Senator Martin Conway asked for a debate on tourism. The Senator is absolutely right that the tourism industry was one of the sectors that caused the rebound in 2011 and 2012. I hope it will be as fruitful again as the country rebounds after Covid. I will organise that debate as well as I can.

Senator Boyhan just made the announcement that the closing date for nominations for the by-election is 11 February.

I did not make the announcement as such. I just passed on what I heard.

It is great and, obviously, a new Senator will bring added excitement. I wish everybody who participates in the election the best of luck.

On Senator Maria Byrne's point, I acknowledge that the Taoiseach has acquiesced to the suggestions we made. Senators Gavan and Conway also raised the issue here recently. There is certainly something unusual going on in Limerick and it is necessary to discover what it is. The only way we can do that is to have the investigation. I welcome the Taoiseach's commitment to do that. Hopefully, the investigation will be speedy, independent and transparent.

Senator Maria Byrne also referred to a report I read the other day, which is disturbing. It is on the number of babies who were born in recent years suffering from withdrawal symptoms from drugs and alcohol. This highlights that we need to give more supports to some women who experience extra stresses in pregnancy, other than the obvious stresses we all know can arise.

Senator Dolan spoke about the Galway cycleway consultation process being extended today.

Senator Ahearn and another colleague asked for a debate on childcare.

I will organise that as soon as I can. I know that the Minister is absolutely intent on providing new and extra funding to the childcare sector each and every year for the next number of years. However, there certainly is an immediate crisis with regard to the lack of places because people have been working from home. I will organise that debate.

Senator Carrigy asked for the threshold of parental leave to be increased from the current European standard of 12 years of age to 15 years of age. I will bring that to the Minister's attention.

Senator Buttimer asked for a transport debate on the wider national development plan with regard to the provision of roads etc. He also raised another issue. As Members are aware, there has been a break in Committee Stage of the Air Navigation and Transport Bill for a number of months now to allow for consultation between Members who have concerns - I happen to be one of them - and the relevant experts in both the Department and the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA. That Bill is coming back before the House next Wednesday. I give Members a commitment that Committee Stage will not be guillotined. We should not be guillotining any Bill in any House, unless there is a national emergency. There certainly is not, other than improving the safety of our aviation industry, which really is an emergency, in my opinion. There will be no guillotining of that Bill. Senator Buttimer also mentioned transparency, in support of Senator Mullen's contribution before him. I am loath to even relate this back but we had a debacle over the summer about how doing things in a non-transparent way in an open process gets people into trouble. I think we have just gone and done it all again. I really do not understand why this has happened, if we have an independent process to take on board a chair for a body of work that is going to be incredibly important, and perhaps contentious. There may be different opinions; that is fine. We need to have confidence in the independence of the chair. We have heard people expressing different views today. I will certainly ask the Minister to come and explain why the process was not as open as was originally intended before Christmas.

Senator Seery Kearney requested that we reach out to the families of the parents who may be having surrogate babies between now and the summer in Ukraine, to enable them to engage with the Department of Foreign Affairs to ensure that there is a safe transition home when the babies are born. We will certainly facilitate that if we can.

Senator McGahon talked about the three-day flexi ticket that he has been talking about and getting implemented for the last number of years. It is lovely to see that it is going to be implemented. It is a real plus. However, it would not leave a good taste in your mouth if you had just forked out and could not get a refund. I will get in contact with the National Transport Authority, NTA, to ensure that there is a smooth transition.

Senator Ward asked for a debate on Brexit funding for our piers and harbours. I will see if I can organise that.

Senator Malcolm Byrne asked for a debate on the global battle for talent and the future of work in Ireland. I will certainly ask the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to come and talk to us about that. The Senator also touched on media funding and the Defence Forces.

Senator Craughwell spoke of potentially sending a naval ship to the area off the south-west coast of Ireland, starting, I think next week-----

With him at the head of it.

With him at the head of it, probably, and other Oireachtas Members. I am not sure how feasible it is-----

I will pass on that one.

-----but I will certainly pass on the request to the Minister and let him respond directly.

