The Order of Business is No. 1, motion re Special Joint Committee on Climate Action, to be taken without debate at the conclusion of the Order of Business; No. 2, address to Seanad Éireann by an t-Uachtarán, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, Mr. John Horan, to be taken at 1.30 p.m. and conclude not later than 3.30 p.m.; No. 3, statements on local government: directly elected mayors, to be taken at 4 p.m. and adjourned at 6 p.m., with the time allocated to group spokespersons not to exceed ten minutes each and all other Senators not to exceed six minutes each; and No. 4, Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 - Committee Stage (resumed), to be taken at 6 p.m. and adjourned at 9 p.m., if not previously concluded.

I extend my sympathy and that of the Fianna Fáil group to the families who have lost loved ones on the roads in the past week. They include the families of Shaun Harkin, Mícheal Roarty and John Harley and of Jackie Griffin in Dublin. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time. The death toll on the roads is heartbreaking.

Dublin 8 is saturated with student accommodation. In the immediate area there are over 1,000 student accommodation units. Within 1 km there are over 3,000 units. Incredibly, some of these units cost up to €350 a week to rent. Show me a student who has that amount of money to put aside each week to pay for housing.

The real impact of the availability of student accommodation in these urban areas with great communities is that, by its nature, the population living there is transient, which means that those living in student accommodation do not get an opportunity to convene and get involved with the community, not because they are bad people but because of the short period they spend in student accommodation. This deteriorates and eats into the community fabric and takes away from the communities living there.

From a practical perspective, many of the student apartments do not come with parking spaces and we all know that many students have cars. This adds to the congestion. Dublin 8 has sufficient student accommodation. We need to consider the planning laws to ensure parking spaces will be supplied which will make it much more expensive for builders to build. It is a lot cheaper to build when they do not have to dig down. This is one of the reasons we are seeing many such units being built. I would like to see incentives given by the Government to encourage the provision of long-tenure housing in Dublin 8 because the area is over-saturated with and has enough student accommodation. We need to consider long-term housing solutions.

The third issue I wish to raise, and which I believe many Members will mention, is the impending nurses' strike. There may be as many as 40,000 nurses who are planning to go on strike tomorrow. We all implore public service management and the unions to get involved. I encourage the Minister for Health to also get involved as many patients will be affected. Public health nurses provide a service for cancer patients. Many are due to start treatment this week or are perhaps in the middle of treatment. It is important, therefore, that the regimes be stuck to. I know that emergency and essential care services will be provided, for which I thank the nurses.

We can only imagine how upset and worried patients are going to be in the next few days. I implore the Minister to get a handle on this issue and ensure the strike does not go ahead.

I thank the Leader for organising a debate and statements on directly elected mayors. It was requested and he arranged it. I also thank the Minister for facilitating the debate and everyone else involved. It will be an interesting debate and there will be some interesting contributions. I am conscious that we are dealing with the Order of Business. I appeal to the Leader to again consider an idea to which he was agreeable in principle before Christmas. I refer to the Order of Business the Leader reads out and that the Cathaoirleach and the Clerk of the Seanad have in front of them. Can we have copies of it circulated or put on the back table?

I ask because we have three functions. We accept, reject or amend the Order of Business. That has been made very clear to us in the communications we have received since we came back to the House after Christmas. I want to focus on that issue. I am asking the Leader about this matter for the third time. He agreed to my suggestion in principle before. I checked with the Dáil today and the Members of that House get the Order of Business on a Tuesday. As I have a copy with me, I know that is happening in the other House. Can we have something similar here?

I want to talk briefly about the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017. I am the leader of the Seanad Independent Group. The Leader will be aware that we meet on a Wednesday with the leaders and the Whips. This is a draft Order of Business. The Leader and his team do a very good job, as I acknowledge. I also know that there are always difficulties in balancing the availability of Ministers and various other people and that it is a complex process to bring it all together. Nowhere in the draft, however, when we left, was there any suggestion or hint that the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 would be on the schedule this week. I find that disappointing. It is not helpful if we are to plan our work and work in a spirit of co-operation in managing the order of our business.

