I wish to be associated with Senator Nelson Murray’s comments welcoming Pope Leo XIV. He is a great Augustinian. We have a tremendous association in Drogheda with the Augustinians there. We hope to welcome him to Ireland soon.

I will continue on the comments of my Meath colleague. As the sole Louth representative in the Seanad, it would be remiss of me, standing here in my county colours, not to congratulate the Louth senior men’s team on its tremendous win in the 2025 Leinster Senior Football Championship in Croke Park. Some 65,000 people were in attendance, which was the second-highest attendance at any football match in Europe this week, behind the Manchester United and West Ham match. It was a tremendous final. I congratulate the Louth manager, Ger Brennan, and the captain, Sam Mulroy. I also congratulate every mother, father, granny, grandad or whoever else who has stood by the edges of the pitches. We all know what the GAA brings to the community. This is bringing a tremendous lift to Louth, one for which we have waited 68 years. As the last time we lifted the Delaney Cup was in 1957, we welcome the win at the weekend.

As I am talking about the crest of a wave of pride and positivity, that is what we need to bring to Louth, and to Drogheda in particular. I would welcome a debate with the Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, regarding our funding from the urban regeneration and development fund. We have received great news that planning approval has been granted for the Westgate Vision project, which will clean up quite a poor part of the town centre. This will be exactly what we need for our heritage. We need developments and investments. We would also like to see, if possible, the town centre first heritage revival, THRIVE, funding, which is badly needed for Westgate House and the former Drogheda youth development buildings. A planning application for the project is currently going in. We have seen what our neighbours in Dundalk have done with this incredible funding of €7.5 million. The capacity is for funding of €7 million in Drogheda. Those two projects together would bring the exact amount of dignity, pride, positivity and investment that we so badly need.

It is an occasion of great sadness to stand here and express sympathy to the family and colleagues of Garda Kevin Flatley, who lived in Balbriggan. He was 49 years old and a father of two, and our sympathy goes to his wife Una and his daughters Aoife and Erin. He was coach of the under-10 girls' team at O'Dwyers GAA club in Balbriggan, and there were huge tributes there about his positivity and the affection he was held in by people. The phrase used was that he had a great grá for the GAA. He spent 26 years working as a garda, having been part of the roads policing unit since 2018, serving as a community garda before that. Among the phrases, expressions of sympathy and remarks used after his tragic death were that he was an all-round gentleman, he was diligent, and he always completed the job perfectly. It is a cruel irony and a cruel twist of fate that he should be killed while trying to preserve our safety and that of others by controlling speed on the roads. That this should happen is a particularly brutal form of fate. There certainly needs to be a review of safety around these operations on the roads, and the Garda Commissioner said this would be the case. The deputy general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Mr. Bolger, has called for the same.

I wish to express my sympathy to all of Garda Flatley's colleagues, to members of the GRA and its officer board, to all gardaí in the country, to the Commissioner, etc. It is a huge tragedy for our country. He was clearly a good man - a good family, GAA, club and community man, a good professional, and a patriot who was serving the people of Ireland and trying to keep us safe. It is a sad day to be doing this. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Many people have expressed sympathy with the family and the force of An Garda Síochána with regard to the recent taking of life. Whereas Senator McCarthy mentioned that a large number of gardaí have died in the line of duty, in our own generation - since the turn of the millennium, not quite 25 years ago - 16 gardaí have died in the line of duty. Oftentimes, we can get complacent about the level of a pacific and peaceful society we live in, but those figures bear out that the challenges borne by An Garda Síochána are immense and ever fraught with danger. As a State, we talk up the Garda a lot but, unfortunately, the support is a tad hypocritical because I do not think the service gardaí give to the State is reflected in the level of remuneration paid to them. There is no more tangible way to express support for a force than to pay it properly.

As a peace commissioner in Waterford, I have fairly regular interchanges with the Garda. I talk to young members and I realise it does not take very long for the level of dissatisfaction, disaffection or loss of morale to build. Unless we value our police force, An Garda Síochána, which is now 100 years old, and unless we continue to support it in very practical ways, we will have an attrition rate among the young members. You see it happening already, and I do not think it is the way to bring a progressive police force into the next generation. In these Houses, we should all make a special plea for the Garda to be sufficiently remunerated in the light of the awful tasks it is sometimes asked to do.

Yesterday, I called on the Camogie Association to take the decision-making out of players' hands ahead of this weekend's Leinster finals. As things stand, it is against the rules for women to wear shorts while playing camogie matches. However, while we await the outcome of a special Congress vote on 22 May, there is a way to avoid any further distraction for players and managers regarding protests and playing gear. As per the rule book of the Camogie Association, today is the last chance for President Brian Molloy and members of the ard comhairle to call a special meeting that could see a derogation from the skort rule put in place by Saturday. Five days' notice is required, so time is almost out.

In the meantime, crucially, Kilkenny and Wexford are in an almost impossible position. Do they refuse to play a Leinster final, thus denying themselves a proper run at their all-Ireland series preparation or do they play the game in skorts and, by doing so, take a different stance from that taken last week by their Munster colleagues? Antrim and Derry, it should be pointed out, played an Ulster final last weekend and wore skorts under protest, but if Kilkenny and Wexford, two senior teams, do the same, will they be inadvertently causing division in the ranks of inter-county camogie players and the GPA? Unfortunately, this headache is what consumes the players five days out from a championship final. This is the headache I called for the Camogie Association to alleviate yesterday. While that has not happened, there is still time to rebuild trust, claw back some of the reputational damage done in recent weeks and derogate from the mandatory wearing of skorts ahead of this weekend's senior and intermediate Leinster camogie finals. It should give notice today of a special ard comhairle meeting on Saturday morning and take the spotlight, pressure and decision-making away from elite camogie players preparing for a match.

I share in the sympathies expressed on the death of Garda Kevin Flatley, which was a tragedy to befall the force and, most particularly, his family.

I offer my sympathies, those of my Fine Gael colleagues and, I am sure, those of the House on the passing of former councillor Senator, TD and Minister, Paddy O'Toole, who passed away over the weekend. Paddy O'Toole was a native of Erris and went to Ballina to teach in Knockanillo National School, where his commitment to education and local development laid the foundations for his future in public office. He will be sadly mourned from his native Doohoma all the way to Ballina. I offer my sympathies to his wife, Jacqueline, his children, Jackie, John, Padraig and Helen, and his relatives, neighbours, colleagues and friends. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a ainm.

May I raise an issue that has caused huge concern for communities in County Mayo and that has been highlighted by my colleague Councillor Alma Gallagher in Ballyhaunis, namely, the reduction of services of five credit unions, in Achill, Balla, Ballyhaunis, Swinford and Kiltimagh? These are five First Choice credit unions and they have announced only recently that they are going to reduce their services down to three days. Councillor Gallagher and the chamber of commerce met officials from First Choice Credit Union to relay their dismay, frustration and anger at such a move. A decision was due to be made last week but it has now been put off until the end of May. These changes and decisions are due to be enacted by 14 June. It is totally unfair when we have seen power outages and a recent finance Bill that refers to access to cash for communities. The credit union is supposed to be of the people and for the people. Unfortunately, despite this there is a proposal to reduce operating hours. I would like us to invite the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, to discuss this. I have reached out to him and look forward to working with him on the matter and supporting Councillor Alma Gallagher to achieve a satisfactory outcome in order that the affected towns and villages, namely, Achill, Balla, Ballyhaunis, Swinford and Kiltimagh, which have been neglected and deserve better, will have access to proper credit union services.