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Seanad
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

Brexit, allocations and pyrite

Summary

The Leader grouped the Brexit interventions and said the Tánaiste or Minister of State would return after the European Council. He also told Senator Boyhan to use a Commencement matter on sports allocations and said there was no delay, then addressed pyrite and other issues.

Senators Horkan, Conway-Walsh, Swanick, Feighan and Ó Ríordáin raised the issue of Brexit. We have asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade or the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee, to come back to the House to have a discussion on the outcome of the forthcoming European Council meeting. Senator Horkan is correct about the importance of the language we use and the tone and tenor of our communications.

There are no winners in Brexit. There is no positive outcome. It is important that we continue to understand the importance of Brexit. We need to be prepared for every eventuality. It is a bit like the boy who cried wolf. All businesses and stakeholders must pay attention. If they have not done so up to this point, it is still not too late but they should start paying attention now. We will have this discussion again in due course.

I will be happy for the Minister for Education and Skills to come to the House to discuss the issue of education, which was raised by Senator Boyhan.

Senator Boyhan spoke about the sports capital programme. To the best of my knowledge, it has not been finalised. No allocation has been announced. I understand the points made by Senator Boyhan. The Minister, Deputy Ross, and the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, will work under the umbrella of the online sports capital registration process, which is commonly known as OSCAR. It uses an independent and transparent scoring system and assessment process or procedure. I remind the House that there are five criteria which merit scoring in sports capital applications: increasing participation; sharing facilities; the socioeconomic scorecard in terms of areas of deprivation; its own funding; and the technical merits of the project. As Members will be aware, the amount of money that has been applied for is four times greater than the amount of money that is available. Almost 2,300 clubs have applied for grants from a pot of approximately €162 million. I assure the House that the process is independent and transparent. As Senators will be well aware, we have a very independent Minister in the Cabinet.

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He is very independent all right.

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Indeed. I look forward to the announcement of the allocations. If Senator Boyhan wishes, he can submit a Commencement matter as a means of getting a more prompt reply than I can give him. There has been no delay in the process. My understanding is that it is still being vetted and gone through.

This Government is very committed to giving justice and support to the women who have been affected by the CervicalCheck controversy, which was raised by Senator Conway-Walsh. I am not familiar with the case she mentioned.

We will have a debate on pyrite with the Minister of State, Deputy English, in due course. He has been in the House on a number of occasions.

Senator Conway spoke about the increase in the budget of the Department of Justice and Equality, which we all welcome. I think there is universal welcome for the commitment to more community policing, in line with the Garda Commissioner's new model of delivering better policing, more visibility, more boots on the ground and more gardaí with a presence. I will be happy to have another debate on justice in due course.

Senator Murnane O'Connor referred to the podiatry service in Carlow. She will appreciate that I am not familiar with the issue. Perhaps she can communicate her concerns to the Minister, Deputy Harris, when he is in the House on 23 October if she has not got an opportunity to do so before then.

Senator McDowell raised the important issue of the role of the Houses of the Oireachtas in European scrutiny. As he will be aware, the Oireachtas has responsibility for the scrutiny of EU draft proposals and policies, the proper transposition of EU legislation into law and holding the Government to account. Some of this work is done by the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs. The Senator is right when he says there is a need for more in-depth engagement with European policy. That was mentioned as part of Seanad reform. It is something we could take on board now, prior to any further reform of the Seanad. Perhaps we can put it on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. This important matter should not be falling between different cracks. The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, is based in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with the Tánaiste. If I heard the Senator correctly, he is arguing that there should be a Cabinet-level Minister with specific responsibility for European affairs.

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