The Order of Business is No. 1, motion regarding approval by Seanad Éireann of a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child sexual abuse material and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (recast), to be taken on conclusion of the Order of Business, without debate; No. 2, motion regarding proposed approval by Seanad Éireann of the Health Act 1970 (Section 45(3)) (Classes of Persons) Regulations 2024, to be taken on conclusion of No.1, without debate; and No. 3, Private Members' business, Control of Dogs (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024 – Second Stage, to be taken at 3.15 p.m., with the time allocated to this debate not to exceed two hours.

I think every politician in both Houses today is absolutely exhausted after marathon election campaigns and counts over the weekend. Indeed, many counts are still ongoing. I am very conscious that Members of this Chamber stood for election, including the Leader and of course Senators Doherty and Gavan. I wish them well.

And Senators Boylan and O'Reilly.

I was coming to that.

Senator O'Loughlin without interruption please.

Sorry, a Chathaoirligh.

I also congratulate all of those who have been elected over the weekend on all our county councils throughout the country - those of all parties and none.

One thing that really stuck out was the low turnout, which we must try to address. I came across an interesting quote, which stated: “Democracy isn’t like a Sunday suit to be brought out and worn only at parades, it’s the kind of a life a decent man leads, it’s something to live for and to die for.” When we see backsliding in democracy across Europe, it is important that we encourage all our citizens and all those who are over 18 and who can vote to go out and vote.

I want to thank our media services and our local radio stations right around the country, which did a tremendous job. In my area of Kildare South and Newbridge, a recount is ongoing as I speak. It has been a long few days for our local radio station, KFM, as well as for the candidates who are involved.

There was a high percentage of spoiled votes and some of these were because they were not stamped by the officials. That is a real concern. There has to be a better way - maybe having a barcode on each paper. I was in Montenegro doing election monitoring around this time last year. They used a scanner system which worked very effectively.

The last point I would like to make is that this is National Carers Week. We must give a shout-out to all the unsung heroes: the carers in their homes. Last year, the caucus brought forward a cross-party motion to improve the lives of family carers and those they care for. That focused on the renewal and review of the national carer strategy, which has not been done since 2018. It is beyond time for us to do that. We think particularly of the elderly carers who are providing informal care in the home and who need to be able to access support. We must either introduce a basic income for carers or abolish the means test. I would like to see the Minister coming into the Chamber for a debate on this.

It has been a wonderful weekend seeing democracy in action. It has been incredible and exhilarating and there has been such excitement. There have been ups and downs and lows and disappointment, but it has been phenomenal.

I have worked with many of our candidates in Fine Gael. We are delighted to see that we have doubled the number of our councillors in the Roscommon-Galway constituency. I want to say “Congratulations” to our councillors. In the Ballinasloe municipal district, there is Councillor Peter Keaveney, who is a brand-new councillor. A young fellow, Alan Harney, is coming through. We have two sitting councillors in Roscommon who fought battles and kept their seats. Our new councillors come from very different backgrounds. Councillor Domnick Connolly, who was formerly a councillor, came back to fight another day. That gives hope to candidates who may not have been successful this time around. It is so crucial to stay engaged and involved and be part of your community.

I want to also thank Gareth Scahill, who is a brand-new councillor for Castlerea. I thank Liam Callaghan, and of course, John Naughten in south Roscommon. I acknowledge and pay tribute to the candidates who ran, including two candidates, Dympna Daly Finn and Robert McConn. Again, this was such a battle. Sometimes, when it comes down to a handful of votes, it is just so difficult.

I too pay tribute to the newspapers and radio stations. Shannonside and Galway Bay FM were going non-stop. Colleagues were all over Shannonside, as well as the radio in the midlands, Roscommon and Galway. They were on Galway Bay FM as well.

I honestly do not know how the staff of the county councils did it. We were there until 3.30 a.m. and 4 a.m. on the Saturday and it was the same across so many areas. We came back again when we had a recount. This is a tribute to incredible democracy in action. I wish Senator Chambers well. It was great to see so many people voting in the European elections. We are seeing huge numbers coming through there as well. Of course, we have our own candidate, Maria Walsh, who travelled all around the area.

Hopefully, once we get through the next few days, we will again see a focus on the job we need to do. It has been a crazy couple of months, but we have seen great success with candidates coming through. I encourage those who were not successful to stay engaged and consider the future.

Last week, I was invited to Portsmouth for the commemoration of D-Day. From the moment I entered the commemoration area, everything I could possibly want was laid out for me.

