Hear, hear.

I join everyone in offering my sincere condolences to the family of former Senator Ernie Caffrey. I know him when I was a member of Young Fine Gael in University College Dublin, UCD. We were coming in and out of the House at various times, and he was always an absolute gentleman. I had not seen him for a long time. I send my condolences to the Caffrey family on their sad loss.

At the convenience of the Leader, I request a debate on active tourism. This country has so much to offer in walking tourism, cycling tourism, walkways, cycleways, hill climbing and mountain climbing. In my country of Clare, we have the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher walkway, the proposed cycleway along the former line of the west Clare railway and many other activities. I sometimes think they are not marketed as one product in the effective, efficient and productive way they could be. The Cliffs of Moher walkway had thousands of people walking it but it has now been closed for some time for health and safety reasons. It needs to be reopened as a matter of urgency. I am sure there are other walkways and potential walkways around the country that are not achieving their potential for one reason or another. I would like to hear what the Minister for tourism has to say about these projects and how an effective and efficient international marketing campaign could be put together to promote active tourism. Many examples of active tourism are not weather related. Given that the weather in this country is precarious at the best of times, I believe we need to be looking at year-round activities to build a year-round tourism business, on top of the successful tourism business that we already have.

I would like to take this opportunity to join colleagues in mourning the loss of a friend and former Member of this House, Ernie Caffrey, and offer my sincere condolences to his family. Ernie was a representative of both Mayo and Sligo county councils at different times in his life. He has a unique legacy and served here in the Upper House from 1997 to 2002. He lived an incredible life dedicated to family life, community life, volunteerism and the common good. He was a volunteer on the Moy Valley Resources board of directors for a vast number of years, served on a number of different boards, was an entrepreneur and was a founding member of the newspaper The Western Journal. In later life, he was at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Perth, where he won a silver medal at the age of, I think, 76. I have just come from his funeral Mass and it was brilliant to see him so fondly remembered. It was just this day last week that I was chatting to him, and to see his passing so soon is heartbreaking. It is lovely to see how fondly he has been remembered at home in Ballina, County Mayo, and in this House.

I offer my sincere condolences to Ernie's sons, Liam and Declan, and his daughters, Elizabeth and Miriam. He leaves such a void for the family, but also the community. He was a great friend to me when President Biden was due to visit Ballina. He was one of the main people to research the connection between Ballina and the US President. He discovered that President Biden's ancestor had supplied the bricks that built the cathedral. Ernie had some of those bricks, one of which he presented to President Biden, which was an incredible moment in time and a memory for us all to share in.

More recently, in my political career, Ernie was very supportive of me when I joined Fine Gael and in the general election campaign, when he gave up his upstairs office space for our campaign headquarters. I thank him and offer condolences to his family. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.