I thank the 12 Senators for their contributions. Beginning with Senator Ardagh's points, the Government has significantly increased the health budget by €1.7 billion since 2013.

I find the Senator's remarks amusing given the record of her beloved party leader and Mary Harney in the Department of Health. They rarely, if ever, balanced the books in that Department. I recall we had supplementary budgets year-on-year at a time when the country had plenty of money. I agree with the Senator that it is important that we invest and that we maintain a service that will deliver outcomes for patients. This is about improving access, building capacity, investing in physical infrastructure and also recruitment, a new general practitioner contract and the delivery of Sláintecare, which will be transformational in reforming our health system.

I remind Senator Ardagh that since the Fine Gael Party came into government, in the first instance with the Labour Party and now as a minority Government, 120 primary care centres have been opened, 12 of them this year, with seven more to come. The Government is investing and reinvesting in our health service, be that in terms of recruitment, physical infrastructure or otherwise, and it will continue its record of investing in our health care system.

Senators Boyhan, Bacik, Lawlor, Horkan, O'Reilly and Feighan welcomed the appointment today of the new Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris. I join Members of the House in wishing him well in his appointment. He comes with a 35-year record of policing service in the North as Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI. This is an external appointment from an international selection process at a time when we need to see major reform of An Garda Síochána and the culture therein changed. In tandem with this appointment the Government has committed to investment in An Garda Síochána in terms of recruitment and the provision of new equipment. I thank the acting Garda Commissioner, Dónall Ó Cualáin, for his steady hand in the interim. This is the third Garda Commissioner since 2004. I hope Mr. Harris's five-year appointment will be productive. As Leader of the House, I wish him every success.

Senators Boyhan, Bacik and Marie-Louise O'Donnell raised the issue of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in the context of the GRECO report. The Bill will be returned to the schedule next week. It was withdrawn this week to allow members to submit amendments. I will engage further with Senator Bacik on the matter. I hope the Minister can engage on the Bill with Members on all sides of the House.

It would be helpful if we had sight of the Government amendments.

That is not within my gift. I will communicate the desire of Senators to have sight of the Government amendments.

Senator Rose Conway-Walsh raised the Pat Finucane case, which is before the UK Supreme Court today. I wish the Finucane family well in terms of the public inquiry. They need justice and I hope they will get it.

I join Senators Reilly and Conway-Walsh in hoping the Bill sponsored by Senator Reilly, the Autism Spectrum Disorder Bill 2017, which is currently with the Department, will come before the House soon. I share the view of Senator Conway-Walsh that we need continued investment in primary care in tandem with investment in respite care. Respite care is an important piece of the health budget. I concur that funding should be made available to families who are carers. There is a significant deficit in funding for respite care that needs to be filled.

As Senator Conway-Walsh said, members of families are 24-7 carers for loved ones for 365 days of the year, in many cases in very difficult and trying conditions. There must be continuing investment in respite care. However, I disagree with Senator Conway-Walsh on the rainy day fund. We need such a fund. Otherwise the high tax Sinn Féin model of economics will again bankrupt the country. We saw what happened in the past when there was recklessness in our economy and we cannot return to that. It is important, however, that as the economy grows stronger we reinvest in people and in the delivery of services and infrastructure for people.

Senator Bacik also raised the issue of the gender pay gap. Today the Cabinet approved the legislation compelling companies to deal with the gender pay gap. I hope to work with the Senator in passing a Bill that will eliminate that deficit and repeal that unacceptable gap. I am not sure where that Bill will be introduced but I hope it will be in this House because, as the Senator said, we have done a great deal of work on the matter. The Government is committed to tackling the gender pay gap and we all welcome that Bill and hope it will not be delayed.

Senator Lawlor raised the sports capital fund and the €40 million that will be announced soon by the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin. It was a Fine Gael-led Government that reopened the sports capital grant programme.

It closed it.

We did not. Fianna Fáil closed it.

No.

No, Fianna Fáil closed it.

The Senators can have a chat about it after the Order of Business.

I assure my colleague and friend, Senator Wilson, that it was not the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government that closed it.

It was.

That Government reopened it.

We created it.

Do not let the good weather affect you.

We had a number of schemes. I know Senator Wilson is committed to benefitting local clubs and community and sporting organisations.

Agreed.

It is important that the sports capital grant continues for the benefit of all communities, north, south, east and west.

