I express my support and solidarity with An Garda Síochána in light of the appalling incidents in recent days. We are fortunate in this country that we have a community police force. The Garda depends on the support of the community and it invariably has the support of 90% of decent people. When this country was in difficulty during the Troubles, An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces stood between us and mayhem and chaos, with people trying to undermine the State. Many gardaí paid the ultimate price, not least my friend Jerry McCabe in Adare. We should express that support for the Garda Síochána. People are quick to criticise the organisation if a garda issues a parking fine or a speeding ticket or calls to a pub at closing time, for example, but communities should express the strong support they feel for the Garda Síochána. I am delighted to say that in my town tomorrow, the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, will lead a celebration of 100 years of the Garda Síochána, and I assure the House that every man and woman in Listowel who can be out will be there to celebrate with the Garda. I am sorry I cannot be there myself.

On a separate issue, the banks are at it again. They are again making profits and were quick out of the traps when it came to increasing charges on both general lending and mortgage lending. At the same time, today's newspapers show that our banks pay the lowest rates of interest on deposit accounts in Europe. It is pitiful what they are paying in these inflationary times and when they are starting to make serious profits again. While they have quickly jacked up their lending rates, they are very slow to address their deposit rates. A large cohort of our citizens, elderly people, depend on perhaps a lump sum that has been deposited in the bank to keep them going. At this time of inflation, those savings are being eaten into and the bank is paying this niggardly rate of negligible interest.

I ask the Minister for Finance to address this. We complained in the past about light regulation over the banks and rightly so. We need strong regulation now when it comes to banks paying decent deposit rates, especially to our elderly citizens.

Ballyfermot Youth Service will hold a vigil at 4.30 p.m. today outside Ballyfermot Garda station in response to the incident that happened at the weekend. We send the solidarity of the House, but I send it also as a person who was born and reared in Ballyfermot.

We have to understand that not every single person in that community is a bad person. That is my message today. While we stand in solidarity with An Garda Síochána, we also stand in solidarity with the community of Ballyfermot and the young people who have to grow up in these communities.

On today's Order of Business, I will also say that I know exactly what it is like to be oppressed in Irish society. On the increasing level of racism towards people who are fleeing war and coming here for international protection we have being seeing both on and off social media, as we say in my house, it is a mortal sin to treat people in such a disrespectful manner. It is not every single person in Ireland but a few. Again, coming from the community I come from, I know that we cannot target all people as being on the far right or as bad people. Senator Ruane and I were having a conversation about this with some other people last night. Not everybody in the host community means badly. Oppressed people can become oppressors and we have to look at why, although I am not excusing what happened in the past few days with regard to racism and discrimination. We, as leaders, and the Government have a role in rolling out campaigns to support people coming to our country from others. I stand in solidarity with and respect every single refugee in Irish society and I say to them now that they have millions of welcomes from the people of Ireland. A few might have stood against that welcome that day but I ask those refugees to put that aside because they have the support of the majority.

I second what my colleague, Senator O'Sullivan, said about the banks and how they are treating people with regard to the interest rate. The Senator probably has a lot of money in the bank and God knows he could do with the interest to get a few bob. On a serious note, he is right. Up until very recently, if you had money in the bank, as Senator McDowell and many others would know through their business with deposit accounts and whatever else, those banks were charging-----

I am referring to the accounts he would have for clients.

It is not in the Standing Orders-----

They were charging negative interest rates. It is incredible what they were up to until a couple of weeks ago. Senator O'Sullivan's call is welcome and I certainly appreciate what he had to say.

There is nothing in Standing Orders as to whether Senators may refer to Members' interests but bí cúramach.

Their attitude towards business in particular has been very mean-fisted. I refer to how they have been dealing with people who run businesses and who have other people's money, including that of clients, in their accounts. It has been scandalous to say the least.

With regard to Croí Cónaithe, I have been dealing with the scheme for a number of months and we have found it to be a great success. There is certainly evidence that the scheme, brought in by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is very helpful and very positive. I have seen it in my own area. The owners of houses that had been laid up for quite a while have been approached and the houses bought and young people are now doing them up and moving into areas that have been neglected in recent years. We hear a lot of negativity with regard to housing but the Croí Cónaithe scheme and the €50,000 grant for older houses to be done up by first-time buyers has been a bright light. I commend and compliment the Minister in that regard.

I appreciate the Cathaoirleach's latitude in allowing me to make a final point. As the Cathaoirleach will know, because we have discussed the matter here on a couple of occasions, my views on Russia's aggression in Ukraine are on the record. However, it is bit populist of people to call for the expulsion of the Russian ambassador. We are a neutral country and we have to keep channels of negotiation, discussion and persuasion open. I strongly feel that calls to send the Russian ambassador back to Russia are somewhat less than genuine.

I echo the statements of Senator Flynn with regard to the people of Ballyfermot, although I stand in solidarity with An Garda Síochána and particularly with the two gardaí who went out to work expecting to come home safely but did not.

