I join colleagues in thanking the Belgian ambassador for her many years of service and wishing her bonne chance in her new adventures.

I stand here, on the last day of term, with a sense of gratitude that I have had an opportunity to raise so many local and national issues. It is a privilege to be able to do so and we do not do it alone. Without wanting to sound like an Oscar winner, I thank the many people who are involved in enabling us to do this, from the ushers who meet us in the morning to the staff who give us our cups of tea. A cast of thousands help us to do our jobs, including my wonderful administrative assistant, Anna Brennan, who has become my right-hand woman.

There is a group of staff without whom we would not be able to pass our messages on to the great public. I refer to the Oireachtas broadcast workers. I am dismayed that as we go into the recess with security, 13 of those staff go into it with a lack of job security and will be forced to sign on or get work in other places. The Committee of Public Accounts is set to hear from them and review their situation. Perhaps the relevant Minister might write to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission and ask that there be a pause in the tendering process until the issues are sorted out. These staff are not receiving the same fair pay and conditions as other Oireachtas staff. They carry out such a vital role that it would benefit us all if they were looked after with the same fairness.

I wish everybody a good summer recess. I assure all those watching the proceedings, who are able to do so due to the Oireachtas broadcast workers, that our work will go on during the recess. I look forward to engaging with many people during the summer. I thank everybody here for their service.

There has been a significant European dimension to the contributions this morning. I am happy to add my three ha'pence worth before we go our separate ways.

I am charmed and warmed that a very important meeting is taking place this morning in London between Prime Minister Starmer and the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. It signals a rapprochement and closeness between two countries that were traditional enemies in times past. It also signals the urgency with which European leaders want to address the current situation, which is fraught with dangers all over the Continent, within and without the European communion. The Government should signal to all our European partners our ever-growing eagerness to stand up for what we believe in, which is European democracy and our way of life. We need to signal a greater co-operation and closeness in defending, and being willing to defend, those European values.

In a different Senate, a long time ago, a politician called Cato the Elder used to finish all his speeches with the ringing words, "Carthago delenda est", which means "Carthage must be destroyed". We could adopt the same attitude in this and the other House in terms of the need to stand up to Russia. I have said so many times during the course of this term. Russia is an ever-present threat and that threat will not go away by reconciliation or mediation. It must be faced up to with growing efforts of deterrence and strength by the Europe we hold dear. Unless we do that, we will face the same possibility as that faced by the unfortunate people of Ukraine not so long ago. Well done to our European partners. Let us get on board. We must stand up to Russia.

I lend my support to the comments by Senator Comyn. We heard reports yesterday that 13 of the Oireachtas broadcast unit staff will be signing on the dole for the summer recess. This is appalling. They are our colleagues with whom we work every day. They are fundamental to the effectiveness of what we do. Their live streaming of the proceedings of the Seanad, Dáil and committees is not a little nice-to-have thing; it is fundamental for good democracy, accountability and transparency. It allows members of the public to tune in from wherever they are, follow proceedings across the Oireachtas and hold us accountable as elected representatives. Many of us use those streams to show the people who voted for us in our communities the work we are doing on a daily basis. This facility really strengthens the work we do.

That colleagues who work alongside us daily are forced to go on the dole is fundamentally wrong. The broadcasters have been incredibly brave in advocating for themselves and standing up against the deeply unfair working practices they face. I commend them on their courage, particularly given the statement by their employer, reported in The Irish Times yesterday, that they have "engaged in ill-informed criticism of their employment terms to further [their] objective". They are entitled to challenge poor working conditions. We are very lucky to have workers' rights in Ireland. In some parts of the world, workers do not have those rights. The broadcast staff are well within their rights to speak out and demand better employment conditions.

I find it shocking that an employer would have a stance of ill-informed criticism because the employees know their conditions better than anybody else. Working rights and fair conditions are crucial. It is not sustainable for them to have no income until September. No one should be facing that. I request the Leader to write to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission on behalf of all the Senators to request a pause on the tendering process for the next contract until these issues are addressed. If the next contract, which is due this year, comes in exactly the same form then these issues will continue until the next contract. We are in the moment now to evoke some sort of change. They deserve industry standards. They deserve retainers. They deserve income protection. They are being abused quite frankly. They deserve better working conditions.

Similar to Senator Comyn, I thank everyone who makes the Oireachtas function correctly, including cleaners, waiter staff, cooks, and all of the people who allow us to be able to work hard and do our jobs on a daily basis.

Under present requirements, a person with a disability who wants to access a postal vote has to pay €25 for the GP to sign off on the request. I call the Minister for Health to get this covered, either by paying separately or get it covered under the medical card. A person with a disability, even if he or she has a medical card, has to pay the €25. In a recent study, it is proven that this prevents some people from accessing a postal vote. We have an amazing system of one person, one vote, rich or poor. Whoever a person votes for is between them and their maker. However, this section of the community are the only people who have to pay to vote. In essence, having to pay that €25 is making them pay to vote. I ask for that €25 fee to be waived.

I express concerns about what is coming down the track soon with the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Act 2023. From 1 September, the new regulations will deem all antiparasitic veterinary drugs to be prescription only. These are a large number of remedies used on farms on a day-to-day basis, such as sheep dip, dry cow mastitis tubes and ivermectin that is used for treating cattle for worms, fluke and lice. These products are currently available over the counter and have been for many years. The products are on the market under tight Department of agriculture control and experienced well-trained staff provide advice to farmers at the point of sale.

According to new EU harmonised legislation, prescribing must be undertaken by veterinary practitioners, who are also permitted to sell and dispense these products. Most importantly, there is no requirement for vets to keep prescribing and dispensing separate from one another, creating a concerning conflict of interest. This shift is not just a regulatory update. It is an economic and structural seismic shift to the many small independent licensed traders across this country. According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, Ireland's veterinary medicines market is worth approximately €400 million annually. While €300 million of this already ends up with veterinary practitioners, the remaining €100 million goes to a network of small, independent merchants and co-ops found in towns and villages across rural Ireland.

The Independent Licensed Merchants Association, which represents 350 of these smaller merchants nationwide, warns that only 38 of its members can remain in business under these new rules. That is a potential loss of nearly 90% of this industry. This is a choice that is anti-competitive. The justification given to this change is that we need to combat antimicrobial resistance by ensuring responsible use of medicines through mandatory prescriptions, while also improving traceability and oversight via the national veterinary prescription system which requires all prescriptions to be on a central controlled database. However, as a person who has worked my whole life in the cattle farming sector and administered these medications on thousands of occasions, I assure this House that we as farmers are not in the habit of overusing these expensive medications and do not use them when they are not necessary. Indeed, it quite on the contrary. I fear the inevitable price rise, which will result from the gifting of a monopoly on the sale of these crucial antiparasitic products could result in their under use leading to severe animal welfare concerns. I have great fear that it could also lead to an increase in the purchasing of these medicines through black market sources.

While the goals of health and EU compliance are important, implementation must reflect Irish rural reality. Without safeguards for independent merchants, this regulation risks creating a dangerous monopoly in the veterinary medicine distribution sector. On my own behalf and my Fine Gael colleague and Councillor Michael Boyle from Donegal County Council, I urge the Minister for agriculture to postpone the implementation of these regulations and conduct a full and independent review of the economic and social impact before regrettable and permanent damage is done to this sector.