I warmly welcome the Minister of State and congratulate her. I know she is already a Minister of State but she has been elevated to a Minister of State attending Cabinet. I wish her well tomorrow, which I think is her first day, but I may be wrong on that. I also welcome the guests of Senator Joe O’Reilly: Darragh Kiernan and Conor Madden. Conor is a Cavan GAA intercounty player, but I have been told both of them are distinguished GAA players. That is the strong endorsement that has come from Senator O'Reilly.

I thank the Minister of State for her time. It is greatly appreciated.

I welcome Minister of State, Deputy Canney, to the House.

Before I call the Senator to respond, I welcome to the Visitors Gallery a group of students from Cistercian College Roscrea, who are guests of Senator Maria Byrne. The guys are turned out amazingly well in their jackets and shirts. I also welcome Ms Marceline Coady and Mr. Seamus Hennessy. They are all very welcome. I hope they enjoy their stay.

I thank the Minister of State and the Senator. The Minister of State is staying with us. I thank him for his time. I appreciate it, as does the House.

Before I call the Minister of State, I wish to welcome a few people to the Gallery who have come in. This is the second tranche from the Cistercian College Roscrea, who are guests of Senator Maria Byrne. They are very welcome. There are also guests of Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and Senator Teresa Costello in the Gallery. They are very welcome, as are Ms Sharon Hynes and Ms McDonald. They are all very welcome and I hope they enjoy their stay here in the House.

Well said. I thank the Senator.

I once again thank the Minister of State for giving us his time amid his busy schedule. It is always difficult to make time but it is always appreciated when Ministers come to this House.

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. I thank her for her time. We greatly appreciate her coming to the House to take this Commencement matter.

I thank the Senator. Before I call on the Minister of State to respond, I welcome, as guests of the Ceann Comhairle, Tammy Darcy and Michelle McGuirk. They are very welcome.

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate there was a lot to get through there. I am reading it as she is delivering it.

I will follow on from what Senator Wilson said because I was in the audiovisual room as well. I thank the representatives of Pancreatic Cancer Ireland and Senator Mark Duffy, who hosted today's event. We heard some very harrowing stories about personal experiences. We are now almost at the end of the National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026. It is timely because before we engage on a new strategy, we need to do an analysis of the outgoing strategy, from 2017 to 2026, which ends next year. I ask that the Leader, in the ne…

I welcome the Minister. What better man to know about racing than himself in the county that has Punchestown, Naas and the Curragh, all of which I have attended on many occasions? I support the fund. We had a long, reasonable debate last night. The Minister touched on a number of the issues, so I will not repeat them. They are on the record of the Oireachtas. Not everyone here may know it but the Department issues a letter of parameters every year about funding, which is very important. We discussed that last night…

The Senator had a great platform.

The Seanad by-election.

It is like a spring day and I am just overcome by the promotion of Phibsborough. I will have to take a trip out there. I wish the Senator well in the by-election and I wish whoever follows in a Seanad by-election every success. It is great to see such a robust and positive contribution. I would not have an issue with any of it. I thank Senator Fitzpatrick. On a more serious note, I welcome the INTO. We are all familiar with its magazine. It also published a document, our children our future: supporting primary and …

First, I would like to be associated with the good wishes to Paschal Donohoe. He has been an exemplary Minister. He has led our finances in a very prudent way. I find him to be a very decent, supportive and encouraging politician. He was always a politician one could approach and he always followed up personally on correspondence or representations to him. I want to put that on the record. I could not say that about everybody but I can definitely say it about Paschal Donohoe and his interest. I mention his attentio…

I call for a debate on Delivering Homes, Building Communities, the new Government's national plan on housing. It is important we do not rush to any judgment, that we see the detail of it and drill down into it. It will take some considerable time to look at it over the next few days. It is important and we have to set it in the context that in the past 12 years there have been four national housing plans. I do not need to point out to all of us who are politicians who was in power for that period of time. I want to…

I welcome the Minister and thank him for coming before the House. Clearly, there is an element of urgency, as he has outlined. He explained why pre-legislative scrutiny was waived. I want to put a few issues into focus. I thank the Minister for his detailed presentation. The Bill was published on 30 October. It went through the Dáil and completed Second Stage on 5 November. It is now before us. I am always conscious of people who are listening in and I try to set the scene for an external rather than internal audie…

I thank the Cathaoirelach for selecting this Commencement matter. It is timely and perhaps even a bit premature given that Cabinet is today considering the Delivering Homes, Building Communities document, but that is for another day. We may hear something tomorrow. I welcome the Minister of State. I appreciate his coming here because this is an area in which he is directly involved and has vast experience. Also, he is a Minister of State in the relevant Department, which I appreciate and acknowledge. This Commencem…