I have to say I agree with my Sinn Féin colleague. It is a comprehensive mess. Everyone is against it. They have even managed to unify the Johnson family. There was old grandpa Johnson who did not know. There was Boris who was first for "Remain" and then for "Leave". Then, there is Jo, his younger brother, who has always been "Remain". We have a unified Johnson family – hurray - and they are all against it. Everyone is against it.

The UK Cabinet is leaking like a sinking ship. UK Cabinet Ministers are walking away from everything. We know the facts of the opinion polls. We hear a good deal about the people's voice and the voice of the people. It is a kind of Hitlerian chant, but we know now that the people have changed their minds. The opinion polls show that utterly clearly. They have changed their minds. What is the voice of the people? The leavers – the Brexiteers – are afraid of the voice of the people. That is why they do not want a second referendum. I will say one thing: there is a second referendum coming. This is going to go down the drain. They are all going to vote against, and that is a bloody good thing. Let us have a second referendum. The tragedy is that we will have a much-weakened Britain as a member of the European Community. It will never regain its status.

The second thing I wish to raise is the fact that myself and Senator Bacik received on Thursday a notice of the schedule of business. It said clearly that the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill was being taken at 2 p.m. after the Greyhound Racing Bill.

It is. That has not changed at all.

Is it at 2 p.m.? The Leader said it was being taken immediately after.

No, it will be after the Greyhound Racing Bill.

It is to be taken at the conclusion of No. 1.

It is to be taken at the conclusion of No. 1. I want it at 2 p.m. I want it clearly set out that it will be at 2 p.m. I do not want it at 1.30 p.m. Senator Bacik and myself have guests and I am not going to leave them.

Then you had better propose an amendment to the Order of Business.

I am proposing that we take the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill at 2 p.m. as previously agreed. The Leader denied that we got this notice. I have it before me in black and white.

I will respond to that.

Correct me if I am wrong, Senator, but what you are proposing is that No. 1 be adjourned not later than 2 p.m. and that the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill be taken then. Is that your proposal?

Yes. I am suggesting simply that the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, regardless of anything else, not be taken until 2 p.m. That is quite clear.

Did Senator Norris go for lunch?

I have guests. We are entitled to have guests occasionally. The Leader would not know that, of course, because he is never here.

That is okay. We have the amendment.

The greyhounds will be in traps.

Thank you very much, Mr. Eastwood.

I wish to welcome the boys from Drimnagh Castle secondary school. They are welcome guests of Senator Ardagh.

I welcome the boys from the school to the House. I second Senator Norris's amendment to the Order of Business. We cannot have him discommoded during lunch.

I wish to join colleagues in welcoming the publication of the draft agreement between Britain and the European Union published yesterday. On the face of it it appears to be, as my colleague, Senator O'Reilly, has already stated, good for the Six Counties of Ulster that are currently governed by the United Kingdom. I fully endorse what Senator O'Reilly has said 100%. As a result, that can only be good news for the Border communities, especially the areas of Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Leitrim and Louth that I come from.

Like Senators O'Reilly, Mac Lochlainn and others in the House, having been born and reared on the Border I have seen at first hand the decimation caused to the region during the 30-odd years of the Troubles and beforehand. I welcome the draft agreement and the proposals relating to the backstop. However, I hope that we will be given an opportunity to scrutinise in minute detail all 585 pages of the agreement. Rightly, we are concerned about the backstop and about having no physical border on this island again. However, I do not think we should take our eyes off what else is in the draft agreement. I wish to caution against making decisions until we have examined it fully. I know my colleague, Senator Ned O'Sullivan, spent all of last night reading all those pages and has some concerns that he will be raising at a later date.

A lot done, but more to do.

I hope that logic will prevail in the British Parliament and that the sideshow taking place at the moment among some members of the UK Cabinet ceases. They seem to be resigning on an hourly basis to cause the greatest possible damage to the UK Prime Minister in the hope that the agreement will not get through the Parliament. I hope that common sense prevails and that it does get through at the end of the day if it is as good as it appears to be. I have not read the entire document, although I intend doing so.

I concur with previous speakers on the draft agreement that was launched yesterday. It is fair that we acknowledge the input of everyone involved from all parties and none from an Irish perspective in reaching this point. Unfortunately, the story is far from over and it is a very fluid situation. I wonder where this draft agreement will go. If I was a betting person, I would not put too much money on the British Prime Minister lasting much longer. I hope I will be proved wrong but I have concerns in that regard. There is a long way to go before this is over. We will discuss this subject in the House for many months and possibly years to come.

My other point concerns apprenticeships, an issue on which I came across a report recently. Unfortunately, Ireland is bottom of the European league table when it comes to apprenticeships in terms of the scale and diversity of apprenticeships on offer. Apprenticeships have always been the Cinderella of careers, which is very unfortunate. If we look at the scale of our problem with apprenticeships and the work that needs to be done, we can see that the statistics for the 2017-18 academic year are stark and highlight the gravity of the task that lies ahead. The total number of people in apprenticeships in that year stood at 14,871. The figure for enrolment in third level public institutions in the same academic year was 235,644. That shows the difficult task ahead of us.

I acknowledge the work that has been done on apprenticeships but, clearly, much more needs to be done. Female participation in apprenticeships last year was 2% compared with 50% in our nearest neighbour, the United Kingdom. We need a large-scale public campaign to create awareness of apprenticeships. If I were seeking an ambassador or poster boy for apprenticeships for young people thinking about apprenticeships, I would look no further than Martin McVicar from Combilift in County Monaghan, where I live. If I mention Martin McVicar or Combilift, everyone knows who I am talking about. The Government could do worse than pick up the phone to Martin McVicar and ask him to be our ambassador or poster boy for apprenticeships. When we look at housing, we see the lack of skilled workers in construction. If we look at the hospitality sector, both hotels and restaurants, we see that much more needs to be done in this area.