I join with others in wishing the staff who run the Seanad well as we head towards the summer recess. Last weekend, The Irish Mail on Sunday carried a story about the Leader and me, and the Air Navigation and Transport Bill that is passing through this House at present. The article referenced the likely impact on the Leader's position as a result of the position she has taken in the House. We are Senators, not Deputies or county councillors. We are here to evaluate or appraise legislation as it passes through the House. There should be no Whip. We are elected to vocational and university panels and do not have constituencies. That is it. That is where it starts and ends. The Leader looked at the legislation, found flaws with it - similar to those I found - and took a position. She should be honoured and not castigated for that.

To assist the Senator, we will debate that Bill for two hours tomorrow.

I appreciate that. The point I am trying to make, and this is something we should all reflect on as we go away for the summer, is about the role of the Seanad. Most of us are proud to be in this House. Its role is to challenge the Government, to look at Government legislation as it works its way through, to initiate legislation and to bring topical matters of concern to the nation to this House. I found it particularly difficult to read the article on Sunday because I know how deeply committed the Leader is to her job and to the legislation. It is not an easy thing for a member of a party to stand up against legislation that is passing through the House.

I slagged off my colleague, Senator Ahearn, yesterday for representing County Tipperary. We all do it from time to time. Every day, Senators stand up in the Chamber to talk about their constituency. I do not have a constituency. I come from County Galway, live in Dublin and do not have a constituency, but I fully accept people do. I ask us to reflect over the summer on the vitally important role we have in challenging the Government.

I thank the Senator for those words. The Leader will express her views on the legislation tomorrow. He has also articulately expressed his views, which is fair enough.

I will raise a very unfortunate issue about which an article appears in today's edition of the Irish Examiner. It is about how we dealt with the organs of children following post mortems. I was approached by a constituent, Ms Laura Kelleher and her husband, who now reside in Australia. They were involved in this unfortunate issue at Cork University Hospital. They were distraught that the organs of their daughter, Hope, were not disposed of appropriately and they were not kept informed regarding it. It was very distressing for them. They found this information out hours before an RTÉ "Prime Time Investigates" programme was broadcast.

An internal HSE audit has been done regarding this issue. Similar issues pertaining to other hospitals have also materialised. It is a significant issue of trust. To think that a person in such an unfortunate situation could not trust the hospital or consultants regarding what happened to their child's organs when permission was given for a post mortem, is a major issue for the State, families and society. The legislation being proposed, the human tissue Bill, which I have raised in the House several times, has not yet come before the Houses. It has to come before the Houses in the next session. We cannot have a scenario where a Bill that is proposed to sort out this issue has been drafted but not actually brought to the Houses.

From reading about what happened in this morning's edition of the Irish Examiner, there is a much bigger issue here. Some kind of tribunal should be established in order that parents can find out exactly what happened. An internal HSE audit has been published. That is not good enough. We need to appoint a High Court judge to review exactly what happened and look at the conduct of consultant A in the context of the article published today. This is a really significant issue for us and I propose we have a debate on it when we come back in September. The Minister should come before us regarding the legislation. There needs to be public accountability. The families affected need this, as do the mother and father I met in my office. I respectfully say we need to see real movement on this Bill and a public, independent inquiry put in place.

I will raise an issue around domestic septic tanks that has come to my attention. The Environmental Protection Agency has been highly critical of the number of inspections that local authorities have been able to carry out throughout the country, and the fact many septic tanks are failing inspections, yet remediation action has not been taken. Domestic septic tanks had to be registered before 1 February 2013. The issue that has been brought to my attention is grants are not available for those not registered before that date.

While I can understand the State not wanting to support somebody who failed to register before that period, the issue I have concerns those who bought properties in the intervening period. A constituent of mine bought a property two years ago and its septic tank has been found by the local authority to require remediation action, but that person is not entitled to a grant, through no fault of his or her own. The fact it was not registered was identified in the sales process but the issue of that person not being entitled to a grant has only come to light now after the fact. As the previous homeowner did not register the septic tank by 1 February 2013, the new homeowner who bought the property in 2019 is being penalised for the inaction of someone in 2013, without the ability to fix that issue.

If we want to improve groundwater and improve the issues around septic tanks, it is counterintuitive that the State would penalise a new homeowner who has bought a property in good faith but is unable to access the €5,000 grant, which is available to remediate that septic tank. I am sure this is an issue also in many other parts of the State and not just in my own area in Waterford. I have written to the Minister about this issue and I certainly hope we can see movement on that. Perhaps the Deputy Leader will schedule a debate on the wider issue of groundwater when we return after the summer recess.