I am sure the Leader will join me and other Senators in proposing a vote of sympathy for the late Mr. Terry Brennan, a former Member of this House. I ask that the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, CPP, discusses how we move forward with expressing votes of sympathy for former Members.

It was usual that the family would come here on the day on which sympathies were expressed. I am sure that while that is not possible at this stage, there is a way forward.

In recent days the European Commission has given the Government the green light for the electricity support scheme to proceed. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Eamon Ryan, outlined this in the Dáil. It is great to see this coming forward but it presents problems for communities. It includes a preference category to support communities to develop their own renewable energy projects, but they have a lot of problems in this field. First, the communities do not have the cash to develop these wind farms. Second, they have problems with the planning process, which is very detailed, complicated and expensive, and they need support on that. LEADER provides feasibility study funding for communities to develop wind farms and to have feasibility studies carried out, but that process is complicated as well and slow moving. I ask the Leader to get the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and perhaps the Minister with responsibility for rural affairs to come before the House at some stage in order that we might have a debate on the problems faced by community farms, whether onshore or offshore, in developing wind energy or offshore projects.

I agree with what Senator Paddy Burke said about deceased former Members. The late Farrell McElgunn, a former Senator and MEP, departed this life in March as well. Ar dheis Dé go raibh sé.

It was reported, a Chathoirligh agus a Threoraí, that the Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020, under which terms a witness would no longer be required to swear before God or to make an affirmation when filing an affidavit. What is proposed instead is that people will be able to make a statement of truth remotely. This was said by the Law Society to be welcome because it would put an end to what it called the "embarrassing" practice of a witness having to indicate his or her religious faith when making an affidavit. I disagree with the welcome given to this proposal because it attacks genuine pluralism by depriving people swearing an affidavit of the option of making a solemn oath. What we should do is recommend by all means, if we must, the introduction of a statement of truth but in addition to an oath or affirmation. In a similar way we found a very good arrangement in the Seanad whereby, instead of the prayer as Gaeilge and in English, we start with 30 seconds of silence, which is a very appropriate way to recognise that all Members, of all faiths and none, approach their duties here in a solemn and respectful fashion. Indeed, in the absence of an oath or affirmation, the question of making a legally sanctionable statement of truth is a meaningless formula anyway because the law can simply provide for the prosecution of those who knowingly make false statements or averments in affidavits. The effort is further weakened by providing that all this could be done remotely, without a person having to present before a solicitor or notary public to make this statement of truth. This is all rather badly thought through. This measure ignores a genuine lack of pluralism that exists whereby judges and Presidents are required to make a religious oath. What is happening here, perhaps, is an attempt to anticipate the creation of some kind of one-size-fits-all formula for these cases as well. It is not good public policy to regard religious belief or lack thereof as an exclusively private matter. What we have here is a weakening of the atmosphere of solemnity and a failure to recognise that the dignity and seriousness of the State have always been bolstered by references to those questions of ultimate meaning. They have buttressed the rule of law in this country, whatever views or outlooks on those questions of ultimate meaning people have.