The Order of Business is No. 1, statements on road safety, to be taken at 12.45 p.m. and to conclude at 2.15 p.m., if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed eight minutes, all other Senators not to exceed five minutes, and the Minister to be given no less than ten minutes to reply to the debate; No. 2, proposed approval by Seanad Éireann of the defect concrete blocks social housing scheme 2026, to be taken at 2.30 p.m. and to conclude at 3.30 p.m., if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed five minutes, all Senators not to exceed five minutes, and the Minister to be given no less than five minutes to reply to the debate; No. 3, statements on the school meals programme, to be taken at 4 p.m. and to conclude at 5.30 p.m., if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed five minutes, all other Senators not to exceed five minutes, and the Minister to be given no less than ten minutes to reply to the debate. On the conclusion of the Order of Business, the House shall stand adjourned until 9.30 a.m. on Thursday, 1 October 2026.

I thank the Acting Leader for outlining the Order of Business, which I support. Last Friday, I attended a lovely event in Athy at the invitation of Eileen Doyle, who runs a choir, Athy Choral Fusion. Along with her choir, she brought the renowned tenor, Paul Linehan, Castlecomer Male Voice Choir, the Baldonnel Singers and the school choir of Scoil Phádraig Naofa along for the night. It was a beautiful night of harmonies, which was the title of the evening. It was a special night but, most importantly, the money raised will go towards cancer and functional neurological disorder, FND, causes. Cancer, as we all know, is a serious illness. No family has been left untouched by it, and funds are always needed for further education, research and treatment. However, FND is at the other end of the spectrum with regard to research, education and treatment. In Ireland, it is the second highest diagnosed neurological condition after migraines, but awareness and knowledge of it is extremely low. I committed to Eileen Doyle that I would raise this matter and seek a debate in the House on FND.

I raise local government funding allocations, particularly the 2027 allocation for Kildare. Kildare has been denied once again a vital uplift in funding. Members will all be aware of the various issues I have raised in the Seanad regarding Kildare for which funding is needed. We are one of the fastest growing counties in Ireland. Yet, we remain critically underfunded. Our budget expenditure per head is just €1,152, which is a massive €403 below the national average. This leaves a total funding gap of €100 million annually. It is completely unsustainable for a rapidly growing population. I ask the Minister to urgently review the local property tax allocations and provide extra Exchequer funding. I also seek a debate in this House on this matter.

I also seek a debate regarding public safety for our councillors and public representatives and raise the immediate need to amend our electoral legislation. Last month, Councillor Rachel Hartigan in Clare successfully passed a motion regarding an urgent issue facing public representatives. Under current rules, candidates are legally mandated to publish their precise private residential addresses on electoral documents. Some councils do not include that information on their website, while others do. In the interests of everyone’s safety, no council should publish that information. The danger of this requirement was brought into sharp focus during the summer when approximately 80 female councillors were contacted and had to face a level of severe intimidation. That is completely wrong. Every council should pass a similar motion. We should also have a debate with the Minister in this regard.

We will support the Order of Business.

Today, I want to speak for a moment about a meeting that I had in my office with members of Wexford Macra na Feirme on their concerns about generational renewal. They gave me some fairly startling statistics. At present one in three farmers across the country is aged over 65 while only one in 20 farmers is aged under 35. That is something that all of us in this House have to take stock of. Why is it the case at present that we have such a high average age for our farmers? It is currently 59. Last year, at the ploughing championships, the commission on generational renewal outlined 31 recommendations on what the Government, and I suppose all of us in this House could do, about generational renewal. The Wexford members of Macra made a clear pitch to me and said that without new young farmers joining the industry and getting involved, we simply will not have the food that the country requires into the future. They put it in stark terms because this is a serious problem that is coming down the tracks.

In my own case, both my father and my uncle farm. There is me and I have two brothers. While we regularly help out, none of us is a full-time farmer. That is something that is found in so many families up and down the country at present.

The Wexford members of Macra spoke to me about how important schemes such as the targeted agriculture modernisation schemes are and how important the exemptions that exist for stamp duty on the transfer of farms from one generation to the next are. A key point that they made to me is that the farmer who retires has to be supported as well and that changes being proposed at European level, which would remove the entitlement of a farmer to a pension if he was in receipt of a single farm payment while providing no retirement scheme while providing no retirement scheme, are simply not workable.

