I join with colleagues in conveying my deepest sympathy to the family of the late Vicky Phelan.

I refer to the expansion of the Croí Cónaithe towns scheme which has been announced by the Government in recent hours.

It is very welcome news that this excellent scheme, which focuses on rural one-off properties and properties in our city centres, is to be expanded. The scheme provides a grant of €30,000 to renovate a property which has been vacant for two years. A top-up grant of €20,000 is available where structural work to the property is required. Importantly, it can also be combined with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, better energy support scheme which provides grant aid of nearly €30,000. All in all, grant support of nearly €80,000 is in place to do up a vacant and derelict property anywhere in Ireland. That will be very much welcomed by young people, in particular, who are looking to get their foot on the ladder. We have all seen what can be achieved in TV programmes such as the "The Great House Revival" and "Cheap Irish Homes". That is often where the best value is to be achieved on the current market. Thus, the expansion of this scheme is very much welcomed. It is one of many schemes, including the repair and release, buy and renew, living city and Croí Cónaithe schemes, which seek to bring vacant and derelict properties back into productive use for housing. There is no longer an excuse for any property to lie idle in this country. The Government has put all of the schemes in place to encourage the owners of these properties to take them on or to offload them and give others the opportunity. Where that does not occur, local authorities need to be far more proactive in using their compulsory purchase order, CPO, powers to take them on under the buy and renew scheme.

Firefighters from Monaghan, the Leas-Chathaoirleach's county of Cavan and elsewhere throughout the country will make their way to Leinster House today to call for reform of the fire service model and to try to rescue this essential service. Firefighters will tell you that the current model, which dates back to the early 1950s, is not fit for purpose in the modern world in which we find ourselves. They will also tell you that people are applying to join the fire service but, unfortunately, when they get in there for a while and realise the restraints under which it operates, they leave. We first have a recruitment issue and second have a retention issue. Something needs to be done to address that and to modernise the model in such a way as to attract new people to join and, more importantly, to be in a financial position and an employment situation to be able to stay there once they do. We need a wide-scale debate on fire service personnel, including on how we attract people into the profession. That may include incentivising employers or increasing the retention payment, but something needs to be done. Firefighters are coming to the capital city today to look for help. These are the very people to whom we turn when we are in an emergency. It is time we listened. I would welcome a debate with the Minister, arranged by the Leader, in order to come up with a model and suggestions which might alleviate the current situation in which we find ourselves because communities depend on our firefighters.

I too offer my condolences to Vicky Phelan's family. The State is mourning her loss but mná na hÉireann are really feeling her loss today.

I thank Senator Paul Daly for calling for a debate on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine report on dog welfare issues. I echo the call. A debate on those issues is very urgent. I will raise the annual crisis we face with regard to dog shelters at Christmas. We tell people not to give dogs as Christmas presents and to adopt rather than to shop but it seems that Christmas is very much coming early this year, because we are only in November and the dog shelters are already in crisis.

In the past two weeks, 11 dog pounds have shut down or announced that they are full. On Monday, five shelters shut down in a single day. I am afraid to say that in classic fashion, the Government did not heed the warning signs. Three weeks ago, I raised this issue with the Minister for Rural and Community Development, who is responsible for pounds. She was not available and instead of sending a junior Minister from her Department, she sent the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy Browne. I mean no disrespect to him but he does not know the subject so he duly read out the statement of which he had a tenuous grasp. The opening line of that statement said that the Department of Rural and Community Affairs has policy responsibility for dog control while the local authorities are responsible for all operational activities. The Department passed the buck to the local authorities but when I requested this week that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage come in to address the question of whether the local authorities have the resources for the dog pounds, I was told that it is not a matter for that Department but rather that it is a matter for the Department of Rural and Community Affairs. They are passing the buck between them and in the mean time, dogs are dying, pounds are crumbling and the shelters are saying they cannot take the dogs from the pounds so we are seeing dogs being abandoned and thrown into rivers. In one case a dog was left in a cage at a canal in Dublin. We need a debate on the capacity of pounds to deal with the number of dogs being surrendered or abandoned and puppy farming. This is why the debate on the report is so essential.

I pass on my sympathies and deep condolences on the very sad news of the loss of Vicky Phelan.

Last week, we saw the mid-term elections in the US and a groundswell of support for candidates who stood up for the democratic and electoral process. They stood up for women's choice. One of those candidates has ancestral links with my home town of Ballinasloe - Béal Átha na Sluaighe. I congratulate Governor Maura Healey from the Democratic Party. She is the first woman to hold the position of governor in Massachusetts and one of the first openly gay candidates to run for and be elected to office. Governor Healey is changing the status quo. She is a woman who drives change. She has been the state's attorney general since 2014. She brought forward so many lawsuits against the previous administration challenging the Muslim travel ban, protecting immigrant rights and challenging the rolling back of environmental regulations.

Maura Tracy Healey grew in New Hampshire. She is a former professional basketball player turned civil rights lawyer. Her grandmother, Katherine Tracey, who was born in 1897, which is 125 years ago, to Michael Tracey and Mary Hogarty, was a native of Ballinasloe. Governor Healey's paternal grandparents hail from County Kerry and Macroom in County Cork. This election was unique in that it showed the highest number of young people in two or three decades vote and vote for rights for women as well. The new governor said afterwards, "to every little girl out there, we want you to know - there's no ceiling you can't break." From a Senator from Ballinasloe to a governor of the state of Massachusetts whose grandmother came from Ballinasloe, I ask the Leader of the House to invite Governor Healey to visit Ireland and address Seanad Éireann.