I too welcome the students. I also join in the expressions of congratulations to Deputies Michael McGrath and Jack Chambers. I also add my voice of sympathy to that voice of a generation, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, who so many of us were familiar with from the radio as he travelled around the country commentating on GAA and other sporting events.

I want to raise the question of fees for criminal barristers. I cannot understand why the Minister for Justice has not entered into a process to reverse a number of the cuts that were introduced during the FEMPI period. Criminal barristers had to threaten and engage in protest last October. At that time there was a clear commitment that there would be engagement with the Bar of Ireland to resolve this matter. In 2018, a Government-commissioned report made very clear that the cuts to the fees should be reversed. We are now again facing the withdrawal of service of a number of criminal barristers. This will cause difficulties for criminal cases in our courts. I ask the Leader to ensure that the Minister for Justice would enter into a process of discussion with the Bar of Ireland on this issue.

I also want to raise another matter. Last week in this House, Senator Paul Gavan, in yet another of Sinn Féin's anti-American tirades, called for a boycott of US Independence Day events, which was very inappropriate. The House can imagine my surprise when I saw a report in The Irish Times at the weekend that Friends of Sinn Féin had sent back, in six months, $51,000 to Sinn Féin from wealthy donors across the Atlantic. I am sure the Senator must have been a bit like Captain Louis Renault in "Casablanca", declaring he was shocked to find all of these donations coming from wealthy Americans. It is time that we had a debate in this House about Sinn Féín's sources of financing. Other political parties are subject to rules and limits but I find it very rich that we are lectured to about whether we can engage with and support the United States - and we can certainly criticise its foreign policy - by a party that continues to receive large sums from wealthy American donors.

I support the suggestion that the Minister needs to engage with the Bar of Ireland. The rate of attrition from the Law Library is enormous. Very few criminal barristers survive beyond year six because the rate of pay is just so appallingly low. A person can sit all day, get briefed for one bail application and earn €25. It is not understood that a small number of barristers are paid incredibly well but the vast majority are not.

On numerous occasions I have asked for statements in the House on the apartment defects scheme. This is a really good-news scheme from a Government perspective. More than €2 billion has been set aside to provide for remediation for apartment owners. However, there are some glitches along the way in apartment owners being able to access the money and in how that looks. Huge work is done all the time by the Minister. To be fair, there is progress. There is interplay between the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and Justice because the latter is over the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011. This has an impact on how owner-management companies are regulated, overseeing their governance and the transparency with which they will administer these schemes. It is really important that we have statements in the House and be able to engage with the Minister, Deputy O' Brien, and to congratulate him on something he advocated for over a long period, both in opposition and as Minister, and has come through on his word. However, refinements need to happen, which need to be discussed in the House.

I would ask that we have statements in that regard. I want to praise the Not Our Fault campaign, run by Sam and Odette Doran, who are doing all of this on a voluntary basis outside of their own jobs. They are supporting homeowners and developments throughout the country through their exceptional work in being a guinea pig for the Department of housing in the Park West development. If we could have statements on that, it would be fantastic.