The issue I want to raise relates to the communications strategy of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, specifically regarding sites that have been identified as potential locations for the housing of people seeking international protection. Every one of us in this Chamber has been affected by its communications at this stage. The current policy on which the Department has agreed, namely, keeping everybody, including council officials and indeed gardaí, completely in the dark, is becoming unacceptable. The lack of information is leading to speculation, and that speculation is completely off the radar.

There is another problem. In raising it, I refer to a specific case in Wicklow. Last Friday week, I got a phone call at 5.30 p.m. or 6 p.m. from someone stating a site in Newtownmountkennedy had been identified as a potential location for people seeking international protection and that it was being assessed as a potential site.

On Monday, we got written confirmation that the site was being assessed. Over the weekend, crews and machinery moved onto the site and by Tuesday, the topsoil was being taken off an acre of ground. On Wednesday, membrane was put down and on Thursday, hard core was put down. This has nothing to do with assessing a site. This is the preparation of a site for something. The road had to be closed so that a second access road into the site could be created.

The people of Newtownmountkennedy are frustrated and annoyed. From my point of view, we were told by the Department that the site was being assessed. In the public interest, we passed that information on to the community but that information was misleading, at best. The Department was not being truthful or honest with us, as public representatives, with the local communities, the local authorities and An Garda Síochána.

Whether we have the communication at the start or the end of the process, interaction with the community has to happen at some point. I believe it should happen at the start of the process because we are losing properties because of misinformation. A meeting was held yesterday morning, assisted by the Department, to which only one Oireachtas Member was invited, along with some members of the local community. No other Oireachtas Member was informed of that meeting. That cannot be allowed to happen. If we are to bring any credibility back to this process, we must put early and truthful communication with the people at the heart of it. We must tell the people exactly what is happening in their communities. Let us not hide behind spin and false, misleading information, which is what public representatives are receiving. We are putting that information into the public domain and then people have no respect for us because we are misleading them. The Department has to address this immediately.

On the day that is in it, I will commence by expressing my own personal thanks to the Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, for all of the work he has done for Ireland during his period as Minister, Tánaiste and Taoiseach. They have been stressful and hard years and I fully understand the toll that such service can take on people who have dedicated themselves to public elected office. I want to thank him for one thing in particular, for which I will never cease to be grateful. When Sergeant Maurice McCabe needed an ally in public life, it was the Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, who stood up for him and showed amazing personal courage in doing so.

I also want to remind the House that recently, in the aftermath of the referendum result, he wrote an article in which he said he had also been on the losing side in the referendums on the abolition of the Seanad and on Oireachtas inquiries. He said he was disappointed at the time, amid recriminations, but came to realise that the people were wise and made the right decision. He said that the Seanad provides a check and a balance on the Dáil that would otherwise not exist and that we have seen the value of that in recent months. That was a generous statement from him to make because he was, until very recently, a convinced abolitionist.

This House has a limited role in relation to legislation. We can, under Article 23 of the Constitution, amend Government legislation or propose our own legislation but Dáil Éireann has the power to effectively reject our views after 90 days. That 90-day period is not very long. I mention that because I believe Ireland is developing and maturing into a different kind of democracy. The sad moment when Members of this House were forced to vote, by a party whip, for their own abolition should be a memory of the past only. I appeal to Members of this House, not today but over the coming weeks, to consider whether the application of a party whip in every matter really adds to Irish democracy or whether it would be far better for Members of this House, bearing in mind the limited role they have, to take it on themselves to express their own individual outlook and to vote in accordance with their own individual preference.

It would be remiss of me if I did not wish the Taoiseach all the best. We were all taken aback, or even shocked, when he made his announcement at 12 o'clock. To me personally, to the Fine Gael Party and to the people of Ireland, he has been an exemplary Taoiseach and I wish him all the best. It was a decision not taken lightly and, judging by his words, it was both a personal and political decision, which I respect. Certainly, these have been very turbulent times, with the Government successfully overseeing Ireland through Covid and also the recovery of the economy, and the Taoiseach was there as part of the Government throughout those times. It is not an easy decision and I wish him, his family and his staff well. I thank him for everything he has done for the country. I have received many text messages from people throughout the country saying they are totally shocked and asking me to wish him all the best. It is nice that people are remembering him.

The other issue I raise relates to small businesses. They are on their last legs. I acknowledge the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will meet representatives of small businesses in Limerick over the coming days but those in retail and hospitality, in particular, need something done for them. They need changes to be made and perhaps the VAT rate to be reconsidered. It was increased from 9% to 13.5% and that needs to be looked at. Small businesses cannot compete at the same level as big businesses and we need to differentiate between the two and find a policy that works. One size does not fit all. We need to find something that will help save small businesses. I understand the Minister is due to come before the House for a debate at some point, but I would like that to be expedited because I know from having spoken to small businesses that some of them are on their last legs.

It would be remiss of me not to wish An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, all the best as he resigns and embarks on a new chapter in his life. It is always a big day in the Houses of the Oireachtas when a Taoiseach resigns, and we were all taken aback today by the resignation of Leo Varadkar. Even though he and I come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, he was always a politician of conviction from his side. I wish him and his Fine Gael colleagues the very best as they embark on the difficult internal process of choosing a new leader and, potentially, a new Tánaiste.

I raise the issue of the IPO applicants in Dublin who were moved on Saturday to Crooksling in the Dublin Mountains, a former nursing home that had been planned to be used for asylum seeker accommodation but was set on fire by far-right agitators a number of months ago. I think a lot of the men were very happy to be moving from Mount Street on Saturday because the conditions had become very unsanitary and there was a public health issue. There were no toilets or showers, there was waste in the street and there was no management of the public sphere there.