I also ask the Leader if he will agree to organise a debate on forestry. We received correspondence from IBEC yesterday stating it had established a forestry group within the organisation. It recognises the importance of the timber and forestry industry in respect of sustainable rural communities, future employment, the economy and greater reliance on timber in the housing construction industry. There has, however, to be a balance in all of that, with sustainable and mixed forests, mixed vegetation, mixed tree lands and, tying in with that, the amenity aspect of forests across the country. I welcome IBEC's policy document that was circulated yesterday. It is positive and good. I ask the Leader if we can have statements on forestry in the House at some stage that might be suitable for the Minister with responsibility for forestry.

Ba mhaith liom comhbhrón a dhéanamh le muintir Dhún na nGall, Ghaoth Dobhair agus an Fháil Charraig ar a tharla oíche Dhomhnaigh. I pass on my sincerest condolences and those of Sinn Féin's to the families and friends of the four young men who were tragically killed near Magheroarty on Sunday night. They were Shaun Harkin, Mícheal Roarty, John Harley and Daniel Scott. May they rest in peace. The sudden loss of so many young lives has impacted on many people, young and old. As someone who lives in Erris in a Gaeltacht area, I am only too aware of the devastating impact such tragedies have on a tight-knit community.

I raise the issue of VAT increases that will be applied to food supplements from March. There has been little or no consultation with the affected retailers. Although Revenue has stated all products with 0% VAT are undergoing review, the increase has come as a bolt out of the blue. Last week at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners referred to an expert report which had been commissioned on the matter. The report should be published and an increase in VAT suspended until there is clarity in the decision-making process.

The issue should also be covered in the tax strategy papers later this year. It now appears that the VAT charge on these products will be more than that levied on fast food. I have been lobbied by an awful lot of groups on this issue. Many of the people who take these supplements are over the age of 55 years; therefore, the increase will have a greater impact on them. Increasing the cost of supplements and things that are essential to their good health at such a rate will put them in further financial hardship. I ask that the VAT rate be suspended until after the matter has been examined properly.

I, too, convey my sympathy, the sympathy of the Fine Gael Party and the sympathy of the House to the families who have suffered loss as a result of the tragedy in County Donegal. It is very difficult on everyone in the local community and a huge loss of so many young lives in one event. It is a really tragic accident that occurred. Our thoughts are with each and every one of the families and their immediate friends and relations at this time.

I wish to talk about statistics as the housing statistics for 2018 have just been released. They indicate that there has been a substantial increase in the number of new builds in the past 12 months. There is an annual increase in output of over 31%. This is the highest number of houses built since 2009. The corner has been turned in building new houses, which is welcome at a time when many people are in need of houses and anxious to acquire their own homes. Another interesting fact is that more than 6,272 houses were completed in the last quarter of 2018, a 37% increase year on year. If that trend continues and I hope it will, more than 25,000 new houses will be built in 2019. Likewise, substantial progress has been made with local authority builds. Again, it is thanks to all of the local authorities and their members for making sure targets are set and achieved.

However, we must still consider long-term planning for the people who are caught in a situation where it will be difficult for them to borrow on their income, yet they do not qualify for a place on a local authority housing list. As I have mentioned time and again, there is a need for long-term planning in the rental accommodation market. If I lease a commercial premises I will get a 20 year lease, a five-year rent review and be responsible for internal repairs and maintenance. We should consider and develop the rental market in the same way as has been done throughout Europe. We need a mindset change on this issue because people move around much more with their jobs and the expectation of remaining in the one place for 20, 30 or 40 years has changed substantially. We need to discuss the issue here and I hope it will be on the agenda the next time that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government is in the House to deal with housing matters.

I, too, extend my deepest sympathy and prayers to the families of the four young men who tragically lost their lives in Machaire Rabhartaigh, County Donegal over the weekend. A cloud of sadness and desolation now hangs over that beautiful part of County Donegal. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families. I also extend my deepest sympathy and prayers to the Waller family who lost their father and mother in a tragic accident that took place in County Monaghan at the weekend also. I extend my sympathy to all families who have lost loved ones in road traffic accidents.

