I will follow on from my colleague who spoke about social media. It has become an extremely toxic environment. We are all now used to the whipping-up of mass emails to us to support this, that or the other. The senders do not even do us the courtesy of referring to us by our names. They address us as "Dear Deputy" or "Dear Oireachtas Member". I am not a Deputy; I am a Senator and I am Gerard or you can call me Craughwell if you want. I throw the gauntlet down to the Cathaoirleach because he has done some pretty good work on public consultation. Our colleagues have said that perhaps we should get in the social media companies, because God knows it is impossible to contact them. Perhaps we should get them in here for a face-to-face meeting in the full glare of the public view. I think the Cathaoirleach is the one who can actually lead that. I ask him to consider it over the coming days. He would have 100% of any support that I or any other Member of the House could give.

Yesterday, my colleague Senator Ruane spoke about the absence of Ministers for Commencement matters. Yesterday, I raised a Commencement matter on the extremely important issue of the RSV vaccine for people over the age of 65. I am aware that the Minister has laid on the RSV vaccine for babies. Thousands of people die every year through RSV. The Department provided an answer for the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. In fairness to him, all he could do was read out the answer he was given because he is not in that Department, as far as I am aware. I was talking about over-65s and the answer I got was about babies. The last paragraph dealt with the fact that there is a technical group looking into the benefits of this vaccine. Why is it looking into it? Scotland, England and Wales have got it. If you are over 70, you get the vaccine. It is once every three years and you can get it up to the age of 80. It reduces the level of morbidity and the number of hospital beds used. The international evidence is clear. Why can we not just adopt the evidence from abroad and bring this in? I ask the Leader to raise this matter again through his party. It may be unfair to do that to him but I ask him to raise it in party rooms and ask whether we could just look at the international evidence and make the RSV vaccine available to those over 65. I do not want to get hit with RSV. It might not seem like it, but I am over 65. I do not want it. I have to pay €235 to get that vaccine. I am in a fortunate position in that, at the age I am, I have fewer responsibilities to my family and can afford €235 but people living on the old age pension cannot.

The Senator is most correct; he certainly does not look a day over 50.

First, I commend the incredible work done by Maria Steen, her team and the various TDs and Senators who committed to signing her nomination papers. A huge range of Oireachtas Members had pledged their support to another candidate but recognised the importance of protecting and amplifying democracy by lending their signatures to her nomination papers. I thank them for that. There was demand from the public and across the political spectrum to see Maria Steen's name on the presidential ballot. It was impressive to see over 100 independent councillors sign a petition to nominate Maria. They had to work across the country to do that. It is truly a huge blow to me and to people who think like me that, despite this support, she has missed out on getting onto the ballot by only two signatures. Up until the last minute, people were contacting Senators and TDs to plead with them to ensure there was a candidate present at those debates who represents them and their views. I am heartened by the vast number of people who truly appreciate and support a candidate who stands for dignity and truth. Sadly, we have a political class who have ignored their electorate by dismissing the very councillors who voted for them. Having Maria Steen on the ballot would have allowed a large portion of society who feel unheard and unseen to be represented. We have lost an opportunity for respectful debate where ideas and opinions could be tested. Now that part of society will not have their voices heard throughout the presidential debates. It is sad for me to stand here today and see an entire section of society going unheard and ignored. The establishment was afraid of Maria Steen getting onto the ballot paper. They wanted a three-way race to limit the chances of a candidate other than their own succeeding. Their will has been done. If you believe that your candidate is accomplished enough to be the President of Ireland, you should not shy away from their positions being tested by an alternative viewpoint. Maria Steen would have been a truly formidable addition to the presidential ballot and I can only presume that is the exact reason she was kept off it. The phrase "death by a thousand cuts" comes to mind.