That should not happen under any circumstances. There is also a community at the heart of this which is full of very good people who have a passion, care and love for each other and I am proud to say some of them are within my own family. I note for the House that at this moment the community in Ballyfermot is gathered around the Garda station there, supporting An Garda Síochána and demonstrating its abhorrence of the actions of that tiny minority, which is stigmatising the whole community there and in Cherry Orchard. I also welcome that on Thursday - this is not anything arising out of this week but has been long-planned and worked on over the past number of weeks by the Minister, Deputy McEntee - the Minister will be out in the community of Cherry Orchard discussing the progress that is being made on plans there to have an inter-agency and interdepartmental approach to solving some of the issues and challenges of that community.

I support my colleague, Senator Buttimer. I also note that we need a debate on FIFA and the whole abhorrent decision to have the World Cup in Qatar. Anyone who did the slightest piece of research would have known that that was a country which was going to completely stand apart when it came to the treatment of people and would have no sense of human rights whatsoever. The stories coming out of the country over the past number of years have been horrific and it is modern-day slavery. Those stadia, which people are sitting in, are built with the blood of migrants to that country. It is appalling to support this World Cup in any way, shape or form.

Yesterday the Iranian team did not sing its national anthem at 1 p.m. At 4.30 p.m. we all received a briefing document from the Iranian Embassy in our inboxes, which was 21 pages of propaganda, and, frankly, lies, claiming things are not the way they are, that there was no violence in the deaths that occurred, and that what we see and know is going on is not actually going on at all. I want to completely condemn the Iranian Embassy for having the audacity to send a such a document in. I sent the embassy back an email making my feelings known but it is a completely abhorrent thing for it to do, and for it to think that it might get away with such propaganda on such a large scale.

I inform the Leader that in the UK, the Covid-19 inquiry is getting down to brass tacks in examining the political decision-making of Boris Johnson’s government during the pandemic and scrutinising the actions taken in combating the virus. Decisions which led to the imposition of the three national lockdowns and the regional restrictions, together with measures such as working from home, the reduction of contact, and the use of face coverings will be examined. The chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, has said that those who suffered during the pandemic would be a part of the inquiry.

This is the fifth time I have raised the issue of the complete absence of a Covid-19 inquiry in this country. The first time I did so was 16 months ago when, in my naivete, I took it for granted that such sweeping interventions into public life would be the subject of some critical appraisal in hindsight. More fool me to expect that the Chief Medical Officer and NPHET and the Cabinet, which handed over the reins of the country to them, would ever deign to admit that they had any mistakes to learn from.

The writing was very much on the wall when the Government decided to wind down its one and only Covid-19 committee, competently chaired by Deputy McNamara, on 8 October 2020, snap-bang in the middle of the pandemic. The role of the committee was to consider and take evidence on the State’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. NPHET had to be dragged kicking and screaming in front of the committee to answer a few questions and a quiet word must have been had, because the order to wrap the committee up came soon thereafter. The Cabinet realised it was inconvenient that there should be such a forum for parliamentarians to which it would be responsible. Vaccinations were pushed on to children, when the data for doing so was inconclusive. We now know of at least one death which resulted from that and who knows how many more there may be.

Now we are on to the next thing. I am sure it is the desire of the Government that we will just let bygones be bygones, sweep it under the carpet, not talk about it, and that in years to come, when we talk of Covid-19, there will be no lessons learned, no recognition of mistakes made or accountability for such.

We will all just shake our heads and say, "Sure, that was awful, wasn't it?" and continue on blithely. It is state-sanctioned gaslighting at national scale and it will not work. The Government should man-up, set up an inquiry and face the music.

I concur with other speakers, Senators O'Sullivan, Flynn and Seery Kearney, about the attack on two members of An Garda Síochána yesterday. It is not a blight on a whole community but a blight on the individuals who carried out the act and those who filmed it and circulated it on social media. It should be rightly condemned. It is clear that there is an increasing lack of respect for the uniform and the profession of An Garda Síochána. It is an unarmed police force to care for and protect communities. I wholly condemn it.

I disagree with the motion put forward by Senator Boyhan and the Independent group regarding the naming of the children's hospital. I have read something of Dr. Kathleen Lynn and I know that she was a fine woman. I have nothing against her or her work, lest anyone get me wrong, but I firmly believe that we should not agree to a motion about any name being put forward in the House, first, without a debate and, second, without going through a process of inviting groups to suggest other names, whether a woman or a man, and engaging. This has been a much-maligned project, as we know, over some time. I am proud to be part of the Government that, instead of talking about this for decades, went ahead and built this. I had the pleasure of visiting the facility last July. It is a world-class facility. The name should include the words "children's hospital" and "Ireland" rather than naming it after one individual. I strongly disagree with putting forward a motion here without a debate.