Senator Paddy Burke asked for a debate on credit unions in Ireland and the community banking model, as he has done before, to be fair to him. I will see if I can get that organised.

Senator Cassells, in the way that only he can, spoke passionately about the importance of local print media. We can all see how passionate he is about it. We have been talking about the issue for ten years. To be fair to the Senator, he is right that the time for talking on this issue, and on many other issues, needs to stop and the time for doing needs to start. I will make a call to the Minister's office today to find out when the report will be published and come back to the Senator. I think it would be very worthwhile to have a debate in this House on what we see is the future of media, particularly local media, and not just local radio, which is supported, but local print media, which we all know is important.

I welcome Senator Black back to the Chamber. I know she has been working elsewhere. I thank her for her comments today. I will certainly look for a debate on youth mental health services. If she does not mind, I do not think we should have a debate just on the Kerry case. What we read was shocking beyond words. The father of young Jason was on the radio this morning. I do not know if the Senators heard him. I am not sure that this is just a local issue. The Taoiseach announced yesterday that there will be an independent nationwide review of CAMHS and oversight mechanisms. I think we should have the debate on a nationwide basis. We must debate the issue of how little we spend on youth mental health services. I know that the issue is very close to Senator Black's heart, as it is to mine. The fact is that of the €1.3 billion the State spends on mental health every year, less than 10% is spent on our children. The biggest crisis that we have is in our children's mental health at the moment. I will organise that debate as quickly as I can.

Senator Sherlock raised the issue of the heads of Bill that were announced by the Tánaiste on Tuesday with regard to the quality of work-life balance and the ability to request and have proper, sincere engagement and replies from employees, which was not always the case before Covid. I hear her concerns. Having been the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection for four years, I share some of them. However, I think the world genuinely has changed in the past two years. I really hope that the moves by some of our particularly large employers have bona fides. We will tease that out within the heads of the Bill and the pre-legislative scrutiny. I know that the Senator will certainly bring all her concerns from her experience to the table. Hopefully, we will improve the legislation to get that proper work-life balance as a right for people and not just something that we are talking about.

I will be very bold and tell Senator Gavan that I am not going to go near the first topic he raised today, if he does not mind. I was not here before Christmas when he brought up the case of the man in County Kilkenny. It really is heartwarming to hear that people actually do sometimes listen and respond. I wish him and the Senator, who is supporting him, continued success. I hope his legal status gets rectified as quickly as possible.

In response to the issues raised by Senator McDowell, I noted earlier, and I probably continuously get myself into trouble for saying these things, that Cathal Brugha Barracks is an active operational barracks at the moment. The announcement that was made by the Minister this morning was totally ill-judged and was made at the wrong time.

Hear, hear. It is demoralising-----

I know we need houses. I do not really have an explanation for the Senator, but as Senator Chambers and Senator Malcolm Byrne mentioned, we need a debate on the Defence Forces. I will see if I can organise it in the next few weeks. I was at a loss when that announcement was made this morning.

In response to the issues raised by Senator Kyne, we will certainly have a debate on the issue of GPs. I know their world has changed significantly in the last 22 or 23 months. Their workload has increased by 40%, which is significant, given that we have the impression that nobody goes to their GP any more, which clearly is not true. We definitely have a crisis not just in rural Ireland, where there are no GPs, but in urban Ireland, where there are GPs but not enough of them to go around for the number of people that there are. I will organise a debate as quickly as I can. I wish the Senator and the people in Rossaveel every success in combining what would be a great project on wind development along with the deep harbour. If there is anything I can do to assist the Senator or get information for him, I will.

Senator Chambers opened today's proceedings and spoke about her sister's interview on Newstalk. I did not hear it live but went back and listened to it. It was powerful. The issue at stake is endometriosis and the fact that we have only recently just opened the first clinic in Tallaght for every woman in Ireland, who has to travel there. It is like other issues in that women are supposed to silently suffer and put up with it just because they are women. I am sorry, but we are not putting up with anything any more. I thank the Senator for raising the issue today. We will definitely organise a debate on that, as well as the issue of menstrual health in Irish society and how we deal with, treat and support women, in the coming weeks.