The Leader will be aware, and we have read in today's newspapers, that the Irish dancing organisation at the centre of the feis fixing scandal has received a report from Mr. Justice Peart. We now understand that the next phase of that will be an internal process within that organisation. Parents and teachers who have contacted me over recent weeks and again this morning are deeply unhappy with the way matters have transpired. The information, or leaks if you want, which led to this investigation was provided to the organisation back in July. It took until September for it to involve itself in a process by appointing the judge and only after the same information started to make its way into the public domain through social media.

The teachers and parents who have spoken to me have no faith in the process now under way. Teachers have been meeting around the country over the past few nights. As I understand it, there are some 2,000 Irish dancing teachers across the world, with about 800 in Ireland. They are deeply unhappy with what has happened. A relatively small number of teachers and judges have been involved in this. The teachers want a resolution.

While the State does not provide funding to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, Conradh na Gaeilge is the patron body of this organisation. I appeal to Conradh na Gaeilge to use whatever good offices are available to it to try to bring some sense to bear here. We need a proper transparent process. I am hopeful that, collectively, the organisation and its patron will ensure the report being prepared by the judge is passed to the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin.

Since An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha is registered as a charity, I believe the judge's report should go to the Charities Regulator at a minimum. I and the teachers who are not involved in this - and only a very small number are involved - hope the management of the organisation will appear before the Oireachtas joint committee. I understand such a request is about to be made and from what I hear, there seems to be some resistance from within the organisation. This process needs to be open and transparent.

Let us not forget that this organisation is the international guardian of Irish dancing. Within its charter it sees its role as promoting the Irish language. Many in this House have an interest in the Irish language and we want to see it promoted. We want to see Irish dancing and our culture promoted. We do not need anything that undermines that. This is a very serious issue that must be addressed. I hope that what I have outlined can be brought to pass. I ask the Leader to request that the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, come to the House at the earliest opportunity to discuss this matter.

If the Cathaoirleach will indulge me, I will raise one other matter. The budget reintroduced the 13.5% VAT rate for the hospitality sector, which includes hotels and restaurants. This came on the back of what many of us identified as price gouging by hotels in Dublin. For example, when there is a shortage of rooms or hotels get to their last couple of rooms they jack up their prices, doubling and trebling them at weekends. This is unacceptable behaviour. The Cathaoirleach represents a constituency like mine that is steeped in tourism and has lot of hotels. There is no Dublin hotel in County Clare and none in Kerry either. Nor would hotels in Clare or Kerry be able to sustain those prices. Significant pressure is being put on other hotels as a result of the actions of hotels in this city. I would like a debate in the House with the Minister for Finance on the possibility of splitting hotel rooms in Dublin from the rest of the country. If that is not possible, we should split hotels and hotel rooms - accommodation - from the food sector. We recently heard from Adrian Cummins of the Restaurants Association of Ireland that it had never before seen the number of closures coming down the tracks. We need to address that. Having supported the industry during tough times using taxpayers' money, we do not want these entities to close as a result of the changes in the VAT structure.

It is strange that every time I come into the Seanad for the Order of Business, something derails my line of thought. Senator Doherty has certainly derailed mine today. I have a sister who lost two children at full term. I cannot begin to tell the House the pain that she has felt in her life at the loss of those children. I fully support what Senator Doherty is trying to do. I offer my deepest sympathies to Caroline and Martin Smith, who are in the Gallery.

I congratulate the Acting Leader on his elevation. I spent four days in Estonia at the Tallinn Digital Summit, the lead summit in the area of cybersecurity and digital security. I was rather disappointed that there was no other Irish representative present from official Ireland. The summit was attended by prime ministers, ministers and senior civil servants from all over the world. One of the key topics for those whom I met, as an Irishman, was Ireland's lack of defence capability, given that 95% of the world's data cross the Atlantic into Europe. We do not know what is going on beneath our sea and it has been the fault of countless Governments for running our Defence Forces into the ground.