It got to the point that somebody came to me with suntan oil to protect my head. The reason for this was that I was wearing a veteran's badge. Contrast that with what happened at Blacksod the following day when the Defence Forces were supposed to have a ship in the bay and there was supposed to be a fly-past over the lighthouse. Hours before that was to take place, approval was withdrawn by somebody junior, I believe, in the Department of Foreign Affairs saying that to commemorate the weather forecast that led to D-Day taking place would in some way jeopardise our neutrality. What sort of nonsense are we going on with?

In July, we will commemorate Private Billy Kedian in Ballyhaunis. I requested an Army band, tents and an honour guard. The first reply I got was that I would have to indemnify the Minister to the tune of €6.5 million. The second reply I got was that there would be no band but we could have a bugle and a drum. The third one I got was that there would be no honour guard. Billy Kedian lost his life saving 14 of his colleagues in 1999. I ask all Senators to apply as much pressure as they can. There are many hundreds of veterans who want to go and commemorate Billy and his family want to be there.

Billy Kedian lost his life saving his comrades but we never gave him a medal. We do not give medals in this country. We had Jadotville and the Niemba ambush. I could go on about what we do not do for our veterans. It is wrong in every sense of the word. In Portsmouth, people were out in their thousands. There were military bands, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and the British Army. All were represented. There were young soldiers, navy and airforce personnel meeting people at the gate. They helped the old and infirm to their chairs and if people were in a wheelchair, they would either push it or carry it. That is respect for veterans. The Leader has served and I know she will feel for a Mayoman. Three graves away from Billy Kedian lies a soldier who lost his life in Vietnam and a battleship has been named after him. Do we not understand honour in this country?

I congratulate the winning group of the local elections, the Independents. What a wonderful day we had.

The Senator was going well.

Senator Craughwell would be very good at creative writing.

Based on the figures, Fianna Fáil might just be the largest party, with Fine Gael very close behind. The party is, therefore, a little ahead of the Independents, mathematically at least.

I remind all Members that the Order of Business is about seeking a debate on particular matters and bringing Ministers to the House.

I am glad the Cathaoirleach is reminding us now rather than when the speaker before last was contributing. It is fair to raise the matter in the day and week that is in it, particularly given that at least five Members of this House, as Senator O'Loughlin outlined, ran in the European elections. We wish Senator Chambers the very best. Well done to her on her performance. We may not see much of Senator Doherty based on the figures and, possibly, Senator Boylan. Senators Gavan and Pauline O'Reilly also ran.

I pay tribute to everybody who put their name on a ballot paper, not just for the European campaign, but all the local election candidates of all colours who tried so hard. The vast bulk of people who put their name on a ballot paper do so for the right reasons. Few do it for the wrong reasons. We will not agree with everything they believe in but fair play to them for putting their names on a ballot paper and putting themselves out there to be judged and selected or otherwise. I pay tribute to the 200 Fianna Fáil councillors who have been re-elected at this point and the 44 new ones who have been elected. I also acknowledge and express support for those who, unfortunately, have been defeated. I acknowledge those who chose on this occasion to retire or not to put their names on a ballot paper this time. I was a councillor for 12 years so I know that council work is hard. It is time-consuming and involves a lot of effort but the work is very rewarding, exciting and interesting. It also involves a lot of sacrifice by people as they try to juggle family life and work. I acknowledge those who are still involved in the counts for 12 unoccupied seats in the local elections.

I congratulate all those who made it. I particularly sympathise with those who lost their seats and those who did not make it on this occasion. Many of us have won elections, but equally many of us have had the occasional defeat and it is important that we acknowledge that too. I also acknowledge our Acting Leader today, Senator O'Loughlin, on the election of her brother as a councillor in Kildare over the weekend. Well done to Brian.

I congratulate the Leader, Deputy Leader and other Seanad colleagues on their performances in the European elections and join in congratulations to the people who are winning. I will make one sad remark. In the midst of all the joy of the weekend, as Senator Dolan said, there is sadness and misfortune. One of the best county councillors in Ireland, respected across all political shades and none, was Councillor Peter McVitty in Cavan. He is an absolute gentleman. He and his lovely wife Susan gave much to public service and the whole community for a lifetime. He lost out by a few votes after a long number of years. That is the sad side. That needs as much acknowledgement as the success.

I will turn to the tragic event in Limerick of the death of the lady who had the rare breed dogs. It is a shocking calamity. Our hearts go out to her family. I gather there has been another similar attack since. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has established a stakeholder group on this issue and I understand the Taoiseach has asked for the outcome to be fast-forwarded. Anything we can do to debate and fast-forward it should be done. Those breeds should be banned completely in the country. There is no logic to having them. They are often in restricted and dangerous conditions and they should not be here. There have been a number of initiatives. The Minister gave €2 million for the control of dogs in 2002 and there are rules around muzzles for various breeds, but keeping certain breeds of dogs in housing estates in narrow confined areas is very dangerous. An accident only has to happen once for them to get out. A lovely gentleman in my community was savaged by dogs on a roadway one day and lost an arm. A local post lady valiantly saved him. She was recognised by the President. We need to do something on this fast. We need to ban the rare dog breeds.