I am also saddened to learn of the nursing strike planned for tomorrow. It is very disappointing that the Minister for Health and the Government have allowed the situation to develop to such an extent that nurses feel they have no other option but to go on strike. As matters stand, we must recognise and acknowledge a number of issues. First, nurses and midwives have the lowest salary of graduate professionals in the health service. The Government must acknowledge this. It must also acknowledge that there is a serious issue with recruitment and retention in the nursing profession. The Government must realise and appreciate that the nursing profession is changing and has changed dramatically in the past few years. It is sad nurses feel they have no other option at this point but to take strike action and all that goes with it. I was interested to see a comment yesterday in one of the national newspapers by Mr. Peter O'Rourke, an orthopaedic surgeon based in Letterkenny University Hospital. He said nurses had been "poorly treated and poorly paid for many years and the only surprise is that they have waited so long to take industrial action." This is from a gentleman who works shoulder to shoulder with members of the nursing profession seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year. We all appreciate the daily hard work and dedication of nursing staff. Sometimes when their shifts finish they must stay on for another 45 minutes or longer to brief the staff who are taking over from them, all without pay. We must recognise this. We must acknowledge that there is a problem and enter into meaningful negotiations with the nurses to try to resolve this matter for the benefit of nurses and us all.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business - one of my colleagues on the Independent benches will second the proposal - that No. 22, Public Sector (Plain Language) Bill 2019 - First Stage, introduced by the Labour Party with the support of the National Adult Literacy Agency, NALA, be taken before No. 1.

To add briefly to what has been said, people should realise nobody takes industrial action lightly. Whatever opinion people might have about the pay claim, those who suggest nurses or anybody else would go out on strike on a whim need to realise withdrawing one's labour is probably the most serious action a worker will ever take. No worker takes it lightly. That should be respected. My view and that of my Labour Party colleagues is that we support the action that will be taken by the nurses tomorrow. People should realise that when industrial action reaches strike action something has gone seriously wrong. I hope they will appreciate that when making comments about the action being taken tomorrow.

Although my party leader has already extended sympathy, I extend my personal sympathy on the tragic deaths of the four young men in County Donegal. Road deaths of such magnitude would be devastating for any community but even more so for such a small community. Equally, I extend my sympathy to the families of all the people killed on the roads. We have had a very sad week as there have been ten or 11 deaths on the roads since last Thursday. Last year was a fantastic year with the lowest number of road deaths on record, but we can never take our eye off the ball and must do everything we can. I am not proposing a discussion on road safety but we must keep our eye on the ball in that regard. I extend my sympathy to all the families involved.

I wish to clarify Senator Boyhan's point about the meeting we had last week. He said there was no hint that the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 would be taken this week. In fact, when the question was asked about when we would discuss the Bill again we were told it that would be during the sitting week beginning on 5 February. It was confirmed to us that we would be discussing it next week, not this week. That is my recollection of what happened at the meeting.

However, I wish to speak about something else today. We are discussing the Order of Business and I can only speak about future Orders of Business today because there is no other time to do it.

I would like the Leader to schedule a debate on what I consider to be a very important matter, namely, the value of the EU to the Irish economy and that of the EU as a whole. While Ireland ranks second to Luxembourg in the league table, with between 88% to 92% of Irish people in favour of the EU, it is important to have a debate on the values of the EU and that we acknowledge the significant benefits we enjoy, such as freedom of movement across the 28 countries, the Erasmus programme that facilitates young people to study abroad, as well as the benefits to agriculture, trade and the Single Market. Much of our legislation on equality, justice, women's rights and environment is a benefit of the EU, as is the European health insurance card, the former E111 form. While I am not entirely happy with every single thing the EU does in terms of the CCCTB, digital taxation or the eurozone crisis, it is important to schedule a debate on the future of the European Union and the value of the EU to Ireland in order that people who are contemplating any other position which I do not anticipate can articulate their opinions. Perhaps if there had been a debate in Britain a long time ago about the value of the EU, we would not now be facing Brexit.

I too want to be associated with the statements of sympathy to the relatives and friends and community members of those who died in that tragic accident in County Donegal. When I heard that there were four young men who had been killed in a car accident and that the word "Donegal" came after it, it brought me back to a number of previous occasions. I know that this is not the day on which to discuss these things but I really think road safety, particularly in the north west, has to be looked at again. Road safety is a serious problem in that area and has been for many years.

