I grew up in Finglas. I was the first person in my family to go to Trinity. I do not consider myself as having come from a disadvantaged background but I certainly went to school with boys who did and who went on to become senior gardaí. I was in Vienna this week with a boy from Finglas who I sat next to in school. He is one of our senior police officers and is heading up the organised crime and drugs task force in this Republic. That is because in 1972 when this country did not have a pot to - I will not complete …

-----we were building houses. I remember standing at the end of Ballygall Avenue in Finglas with my sister in 1972 and seeing prefabricated houses going past on the back of lorries, on their way to build west and south Finglas. They were not perfect but from those estates came the boys I went to school with and the girls who went to school with my sisters and they went on to make a big contribution to Irish society. I have mentioned my friend but every professional group and area of public life is populated with pe…

If the Minister would let me finish. We can agree to disagree.

Like Senator Buttimer, I did my leaving certificate in 1984 but if I am correct, in 1984, we had Ministers who were in their 20s. I think Mary Harney was appointed Minister in the 1980s in her 20s. We gave responsibility to young people. In fact, young people forged this State. They had a citizens' assembly, which Senator Buttimer called for. They assembled outside the GPO and took matters into their own hands. That is what young people are going to do. Before long, the young people here will be on this side of the…

I commend the young people for coming into this House but I can tell them as a newcomer to this House, I have not met one person in the Seanad or Dáil who is not working in the utmost good faith to improve the situation and to make this country the best place not just to live and have an economy but the best place to live as a citizen in a society.

I thank the Minister of State for attending. Aids and appliances are a means to an end but not an end in themselves. Although they are very useful, we cannot really consider them in the absence of the requirement for personal assistants and therapists. I will go from the individual experience to the wider experience within the community. I echo what my fellow Senators have said about the Minister of State's absolute sincerity and her persistence in advocating for us and our community. That is without doubt, so she …

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I echo the welcome of my fellow Senators for our MEPs and I shall make a number of short observations. We are living in a time after emerging from Covid. Little did we foresee that we are living in a time of unprecedented crises and, to a certain extent, unprecedented existential crises in terms of what might or might not happen. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is the largest in Europe, is currently being shelled certainly by one side but possibly by both sides. We also have the ongoing threat, on the part of…

Go raibh maith agat or, as they say in Hungary, köszönöm . I want to echo what Senator Higgins said. The national strategy for higher education, the last iteration of the aims and goals of the higher education sector in Ireland, sets out that our universities should be the engines of economic recovery. It was written after the intellectual and ethical failures of the so-called Celtic tiger, the crash and the austerity that brought us to where we are now. It is really important that we set out in the Bill these comm…

There is nowhere for them to live.

I move amendment No. 67: "In page 36, to delete line 9 and substitute the following: “(a) goals reflecting regional concerns, and”."

Senator Craughwell has asked me to withdraw the amendment. I would benefit from the advice of my fellow Senators. The instruction I got from him was that he was reassured by the statement that the Minister of State had made earlier.