They should be jailed.

That is right. You have been unmasked.

I ask the Leader at her convenience to organise a debate in this House on the renewable energy sector. We frequently talk about the importance of moving away from fossil fuels owing to the positive impact that would have on the environment and we look at the various options. Of course, more wind needs to be captured to generate electricity and we need greater use of solar. It is very clear from the work we all do that there is considerable pushback in communities over what is now referred to as onshore wind. Many o…

I welcome the Minister of State. I compliment him on his efforts to secure the additional funding necessary to meet the needs and expectations of growing communities. Funding is key because it is the only way we will get the infrastructure in place. The day is gone when we could expect or demand volunteers to be out, cap in hand, effectively begging their local communities. That should not be the way we, as a modern society, plan or progress our sporting infrastructure. I know the Minister of State is committed to …

That is the critical thing.

Another week has gone by, another week of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Countless thousands of lives have been lost in the seven days since we last addressed this issue. The footage on television on a nightly basis, of the dead bodies of infants and newborns unable to survive without electricity, heat and medical intervention is something one would not have expected from any modern democracy with any semblance of decency. One would expect that children who have never committed any wrongdoing against anyo…

Young Emily Hand was presumed dead as a result of the 7 October onslaught by Hamas. Over the weekend, a story broke suggesting she may have been in captivity for close to a month. It has brought a sharp focus to the minute detail of what lies at the core of this war. We often get lost in the statistics. How many have been killed on one side and how many on the other? What was the size, scale, weight and magnitude of the armaments deployed? How many soldiers are here? How many soldiers are there? Who of national imp…

It would not be allowed under martial law.

Intelligence reigns supreme in Sneem.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. She may or may not be aware that the governing authority of the University of Limerick at a recent meeting failed to appoint a chancellor as set out in legislation. That is a pretty serious situation. To the best of my knowledge it is the first time it has happened in the history of the State and certainly under the new legislation. There is a requirement in law that two thirds of the governing authority voting must ratify a name that is put forward. It is not as if a n…

I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive response, but I am concerned about one line, which says it is really important to state the Minister has no role whatsoever in this process. The Minister has a role in appointing three people who are being assessed by the Public Appointments Service. The Minister will select those nominees. One of them will be appointed immediately and two will be appointed at a later stage. The person he appoints could ultimately be the decider of that battle. I want the Minister…

I also welcome the Tánaiste. I thank him for his careful and knowledgeable stewardship of this issue over recent days. I, too, express my absolute revulsion at the actions of Hamas in the first instance. We have to call it out for what it is: Hamas is a terrorist organisation. There should be no equivocation. There is no equivalence between Hamas on the one hand and the State of Israel on the other. We have got to be very clear about that, and unambiguous. By the same token, it is clear that Hamas has little or no …

Like others, I welcome the decision taken by Senator Pauline O'Reilly to bring forward the motion. We are often left wondering what it is about women's health in this country that the Legislature and the apparatus of Government have for so long sought to ignore the basics of women's health. It is not all that long ago that we moved on contraception, we were blisteringly late to address termination of pregnancy and, now, it is not until it is brought to a head in a case like this that we address the menopause. I was…

I accept the business that has been set out by the Leader. I wish to raise the following issue. A Chathaoirligh, you may have noticed from recent media reports that there is an impasse at the University of Limerick whereby the governing authority has failed to select the name put forward for appointment to chancellor, as set out in the legislation. However, while the legislation sets out the procedures to elect a chancellor, it does not seem to set out a strategy in the event of the governing authority not acceptin…

Then I ask the Leader to arrange a debate in the House with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to address what appears to be a lacuna at the moment that creates a difficulty for the ongoing operation of the university, since no chancellor is in place and the legislation, as I outlined, does not appear to have an inbuilt solution to address the matter. If we could have that debate at the earliest opportunity, I would be grateful.

I thank the Leader for setting out the order for today. At the outset, it would be appropriate that this House would condemn unreservedly the actions of Hamas on Saturday morning. The indiscriminate attacks on civilians, regardless of where they reside, is an abhorrence and should be condemned with the greatest ferocity by every parliament in the democratic world. Of course there are issues in the Middle East that predate this issue. That is a context that we should not be blind to, but nobody with a right mind wou…

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank her for the extensive work she has done in the preparation of this Bill and her willingness to engage directly with us as Senators on this important issue. It comes at a time when the importance of significant reform of An Garda Síochána is widely recognised. We know about the necessity of that due to issues that arose in our recent history, during the past eight to ten years. It was a very dark period for An Garda Síochána and, thankfully, we are seeing a progressive a…

I wanted to address the budget and to have a quick debate on a couple of issues within the budget. The Leader will be well aware that many primary schools are under enormous pressure with the level of capitation that are receiving. It is really putting them to the pins of their collars. I have spoken to numerous principals in recent weeks about the pressures that exist. They really do need our support and I hope we see something in the budget. Anything the Leader could do in that regard would be helpful. There is a…

No comment.

It is customary at this time of the year for those of us in public life who operate constituency offices to be inundated with school transport issues. They normally get resolved in the first couple of weeks of September but this is the first time I have seen a situation where there has not been a resolution in most cases because there is a shortage of drivers. There are routes where there are students who have been given full connected tickets. They are not the discretionary tickets like in the past; they have an e…