Before Senator Ó Donnghaile commences, as Cathaoirleach, and previously as Leas-Chathaoirleach and as a Member for nearly 15 years prior to that, I have chaired sittings of the Seanad and I have never been accused of being political. When I got this job, I left politics aside. Charges are made from different sides against different people. I try to be fair and perhaps I fail at times-----

No, the Cathaoirleach is very fair.

I left my political baggage behind when I got this job.

I accept that wholeheartedly, a Chathaoirligh, and I withdraw the comment. I do not feel-----

We will leave it at that.

We will surely.

I am sure the Senator is rising to raise another matter.

Absolutely. I withdraw the remark.

Thank you.

I understand that sometimes orders might need a bit of guidance and that is the point I wanted to expand upon.

The Twenty-fifth Seanad has been sitting for over a year. It is unfortunate to say that in that-----

That is wrong.

I apologise. We have been elected to the Twenty-fifth Seanad for over a year. It is simply cordial to offer each other some advice now and again and keep each other right.

This Seanad has been sitting for 11 months.

Eleven months is still a good chunk of time. In the course of that 11 months, the Taoiseach has been before us once. That is equal to the number of appearances before this House by the Scottish First Minister and tomorrow by the lead negotiator of Brexit from the EU side. We all agree that Brexit is one of the biggest threats to this State in its entirety in a generation, if not longer. We have been told repeatedly by the Leader that the Taoiseach leads on this important issue, that he is leading the Government position alongside the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. We will have Michel Barnier before us in a joint sitting tomorrow. I do not think it is too much to ask that the Taoiseach would come to this House on a more regular basis to afford us the courtesy of updating us on where negotiations and the Irish Government position has reached.

The Government has been mandated by the Dáil to argue for special status for the North. It would be very useful for Senators to hear where things lie regarding that negotiating stance. We have heard some points emerge from the EU side and while Michel Barnier and his colleagues are here tomorrow, we should take the opportunity to convey a very clear message that we too support special status for the North given the democratic vote there and that we support the preservation and the pre-eminence of the Good Friday Agreement and its all-Ireland institutions. Perhaps the Leader could ask the Taoiseach to come in before we break and update Members on where we are at in the Brexit negotiations.

I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Justice and Equality to take control of the situation and for us all, irrespective of our political allegiance, to leave the political point scoring on the Garda Síochána and the Garda Commissioner outside the door. Many people, all over the country and particularly in rural areas, are the victims of our shenanigans. They are the elderly, who are living vulnerably in rural Ireland. I have with me the local paper from my home area which reports that there has been a litany of crime in the past two weeks. In particular, it relates to elderly people in rural areas. We have all heard of the high profile case in Tipperary last week, but it is the same all over the country. The reason for this is that the criminal element sees total disarray among the Garda Síochána from the top down by virtue of the media coverage from these two Houses. In essence, we are the initiators of much of this and it is about time that the Minister for Justice and Equality, the person who can grasp the nettle, takes control of the situation and sorts it out once and for all in the interest of the most vulnerable in society.