Well done to everyone who was successful at the weekend.

Like others, I congratulate all those who stood and have been elected and wish all the best to our colleagues in this House. I am conscious that in the naming, Senator Blaney's name was omitted from the list of Senators. As we know, he was part of the strong unified Fianna Fáil team that ran in the Midlands-North-West constituency over the last few days.

I will focus on races of a different kind. I am sure the Leader and everyone in the House will join with me in congratulating Athletics Ireland and the wonderful performance by our athletes at the European Athletics Championships in Rome. There were extraordinary performances by Ciara Mageean, who won gold in the women's 1,500 m race and Rhasidat Adeleke, who won silver in the 400 m race. Rhasidat Adeleke, together with Christopher O'Donnell, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley then managed to win gold for Ireland in the inaugural 4 x 400 m mixed relay team and we are seeing that yet again, the women's 4 x 400 m relay team has now qualified for the final. This is an extraordinary period for Irish athletics. I congratulate all those athletes and not only those who are medal winners, but also those who achieved extraordinary performances so far. It bodes well for Paris later this summer, during the Olympics. A lot of credit is due to Athletics Ireland and all the clubs who support those athletes and the inspiration they provide to other athletes. I hope we will have a debate in this House with the Minister for sport at some stage. The record levels of investment are welcome, including the sports capital grant scheme and the announcement of the large scale sporting infrastructure fund. We need to celebrate those achievements and look to build on them further to encourage our athletes of the future.

I echo the comments of many colleagues with regard to those who stood in elections - those who were elected and those who were unsuccessful. It takes a huge amount of courage to put one's name on a ballot paper. We were delighted to gain a seat in Waterford and to be the largest party in local government on Waterford City and County Councils. Two new councillors - Niamh O'Donovan and Jim Darcy, who returned after a ten-year absence - joined our other six amazing councillors so I am really looking forward to working with them for the betterment of Waterford.

In the context of Waterford, Senator O'Loughlin will testify that this is my fifth time to raise this issue because she was deputising for the Leader on two of the previous occasions. I have raised the issue of the fact we have not had a debate in this Chamber on national aviation policy. I have asked that the Ministers, Deputies Eamon Ryan or Chambers, come to the House to have a debate. We have a business case seeking matching funding for €12 million of private sector funding to expand the runway at Waterford Airport and neither of the Ministers has come before the House. The last time I raised this issue I said that we really need to know if it is a case they are just refusing to come to the House or what the case is. It is unacceptable for a Senator to request a debate on five occasions and for a Minister yet to have come to the House to discuss what is an exceptionally important issue, not only for Waterford but also in the context of our other national airports and the ongoing issues in terms of the passenger cap at Dublin Airport. I implore the Leader to schedule that debate. It is so important.

Finally, I support Senator Malcolm Byrne's comments about our athletes who have done a phenomenal job at the European Championships, and about the sports capital grant scheme which is so important. As a former PE teacher, it starts with the grassroots and the work done by volunteers and it is appropriate that the Government supports them in terms of investment.

I congratulate all those who stood for election. I acknowledge the Leader's position and that she had an excellent turnout and is still in the race. The nobility of democracy comes home to us all. I always get goose bumps when I go to vote and think it is an extraordinary privilege. I never get over the novelty of being a grown-up and being able to vote; it is amazing. The sheer dedication of everybody who worked on the elections and in the count centres is extraordinary to see and very exciting to be part of.

I echo the congratulations to our athletes. It has also been an extraordinary weekend for them.

I want to highlight a particular issue. We passed a motion in this House regarding smartphones, the enforcement of the digital age of consent and the use of smartphones and we highlighted the dangers of smartphones. I want to bring to the Leader's attention the fact that mental health research in the UK, aligned to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, has now proven there are issues, through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, between Internet addiction and the use of smartphones on the functioning of the brain, particularly with regard to memory and decision-making. There is now a direct correlation. The evidence is mounting that we need to be strict. We debated across both Houses enforcing the digital age of consent by the Data Protection Commission, DPC, and this week I wrote to the commission asking what it is doing to enforce this and requesting a meeting. I would appreciate if a letter could be sent from this House to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, to ask what follow-up there has been, what has happened to our motion and what steps have been taken by the Government in response to the motion passed unanimously by this House. We did all agree on the fact that there are dangers and that actions must be taken both by the Government and Coimisiún na Meán, which is doing a very good job, but the DPC also has a role in this. I would appreciate if the Leader could write a letter to the Minister on behalf of this House seeking a follow-up to our motion.

