I thank Senator Noone for the suggestion. I certainly will not allow grandstanding here.

I welcome the release of Ibrahim Halawa. I also support my colleague on the Fianna Fáil benches who suggested that His Holiness Pope Francis should be invited to address the joint Houses of the Oireachtas. I say this as the person who initiated the invitation, and got the invitation unanimously through both Houses and the Committee on Procedure.

With regard to the banks and tracker mortgages, I have to laugh when I hear Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael squealing about it now. Where were they when I tabled a motion condemning the Bank of Ireland for unilaterally, at the instigation of the state of Israel, closing down the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign's bank account? It neutered it and it has gone nowhere. Since then I have discovered that the same bank, namely, the Bank of Ireland, has unilaterally, at the instigation of a foreign power, closed down the bank account of a diplomatic mission accredited legally to this country. Where are we going? To whom are these people accountable?

I listened to and watched them as they came out smugly from Government Buildings. Where do they come from? There was an English person, an Australian person and a Dutch person. 1916 how are you. We are being ruled from the colonies. It is absolutely laughable.

The chief executives of these companies should be in jail. They are robbers. They are thieves. They have engaged in an exercise of mass theft against the people of Ireland who rescued their bloody banks when their improvidence brought them to their knees. Some time ago I listened to a Minister say, "At least nobody died." Of course they did. People were driven to such harassment that they took their own lives. They became seriously ill. They lost their homes. They lost their families. How could this go on for ten years? It is unspeakable.

The question of looking after individuals should be taken away immediately from the useless, pusillanimous Central Bank which has shown itself to be toothless and useless.

They have a clear conflict of interest. They have been looking after the welfare of the banks and citizens. Its power should be taken away and given to an independent group to specifically look after the welfare and rights of the citizens.

I would like to echo Senator Davitt's sentiments. It is a wonderful idea that the Pope could address the Houses of the Oireachtas if he comes to this country. We have been very successful in this Chamber. The Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon from the Scottish Nationalist Party, addressed us recently and she was like a rock star. It sends out a signal from the Seanad that we welcome leaders of countries and groups into the Seanad. It would open up the debate that we need.

Last night I followed the progress of a car-jacking on social media. It started in south Dublin, where a man armed with a gun car-jacked three cars. I commend the professionalism and bravery of the Garda. A very confusing situation, where an armed man was in a shopping centre in Citywest, was handled very seriously. I felt that it was wonderful that these men are there to protect the people and the country. I was very impressed that at a very difficult time, when no one knew what was going on, they were so professional, brave and focused in sorting out what looked like a very difficult situation. I hope that we do not have situations like that in the future. The Garda deserve every resource that we can give it.

Today the Taoiseach met Mr. Emmanuel Macron, the French President, for the first time in an official bilateral meeting. It was a wonderful opportunity to establish a very strong Franco-Irish alliance in the post-Brexit era. A number of key issues were discussed. There are a great number of areas where Ireland and France continue to work strongly together, both internationally and also within the European Union, such as reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and trade.

One area that is crucially important to this country is energy security, and I am asking the Leader to bring this up with the Minister for Housing, Community and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. There is a requirement for a foreshore licence for the Celtic interconnector coming from France to Ireland, which would give us a level of energy security post-Brexit. Once the UK leaves the EU we will have no direct source of energy coming into the country apart from through the UK. Our best opportunity to resolve that will come from our next nearest EU neighbour, which will be France, so I am therefore asking the Leader to take this issue up with the Minister to ensure that this process is expedited and resolved as soon as possible.