I reviewed the recent statement made by the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, in the House. I was not here for the debate with him. He does not answer questions but talks down the clock. That is all the Minister does. I then opened a newspaper to see that a private security firm had been employed to look at the cables coming into Ireland. It was somewhat hard to understand whether this involved electrical cables, gas pipes or data cables. It does not matter. Are we at the stage now where we outsource the security of the State to some private security company? That is beyond acceptable. For this reason, I wish to move an amendment to the Order of Business to ask the Minister to come to the House - I do not care if it is at 10 o'clock tonight - to explain to the people of Ireland how we have allowed our country to finish up in a situation where our Naval Service is virtually inoperable, we do not have an air force and depend instead on the RAF and we-----

The Minister was in the Seanad last week. He is here more often than Senator Craughwell is.

I am aware that my colleagues want to talk about my trip to Qatar. I am quite prepared to give a detailed report next week on that. It is a cheap shot but leaving that aside-----

The Minister appeared before the House last week to discuss the Defence Forces.

Please allow Senator Craughwell to continue without interruption. Senator Buttimer knows the rules on the Order of Business.

The bottom line is this. What an embarrassment that this State, in which we constantly talk about our sovereignty and neutrality and hear all the other nonsense about the defence of the State, is unable to protect the very lifeblood of data that come through this country or the economic zone for which we are responsible? People speak about the "cloud" as if it was up there. It is not. It is beneath sea and is coming in off our west coast. We have no idea what is going on there.

We must remember one thing, however. In the middle of a war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Government was able to roll out a digital system that allows citizens to access some 7,000 government services. So humbled were the Estonians by that, and they are the leaders in digital technology in the world, at the recent conference that they said they hoped to emulate in Estonia what has happened in Ukraine. When we tried to introduce a public service card here some years ago, as the Cathaoirleach will recall, it caused consternation. At the hotel in Estonia, I was speaking to a young woman who told me she gets supermarket discounts using her public service identity card. She is able to bank with the card and can electronically sign documents with it. Where are we going in this country? The defence of the country is my key concern. We need the Minister to come to the House and actually answer questions rather than talk down-----

He was here last week.

I am well aware that he was here last week. There are times when other Ministers are here and Senator Buttimer is not. I was away on business and the Senator can like it or lump it. The Minister needs to come to the House to explain. The story only broke in the last few days.

On a point of order, I was not referring to Senator Craughwell's travels. I was referring to the fact that we had a debate on the Defence Forces in the House last week. That is what I was referring to.

I welcome Caroline and Martin Smith to the House today. I thank Senators Doherty and Seery Kearney for introducing vital legislation, which I look forward to supporting as it goes through the House.

I support my colleague Senator Craughwell. In fairness, it is correct that the Minister was in the House last week. He was answering questions when the bells rang for a vote and unfortunately he had to go. He offered to come back to the House. Senator Craughwell's call should be supported and I am sure the Minister will come back to answer those questions. As I said, he was in the middle of answering some detailed questions but unfortunately the bell rang and he had to stop.

It is good to see the Acting Leader in the Chair. I raise the issue of the entitlements of surviving cohabitants to a widow's or widower's pension. I raise it again in light of a recent High Court decision in which a Tipperary man, Mr. John O'Meara, was refused a widower's pension following the death of his loving partner of 20 years.

According to RTÉ, "It was the role of the Oireachtas to decide exactly who should benefit from this pension, the judge said, adding that the making of such decisions 'is not a role which this court can legitimately play.'"

I introduced a Bill on behalf of the Labour Party in October 2021 to address this exact situation, entitled the Social Welfare (Surviving Cohabitant's Pension) Bill 2021. The Bill, as introduced, sought to amend the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 to entitle surviving cohabitants to a contributory widow's pension and to provide for related matters. The concept of family, as we all know in this House, has changed. It is time to bring Ireland into the 21st century. We all want families to be treated fairly, whether they are married or not. It is estimated there are 150,000 or more cohabiting couples in this country. The 2016 census showed there are more than 75,000 cohabiting couples in Ireland with child dependants, meaning these families will also lose out on the €8,000 grant provided to a widower with dependent children on the death of a married partner. I ask the Acting Leader for time in the House to discuss this important matter with the Minister for Social Protection.