Unfortunately, however, the men were taken away and dumped at the border of Dublin and Wicklow in the Dublin Mountains and told they could pitch their tents there, while back in Dublin, people were cleaning up tents and taking away belongings from the men, some of whom had been taken surprise, and on which volunteers had spent thousands of euro in the preceding weeks. Some very good tents were destroyed and we do not know by whom. Some people have said it was done by people involved in the cleanup, while others said it was done by far-right agitators. One of the key questions that need to be answered concerns how protestors knew which site people were being taken to.

By the time they arrived on Saturday there were anti-immigrant and far-right agitators outside ready to cause trouble in Crooksling. It put the men, the IPAS staff and the security staff in danger. There are real questions to be answered as to how they got word that is where people were going. We do not flag where asylum accommodation will be for that very reason and there are real questions as to how they knew and how they managed to arrive there so quickly. I ask the Leader to raise this matter with the Minister for integration and the Minister for Justice as to whether there is somebody within the Department who is letting that information slip out. It is very serious. Somebody at some stage will be hurt and killed if we do not take action on how people are finding out where very vulnerable applicants are being placed before they end up going there.

On the day that is in it, I wish An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, the very best. It is fair to say I am the only Fianna Fáil Senator in the Chamber who the Taoiseach put a number one beside my name in a recent by-election. I do not think anyone else got a number one from Leo and I am pretty sure I did, so I can go down in history for that at least. I thank him for his support on that occasion and equally wish him the very best. He has given a lot of service to the Houses and the people, as a member of Fingal County Council initially, way back in 2005, later on in the Dáil in many Departments, including health, transport and enterprise, and as Taoiseach and Tánaiste.

I know the Cathaoirleach has travelled twice to the US recently. I was there on my own steam in recent days. I attended a parade where I was guest of honour in West Orange, New Jersey. I was the guest of an order of the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh, and I am wearing their tie today. We have Irish diaspora all over the world, with close linkages and generations further back, especially from the Leader's county. I know in the case of my own grandfather, who was the youngest of ten and who came to Dublin from Mayo, that eight of his siblings went to America.

We should acknowledge the work the Irish diaspora does on behalf of Ireland and of their own communities right around the world, particularly in the US and Britain but also right across the world in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South America. We should acknowledge the work done by them on behalf of Ireland Inc. but also on behalf of those who left Ireland, some of whom were very successful and others who were less successful. There are community groups looking after the Irish and looking out for the Irish and for Ireland. We should see if there is a mechanism as to how we can honour these people in all that they are doing. I know we do that by going abroad and the global greening and so on, but I do not think we should ever underestimate the power of the Irish brand. It does not happen by accident. It is all these clubs and organisations all over the world promoting Ireland in a positive way and I thank them for that.

The suggestion the Senator made at the end was a very good one. Having been to the United States for St. Patrick's Day, his points were well made and I will let the Leader respond to them.

They say a week is a long time in politics. What about a morning? There will be a lot of political reflections this morning about the news about our party leader and Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, but I will add some personal reflections. He has been my friend for more than 30 years and I hope we will be friends for over 30 more. As teenagers the politics seeped out of our pores and we were both quite heavily opinionated from a very early age. It would be fair to say that I probably came from the centre-left when I was that age and he was centre-right. Over the years we have met in the middle. Sometimes I despair that young people might think the centre of politics cannot be radical and it cannot be challenging, whereas it can. My whole life I have been inspired by responsible radicals and I think our democracy needs brave people like that more than ever.

The proud legacy he leaves in Dublin West can be seen every day in our hospital, our university and our schools. I thank his family as well for all the support they have given the party in Dublin West: Miriam, Ashok, Sonia, Sophie, their husbands and Leo's nephews, whom he is so proud of.

Of course he will continue to work in Dublin West and I look forward to working with him. He has done so much in terms of nurturing this machine of an economy that we have, guiding us through Covid, his work on Northern Ireland as a proud nationalist and champion of the Good Friday Agreement. I am just so very proud of my friend and so grateful to my colleague and his loyalty. Sometimes I think the persona we saw is not what I know and I just want to say how proud and grateful I am this morning.

I welcome our colleague and friend, former Senator, Teachta Dála and Minister of State, Ned O'Keeffe. Ned was appointed to the 16th Seanad by An Taoiseach, Charles Haughey and he has been a good friend to many of us across the political aisle in Leinster House. Ned, you are welcome back and it is good to see you looking so well. Beir bua.

I want to echo the comments made about the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar. I have to say that over the years when he was Minister for Health and as Taoiseach, I have clashed with him on many occasions and we have had many very robust exchanges and disagreements. Throughout that time, An Taoiseach has shown great personal kindness towards me and my family and, particularly, my son Eoghan. I think it speaks to the man and who he is. I watched him very closely during his press conference today. I wish him well and I wish our colleagues across the line in Fine Gael the best of luck in whatever happens next and in whoever succeeds him.

I would also like to say that in the last few weeks we have heard the voice of the Irish people. They have spoken, and spoken very definitively. To quote Lincoln, with public sentiment anything is possible. Without public sentiment nothing can be achieved. To that end, and speaking to the collegiality that has been shown in this House, I would echo Senator McDowell's comments. We have very limited powers in this House but it could be a House of innovation, of moral and ethical leadership and courage. I echo Senator McDowell's call that perhaps the Whip should not always be applied in this House when we feel the weight of the public good behind us. That is something we should probably think about going forward.

I cannot let this moment pass without mentioning what is happening in Gaza and the pictures that we are seeing - it is not famine, it is forced starvation. As an Irish people we understand what forced starvation is. It is a weapon of war. It is not a famine in the received sense. I again commend the Taoiseach and Tánaiste on their very clear statements on this. Israel is committing the most appalling war crimes and genocide. We must speak out.