I join the Leas-Chathaoirleach in wishing the ambassador, his colleagues and the tens of thousands of Romanians who live in towns and villages around Ireland, a very happy Romanian national day. I have visited Romania twice and for any colleagues who have not been there, it is an absolutely beautiful country and I suggest they put it on their bucket list.

The Order of Business is No. 1, a private Bill entitled the Royal Hibernian Academy (Amendment of Charter) Bill 2023 - Committee and Remaining Stages, to be taken at 11.45 a.m. or on conclusion of the Order of Business.

I join the Leas-Chathaoirleach and Deputy Leader in welcoming the ambassador and his staff. I wish them well and thank them for their service.

I note the comments made by the egotistical billionaire owner of the social media platform X, or Twitter, this morning. He made an expletive-ridden rant attacking his own advertisers who are leaving the platform in their droves and taking their money away. It is also notable that last Thursday, when riots were raging in this city and the Garda was contacting the social media platform giants based here in Dublin to have them remove the vile content and disinformation that was appearing online, his company, X, was the only one that was not willing to engage with An Garda Síochána. This was confirmed by the Minister for Justice in the Dáil. Meta and TikTok engaged with the Garda but not so X, which is a law unto itself and which, as its owner has stated, has no regard for the concept of regulation.

Next Wednesday, representatives from the social media giants, Meta Google and TikTok, will appear before the media committee to discuss disinformation and how their platforms are used and abused. X will not appear in public session. It will attend but only in private session, so we will not have Mr. Musk's company in next Wednesday to discuss the concept of disinformation openly and transparently, as he would like.

Yesterday, in the audiovisual room we had representatives from independent radio stations across Ireland, which do such a fine job and uphold good journalistic standards. As they noted, the total advertising revenue of the sector and RTÉ is €166 million, whereas the social media giants will take almost €1 billion in advertising revenue. This shows the disparity that has arisen in the media in Ireland. We cannot hold back the water in terms of where people use and access news and media. That would be a fruitless exercise. There is an urgent need for a debate about media literacy in this country. We should have a debate on the issue in this Chamber with the Minister for Education. If people are accessing platforms such as X, which clearly cannot regulate itself and has failed to comply with its own community's standards, to get their information, it is incumbent on us to ensure we have an open debate about media literacy and the trajectory of the media in this country.

I echo the words of the Leas-Chathaoirleach on Romania's national day. I know the ambassador is no longer here but I am sure he will read the Official Report.

I commend Ilinca and the tens of thousands of Romanians who contribute so much to our country. I also commend the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, who no doubt has had a difficult week as a result of the outrageous violence that took place in Dublin city centre this day last week. The Minister is handling it very well. The proposals for body cameras, facial recognition software and equipping the special units of An Garda Síochána with Tasers, etc., are welcome. When the legislation for facial recognition comes through, I hope that it will be unanimously supported.

I would also like to say that both public representatives and politicians need to be very careful with posting images of vulnerable people on social media. An image was posted of a vulnerable person yesterday and that was unacceptable. A post by somebody who is followed by thousands of people identified a person and that is not acceptable. We just need to be careful. We need to be respectful and careful.

Finally, I would also like to agree with Senator Cassells in what he said about X. I commend the social media platforms that engaged with An Garda Síochána and I call out the one that did not. I also support the call for a debate on the media in the new year.

I want to be associated with the kind remarks to the Romanian ambassador and his staff. I have been to Romania on a number of occasions. It is truly a beautiful place, and they are beautiful people. I also acknowledge that many Romanians work in the Seanad, including Ilinca. We have many Romanians working in the catering, housekeeping, secretarial, administration and security services. Romanian people are very much immersed in our society, and particularly in our parliamentary community. That is fantastic and I acknowledge that.

Today I want to talk briefly about the Department of agriculture, which this week published its Annual Review and Outlook for Agriculture, Food and the Marine 2023. Clearly, this is a very important sector. It is of critical importance to our agriculture, food and marine industry. I would like to call for a debate on it, because agriculture does not get enough debate in this House. It has a set panel that is designated for agriculture. Clearly, when it was decided to establish the Seanad, agriculture was prioritised as one of the key bodies.

I will raise some of the highlights in the Minister’s report, which he published the other day. There is a record of €19 billion in agrifood exports for 2022. Some 164,000 are employed in the agrifood sector. There is €6.9 million in exports in the dairy industry, with both butter and cheese amounting to €1 billion. The exports of beef are €3.1 billion, which is an increase of €620,000. In the area of tillage, there is an additional 90,000 tonnes of cereal production in this country. This is a good news story. Beverages exports are at €2.1 billion with Irish whiskey now exceeding €1 billion. All of this was announced this week and that is impressive stuff. Our seafood exports are at €642 million, which is a 5% increase in value.

We have to do some work on forestry, and we all know and have identified that. National targets have been set by the Government and they are simply not delivering. Finally, 80% of our mushrooms are exported to Great Britain. What an impressive crop. We have a few challenges around that, because we can grow that business even further.

Finally, regarding the Brexit adjustment reserve, BAR, came into place to support many. The mushroom, beef and seafood sectors were supported by it, but that will end on 31 December this year. There may be an overhang, although I am told that we cannot continue to apply this funding. I therefore think we need to keep a focus on this in the debate. Let us look at the Brexit adjustment reserve, how it supported the industries I mentioned today, and how we benefited from that. That was critically important. Brexit had a huge impact on agriculture, which is one of our major exporting industries in this country. In order to keep the focus, my ask is to look at BAR and its impact on the agrifood sector.