I will not stray into the internal CCCC issue in the GAA regarding Kildare and Mayo. However, I hope a game of football will be played on Saturday night and that common sense will prevail.

Could the Leader intervene?

I join Senator Horkan in congratulating all involved in the celebration of the 60th anniversary of involvement in UN peacekeeping last Sunday and the decriminalisation commemoration in Dublin Castle. He is right to recognise those who lost their lives in the service of the State. We remember the service men and women who died in honour with our Defence Forces when protecting people in many different parts of the world. I also join him in calling on those who use our cycle lanes to remember that they are for cyclists and should only be for them. I agree that the comments of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, are positive.

Equally, Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell referred to the number of people who are parking on footpaths and impeding not just pedestrians but also wheelchair users and elderly people, who experience difficulty. It is illegal to park on the footpath and the Garda Síochána should be able to use its powers.

I might as well be talking to the footpath every day.

I will be happy to invite the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, to the House to discuss public transport and other matters.

And cycle lanes.

Yes. Senator Reilly raised the lack of guidelines for solar farms. I will be happy to arrange a debate on that with the Minister. He rightly spoke about the growing issue we face with obesity given that almost one third of our young people are obese. It is a startling statistic. As he said, the knock-on diseases are beginning to come to the fore. I will be happy to invite the Minister to the House to discuss that.

Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell will appreciate that I do not have a magic wand. I have not been able to get an answer from the Minister's office as to whether he is available this evening but if the Senator will indulge me, I will endeavour to have him come to the House tomorrow or on Thursday. I have been in communication with the Senator since she first raised the matter in the House last week. I certainly want to see the report on community banking debated in this House and I gave the Senator a commitment to that effect. I cannot give a definitive answer with regard to the Minister's availability but if Senator O'Donnell indulges and trusts me, I will endeavour to secure the Minister's presence in the House later this week. Otherwise, I will have to oppose her proposed amendment to the Order of Business which I do not want to do because the request being made is reasonable.

I agree with Senator Devine that the number of assaults on staff working in hospitals is unacceptable. I worked in a hospital previously and have family members who are nurses and I agree that any attack is one too many. Senator Devine rightly drew attention to some of the dreadful injuries inflicted on nurses, care assistants and other members of hospital staff. The safety of all of those who work in our health system is of paramount importance. The Government is committed to recruiting additional nurses, care assistants and other front-line health service staff. Staff numbers are growing every year but the important point made by the Senator is that we must ensure that the physical safety of all staff is assured. The HSE has a duty of care to its staff and a responsibility to guarantee their safety in the workplace. A national health and safety strategy has been put in place by the HSE but we must continue to highlight this issue.

The issue of agency staff in our health system arises regularly in these Houses. It was raised at meetings of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, of which I was once Chairman, and it has been raised by Senator Colm Burke in this House. The amount of money being spent on agency staff is frightening, especially in the context of the value for money that could be obtained if we invested that money in the retention and recruitment of permanent staff, which would be much better. We must accept that we will always have some agency staff in our health system but the growth in the numbers of such staff is not acceptable. I am happy to invite the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to the House to discuss that matter.

I join Senators Feighan and Wilson in congratulating Ms Arlene Foster for travelling to the Ulster football final at the weekend, which was a positive gesture. I heard what Senator Humphreys said but would argue that gestures are important. It would have been unthinkable 25 years ago for the leader of the DUP to travel to an Ulster football final and to sit with a Cabinet Minister and a Chief Whip to watch the game, so Ms Foster's gesture is positive in that regard. As Senators Humphreys and Feighan pointed out, it is absolutely imperative that the institutions in Stormont are back up and running as soon as possible. It is unacceptable that no responsibility is being taken by politicians in the North and that there is no direct rule at Stormont. It is incumbent upon Sinn Féin and the DUP in particular to re-engage in talks and to re-establish a power-sharing Government in Northern Ireland. I agree with the point made by Senator Feighan about the Commonwealth Games representing a missed opportunity.

Senator Humphreys also argued for a dedicated transport police and the point he made in that regard certainly has merit in the context of last week's report of increases in attacks on both commuters and public transport staff. The Senator called for a debate on the matter and I am happy to invite the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, to the House for that. Senator Wilson seconded the proposed amendment by Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell. As I have said, I will try to arrange for the Minister to come to the House tomorrow or on Thursday and ask that the amendment be withdrawn. If not, I will have to oppose it, which I am loath to do.