unfortunate situation with avian flu. I acknowledge the importance of having the senior Minister before us this morning. Since I tabled this matter, there has been a further escalation in that a second flock in the north of the country has been infected. That is unfortunate. I have a little bit of knowledge when it comes to poultry because many years ago we had a lot of turkeys at home. Avian flu …