I welcome back the Cathaoirleach; it is great to see him.

I support the call for the secretarial assistants issue to be resolved. Their long years of waiting for a resolution received a muted response from in the House. I suggest that members of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission should meet staff representatives to speedily resolve this issue.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business. I believe that the Cathaoirleach is aware of the situation concerning a sarcoma consultant specialist in St. Vincent's Hospital. In June 2016, the Minister for Health agreed to the post. We had an excellent consultant at the hospital who specialised in sarcoma but, for some reason, St. Vincent's decided not to extend her locum position. As a result, the 200 people per year diagnosed with sarcoma are in limbo and, unfortunately, many of them have passed on. It is a specialist cancer that needs a specialist, which has been agreed. Two and a half years after an interview, the candidate who was abroad decided not to take up the post. My patience has been tested.

Moreover, the patients' patience has been more than tested, in that they have lost some of the campaign group through not having specialist experience and knowledge in this regard. I seek an amendment to the Order of Business to ask the Minister for Health to come to this House. I have tried six times over the past few months to get him to come here for a Commencement matter. I know he will probably use the defence that the HSE has no involvement with St. Vincent's, yet it pledges to follow the HSE terms and conditions. One of those conditions is that a post must be taken up within three months. I smell something odorous in what is going on here. Two and a half years is a long time to allow somebody to not make a decision and then make one at the very last minute, leaving vulnerable and very frail patients and those desperate to avail of treatment to which they are entitled. I ask the Leader to support that amendment.

I endorse the call for a debate on cycling. If the Minister comes in, he might also ensure that he is briefed on cycling to school and the equality issues in cycling because very few girls are cycling. There has been a 90% drop in girls cycling to school in Ireland, which is very unfortunate.

I also join Senator Feighan in welcoming the vote by the US House of Representatives. It is extraordinary that it is unanimous because very few unanimous decisions emerge from that House now.

I endorse the call about the secretarial assistants in the Oireachtas and specifically the Seanad. An election could have been called yesterday, not that it would have been required. If we had gone into an election this issue would not have been resolved and it has been pushed for approximately two years. The secretarial assistants have been actively seeking some form of recognition for their work. Many of them start on the scale at a salary of €23,000. It is far less than a living wage. The scale is extraordinarily low when they start. There is no way to recognise the experience and skills they bring in. If, for example, somebody studies for a bachelors degree or a masters in areas such as public policy, which are valuable to us as Members, there is no way to recognise that on the scale because it is set at leaving certificate level although many people come in with extraordinary experience and choose to work with us. Many have stayed out of loyalty. It is something to ask people to take five years out of their career for loyalty when they could be progressing. We need to consider the work of this House. This House has passed more than 35 amendments on behalf of my group since September, and I am sure other groups have done the same. Numerous items of Private Members' legislation have passed through this House and gone to the other House. Two Private Members' Bills have become law.

We have had two Presidents.

We have had an extraordinary number of achievements and legislative work. It is detailed and important work. The work of tracking legislation and bringing it through takes a year or two. People may have to see their secretarial assistant move on twice or three times in a term, not out of lack of loyalty or because they do not love the work but because they need to progress, they want to be able to have families or to perhaps get a home. They should not have to choose between these things. We really need to make sure action is taken. The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission has supported the call for action on the pay claim. Now it sits with the Government and with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We have all had the experience of brilliant people who are passionate about the work coming in here but having to make the hard choice to leave. Can we make sure that we try to recognise their work? Could the Leader try to progress this in any way that is appropriate, including, if appropriate, a discussion in the House?