The Order of Business today is No. 1, Employment (Collective Redundancies and Miscellaneous Provisions) and Companies (Amendment) Bill 2023 - Committee and Remaining Stages, to be taken at 11.45 a.m.

I welcome our distinguished guests. This morning I draw the House's attention to the announcement from the Minister and Minister of State for sport and culture of the opening for applications to the large-scale sports infrastructure fund. It is a great fund and is available for sports organisations to apply for funding for important and vital infrastructure that requires funding above and beyond that which is available under sports capital. It is for applications from €600,000 up to €30 million. I specifically urge Dublin City Council to make an application for that funding for the redevelopment of Dalymount Park, the home of Bohemian F.C., in the heart of my own area, Phibsborough. Dalymount Park is a historic landmark in our capital city and our country. It is home to Bohemian F.C., but it is so much more to those of us locally. I want Dublin City Council to make an application for that funding. It has been talked about for a long time. It has secured planning permission. There is a great design in place. The project is shovel ready. The council should move ahead and make an application and I urge the Government to support that application.

I give a big shout-out to Francesca Arkins and the Arkins Dance Academy in the north inner city, which has been teaching young girls and boys on Seán MacDermott Street to dance for almost 30 years. It is now in the incredible position of having been selected to go forward to represent Ireland in the world dance championships in Prague in the Czech Republic. It is fundraising for this trip. It is an incredible honour and opportunity for the 28 young dancers. It needs to raise funds and has successfully raised more than €23,000 already. It has a GoFundMe page, which I encourage everybody to support. For 30 years, it has been bringing dance and music to Seán MacDermott Street and teaching such incredible talent and skills. It is to be encouraged, fostered and supported and I urge everybody to do so.

Will the Acting Leader request an update from the Taoiseach's office on his proposal to establish yet another north inner city task force? I have to say there is an amount of task force fatigue in the north inner city. It is clear what we want - we want to live in a place that is cleaner, safer and more liveable for all of us. We welcome the new Taoiseach's interest in the city centre. However, we would like him to make clear what exactly he is proposing because we would like to contribute to it. We would like to be able to support any initiative that makes the inner city cleaner, safer and more liveable for us all.

I call the father of the House, Senator Paddy Burke.

I would also like to be associated with the welcome for the Polish ambassador and his distinguished guests to the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. They are welcome.

I propose a vote of sympathy to the D'Arcy family on the death of Michael D'Arcy Snr., who was a Member of both this House and the Dáil. He was Minister of State, a TD and a Senator. I served in this House with him for a number of years and he was a hardworking Senator, Deputy and Minister of State back in the eighties. His son Michael D'Arcy Jnr. also served in this House as well as the Dáil. I am sure we will have a day in the future to express our condolences to the family.

I raise an issue concerning the Department of Transport, which acquires routes for upgrading roads and national primary and secondary routes. In doing that it acquires some houses. They are not demolished, but they are taken because of their close proximity to the routes designed. Those houses could be put back into use. I would like to know what the Department of Transport is doing with those houses. Does the local authority acquire those houses on behalf of the Department of Transport? I know there is a number of them lying idle around the country. We have a housing crisis. Those are fine houses - often two-storey houses in good nick - which families moved out of until these projects were completed. With a little money, those houses could be put back into use. They could be sold to families that are much in need of housing. I would like if we could contact the Department of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, about this issue. I have raised this before, but nothing seems to be happening on it. I wish the Acting Leader well in her new role, and ask her to contact the Department about this issue.

I will do so formally next Wednesday when we return after the weekend, but I join the Senator in sympathising with the D'Arcy family on the sad passing of Michael Snr. As the Senator said, he served in this House from the agricultural panel, and also as a TD. He was a Minister of State too. I sympathise with his son, Michael Jnr., his wife Marie and all of the family. We will do so formally next Wednesday and we will have sympathies at a later time, but I thank Senator Burke for raising that. Michael D'Arcy was a wonderful public servant to the people of County Wexford.

I, too, would like to be associated with the sympathies to Michael's family.

I welcome the Polish ambassador. I could not trump the Cathaoirleach's words. He said everything we needed to say. The ambassador is always welcome in the House.

Yesterday, I mentioned overseas development aid and the moneys flowing out of Ireland to other countries. We have to start asking a question. If we are, for example, funding education in somewhere like Mozambique or Zambia, are we allowing that government to put funding it would otherwise have to put into education into other areas instead? I am extremely concerned by the amount of money we are pumping out of this country in the guise of overseas development aid. Some €6.5 billion goes to NGOs. Is it possible that some of that money is only going to them via osmosis – we have always given them money, so we will keep giving them money – and that there is no real oversight of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash that is given to overseas development aid or NGOs? The next Government will have to carry out a root-and-branch examination of where money goes. I do not want to stop funding NGOs or overseas development aid. I just want to ensure that money goes to the right place and gets to the right people and that we are not wasting taxpayers’ money.

This morning, I received a phone call from the son of a former colleague about Jadotville. We are several years on from the independent report on Jadotville. The Cathaoirleach has a significant interest in defence matters. To this day, that report has not been accepted by anyone other than a few people at the top of the military. It is not something for politicians to get involved in. The day politicians start awarding military honours is the day we can pack it in and go home. There was a so-called independent review of Jadotville. My former colleague’s son rang me this morning. During his witness statement, he was asked about his personal mental health even though it was his father that the body was inquiring about. Another woman in New Zealand underwent in-depth questioning about her mental health. What had that to do with the bravery of her father? What had it to do with the military action in Jadotville? Was the body in some way trying to mitigate the evidence it was receiving by saying that, since the poor devil was suffering from mental health issues, it really did not have to listen to that evidence? Deputy Nolan is trying to put together another Jadotville group in the Oireachtas. I ask that people with an interest in this matter join up and at least hear the story once again.