She was leaving once she heard me mention her name again.

I thank the Leader for outlining the Order of Business. I want to raise a couple of points. A report on the housing crisis in today's edition of the Irish Independent states that more than half of renters say that the housing situation is impacting on their mental and physical health. Some 84% of all renters are feeling insecure about their housing situation, particularly those aged between 18 and 50. Some 68% of women lack security and only 16% of people between 25 and 35 say they feel secure about where they live.

I acknowledge we dealt with residential property and tenancies yesterday and some of the things discussed will help tenants but this remains a considerable problem. We are doing our best on mental health in many ways but, in other areas, there is a lack of progress. I do not doubt that the Leader will have lots of good figures from Rebuilding Ireland to mention in his response but the lack of housing supply, security of tenure and the opportunity to buy a house for many people is causing damage. If we could sort those things out and had a more sustainable housing programme, we might not have to invest half as much in mental and physical health measures.

I attended the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment this morning and I welcome the fact that the committee has agreed to establish an inquiry to investigate and examine how rural broadband can best be delivered. That will be a timely and efficient report. My party and I are absolutely determined that everyone in this country gets broadband but we need to ensure we get value for money and that, if we are contributing a lot of money, the State does not just hand it all over to an investor who will have ownership of the project despite investing much less money than the State.

We also need a debate on Rehab and section 38 and section 39 facilities shortly. Rehab was hit by financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, and is not getting the benefits of the removal of FEMPI and it is important. Many of those types of organisation are losing staff to other organisations which have had reduced FEMPI in the meantime.

I was canvassing yesterday and met a lady who had come back to Ireland from the missions in Lesotho. She has been back for two years at this stage. She wrote to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport because, when she went to Lesotho, she exchanged her Irish driving licence for a Lesothan one. She has not been allowed to exchange it back. She also wrote to the Taoiseach who responded and said he would pass it on to the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Sport, from whom she still has heard nothing. We need to deal with people's situations when they are coming back to this country. This lady had an Irish driving licence. I am sure her name, date of birth and so on are somewhere in the system, along with her qualifications. She has been unable to drive since she came back to Ireland because she has no driving licence and has not been able to exchange the Lesothan one for an Irish one. Lesothans drive on the same side of the road and observe the same rules of the road.

It is also timely that I welcome the visit of President Trump. The USA is one of the most important countries with which we have an enormous connection. My grandfather was the youngest of ten, eight of whom went to America and one of whom died young. Almost everyone in this Chamber has family and connections in America. It is a very important trading partner and cultural friend. Regardless of who it is, the fact that the President of the United States is coming to Ireland is something we should welcome. We welcome people from all kinds of other countries with human rights records that are not as good as America's. It is important we welcome him.

I echo the words of Senator Horkan. We have a proud tradition of welcoming leaders of other countries and if we have something to say to them, regarding human rights or anything else, we say it to them when they are here. I fully support what Senator Horkan has said.

I was one of the people who insisted yesterday that we stopped on Committee Stage of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018. That was not, in any way, to impede what the Minister is trying to do. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government gets a considerable amount of stick in the public domain. We need to look at the financial side of purchasing property for young couples in this country. I believe the Central Bank rules are too strict. There are young couples capable of paying €2,100 per month in rent who could mortgage the same property for approximately €1,400 per month. I know the Leader and his party would be interested in doing that. We need the Minister for Finance to come to the house and see what pressure can be brought to bear on the banking system to facilitate mortgages for young couples.

I have spoken previously about Jadotville, as the Leader knows. Today we read, in The Irish Times, of five men who took their own lives after returning from Jadotville.

Last night, Leo Quinlan delivered his Jadotville lecture to the women graduates group at Trinity College Dublin. Afterwards, the sister of Matt Quinlan, who took his own life, read the story of Matt's life. What that man went through after he came home was absolutely earth-shattering. I have banged on and on about medals for these men, but God damn it, it is a small price to pay. Last night, at the end of Bernadette Quinlan's presentation, a very elderly man from Kilkenny walked over and put his hand on my shoulder. He was a Jadotville hero and he said: "Senator, if you do nothing else in your life, bring Quinlan home to be rested with his mother and father." He shot himself in Australia and all they have is a battered suitcase with his life's possessions in it.

Today I intend to start a campaign to bring him home. I hope Members of this House and of the Lower House will support me. It is a small price to pay for the dishonour and disservice we did to those men. I ask for any support that can be given from the Leader's side of the House. I know Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and other Independents will also look on it favourably. Anything that can be done to bring that man home to rest with his mother and father is the least we could do. I call on all in the public domain to support a call. It is a very simple campaign: bring him home.

