I thank the Leader for scheduling an interesting and useful debate last night on the benefits and future of the European Union. It is a pity more speakers did not take part. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, for being here.

I also support the comments of Senators Boyhan, Bacik, Wilson, and others, regarding the Judicial Council Bill 2017. The point I was making to Senator Bacik was that we have much experience here at this stage on that particular topic because of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017. Where better, therefore, to start that Bill than here?

I also want to query when the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 will come back to the House. The Minister had said he would bring it back.

I also congratulate the Youthreach programme on its 30 years and Senator Wilson for all of his efforts in that regard.

I was going to talk about no smoking because it is Ash Wednesday but I will do that next week. I turn instead to the fact that we need a debate about the national planning system. I am not sure the way we do planning is working for people applying for or objecting to planning permission, or for interested parties generally. It is an antiquated system that has been built up over many years. Planning seems to be done more efficiently in other countries and for the benefit of everybody, much more so than here. I do not blame planners at all. They are often hamstrung by the rules and regulations in place. Local authorities and councillors also have a reserved function regarding development plans, which is correct. The development plan, however, is devised every six years and the planners are then bound by that, which is also correct. The process of applying and appealing, however, needs to be the subject of a debate. I am not just referring to critical infrastructure, such as the Apple data centre in Athenry, but to how we build, or do not build, generally. We have a crisis in residential supply in our major cities and throughout the country. We need to get building while also taking people's objections into account. I ask the Leader to schedule time for a debate with the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to deal with this topic.

I welcome the report recently published by the Western Development Commission, WDC. It analyses employment data in industry in the west region. As always, information from the commission, such as in this document, gives an independent perspective on how we are faring in job creation. We are all anxious to pursue that. The report contains much positive and revealing information. The west region is home to almost 46% of medical technology jobs in Ireland, while 53% of people working in the west region work in medical technology, chemicals and the agrifood industry.

That is quite substantial. When we think of the west region, Galway stands out strongly as a major attraction for FDI but when one drills down on the figures, County Mayo, which is a rural county, leads the way in medical-technology jobs and the percentage of people employed in industry there is higher than the national average. Equally, County Sligo features and, therefore, there are many positives.

It is important that we analyse these data in light of the recent launch of the regional enterprise plan, which will bring us to 2020, and the need to identify how we will create more investment in jobs in the west region. One of the challenges identified by the chair, Mr. Gerard Kilcommins, at the launch was that we need to achieve more of a regional spread. We want FDI and industry. One of the key messages from a meeting I had with IDA Ireland on Monday last is that something we definitely offer in the west region is quality of life and a cheaper cost of living, which has to be attractive for young people who want to work and raise their families in the region. There is a job of work that needs to be done, not only for the west region but for all the regions where we are trying to shunt out growth from cities such as Galway, Limerick and Dublin, which we all know are under severe pressure in terms of infrastructure, schools, homes, etc., because of investment in their areas. We need to have a debate on how we take it to the next level. I welcome the job creation and that our unemployment rate is at an all-time low but we need to devise a tailor-made plan for specific regions as to how we get investment, which is choking the cities, out into rural areas. I ask for such a debate and that the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, would come to the House so that we can all speak from our experiences in the different regions and make a difference in delivering jobs to these areas and keeping our young people in them.

First, I wish well Ms Joanne Hayes of the Kerry Babies case, who is bringing the State to court following its actions in those awful days, particularly with reference to International Women's Day on Friday. I wish Ms Hayes the very best of luck. The women of Ireland, and the men, are behind her.

Two years ago, I brought up at the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs the damning report on fostering services in the Dublin South-Central area. In that committee, we held a good six-month investigation involving foster carers of Ireland, HIQA, Tusla and the Garda. Everybody came in to present to the committee. A decent report was launched following that and the Minister, Deputy Zappone, promised to oversee its recommendations and implementation. Unfortunately, today, HIQA has again expressed grave concerns about Dublin South-Central. The area includes Lucan, Ballyfermot, Ringsend and Clondalkin, some of which are disadvantaged. HIQA's concern is that foster carers there have not been trained or informed adequately of their need to report child protection issues. HIQA again has condemned Tusla's education of foster carers in this area. I do not know how many times we must ask the Minister to come in but I again ask her to do so and to explain to Members what is going on in Dublin South-Central and at what risk we are putting children in need of foster care and in need of the care of the State. Repeatedly, it is just not happening.

I also congratulate the Youthreach programme on its 30th anniversary and Ms Sabrina McEntee, who is the Cavan co-ordinator. I was glad that Ms McEntee was a member of my task force on loneliness. She played an important role in that regard.

Today, I would like to highlight the Life Saving Equipment Bill 2017, which I drafted. This Bill passed Second Stage in this House in January 2018. It is vital legislation, which proposes to introduce specific penalties, including hefty fines and custodial sentences, for those who engage in this reckless, careless and thuggish behaviour of destroying lifebuoys and defibrillators around the country. I remind the House that this is not the same as defacing a park bench, pulling a bin off a pole or painting graffiti. Destroying defibrillators and lifebuoys directly leads to unnecessary deaths and the penalties need to reflect this. We also need to bear in mind that many of these defibrillators are put in place through volunteerism in communities and they are not State funded. Volunteers in GAA clubs and community groups put defibrillators in place in their towns and at their GAA and soccer pitches and sports facilities. We heard last year of a young boy in Athlone who drowned sadly in the River Shannon. When his friends attempted to save him and went to the nearest lifebuoy station, there was no lifebuoy there. Recently, the Leader will be interested to hear, the Cork Evening Echo reported that 20 lifebuoys alone go missing every week in Cork city at a cost of €50 per lifebuoy. That is a significant financial burden, but what is the human burden associated with this? I would also like the Leader to know that the Cork city missing persons search and rescue unit supports this legislation.

Finally, in advance of the second anniversary of the tragic loss of R116, which went down at Blackrock on 14 March, I pay tribute to our lost heroes - Paul Ormsby, Ciarán Smith, Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy. I look forward to the publication of the air accident investigation report, which I understand is imminent. This may give a certain amount of closure to the families and to all those affected, including the community, as a whole, in the Erris region, where the sense of volunteerism was unbelievable at that time. I have spoken about it previously.