I want to bring to the attention of the House the fact that immigrants from outside the EU who are seeking to renew their visas or obtain re-entry visas are suffering and being exploited due to the security levels relating to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, website. The INIS website was hacked by a bot that has taken up all the slots for appointments for re-entry or renewal visas. The bot then sells them on Facebook for €25 to €30.

What is a bot?

A malware bot. It is a programme that is able to pre-book all the slots.

That is disgraceful.

The security on the INIS website is low level. It has been reviewed by security academics. A website usually asks one to confirm that one is not a robot by asking how many cars are in a picture. The INIS website does not have any of these security provisions so a bot has been able to go in, buy up the slots and sell them on Facebook for €25 to €30. This is unfair and immigrants are being exploited. I have brought this to the attention of the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as have some of my colleagues from Fianna Fáil. I bring it to the attention of the House because it is something that could readily be fixed. Pragmatism and urgency are required in order to do so.

People have come to my clinic who are in receipt of asylum work permits. It looks like a grant of probate - it is a cream form. One person got a job, presented the asylum work permit and was told that the head office of the company will not accept it. It might be apt for the Government to consider putting this into the equality legislation. Refusing to accept work permits like this should be one of the equality grounds for discrimination. It is not acceptable that employers are refusing to accept these work permits if the Government is issuing them.

I welcome the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Mental Health that smartphone protocol be introduced, especially for young children and in schools. There should also be a protocol for adults. Addiction to smartphones can cause mental health and addiction issues. It can lead to overworking, and many Senators probably suffer from that. We need to have a debate on the proper use of smartphones. Our relationship with smartphones is unhealthy. I commend the recommendations of the joint committee.

Is Senator Ó Céidigh first to speak for his group?

No, I am not.

Who is first to speak for the group? Senator Ó Céidigh can propose his amendment to the Order of Business when I come to him.

I am delighted Senator Ardagh referred to the INIS. I did not realise that was the position. I am aware of the case of a student from California who is here to attend DCU for a semester and whose health coverage was not accepted when she arrived. That is right and proper. She sought an appointment and was due to be deported by 16 December. However, she could not get an appointment until January next. I did not realise what was going on, so I thank Senator Ardagh for bringing the matter to the attention of the House. It is serious.

It is disgraceful.

On Monday I met Irish emigrant campaigners and leaders in London. They are seeking to secure the vote for Irish emigrants in next year's proposed referendum on voting rights for the Irish abroad. I look forward to working with the many emigrant groups to help win this referendum that the Government has proposed for May 2019. The Taoiseach and Government are committed to getting this referendum over the line. As I told my London audience, we will have to fight for every vote. We will seek to expand the home to vote movement for the third time in four years. We will put together a modern, 21st century political campaign to overcome the old-fashioned, 19th century attitude about who has the right to vote.

Opponents of the extension of voting rights will rise up and say that such people left Ireland, do not pay taxes here and are not connected to Ireland and if they vote in large numbers, they will swamp the home vote. However invalid those arguments may be, we must be ready to counter such concerns. It should be noted that our opponents always seem to forget that Thomas Clarke, who was the heart and soul of the Easter Rising, was a returned Irish emigrant and an American citizen.

The rest of them were English.

They also want to forget that the founders of the Republic called for a government elected by the suffrages of all of our men and woman, not one elected by a small group of taxpayers and landowners. Our demand for rightful equality - to have the immigrant vote counted - goes back to the founding democratic principle of this nation. We want to fulfil the promise of the Proclamation: one citizen, one vote.

Why are emigrants not allowed to vote? If one is not on the island or is on the wrong part of the island, one cannot vote. There are almost 100,000 Irish-born citizens living in greater London who cannot vote here. The entire political landscape of Ireland will undergo a profound transformation in the next 20 years driven by five factors: Brexit, the possibility of a referendum on a united Ireland, rising immigration, an increasing population and our demand that Irish citizens living overseas or in Northern Ireland be given the right to vote.

These issues should be front and centre in the current presidential campaign. I would like to hear the opinions of each of the candidates on these pressing matters.

Irish emigrants should have the right to vote in Irish presidential elections and referendums. They also need greater representation in the Seanad. Postal voting is well established as a means to achieve such aims in many European countries.

It also works in universities.

The Senator is correct. I have never heard a complaint about voting in the Seanad election by overseas alumni of Trinity College Dublin or the National University of Ireland.

There are no such complaints. However, there is some difficulty in keeping the register accurate because people change address.

We have been admonished by the European Union on voting rights. In 2014, the European Commission stated that citizens exercising the right to free movement should not be disenfranchised in national elections. A few weeks ago, the European Parliament took up the issue of voting rights and Ireland was once again cited as having poor voting mechanisms. In the months ahead, I will appeal to the sense of fair play and commitment to equality of my fellow Irish citizens to advance the democratic principle of one citizen, one vote and give all Irish citizens, including emigrants, the right to vote.

I commend my colleague, Senator Swanick, for again raising the issue of the drug, Spinraza, as a Commencement matter this morning. However, the answer he was given by the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, was wholly unsatisfactory. Some of the children in need of the drug are in intensive care units but we are given the nonsense of being told the drug is under consideration. It is cruel and dehumanising. It is beyond comprehension that the Minister cannot meet the families of those affected. I understand there are statutory responsibilities, but I want the Minister to meet these families to see the situation first-hand. The Minister of State has stated these decisions are made on objective scientific and economic grounds. What about humane grounds?

The Senator is re-entering an issue raised on Commencement Matters.

I am, but I wish to reiterate it because we are united across parties in trying to address the needs of these vulnerable families and the children who desperately need that drug.

Last Friday roads and communities in County Mayo were once again cut off by flooding. The flooding is largely due to the lack of investment in local and regional roads. Some €40 million was announced in the budget in that regard but hundreds of millions of euro have been cut from the local and regional roads budgets in recent years while we nationalised the debt of the banks. This is vital infrastructure. Additional local authority staff are needed to address this problem.

I ask the Leader to bring the Minister to the House to have a full and proper discussion on regional and local roads and some honesty on the issue. Because a certain Minister takes it upon himself to announce every LEADER grant allocated in County Mayo, the impression and illusion is given that lots of money is being committed to the county. However, there are no funds to clear drains in the county, which could have prevented much of the flooding last Friday. The flooding is serious because it led to entire communities being cut off from Mayo University Hospital. I ask the Leader to request that the Minister visit County Mayo. He has been to Crossmolina and other areas but I ask that he come to County Mayo.

Which Minister? Is the Senator referring to Deputy Ring?

No, the Minister, Deputy Ring, is in County Mayo, probably at a funeral. I ask the Leader to request that the Minister of State specifically responsible for flooding, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, visit County Mayo to see the problems caused by flooding, particularly on the Belmullet Peninsula and in the surrounding area, to listen to the concerns of the community and put the funding in place to address these issues.