I want to raise the case of Ruby Daly, a six-year-old girl in Galway who is non-verbal and in a wheelchair. In this fine weather we are all enjoying and that we hope to enjoy for the next couple of weeks, we would all like to go down to the water's edge. Being able to go to the beach or the seafront is something everyone in Ireland takes for granted. If you are a wheelchair user, however, that is not possible. I am told that Galway County Council bought €9,000 worth of beach mats in 2021 that are lying in storage and not in use. I also understand it purchased a number of Mobi-mats at a cost of €2,000 each that have not been deployed. As a result, people like Ruby cannot get down to the beach like everyone else. I would just ask that the correct action be taken. Perhaps our colleagues who are based in the relevant areas might apply the proper pressure just to vindicate the right of little boys and girls who happen to be wheelchair users to go down to the sea.

I want to raise an issue of grave and compelling concern. On 28 November 2010, a day that will go down in infamy, the troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund arrived in Dublin and travelled to the Merrion Hotel, which is just across the road. Ireland yielded it fiscal sovereignty to its European partners for a period of three years. This was a disgraceful episode in Irish history when we handed over our fiscal and budgetary autonomy to European partners. Today, we have handed over our defence and security sovereignty to a troika of the Royal Air Force, the French navy and the Portuguese military, but at least the arrival of the troika in 2010 was announced. Its arrival was initially denied by the Government of the day, but eventually we were told. The Irish public is completely in the dark about the role of this troika of military actors, all of which are NATO members, that are operating off our coast, in our airspace and, perhaps, even on the roof of this very building. It was confirmed to us by the Cypriots at the defence and national security committee when they told of how, during their Presidency, when their country was were attacked by missiles and drones in March, they were not consulted nor were they informed about the retaliatory action that was taken by the Hellenic Air Force in the form of air strikes with the British and French in their jurisdiction. We need to know what the rules of engagement of these NATO countries in our sovereign airspace and maritime domain are and whether they have permission to open fire or intercept while we have civil aircraft in our skies and people on our streets. We need to have an urgent debate or statements on this matter in order that we might find out what is happening.