Like many others, I welcome the move by the Government to rectify the 2012 changes to the pensions and the recalculation process. As in many other announcements, however, there has been a lack of clarity about the timescale. Thousands of people around Mayo have been affected by this and have suffered drastic cuts to their pensions. They find as they come up to pension age that they are not entitled to what they rightfully expected they would be entitled to. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, said recently that 8,500 people had received a payment. She said that a further 24,000 have been contacted, leaving approximately 50,000 still to be contacted. It is also my understanding that 11,000 have yet to receive the initial correspondence from the Department and this means that approximately 61,000 people have yet to be dealt with. These people expect letters from the Department. They have rung up and made inquiries and cannot get clarity on this. How long is this process expected to take? Is there a timeframe for finalising the 24,000 and dealing with the others?

The Minister should come to the House to give us an update on the progress of the scheme. This is very urgent because there are pensioners living in fear, some who have suffered cuts and some who have been left with hardly any money to survive on. They are trying to pay for hospital treatment, travel and many other things and do not have the money for them. What is the size of the average payment? The Minister has said that 80% of the 8,500 have seen their payment increase, but what is the average uplift? There is a real injustice being done to pensioners in this country. It is being done covertly, particularly since 2012 when those changes were brought in. In 2012, people were struggling to survive and the impact of those changes is hitting home now. Some pensioners are followed beyond the grave for every last cent. It is an indictment of our country that pensioners who have contributed so much during their lives do not have sufficient pensions because of those changes. The changes do not apply only to State pensions. The ESB and the community employment scheme supervisors' pensions are affected as well. We need fairness and transparency.

I would like the Minister to come into the House at the earliest opportunity, not to give a bland statement but to answer the questions we are asked every day on doorsteps and that I am asked around Mayo by pensioners about how come their pensions have been cut by anywhere from €50 to €100. These may seem like small amounts but they are huge amounts for pensioners who have to pay for everything. We do not want a nation full of pensioners living in abject poverty at the stroke of a pen, which happened in 2012. When announcements are made, we need to see them implemented and to know before the election where pensioners stand.

Yesterday I commended the Government on bringing in the €20 million pilot fund for pyrite and mica remediation, and I welcome it for the people of Donegal and Mayo. The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, said:

The scheme is an exceptional measure in response to an exceptional need. Some homeowners are in dire straits.

There is many an apartment block with families living in them who are in dire straits. There are fire marshals walking their corridors. They face possible eviction because of safety issues. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, said Government agreement for the scheme is about protecting families in their homes. Are apartment dwellers not families in their homes? The Minister said also: "It is about ensuring people feel secure and safe in the place where they have set down roots, where they are building a life, rearing a family and planning for their futures." That is all true, but there is another group who have put down roots, who have purchased apartments in good faith and who are left with a legacy issue which is not being addressed. I welcome what is happening in Donegal and Mayo, but it is purely for the election. Not all our citizens are being treated equally. Approximately 70,000 families live in apartments with legacy issues. They have been told the State will not take on any liability. I am asking for equality and fairness, that all our citizens be treated equally, that families living in apartments have the same opportunity to feel safe and secure in their homes, to put down roots, to send their children to school, but above all to feel safe in their apartments.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, would come to the House so that we can ask him why he is not treating all our citizens equally. Why are citizens living in apartment blocks not being treated in the same way as people experiencing pyrite and mica problems? This is a disgrace. There is not a Member in this House who has not been approached by a person living in dire straits in an apartment block who is being asked to pay up to €56,000 to make him or her safe and secure and to prevent fire travelling from one apartment to the other. Those people are not being listened to. Is that because they do not have the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Minister for Education and Skills to fight for them? Ministers have refused to meet the apartment dwellers. Reluctantly, I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business such that the Minister for Housing Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, will attend this House to deal with this important issue today.

My colleague on the opposite side of the House raised the issue of housing. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, has released figures today for house and apartment completions in the first quarter of 2019. The total number is 4,275.

This is very welcome news. It shows that every effort is being made by the Government to encourage the building of new houses and apartments, as well as making money available to all local authorities to build social housing. The target this year is 10,000 social housing units, whether apartments or houses. I hope that target will be reached, in addition to the numbers of houses and apartments that will be completed in the private sector. New house and apartment purchasers have challenges. Therefore, we need to constantly review the procedures for making loan applications. In the next two or three months we will need to see how we can further assist those who are paying high rents and trying to save and who will find, when they believe they have put a deposit together, that the goalposts have moved. It is important that people be allowed to forward-plan and get into the housing market at the earliest possible opportunity once they have established that they have the capacity to do so which they already do by virtue of the rents they are paying.

