The Order of Business is No. 1, European Arrest Warrant (Amendment) Bill 2022 – Committee Stage, to be taken at 11.45 a.m. and to adjourn at 2 p.m., if not previous concluded; and No. 2, statements to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to be taken at 2.15 p.m. and to conclude at 3.45 p.m., if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed ten minutes and that time may be shared, and the Minister to be given not less than ten minutes to reply to the debate.

Like the Leas-Chathaoirleach, I welcome the students from St. Tiernan's in Dundrum and our guests from the European Court of Justice and I offer a particular welcome to the Estonian ambassador. Ireland and Estonia have a long range of links and friendships. Tallinn is a beautiful city so I recommend that anyone who has not been to it definitely visit Estonia. Apart from recognising independence, we appreciate the fact that we live in a free and democratic Europe. Our values are very much shared based on human rights and the rule of law. Given that we are now two years into Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, it is more important than ever that we express and share solidarity with our Baltic friends and neighbours.

Today I wish to raise the question of railways. It is very welcome that under the initiative of the shared island unit, we will see heavy investment in the rail line between Dublin and Belfast to move towards hourly services but I want to raise the fact that while this welcome investment is continuing, we are not seeing any further improvement in the Rosslare rail line. This is one of the oldest and busiest lines in the country but we are now talking about potential disruption of services with those travelling from south of Wicklow town having to change trains in Wicklow town if they wish to continue to Dublin. I ask for a debate on railways. I know the Leader has an interest in the western rail corridor. We need to see the publication of the all-island rail review and I hope the Leader would invite the Minister for Transport to the House to discuss this issue.

I also want to raise a proposal made by Councillor Albert Dolan from Galway. Albert has proposed that as a health initiative, gym membership be made tax deductible. I favour this idea. I know it has been discussed and the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, has raised it with the Minister for Finance. I am not just talking about gym membership but about membership of sports clubs or other organisations so that there is an incentive and that if people are involved in sporting organisations, there could be tax relief for that. We talk about mens sana in corpore sano. Apart from just talking about a healthy body, we must ensure we have healthy minds. Membership of artistic organisations could also be considered for the purposes of tax relief. This country has a long and proud tradition of investment in arts and sport and trying to encourage that is healthy. If the tax system could assist that, I hope we could ensure that this would happen as well.

I also welcome the students from St. Tiernan's and I encourage the fifth and sixth years there to take part in our annual Oireachtas essay competition - oireachtasessay.ie. They could win €1,000 for the best essay in Irish or English so I look forward to seeing their entries.

I also welcome the Estonian ambassador. Taking the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and visiting the Irish ambassador in our beautiful embassy in that lovely city was one of the pleasures I enjoyed in recent years.

I do not know whether I should congratulate or remonstrate with my former colleague, Judge Eugene Regan, who I remember over a decade ago trolled the then Government on a practically daily basis as it was limping towards oblivion. The reason I might remonstrate with him is for proving so impressively that there is life outside the Seanad. I am not sure that is something we would want our voters to realise. I offer my congratulations to him and welcome his colleagues.

I also welcome and agree with Councillor Albert Dolan's proposal for making gym membership tax deductible. My problem, however, is not so much paying for it as actually using it once I have paid for that membership. I need to get my averages up. I think my gym visits are working out at about €100 per go at the moment so it is a case of "needs to do better" as the school report might say.

If, as I hope, the Government's two flawed proposals for the referendum on family and care are defeated, and I think they will be defeated on their merits, we need to look at how the McKenna principles are being operated in this country. Friends will recall that the Supreme Court produced a judgment in that case in 1995 that where it was permissible for the State to spend public money to provide the public with unbiased information about referendums, the use of taxpayers' money to promote a particular outcome during a referendum was an interference with the democratic process and an infringement of a concept that is fundamental to the democratic nature of the State. That is all good and correct.

Information was sought from the Government to publish the minutes of the Government's interdepartmental group meetings that were considering the proposed amendments. When one considers the confusion about what the phrase "durable relationships" might mean for court cases and disputes around tax, social welfare, pensions and allocation of family assets, it would seem desirable to find out what the 64 pages of notes and minutes discussing the consequences of these amendments would actually show along with the Government's engagements with various NGOs. Strangely, the reason the Government gave for not producing those minutes was the argument that public officials could be seen to promote referendum outcomes were the Government to publish those and that this could be in breach of the McKenna principles. That seems to be a very thin argument to make.

Of more relevance to the McKenna principles is the fact that the campaign for the "Yes" side seems to be led by the National Women's Council of Ireland, which as far as I can see, is getting about 95% or 96% of its staffing costs from public money from the HSE or directly from the State. If that is not public money funding a referendum campaign, I do not know what is. I am confident that these two flawed proposals will be defeated on their merits but when this is over, I think we have to have a serious conversation about how public money is being effectively funnelled to indirectly influence the outcome of a referendum. This is a big story we need to examine in the wake of the referendums, which I hope and expect will be defeated.

I acknowledge our friends from Estonia. In the context of our European neighbours, we have a lot to learn from Estonia, particularly its approach to digital advancements. There is a lot to be followed there in terms of developing our capacity in the digital realm. I welcome them to the Chamber this morning.

I also acknowledge that today is European Day for Victims of Crime so it is very important we remember that we have so much work to do to ensure that those who are victims of crime are recognised and that we put everything we can in place in our laws to ensure they are protected and their rights are vindicated, which is tremendously important. I know there is a number of mechanisms in place. This Seanad passed a number of laws specifically to address the survivors of crime of various different types but it is important on this day that we remember the victims of crime and redouble our efforts to ensure we do whatever we can to support them.

What I want to specifically address today are accessibility issues. On Saturday, I will be attending the launch of Finding Charlie's Voice, an Irish charity that supports children with communication difficulties. It is named after a little boy named Charlie who has verbal dyspraxia, which means that although he is a perfectly normal child, he has difficulty expressing himself and his verbal expression is very limited. The charity puts in place lots of supports for schools and children in playgrounds to allow children with any disconnect between their communication skills and their intellect to express themselves and communicate with others. It is a very worthwhile charity.

It is one of so many organisations around this country that work on developing accessibility for people who for one reason or another are disadvantaged in terms of accessibility be that a physical or other kind of issue. One issue that came to light recently concerns the deposit return scheme. This is a great scheme that makes sense and will massively increase the level of recycling but the machines that are being installed in supermarkets and shops all over Ireland are not particularly accessible to wheelchair users. One I highlighted in a tweet recently is in a branch of Lidl in Glenageary had different issues because people had left a lot of plastic bottles that the machine was not accepting instead of taking them home but that is another day's work. The reality is that the inlet for the bottles is quite high so it is not particularly accessible to someone in a wheelchair. Could we incorporate this issue into a general debate on accessibility issues and whether there is room for machines that accommodate the fact that not everybody can reach that high?

It is not just wheelchair users; this affects lots of people. Children will want to be involved in recycling. Even people who are not particularly tall might have difficulties. Should we not be putting in place a guarantee that these machines are accessible to everyone, irrespective of their physical ability, and ensuring everyone can engage in the return scheme and recycling initiative?