Like others, I was horrified by the case of the 68 year old man who was twice robbed at home in west Clare. Eventually, he was in such terror that he felt his only option was to cycle to Ennis, the county's capital town, and check into a nursing home. Any right-minded citizen would be horrified if any individual of that or any age was subjected to such terror.

In the light of this and other similar sinister crimes against old people, I call on the Ministers for Justice and Equality and Environment, Community and Local Government to revisit the Community Alert scheme in the context of the installation of panic buttons-alarms in the homes of elderly people, which alarms have proven successful in the past in providing elderly people with some level of comfort in terms of living in their own homes. I understand that owing to financial constraints, funding for the installation of panic alarms-buttons was reduced in the 2013 from €2.4 million to €1.2 million. In the light of the recent crimes, I call on the aforementioned Ministers to re-examine this decision and to make more funding available for the installation of panic buttons-alarms for vulnerable elderly people.

I believe also that giving the Garda Reserve a role in visiting elderly people to advise them on security issues in terms of making their homes safer is worthy of consideration. The Garda Reserve does a great job and would, I believe, be happy to engage in this type of work. It is impractical to have gardaí at every street concern and on every country road but it is practical to provide for increased co-operation between communities and the Garda Reserve under the auspices of the local Garda superintendent. What happened in west Clare and the subsequent court case and what happened in Donegal a number of months ago, and in other areas, focuses our minds and underlines the need for new initiatives targeted at ensuring old people can remain living in their homes as long as possible because that is what all of us would like.

I echo Senator Martin Conway's remarks. Like others, I found this morning's report chilling. That a senior citizen should find himself in a situation so terrifying that he had to leave his home in the dead of night is truly appalling. Senator \Martin Conway is correct that we need a strategy for supporting older persons in our communities. It is important they are given advice on issues such as keeping money in their homes and so on and that every possible support, through community alert and otherwise, is available to them. The use of technology makes so much possible now. It should be possible for us to support our senior citizens in a more consistent and sustained manner.

I am not whetting myself with gratitude to the Government for its decision to reopen the Irish Embassy to the Vatican. This is a U-turn. It is an acknowledgement that what it did was very wrong from a diplomatic point of view and was petty politics. Many senior and eminent diplomats criticised that decision at the time. The Government has now come back to us with its tail between its legs just as we approach the local and European elections. The Government knows that it annoyed a considerable section of the community, who realised just how petty it was being, and is now expecting some type of political reward for its decision to reopen the embassy when all it is doing is finally coming around to serving the national interest given the vital listening post that that particular embassy is. This announcement deserves, at best, a qualified welcome. Our message to the Government in this regard should be "It is about time."

Senator Rónán Mullen should welcome it wholeheartedly.

European Parliament candidates should leave their ambitions outside the door.

Senator Rónán Mullen to continue, without interruption.

I am delighted that what I am saying is resonating so strongly with the Government side. I will postpone any further comments until tomorrow.