I wish everyone in the House who is running in the elections the very best. I was pleased when I got 36,000 votes ten years ago in Midlands-North-West. I would have been even more pleased had I got a haul that ran into the 40,000s like the Leader with her 44,000. Just as I have never really put out of my mind completely the thought of having another go at a European election some time, maybe the Leader will not either. I wish her and everyone else involved the best in the coming hours. We all have friends across all parties and Independents who had good weekends, had near misses or lost their seats. It is an important process.

The Government has reason to be happy, in that nothing seismically bad happened to it. In many ways, it has reasons to be satisfied. Nonetheless, there is change afoot in our country. It is visible in the way people voted and in how people got elected who would not have got elected previously. It behoves the Government to read the signs of the times and not to believe that it now has some mandate to keep doing what it does, that being, failing sometimes to listen to minority concerns on various issues in our country. Be they right or wrong, they are issues that the Government needs to take more seriously. There will be consequences in a future general election if it does not.

In that regard, I wish to mention important legislation that will be before the House on Thursday. It is divisive legislation around assisted human reproduction and surrogacy. I have serious disagreements with people, including friends, whom I value highly. This legislation did not get anything like challenging scrutiny in the Dáil, so it is important that we take our time with it. Assisted human reproduction on its own would be massive legislation, but including domestic and international surrogacy in it raises major issues of concern for people. We need to ensure that the legislation is not rushed through the Houses in the closing weeks of this term. We need careful and determined scrutiny of the issues and time for proper debate and amendments. I hope there will be no rancour, only serious scrutiny and challenging of one another’s ideas. The rights of women, particularly poorer ones, in other countries are very much in play in this issue and they must be spoken up for. There are many other issues with this legislation as well.

I wish the best of luck to the Leader. I congratulate everyone who was elected over the weekend, particularly in the Dublin West constituency, where we had Councillor Ted Leddy, Councillor Siobhán Shovlin, Councillor Kieran Dennison, Councillor Colm O’Rourke and the new councillor, Ms Gayle Ralph. However, Mr. Steve O’Reilly, who only had three months to campaign, just missed out for us in Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart. I hope that he will be staying on the scene and be back in a few years’ time.

On a different note, I wish to discuss another knife crime incident in Ongar, Dublin West, two days ago. It happened at nearly the exact same place where an innocent man was murdered a year ago in a knife crime. This is an issue that the Government is taking seriously and there are plans to increase maximum sentences from five years to seven. There are also plans in respect of the importation of knives. However, we know that it cannot just be a top-down strategy. That is why the community safety partnerships are so important. I am critical of anyone who delays the implementation of these partnerships in communities that desperately need them. This is the future of community safety. It is not enough that the matter be policed. We have to involve people who are invested in their communities, we have to work with young people and we have to take an holistic approach to facilities, services and vulnerable people in our communities. Of course, we have to consider Garda resources. We have seen an increase in Dublin, which is to be welcomed, but the K district is one of the busiest in the whole of the country. We need investment in our community gardaí and core units. I seek an update on community safety partnerships and ask that everyone in the House get behind them and think outside the box when it comes to community safety policies and strategies.

Like other Members, I wish to say we had a wonderful experience over the past number of days in terms of democracy, both local and international, as it happens. I pay tribute to the five Members of this House who put themselves forward as it is a huge task to run in any European campaign, as well as to the hundreds of people who put their names on ballot papers for local council elections around the country. I also pay particular tribute to a young man in my own area, Dan Carson, 22 years of age, who is now the youngest member of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. After a recount, he was elected yesterday by a single vote, which tells anybody who is wondering if their vote counts that it absolutely does. The brother of one of the other candidates who was not successful, who went away on holidays last week will, I am sure, continue to have good relations with his brother, but will understand the value of a vote. We saw that in action. We were pleased in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown to have so many Fine Gael candidates returned. Everybody who ran in the Dún Laoghaire constituency for Fine Gael won a seat. That is a tribute to the strength of democracy at local level.

For those councillors taking their seats this month, we should be looking at what powers they have and how effective they can be in terms of the legislation that provides for their powers. They do not have enough power. Far too much power rests with officials who are not accountable the way they are at present. In this House, we should have a debate on what we can do to strengthen the powers of those elected at local level, to give them the tools they need to serve the communities they represent and for which they work so hard. Let us have debate and bring the Minister for local government in to see what we can do to strengthen the specific powers of democratically elected and democratically accountable people at local level.