The red meat industry is coming under increasing pressure from a variety of threats. The biggest threats are the lack of profitability and unsustainable businesses, not to mention the shambles that is Brexit and the damage it could cause. The concerns were evident and raised last week at the Irish Farmers Journal beef summit at which many in the industry said they were at their wits' end and struggling to work out from where or when the rays of light of hope would emerge. It is comforting to learn this morning that the EU agriculture Commissioner, Phil Hogan, has announced a €50 million package to assist the industry to incentivise and encourage it to navigate its way through these very challenging times. This presents the Government with an opportunity to raise an additional €200 million. The package is both welcome and timely, but it is probably not going to be a panacea or a silver bullet for the industry because, whether we like to admit it, the agricultural system is broken. Farmers and families are working longer, harder and faster for less and less and for meagre incomes.

What are the challenges? The environment is one and we will not win the discussion by fighting with our critics. Those involved in agriculture will have to make their points and substantiate their claims to promote its merits and advantages. Another challenge is presented by in vitro meat. Laboratory grown meat is becoming a source of huge concern. One of the biggest food companies in the world, Cargill, has invested heavily in it; Memphis Meats is involved in it, while Richard Branson also invested millions in it. In this morning's edition of The Irish Times there is a headline that future food production could be animal, vegetable or cell. Vegetarianism and veganism, having started from a low base, are now significant. People come to them from a plethora of positions, including animal welfare and environmental concerns which I do not think are new. A few days ago I came across a press cutting dating from 2007 in which concerns were expressed about the dairy industry. It could easily have been written today, 12 years later, by just changing some of the names. The problems have not actually changed. The front page of the Irish Farmers Journal in March 1957 carried headlines about the bacon sector being in the doldrums, the possibility of cattle becoming scarce, beef prices and concerns about carcase quality. These issues are as relevant today as they were 62 years ago. The industry must be market-forced, consumer-led and demand-driven. We need a sustainable agricultural system in the absence of the support mechanisms which have come to be seen as the Holy Grail. There is a need for integration and the adoption of technology and efficiency measures to harvest data to make informed decisions. Doris Day passed away this week, aged 97 years. She made famous the song "Que Será Será" which includes the lines:

Que será será,

Whatever will be will be,

The future's not ours to see,

Que será será.

Those words ring true. The future is definitely not ours to see, but we must be prepared. We must counteract the lies and myths. We need to sell the industry on its merits. Those involved in it have to work together with academia and the Government to ensure we will embrace change.

Senator Craughwell graphically outlined the situation facing the Jadotville heroes. Many years ago I was one of the first Oireachtas Members to refer to their situation. A man by the name of James Tahaney from Ballyfarnon served in Jadotville and made us aware of the situation, but seven years on I am a little disappointed that many of their concerns have not been addressed. I hope they will be in the future.

We have attended a few IFA meetings. As beef farmers are very angry and upset at the way the beef industry is going, I am delighted at today's announcement that €50 million has been allocated from exceptional EU funds to the industry. I hope it will be matched by the Government and other sectoral funds because it is a way of compensating farmers for the vagaries of Brexit. Senator Marshall is right that there will be a lot of challenges down the road. He raised a few issues, at which we will have to look and which we will have to address.

President Trump is coming to County Clare. Every time I watch the film "Saving Private Ryan" I think we would not have a democracy in Europe but for the United States. Whatever we think of President Trump, the United States is a country that is very dear and that has been very good to us. Our links with it are very positive.

A few minutes ago I was delighted to join colleagues from a number of parties on the plinth to stand with the Palestinian people and call for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest this weekend. There was a big representation from my party, Sinn Féin, but I also noticed Civil Engagement group and Labour Party Members, a broad range of Independent Members, as well as Social Democrats Members. I congratulate all of them on taking the time to do so and the principled stance they took. I congratulate, in particular, Senator Frances Black who has shown such principled leadership on the issue of Palestine in the time she has been in the House. It is truly disappointing, however, that nobody from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael could find the time to come and join us. I call for a further debate on the issue. Anyone who has been to Palestine knows the reality of what is going on there. A further 65 people were injured this morning on the 71st anniversary of the Nakba, otherwise known as the catastrophe. I think back to the movement of artists against apartheid in South Africa which, unfortunately, I am old enough to remember. Can Members imagine the horror in the 1980s if South Africa was to host a song contest? Would anybody really have stood up and said it was fine to go ahead and send our representatives there to sing and dance? Of course, they would not have because it would have been horrific, but there is a wall of silence among the conservatives in this Chamber on the issue of Palestine. It is truly shameful. The Members to whom I refer are on the wrong side of history in that regard. Just as the South African people found justice, the Palestinian people will also find it. It is hugely disappointing that the Members to whom I refer have decided not to take a principled, cross-party stand with the people of Palestine. It is shameful that Ireland is taking part in the contest and that RTÉ is supporting that stance. We can and must do better. The people of Ireland are behind the Palestinians. There were commemorations across the State yesterday, including in my city of Limerick, to remember the Nakba. I express my genuine disappointment that the parties to whom I refer are not prepared to stand with the Palestinian people.