I urge that we have a debate in this House with the Minister for agriculture on generational renewal in farming, and that we hear directly how the 31 recommendations in the generational renewal report are progressing and perhaps seek an update on the measures that will be brought forward in the budget specifically around encouraging more young people into farming.

It is nice to see a Longford man in the Leader's chair today.

With budget day only days away, we are witnessing a government establishment desperately trying to convince the public that Ireland is thriving but, away from the spin and the smooth press conferences, the reality on the ground for ordinary working people is one of absolute survival. Let us look at what happened on Sunday in Moate, County Westmeath. I know the Acting Leader was there. Thousands of transport operators, agricultural contractors and struggling citizens packed into a crisis meeting to send a clear warning to this Administration. They are on the brink. They cannot sustain these crippling fuel costs and if this upcoming budget does not immediately abolish the carbon tax and slash VAT on fuel, our roads will be gridlocked with protest once again.

Instead of listening, how does the establishment react? The Tánaiste whimpers that the EU will not let us change our tax. We are spending over €300 million on our EU Presidency only to have no influence at the table over our own affairs. This is who the establishment really is - out-of-touch Ministers and high ranking civil servants who happily burn millions of euro on international vanity projects while local family businesses collapse at home and then the subsidised mainstream press attacks anyone who dares to point it out.

Let us look at The Irish Times editorial choices last week plastering the liquidation of a small dog day-care business across its pages, not out of sudden economic concern for small business but as a highly-targeted disproportionate focus on a local independent figure such as Nick Delehanty because he had been a vocal critic of this Government's asylum and public spending policies. It is a disgrace and an example of weaponising economic hardship to silence dissent, but while the media would gleefully print a hit piece on a critic, they remain utterly silent when the establishment's own narrative is exposed as a total failure and that critic is totally vindicated.

Where was The Irish Times or, indeed, any mainstream media coverage of the explosive figures obtained from Dublin City Council by Councillor Gavin Pepper? His official inquiry revealed a dramatic issue in our housing allocation system. Non-Irish households now make up 42% of the social housing waiting list. Furthermore, the share of accepted social housing offers going to non-Irish households was 33%. Dublin City Council admits it does not even monitor allocation outcomes by nationality. We have generations of Irish children locked out of their own communities, living in box rooms with their parents and unable to start families, yet when official data proves that the State infrastructure is buckling under the unsustainable open immigration policy, it is as if the press engages in a co-ordinated blackout. This is a two-tier Ireland. Our own citizens are left out in the cold while the political elite manages a decline it refuses to acknowledge. The public has certainly had enough.

It was great to see so many Members standing outside Leinster House today for "Walk Out for Women", where we showed solidarity with women who are subject to domestic violence and coercion. This year to date, ten women have been killed in Ireland. We have to think in real terms. That is ten families and friends who have had to bury somebody because they were unsafe in their own homes. It was great to see so many men and women standing out to show our solidarity with that and to stand up for those women.

On another note, but staying on safety, I want to bring up CCTV cameras in Limerick city and county. The CCTV system was run under the regeneration programme and costs €800,000 a year to fund. The regeneration programme is declining every year. There was 25% taken off last year, and again this year. There was a shortfall last year of €600,000. The mayor of Limerick, Mr. John Moran, funded that from his own pot of money, which should not have had to be allocated to it because it used to come from regeneration funding. Limerick Chamber contacted, first, the Department of housing and local government, which it assumed CCTV funding fell under. The Department passed them to the Department of justice, which passed them back to the Department of housing and local government. It is kind of up in the air as to who is supposed to fund this, but it is €800,000 in the grand scheme of things to run CCTV footage for a city and county for an entire year. In the grand scheme of what is spent in this country, it is pennies, really, when you think about it, to have that safety for not only the residents, but for the business owners and for that additional support for An Garda Síochána when something happens that it has those CCTV cameras to look back on. It is something that needs to be brought up to the Minister for justice, whom, I assume, this falls under. I would appreciate it if the Acting Leader could get on to the Minister and ask him to go back to Limerick Chamber of Commerce, have a conversation and see what can be done because this is a major city and county that does not have that back-up of CCTV footage.