I agree completely with Senator Boyhan that it is desirable that we should have the proposed Order of Business in written from available to us at the commencement of each session of the House.

Following on from Senator Horkan's statement about the need to debate the future of Europe, this is a very important day in the sense that the House of Commons in London is setting out to debate a series of amendments to a Government motion, the gist of which may well affect the future of the this island and the future relations between this island and our neighbouring island. There are two things that strike me about the Brexit debate. First, it has been stated repeatedly by a certain group of people, the European Research Group, ERG, people in the Tory Party in the House of Commons, that the constitutional position of Northern Ireland cannot be prejudiced in any way by something like a backstop agreement. The constitutional position of Northern Ireland, however, both in the Constitution of this state and the United Kingdom, is now governed by the Good Friday Agreement, an international treaty registered with the United Nations and co-guaranteed by a number of institutions. To say that somehow the Constitution is threatened by measures that are necessary to sustain the constitutional existence of the Good Friday Agreement is, in fact, to misrepresent the situation.

Second, it is important to say the backstop is necessary for precisely this reason, namely, that were there no backstop, it would be possible for the same group of people - the ERG-oriented people in the Tory Party - to urge their Government to effectively take hostage the economic future of this state and Northern Ireland in further negotiations on trade deals with Europe. It was for that purpose that the backstop was inserted as a preliminary step to ensure such a process would not happen.

In case people think that is unduly alarmist, we know from remarks made by Mr. Rees-Mogg and others that there are members of the Tory Party who are prepared to put a gun to the head of this state economically to push through their points of view. That should be said.

In view of the importance of the future of Europe as a topic, I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that instead of having a further debate on Committee Stage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 this evening, we devote the time provided for it to debate the future of Europe, as suggested by Senator Horkan.

Before the Senator resumes his seat, he indicated that he wished to second Senator Ó Ríordáin's amendment.

I second the amendment.

I second Senator McDowell's amendment.

Are there other speakers?

Yes.

Speak now or forever stay silent.

I will speak now. I want to refer to the nurses' strike which will take place tomorrow.

We have discussed that matter.

Having been a nurse, I want to have my say and express my view that this House should support nurses, given the recruitment and retention issues about which we have spoken for so long and the crisis in the health service. I extend my best wishes to the nurses who are about to commence their first 24-hour strike.

Finally, I call Senator Lombard.

I thought the Cathaoirleach had forgotten me and that it was a Corkonian thing.

It is an east versus west thing.

I would like to comment on the legislation passed by the Houses last week on the new arrangements for local government in the city and county of Cork. The Act has been signed into law. On 4 June 2019 the boundaries of Cork City Council will be extended to cover a major portion of the county's population, perhaps as many as 80,000 people. The city council will assume responsibility for a large area around the city, including Ballincollig, Blarney, Grange, Frankfield and Rochestown. The debate on the legislation has been had. We must now move on to ensuring Cork county can develop and flourish. Many of the county's major regional towns such as Clonakilty, Bandon, Kinsale, Macroom and Mallow are dependent on agriculture and rural enterprise. There has to be a new focus on how Cork County Council is run and funded through the national Exchequer. That refocusing has to take account of the major rate base that has been taken from the county council. Cork Airport business park, EMC in Ballincollig and other employers have been brought under the city's jurisdiction. We need to put a fund in place to ensure the county can flourish and develop.

As the Cathaoirleach is very much aware, towns in County Cork are, unfortunately, under pressure, as are all rural towns in many ways. They were used to having the cushion of a fund comprising rates paid by businesses around the city. That is now gone. An economic development fund needs to be put in place to ensure these towns, particularly their town centres, can develop. We have seen many shops close in many of these rural towns in the past six weeks. It is a very tough time of the year for business. We need a new focus on how we will redevelop these towns.

I propose that the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, come to this Chamber to discuss his plan for re-energising and redeveloping towns. He should take into consideration the real structural changes that have happened in County Cork. If we do that, we can drive economic development to ensure these towns develop. I will be seriously concerned if we do not put a plan in place because without the rates base previously available to the county council, these towns will, unfortunately, not develop as they should.

That concludes the Order of Business. I am sorry; I call the Leader to respond.