The situation in Venezuela is going from bad to worse. The leader of that Parliament has had his bank accounts frozen and been banned from foreign travel. We are seeing Mr. Maduro using the heavy hand to shore up his highly discredited regime. Venezuela is facing a humanitarian crisis which is endangering the lives of Venezuelans owing to severe food and medical shortages, as we know. Some 61% of the people in the country are living in extreme poverty. Owing to the massive shortages of necessary medicines, it is medical hell for anybody with a severe medical condition.

Last week I met representatives of the Venezuelan community in Ireland who gathered outside Leinster House. They want the Government to take a particular interest in their country's crisis and the challenges facing their people at home and abroad. Some 3 million people have emigrated from Venezuela since 2014. The situation impacts not just on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade's brief but also on the Minister for Justice and Equality's brief. The Venezuelan people in Ireland want the Government to recognise that Venezuela is facing a humanitarian crisis that is endangering the lives of Venezuelans owing to severe food and medical shortages. They want to see the Government implement the UNHCR guidance notes on the outflow of Venezuelans. That is where the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, comes in with reference to the particular needs of Venezuelans in Ireland due to the crisis in their country and their recognition and status within the country. They also want the Government to recognise Juan Guaidó, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, as the new and legitimate interim president, pending elections. They wonder what the hell Sinn Féin was doing in sending two members to be present at the inauguration of this bizarre person who has been running his country into the ground in the most bizarre ways. On this occasion it would be good if Ministers spoke for Ireland and we did not just wait for the EU to speak for Ireland. I would be very grateful to the Leader if we could receive some response from the Government in early course to this emerging and developing crisis.

I welcome and acknowledge Deputy Willie O'Dea and his guests in the Visitors Gallery. The Deputy is always welcome in this Chamber. It is nice to see the Lower House acknowledge and pay homage to the Upper House.

I too welcome Deputy O'Dea. If any of his guests is from south-east Clare, they are especially welcome.

There will be no canvassing.

I concur with Senator Mullen. Like many of us, last night I watched the Brexit deliberations on the BBC. In the middle of the shemozzle about Brexit, Orla Guerin - an Irish person and a wonderful journalist - was in Venezuela reporting on the campaign. The cameras showed the shops with absolutely no food and people, human beings, going through bins to try to extract something to eat. Ms Guerin interviewed a young family, comprising a single mother and six children who were starving. Anywhere the Government can intervene to try to help in that situation would be most welcome.

We had a very interesting day in the Seanad yesterday when the president of the GAA came to the Chamber. It was a great initiative. I made a proposal to have an all-party friendship group for Gaelic games. I plan on advancing this proposal and will email all Members next week seeking expressions of interest if they want to be part of the group. We will organise some meeting towards the end of February. It is certainly worth noting.

On Brexit and the effect on tourism, I commend those involved in the Cliffs of Moher visitor experience on an initiative yesterday that any new service level agreement with coach companies include a rule about going on to another fee-paying destination in County Clare, to be coupled with proof of an overnight stay. Any future coach operator will not receive a licence to drop off and pick up at the Cliffs of Moher unless it can demonstrate that its guests have stayed a night in County Clare and visited another fee-paying attraction.

That is what I call joined-up thinking. That is what I call using a gold-plated tourism facility to support silver-plated and other tourism facilities in the region. That is where a giant of a facility can help smaller facilities and sustain jobs, particularly in the tourism industry, especially given the imminent threat of Brexit to that industry.