I welcome guests of Senator Carrigy. They are Brian Mahon and his mum, Mary Mahon, from County Longford. They will be leaving soon so I welcome them most sincerely.

Senator Warfield proposed an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 12 be taken before No. 1, which was seconded by Senator Ruane. I am happy to accept that amendment. I commend the Senator on his work on that issue. Our legislation often lags behind where the world is at. This is a good piece of work that I am sure will be looked upon favourably by the relevant Minister.

Senator Malcolm Byrne welcomed the announcement by the Minister, Deputy Foley, that we will move slowly back towards normal grades in respect of dealing with grade inflation. I take on board the point that there may be students who deferred their college places, or may not have applied to the CAO, but may well apply in a number of years' time and will be competing with those on lower grades. I have no doubt the Minister is aware of this. That needs to be factored into whatever process is put in place to come back from that Covid era when grades were inflated. Covid had a long-term impact on young people in particular. Many of them missed out on 18th and 21st birthdays and graduations, which are highly significant points in people's lives that only happen once. We are still realising the full mental health impacts of that period. Young people need to be supported in their communities.

Senator Maria Byrne raised the issue of school transport. I note her comments. She thanked the McManus family for their charitable donation of the International Rugby Experience to the people of Limerick. She also raised an issue around Motorsport Ireland and the potential loss of that event to the country.

Senator McDowell proposed an amendment to the Order of Business. I will not repeat the words but I note what the amendment asked for. It was seconded by Senator Craughwell. I am not in a position to accept the amendment. The reason is the process in the House is that the draft pact will be referred to committee for consideration. Senator McDowell is a member of the Joint Committee on Justice. It is a matter for that committee and its Chair as to how its work is conducted. I suggest to committee members that they should work together in terms of-----

I tried.

It is not a matter for the Leader to direct a committee Chair or a committee on how to do their work. It is just not within my remit. It is the normal course of work that this draft pact be referred to a committee for consideration and it then comes back to us for consideration by the House. We will have a full debate on this on 2 May. That will be our opportunity to do this. I take on board the frustration the Senator expressed around the committee process but it is just not within my remit to deal with that as Leader. It is a matter for the committee Chair and committee members. I appreciate Senator McDowell is a member of that committee, but there is nothing I can do in respect of its work. It is just not part of my remit.

On the comments made about the European Union and the potential to make changes to the migration pact, we will have an opportunity to discuss that further on 2 May. My understanding, however, is that the pact took close to a decade to negotiate. I have seen MEPs discuss it who were involved in the work on it over the past number of years. I do not think anybody is wholly happy with it but, sometimes, when there are people on both sides who are unhappy, and you have met somewhere in the middle, you have probably got it mostly right. That is my assessment of it. I am very uncomfortable with Ireland going it alone. If 26 other member states were to move forward to work together collectively, and we were left out in the cold, I wonder what the incentive would be to help Ireland, if we were struggling with the migration issue, which we are.