Before I call the next speaker, I welcome St. Raphaela's primary school who are here in the Seanad with us. They are guests of the Minister of State, Deputy Neale Richmond. They are most welcome to Seanad Éireann today.

This morning, I wish to raise an important item that was brought to my attention yesterday. In south Tipperary, winter appeared quite rapidly with torrential rain and high gusts of wind causing power outages and everything else associated with it. I thank the relevant agencies, the local authority, the ESB and all those who worked tirelessly to bring power back to homes late last night. However, one issue that was brought to my attention was that a number of elderly vulnerable people had been in contact with concerns as to the power returning.

They were concerned with regard to medical supplies, hoists. oxygen and CPAP machines, just to name a few. What they were not aware of is the photovoltaic scheme for medically vulnerable customers. That is what I want to raise here today. It is an extremely worthwhile initiative aimed at households where someone depends on electric power to life support or medical equipment. By its very nature this is. a group for whom the security of energy supply and the cost of electricity are particularly important. We know that 137 systems were installed in 2024 and 473 in 2025 and that €11.7 million was allocated to support more than 1,900 homes in 2026.

I would like to ask the Minister to provide an update on the actual uptake of this scheme and in particular to publish the number of installations completed month by month since 2024, together with the associated expenditure. I would also like clarity on how the scheme is being communicated directly to households in the life support category of the priority services register and whether every eligible household is being proactively informed of the assistance available. This is scheme is for the vulnerable. It is to help and to assist and we need to encourage more uptake on this, especially coming into the harsh weather of the winter. Will the Leader arrange for the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment to provide an update to the House on the scheme and its current uptake?

It is great to see Paraic in the chair as Acting Leader today. I wish him well. I would like to advocate on behalf of An Post postal workers who have given a lifetime of service to the organisation, who have been at the coalface of community and rural life down through the years and who have been a touchpoint for people in areas of rural isolation and being that link for people who needed it most in good times and in bad. As many would know, the merger took place in 1984 between the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and An Post. I have been in touch with two gentlemen over the past 24 hours who are still affected by a lack of resolution in their pension status. One retired in July 2022 after 42 years of service, but when his pension arrived, only 91% of his basic pay allowances were taken into account, with the pension increase capped at 2% per year. They have given a lifetime of service, dedication and work to the State and to community and should not have to fight their corner for what they have been committed to and what is right and just for them to receive.

I am asking that Ministers and the Government knock heads together and deliver for these people as soon as possible. They have given a lifetime of commitment and service to it. The workers did not choose to leave the organisation. The State moved them into a new working pattern and it was meant to protect workers who transferred on the vesting day. It was not supposed to be less favourable than those positions that were held as civil servants. We need to protect and support and make sure that we follow through on commitments that are made. I ask that the Government deliver without delay across all ministries, that it not pass the buck, and that it deliver for these postal workers.

The deregulation of the taxi system in Ireland was brought in to increase the number of taxis on the streets, especially here in Dublin, to bring competition to the taxi industry and, it was hoped, to bring prices down, so imagine the shock I feel when I am sitting in a taxi and the taxi driver tells me that he is renting the plate of an individual who owns about 200 plates and he is paying €6,500 per annum for the taxi plate. When I investigated a little further, I found out that there are a number of individuals in Dublin who have between 25 and 200 taxi plates. That does not facilitate the individuals who are paying six and a half grand for the pleasure of driving a taxi. Their first two days are gone in just paying for the rent on the plate, then they have to pay for insurance, petrol, diesel, electricity and whatever else. Where is the regulator in all of this? How can somebody buy a number of taxi plates? Surely to God we should allow these people set themselves up as sole traders. The plan was that they would be sole traders, they would compete with one another, and there would be more taxis on the road. We need a debate on the whole taxi system and how it works in this country. It is grossly unfair to expect any individual to have to pay €6,500 rent. If we are going to operate a rental system for plates, then let the State operate it and let the State benefit from it. Otherwise, let us do away with it.