As the Acting Leader is aware, I have spoken many times in this House about rural transport. I welcome the introduction of the new 821 rural link service in Kildare South that will link Newbridge with the town of Naas and the train station there. This new service is to be welcomed in that it will provide a seven-day Local Link public transport service to the villages of Kilmeague, Robertstown and Carragh for the first time, as well as an increased service for Milltown, Allenwood and Prosperous. I have continually raised over recent years the lack of public transport services from these villages. It is one of the biggest issues that has been raised with me by local residents. I wish to thank Kildare Rural Transport Link, its manager, Alan Kerry, and indeed the National Transport Authority, NTA, for listening to locals and public representatives. I look forward to the new service commencing next Monday, 17 October.

I want to begin by honouring the Smith family and thanking them for their tireless work. I hope that Baby Stephen is the first to be registered. I believe that should happen. He can lead the way for so many other babies who need to be recognised. I am thankful to the Leader for allowing me to be a co-sponsor of the Bill. A certificate of life is an extremely important thing for people who have experienced loss. From the moment the two lines appear on a pregnancy test, a lifetime is lived with that baby. Walks in the park are imagined. There is discussion of schools that will be attended. Names are speculated about. There are considerations of sharing the news with wider family. That couple, the family and the mother go through that whole experience. It is very important that that life is recognised by the State, because when that life is no more, the loss is great. We are seven years on and Baby Stephen is as much a part of the Smith family today as he was then.

I am 14 years on from my first miscarriage. On 29 December every year, we go to the grave of my grandparents because I do not have anywhere else to go. There is no other place where my first baby can be remembered. We lay a wreath and remember, as a family, the lifetime that was lived in that period of time our baby was due and was a member of our family, and continues to be a member of our family. Today is a very significant day. It is a real honour to be part of it. I thank the Smith family for all of the work they have done and for all of the recognition they are going to bring for themselves, for Stephen and for all of the other families in this country who deserve the recognition of their grieving and their loss.

I thank the Senator for seconding the proposal and for sharing her story, which is, unfortunately, the story of so many.

First, I welcome the Smith family to the House. It is great to see them here. I also thank the Leader, Senator Doherty, and Senator Seery Kearney for their proposed legislation. I look forward to supporting it. It is timely, appropriate and necessary. I particularly thank Senator Seery Kearney for sharing. We are not very close in emotional aspects of anyone's life. It makes it very real when the lived experience and emotion is brought to the House. I acknowledge that and thank Senator Seery Kearney and the Leader for it. I wish Senator Gallagher well. It is great to see him in the Leader's chair and I wish him well with that.

Yesterday we had a heated debate about peat. I will not go into it now. Suffice it to say the Acting Leader has been very active in it in terms of horticulture. It was a very heated debate. I advised the people from the representative bodies of the horticultural sector and the agrifood sector who attended that meeting that they need to get political and they pull the lever on their Deputies, Senators and sitting county councillors in their communities. They are simply not being listened to. I flagged a bit of hope to them in relation to the words of the Tánaiste who said that the issue simply has to be resolved. He recognises the difficulties. I thank him and the members of his party who have faced up to that. There is a great frustration and a need to do something about it. I would like us to have a debate on the matter if possible.

I would like to highlight the publication of the report on Issues Impacting Dog Welfare in Ireland, which will be launched at 1 p.m. in the audiovisual room. Many Senators are members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The report is a very substantive piece of work. There is great interest in animal welfare in Ireland and within these Houses. I commend the report to Senators. If they are available, I invite them to come to the audiovisual room at 1 p.m.. There is also a photo opportunity at around 12.50 p.m.on the Plinth.

Before I call the next speaker, I welcome Deputy Troy and his guests to the Visitors Gallery. They are most welcome. I call Senator Buttimer.