I welcome the students from Christ the King and, in particular, the teachers here. Ms O'Leary is the co-ordinator and she is very welcome. She comes with very special privileges. A former pupil of mine told me that his daughter was here today. They are from a great club called Na Piarsaigh. I will not call her out because she might be embarrassed but she knows who she is. They are very welcome. I commend the Christ the King transition year students here. It is a tremendous school in Cork and we are lucky to have a school of that calibre in our city.

I am glad the young women are here today because I want to raise the issue of LGBT rights in Afghanistan. Yesterday, Deputy Gannon organised a briefing with LGBT Ireland of displaced men and women from Afghanistan who had to leave because of their sexuality. As Members will be aware, in my case, as an openly gay Member of the House, I have the privilege and the sanctity and the freedom to come in here and speak my mind. I can disagree with Members about whatever issue but I am free to come in here and speak. I ask the Leader to facilitate a debate on human rights around the world and on LGBT rights. We are at a tipping point, in advance of the mid-term elections in America, given what is happening in many parts of the world, especially around Afghanistan where the Taliban, as we speak, are going into villages and asking the elders and families to identify and name their LGBT family members so that they can gain social credit with the Taliban as an example. Let us think about it in the context of a man or woman who is lesbian, gay or transgender in Afghanistan and imagine having to admit to somebody one is gay, to plan an escape route out of Afghanistan, to go on that journey, and then to reach a point where one seeks and receives sanctuary. My final point in this request to the Leader is around the issue of visa waivers from the Government.

I appreciate and accept that we have huge issues around refugees and in respect of housing and availability of accommodation. I ask Members to listen back to this morning's "Morning Ireland", on which Basira, a 24-year-old woman from Afghanistan, spoke about having to come to Ireland. This is an important debate we need to have in this House not just during Pride but also now in order that we can use our seat on the UN Security Council to herald and promulgate change.

Thank you for your indulgence, a Leas-Chathaoirligh.

Thank you, Senator Buttimer, for raising that serious matter.

The Leader has heard from a number of Members about special schools and the summer programme. Roughly €40 million has been allocated to the programme. I asked about it and principals came to me with some feedback. One in four schools rolled the programme out last year but we need more of our mainstream schools doing so as well because we are looking to bring children with special needs into our mainstream schools and for our special schools to handle children with more severe to complex, challenging needs. It needs to be made clear that, for our special schools, there are more challenging behaviours and that getting new teachers to come in to do the summer programme can be a challenge. Some of the special schools have looked to see about central vetting processes for SNAs. This is not about the schools themselves having to go to Garda stations and so on. Perhaps there should be panels for teachers, particularly for special schools, because additional training may be required as opposed to special classes within mainstream schools. Those are just some issues for the Minister, who might come in to speak to us, to take into consideration.

I wish to raise two other matters. We know about all the families and people living around Rahara and Ballagh, that is, around Lough Funshinagh. There are the rising flood levels of the turlough. Senator Murphy has raised this on a number of occasions. I welcome the group appearing today before the agriculture committee. Public representatives, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, and OPW officials met with the Lough Funshinagh group in July. Further progress updates on the plans we need to put in place will take place in October. This is a difficult situation because environmental assessments are required. The matter has gone down the legal route. There have been High Court actions.

Finally, regarding West on Track, and to follow up on Senator Burke's contribution, I attended the meeting in Tuam to which he referred. This is about how we develop that region and about investment coming into Galway and the west. The Western Development Commission, the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, NWRA, and the Committee of the Regions attended the meeting. We need to be conscious that we can provide regional cycleways while also developing our train tracks and bringing investment and tourism into the west.