It is great to see Fine Gael has introduced a new training system for Acting Leaders. I hope they are learning from this, and an essay from each of them at the end of their period to explain what they have learned might be good.

I welcome the Acting Leader. Today, I am going to raise something that was raised yesterday with regard to the fuel crisis. It was raised formally by Senator Kennelly, and I am raising it here today as well. It relates to do with regulation and guidelines around solar farms. I am calling for a debate on solar farms. I am calling for the Minister, or one of the four Ministers in the Department of housing, to come before us. Last week's Commencement matter was enlightening for me to say the least to realise that the Department has not operationalised specific planning and guidelines comparable to the national wind energy development guidelines. I do not know what it is like in other counties, but I listened yesterday to Senator Flaherty on what it is like in the Chair's county, and I know in Galway that we have 1,000 acres in one particular location. We have multiple others, like the communities of Kiltormer, Moyvilla, Coxtown, Abbeyknockmoy and Monivea, under siege and under threat from sprawling solar farms. Everything is working off a county development plan and not working off proper planning regulations and guidelines to be set out by the relevant Department. The energy guidelines are set out by the Department of climate, but unfortunately the guidelines on solar farms are actually just working to the county development plan. Those guidelines are really for roof-based solar farms or solar appliances. The debate would be really welcome. There are many people on both sides of the House here who would like to contribute to it. It is incumbent on the Minister to come before us to tell us the plans about when we can relieve our people of the stress they are under in rural Ireland.

I want to speak about Walk Out Wednesday, which many Senators in the Chamber will have participated in this morning. Walk Out for Women is a campaign which is being led by Monica Murphy of Waterford. I commend her on the work she has done on this and for the cross-party support it has got here in Leinster House and nationally following the reports. It is great to see that many workplaces were involved in it this morning. It is raising awareness of gender-based violence and domestic violence. It is important that we do this. What spurred Monica on to do this was the fact that ten women have already died violently in Ireland in the first nine months of this year. It is incredible to note that this is an increase on seven last year, the entirety of 2025, and an increase on five in 2024.

Strategies are being put in place and reviews are being done, but it is clearly not working. I remember standing in Cork County Council chamber in January 2022 when Ashling Murphy was violently murdered, which I am sure everyone remembers. I am not sure that we have progressed a lot in those four and a half years. We have seen a lot of work done at political level. I again commend Frances Fitzgerald on the gender violence based directive in European Parliament, and Kathleen Funchion MEP, who currently sits on the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, FEMM, and is also working on this. In June 2022, Helen McEntee, when she was Minister for Justice, published the third national strategy on gender-based and domestic violence. While this report is continually under review, the most recent annual progress report was published in March this year. It is important that we bring the current Minister for justice into the House to review the progress report that has been published. The measures are being put in. The most recent strategy brought in extra education on consent and coercive control and extra victim refuge spaces. It is clearly not working and we need to see how we can improve things, because it is a massive increase that ten women have died in violence-based circumstances so far this year.

Last Sunday, I took part in an event called Walk In Our Shoes. It is a one mile walk for the reform of Ireland's family law court system. There was a walk in each of the 26 counties. It was a peaceful walk and at the end, children's shoes were placed on the steps of a courthouse to symbolise that the real victims of the family law system are the children. I hear from mothers a lot of the time whose relationships have broken down, whether due to violence or coercive control, and access to the children has been granted through a court order. However, the children are terrified and do not want to go to spend time with that partner, yet they are made to go because of the court order. If the mother sends her child, she is heartbroken. The child is crying and upset, having nightmares and so on. If she does not send her child, she is in breach of a court order.

The family law court is not transparent. It needs to be transparent and trauma informed. It needs to be trustworthy and accountable, but it is not at the moment. The in camera rule means that every decision is down to an independent judge. There is no consistency across the system and that needs to change. We need to have judges who are educated in trauma and know how to recognise it. We also need social workers and others who work for Tusla to have education in trauma. I have spoken with Tusla about it and I am disappointed by its lack of support for women in this situation. It says one thing but does not provide support on the ground. I have lots of examples of this where I have reached out to it but it is washing its hands and saying that there is nothing to investigate. It does not have specialised people willing to talk to children to find out what the truth is. Children's rights need to be protected. Instead of looking at it as a parent having a right to see a child, we should look at it as the child having the right to see a parent if they so want to and feel safe. Their safety has to be protected as a first call.

