I also wish to raise the issue of Ulster Bank raised by some of my colleagues. It is the end of a 160-year era. We all remember the Henry the Hippo money box growing up. Today is a huge blow for the 2,800 staff. It is also hugely worrying for those customers who have non-performing loans or who may have restructured their loans recently due to being put on the pandemic unemployment payment. We therefore need to ask the Minister what we will do for these customers. Where do they land? Will their loans be taken over by vulture funds? How can we give them proper assurances that the terms and conditions that apply to their current Ulster Bank mortgages will apply in the case of whatever institution takes them over?

We also have to be very cognisant, as Deputy McGuinness has pointed out, that vulture companies are very aggressively pursuing in the courts people who are defaulting on their mortgages and, more importantly, that such companies have not turned up to the Committee of Public Accounts when invited to address issues its members have raised. I would like to see, as my colleagues have said, an urgent debate in this House on how we will protect those vulnerable customers before any decision is made.

I wish to raise a campaign by Hyperemesis Ireland that routine drugs for women suffering from severe morning sickness such as Cariban be provided on the drugs payment scheme. These drugs can cost some women up to €2,000 during their pregnancies. This affects 1% of women, and that 1% is regularly hospitalised during pregnancy. If, however, they are able to take these drugs regularly and on time, hospitalisation is generally not necessary. We are asking the Minister to put these drugs on the drugs payment scheme because this is really unfair on these women. The drugs are hugely cost-prohibitive. It is a reasonable ask.

I wish to raise the issue of beef prices and where they are going at the moment. We have seen an alarming decline in beef prices in the past three or four weeks. I had beef farmers on to me yesterday absolutely devastated that there has been a further decline in prices of 10 cent per kilo this week alone in the factories. Taking into consideration that fertiliser prices and grain prices are going up and beef prices are going down, the industry is going into crisis. We have had beef protests over recent years; we had tribunals years before that. We have never solved the question of how farmers can get a fair price for a fair product. We have a top-quality product, and that lack of fairness and traceability in the marketplace is becoming a huge issue. It is appropriate now that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine come before the House to explain his views on the food ombudsman, which is his silver bullet to ensure that the market can be shown how it will work on the ground. This ombudsperson has the ability, if properly legislated for, to become a game changer. That is the issue. If proper legislation and proper finance are put in place and a proper person put in charge to ensure he or she can drive the agenda, I believe we can have that fairness in the marketplace that we do not have now. We have spoken about this ombudsman for many years. We put money into the last budget for the ombudsman. Now we need to see the legislation come before the Houses and we need action from the Government.

To be perfectly honest, if we do not get this ombudsman in place, if we do not fund the office and if we do not have the right person in charge, then we will have no beef industry. One thing is certain, namely, that the beef barons do not care about beef farmers in west County Cork. The only way we can protect them is to ensure that we put proper legislation and a proper ombudsman in place.

I wish to second the amendment to the Order of Business proposed by my colleague, Senator Wall. Illegal dumping may not seem the most important issue but for those of us living in communities in counties Dublin and Kildare and right across the country, it is an enormous issue and causes a huge amount of frustration to many.

I, too, raise the issue of Ulster Bank. I express my solidarity with the 2,800 staff who still face a hugely uncertain future. The bank also has more than 1 million customers, a large number of whom have loans with it. The non-performing loan ratio in Ulster Bank was just under 10% last year. There is now huge fear and anxiety among those people about where their loans are going to go to. I wish to register my great and deep alarm at the comments made by the Minister for Finance this morning on RTÉ radio and at his rather laid-back attitude to the future of the banking sector. We heard repeatedly that this was a commercial matter but that is not good enough. We have a majority share in AIB and Permanent TSB and a minority share in Bank of Ireland. We have an onerous macroprudential system that seeks to ensure the stability of banks and the banking sector, yet we cannot bring ourselves to talk about competition in the banking sector in this country. That needs to change. I ask that it be requested that the Minister come to this House.

I reiterate my call for the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to also come to the House. I am conscious I have only a few seconds left but once again more and more stories are coming through about people falling through the cracks because they are not a rateable business. I do not understand this illogical fixation with businesses needing to be rateable to qualify. We have the Covid restrictions support scheme and the Covid-19 business aid scheme, both of which require that businesses to be rateable. Why do we not use VAT as the identifier for businesses in trouble? Turning to the Department of Social Protection, people who are working in the arts and who were employed but failed to get the pandemic unemployment payment because of their circumstances last year are continually being failed. I am asking for the Minister for Social Protection to be asked to come to the House as well.

Like other Senators, I refer to Ulster Bank and call on the State to intervene yet again. We did so ten years ago and it was the right thing to do. We must intervene again. We must do so for the customers and the workers and to ensure that there is a competitive banking sector in this country. Our previous intervention was aimed at ensuring that we had an effective banking system. We cannot allow a situation to develop where effective competition is reduced to the point where we do not have an appropriate marketplace. That will require the intervention of the State and if it is done appropriately and correctly - and quickly - then the many workers who earn an income and who depend on the bank for their livelihoods will be protected, as will customers.

The State must also, as part of addressing banking system, look at addressing our post office network. We have spoken previously about how a Grant Thornton report prepared for the postmasters identified a requirement of €17 million to protect the network as it is currently constituted. Today, in the village of Broadford, east County Claire, final notification is coming of the closure of the post office just because the postmaster has retired. This is at time when Covid-19 has restructured the way we live our lives such that people want to go back and live in rural communities. They want to telework and to work through Zoom and Microsoft Teams and other mechanisms. They want to live in their villages away from the clusters they had become used to. Why then is An Post closing post offices in places like Broadford where there is a growing community? The nearest other post office is 15 km away. There is no justification for what is happening. State intervention is required. A level of funding is needed to support a public service obligation on the part of An Post to maintain the network as it is currently constituted.

We, in this House, need to address that as soon as possible.