I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. It is timely and appropriate that we address this and look at everything we possibly can do as a country to effect the change necessary to bring about a peaceful settlement in the Middle East between the State of Israel and what I believe should be the State of Palestine. Like everyone in this House, I absolutely concur that the actions taken by Israel in its right to defend itself as a result of what happened last October has been, without a doubt, phenomenal…

I am sure the Acting Leader and Leas-Chathaoirleach will join with me and others in recognising the efforts of careful and true diplomacy over rhetoric and rushing to judgment. I refer to the approach taken by the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, around the situation in the Middle East and the careful way he has managed his brief over recent months in reaching a point where today Ireland, together with Norway and Spain, will recognise the State of Palestine. There have been motions in this House and elsewhere in an…

An issue has arisen but I have not had an opportunity to table an amendment on it yet. It relates to the establishment of the need to grant certain employment permits and how that might be advertised or how an individual or company would make people aware of that. The Bill refers to the notice being published on "one or more online platforms". I have a concern because there is such a proliferation of platforms and the legislation is not specific in ensuring that the notice is published on a mainstream platform. We …

I thank the Minister of State. While I understand the 50:50 rule, the reality is that citizens need to be made aware of this if we are to lift any burden from the employer. We all know how employers work. They are good people and I would not want to cast any aspersions. However, while the guardrail protects the 50:50 rule, there are many new citizens coming to live and work here, and simply ensuring that citizens of the State have the information on a digital platform is not robust enough. This can be done by way o…

For clarity and for the avoidance of doubt, I am not suggesting that it needs to appear in national newsprint but on a national publisher’s digital platform. Many of our national publishers are migrating their activities online and I consume most of my national news from the national digital platforms of the main publishers. As for the speed and agility with which we need to move, I totally get the need to move to the Internet environment. I am not suggesting it has to appear on page 4 of The Irish Times , the Iris…

I wish to raise an issue that has been on the airwaves in recent days, namely, GAAGO and the arrangement between the GAA and RTÉ that sets up a paywall for genuine fans. This weekend it was fans of hurling in a match between Limerick and the Cathaoirleach’s county of Cork. I listened with some interest to what the president of the GAA had to say yesterday. I was taken by his robustness, which at times veered into arrogance and certainly did not reflect the views of the genuine GAA volunteers who I know and deal wit…

I accept that. I am just making an observation. I understand he has been invited by Senator Lombard to appear before a committee. I hope he avails of that opportunity to discuss the matter. I have great regard for him. He has great abilities and a great vision. He did not so much as have a pop at the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, but at the people they were representing and whose views they were putting forward. I understand his agenda, including a strong element on investment, and I am taken by the fact he is talkin…

I thank the Minister of State for bringing the Bill to the House. Virtually everybody in society recognises the impact of problem gambling on the lives of individuals and their families and communities. It is also incumbent on us, when we try to deal with such a difficult thing, not to end up with unintended consequences of what we seek to do. I am mindful that in his opening remarks the Minister of State identified the threat from the Internet and the great difficulties we have as a society in trying to regulate s…

As the Acting Leader will appreciate, there is great concern across the world about the heightened tensions emerging in the Middle East. Iran’s reaction to provocation by Israel in recent days has brought the situation to a very serious level. It would be a welcome opportunity to invite the Tánaiste to the House at his convenience to discuss with us what he has been doing in recent weeks, not just at national and Government level but on the wider European stage. It would also be timely to extend that debate to incl…

I thank the Minister for coming to the House to discuss this important matter. This is a debate I have been seeking for some time. I thank him for his level of engagement with us. Quite frankly, however, engagement is not enough. There is a sense of despair across the farming sector of a kind that I have not seen for a long time. The bad weather is the straw that broke the camel's back. That is notwithstanding the fact that prices in the marketplace have remained relatively strong for milk, beef and, to a lesser ex…

While the sun might be shining in Dublin there is teeming rain in the west of Ireland, including Clare. The weather conditions since last July have made farming almost an impossibility. The pressure, both mental and physical, on the farming community is palpable. Regardless of size and scale of operation every farmer in the country is under enormous pressure. There are issues around fodder and the inability to plant grain. There is concern now about not being able to feed cattle through the summer period because it…

Now.

Now.

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for the work that he has been doing in this difficult area. It is easy to be around when the plaudits are handed out when the trends are going the right way. It is a much different job when the trends are going in the wrong direction and when one has to take decisive measures. One has to introduce a set of criteria that are aimed at trying to get drivers to change their behaviour and there will be push-back against that in principle. It is great and it sounds good but w…

Next Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Yesterday, I raised the issue of the chronic overcrowding at the accident and emergency department in UHL and the implications that has for the wider community in the mid-west. While the situation clearly has not changed since then, it would be remiss of me not to raise some of the other concerns that exist within that hospital structure and within the hospital's region. Over the weekend, as I do regularly, I had the opportunity to meet a group of parents who are really concerned about the lack of services for youn…

He is showing up the rest of us. All the greats-----

Hear, hear.

I join with Senator Warfield in expressing my dissatisfaction at the failure of many Departments to appoint people to boards. We are all talking about corporate governance and ensuring that issues such as those that happened in RTÉ never happen again. The Shannon Foynes Port Company has been without a chair for several months. There are other institutions in a similar position. I ask the Leader to ask the Departments in question for a list of the bodies under their remit that have for far longer than appropriate be…

I welcome and support the call by Senator Gavan to have a conversation about the future of Ireland and of a united Ireland in light of the positive developments that have taken place. Maybe we will get a chance on that occasion to discuss the split that is clearly taking place with Sinn Féin south of the Border where, on one hand, some of its representatives in this House have supported the nature restoration Bill and yet their apostle in Brussels has gone rogue on them this morning. We will see how that plays out.…