I thank the Chair. It is wonderful to have the opportunity to have three minutes to speak in the Chamber.

I want to raise the issue of the knackeries and where matters stand at the moment. We have a significant issue in Ireland whereby there is a dispute between the people who collect fallen animals and the people who render the animals. All knackeries in Ireland are effectively closed. We have a build-up of fallen animals in rural Ireland. I spoke to individuals in west Cork earlier about the fact that more than 35 calls were made to one knackery. The owner does not have the ability to go out and pick these animals up because he has no place to take them. Mental health is a significant issue with Irish farmers. People do not want to be around farms where there are dead animals, but farmers cannot now move the carcasses of these animals. The people who pick up the dead animals are effectively out of business at present. They cannot move, knackeries are full and there is no place to render the carcasses because these people have left the trade. The dispute with the rendering plants needs to be dealt with. I cannot for the life of me understand how it has come to this. We knew that this issue was building in the past few months, but it has now hit a real crisis point.

I am not calling for a debate on the matter. The time for debate is over. There needs to be a meeting between the Minister, the knackeries and the rendering plants about how we can move forward. We need to have a solution very quickly, otherwise this unfortunate issue will just continue. Through the good offices of the Chair and the Leader, a note needs to be sent to the Minister about arranging the meeting I am calling for. Dialogue needs to happen, otherwise we will literally have dead animals lying around Ireland. Unfortunately, winter is coming. This means that there is potential for more animals to die. This is scandalous. I just cannot understand where matters stand.

I beg the indulgence of the House because I want to raise a second issue.

The Senator is okay and he can do what he wants.

That is a rarity.

Is that a new thing?

Senator Lombard is the lead speaker. He has three minutes to raise multiple matters. The other Senator had the same time.

If I could get the three minutes, it would be great.

The second issue is in regard to a briefing we will be having in the audiovisual room this afternoon. This is about trying to ensure that we can get money for new medicines. We are having a significant briefing as we have patient advocates and the industry coming in and they will inform us on what is out there on the market, and what is available in the private insurance companies and is not available in the public system. We have a two-tier health system. We have a system whereby the private health insurance companies are paying for medicines that can cure diseases or extend someone's life while, unfortunately, we do not have the same access on the public health system, which is completely outrageous. This has developed over the past three to four years in particular. It is taking 20 to 22 months to get these medicines through the procedures in order that they can be obtained on the HSE list. Unfortunately, people are losing their lives while this is happening. I hope that Members of the Oireachtas might attend the presentation in the audiovisual room because it needs to be stressed to the Minister that unless we change this, patient outcomes will be very much affected.

The Chair knows my story. My late brother Ger died of skin cancer. I will never forget the fact that Interferon was the drug that was used. It extended Ger's life by 18 months. Those are the kinds of medicines that we need to get into the system.