I thank the 12 Members of the House for their contributions. On my behalf, on behalf of the Fine Gael group and on behalf of the House I extend our deepest sympathy to the families of the innocent victims of the awful tragedy last night. I also extend our sympathy to the mayor of Strasbourg, the people of France and the French Government on this awful tragedy. We must always ensure the rule of law is upheld and any killing must be condemned. What happened last night was absolutely awful.

Senators Horkan, Conway-Walsh and Feighan raised the issue of Brexit. Not wanting to stray into the Conservative Party leadership machinations, I note the issue of Brexit is the most important issue for us as a country, and it is important for all of us to be careful in what we say, in particular to ensure we stand in solidarity with the other member states on the deal that was negotiated and ensure we continue to have our position best represented, which has been done successfully to date by the Government and the Tánaiste. I will not comment on what is happening at Westminster other than to say, as Senator Conway-Walsh said, it is important that we continue to be prepared for all eventualities in Brexit. As I have said before, there is no such thing as a good Brexit. In welcoming the students from Elphin community college to the House, they are of a generation that has benefitted from the prosperity of the European Union and a peaceful island of Ireland. I hope they will continue to be able to look forward to this as young men and women. I wish them all well in their studies.

Senators Horkan and Mulherin raised issues on speeding limits, directly and indirectly referencing the proposals coming from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. It is important not to pre-empt what the outcome of that legislation will be. Notwithstanding the legitimate points raised by both Senators, it is important to recognise that speeding on our roads does kill. If we look at the statistics, the number of people dying on the roads from speeding has increased. Whether this is because of poor road surfaces or because of the lack of a proper speed limit in particular areas, we have always been taught that enforcement, engineering and education are the three "E"s. I accept Senator Mulherin's comments on parts of the country where speed limits are inordinately high but none of us could condone somebody driving 30 km/h over the speed limit and expecting to get away with a mere rap on the knuckles. We will have that debate in due time but we should be cognisant of the points raised by Senators Horkan and Mulherin. Equally, on the points raised by Senator Mulherin on rural Ireland, I remind Senator Conway-Walsh that in County Mayo, her ministerial colleague, Deputy Ring, is doing a fine job in-----

I did not say he was not. It was not me who said it.

-----rejuvenating rural Ireland.

She said there were three rural transport schemes-----

All we have to look at are the announcements made under LEADER programmes and village renewal schemes and we will see the Government is very much committed to rural Ireland.

The Leader should tell that to his colleagues because day after day they stand up saying it is not.

Senator Horkan raised the issue of gift vouchers, which is very timely. My information is the drafting of the legislation is proving to be more difficult than was originally envisaged. It is the intention of the Minister to have the legislation published and to then come before the Houses of the Oireachtas early next year but there are issues in the drafting. People also need to read the small print on gift vouchers. I hope those who give gift vouchers recognise some of them have an expiry date. I hope goodwill is shown by the store or service provider.

Senator Horkan raised the issue of climate change. It was addressed yesterday. This morning, the Minister, Deputy Bruton, appeared on Seán O'Rourke's radio programme and he is attending a conference today in Oslo. We are behind in our targets and we have a lot of work to do. The all-party committee of the Houses of the Oireachtas on climate change will conclude its work at the end of January and the Minister is committed to an action plan to tackle a suite of issues on climate change and I hope we will do this.

Senators Horkan and McDowell raised the issue of the Downing Street Declaration and commended all involved in the commemoration events this week. As I said to the people in the Gallery who have now left, we are benefiting from the prosperity of a peace dividend that is, to be fair, a credit to Albert Reynolds and John Major and all involved in Irish politics who work so hard to ensure we have peace on our island.

Senators McDowell and Norris touched on the issue of Seanad reform. Not wanting to pre-empt or leak any part of the agreed report that is not yet finalised, because Members will be asked for submissions, I commend Senator McDowell on his resilience, patience, extraordinary courtesy and tunnel vision in having his way - sorry, in providing the final document yesterday afternoon. All jokes aside, to be fair to Senator McDowell, as chairman of the committee he certainly galvanised minds. I thank Dr. Brian Hunt, Síle de Búrca and members of the Department of the Taoiseach for their fantastic work. I also thank those who appeared before the committee. Irrespective of one's viewpoint on the final outcome, the process was a good one in that we were able in a non-adversarial way to have a healthy debate on Seanad reform and the future of the Seanad. We have had 12 or 13 reports to date on Seanad reform and we will have that debate in due course again. There will be ample opportunities for Senator Norris's views to be articulated and heard I am sure he will be able to impress on people the need to resist change or go with it, whichever the case may be.