There is a national day of action for this campaign today and people are walking from the Four Courts to Leinster House. The walk is leaving at 12 noon. They will be here shortly, so maybe people will go out to meet them.

I welcome our new Acting Leader. We met the Vintners Federation of Ireland, VFI, outside the gates of Leinster House. I highlight the need for Government support for rural pubs in budget 2027. Since 2005, more than 2,200 pubs have closed across Ireland and the rate of closures is increasing. For many villages, the local pub is not just a business. It is the heart of the community, a meeting place and often the last remaining hub. I had a Commencement matter on this calling for the Government to do everything it could in budget 2027 to support pubs in rural Kerry and across the country and keep their doors open. I stated that day that it was from the cradle to the grave. When you are involved in a community in rural Ireland, the pub is central to your family growing up, to your christening and communion parties, your birthday parties, your 21st and your after-wedding parties. That is how central these pubs are. A sign of how big and central they are is when the captains of the winning ladies' and men's football teams come back to that local parish.

A community organisation called Forbairt na Dromoda bought the Inny tavern in Killeenleagh, Mastergeehy, south Kerry, after the pub had been on the market for more than two years. They raised more than €108,000 through crowd funding, alongside a bank loan, to keep it in community ownership. That is the reality that rural Ireland is facing if these pubs keep closing at an alarming rate. I am calling on the Government to support the request for funding to keep the doors of pubs in rural Ireland open.

Like other Senators, I welcome the Acting Leader to the House. I agree completely with Senators Lynch and Kennelly on the Walk Out for Women and support for rural pubs.

I talk in this House a lot about infrastructure and I criticise Uisce Éireann from time to time with regard to delivery. Across west Cork in the summer months, we saw investment in water infrastructure in Adrigole and Lisavaird. In Ballinascarty and Shannonvale, works commenced yesterday. It is important to put on the record when works are completed and started. We have seen Government investment into our water network, and it is great to see communities being served by these upgrades. Hopefully, water outages will not happen in these communities in the future.

I turn my attention to our roads infrastructure, another issue I talk about a lot in the House. I call for a debate with the Minister for Transport. Cork county has more than 12,000 km of roads. It is the largest county with the largest number of road kilometres in this country. Thankfully, we have seen increased annual funding for our regional and local roads. I welcome the prioritisation of roads funding in budgets again. I am calling for a debate on the discretionary element of this funding. I know that will also be important for the Acting Leader’s county. This is the basic maintenance of our rural and local roads and taking the water off of them. As politicians in these Houses, many will say we should not be talking about local and rural roads, but I am looking for a policy change. This is about saving money for the taxpayers. We need to do more to protect and maintain our roads. You will often hear about the man with the shovel in rural Ireland taking the water off. We need to go back to look at the policy and give discretion to area engineers. It is fine tarring and resurfacing roads, but what happens when the storms and floods come? This is a country that has a lot of rain but we do not maintain and protect our roads. We need a debate with the Minister for Transport to ensure that more discretionary funding is reaching local level. The engineers are brilliant at their jobs, but they do not have discretion to go out to do the maintenance work that they need to do daily.

I wish the Acting Leader the best of luck in his position. I extend my condolences to the family of the usher, Seamus Carroll, who passed away yesterday. He was professional and pleasant, and it is often difficult to be both. He was both. He was always professional and pleasant. I extend my condolences to his family and to the other ushers in the Houses.

I return briefly to the Irish Wheelchair Association, IWA, and its decision to send a wheelchair basketball team to the European championships where Ireland will play Israel. There are 900 wheelchairs being prevented by Israel from going into Gaza. Israel has caused many people to depend on wheelchairs. I find it hard to figure out how the Irish Wheelchair Association could accept an invite to play Israel. I have been engaging with the IWA on this issue for five weeks and reasonable questions remain unanswered. Following my most recent contribution on the matter here, the IWA responded after several weeks of silence. I welcome the additional information, but central and serious questions remain. The original fundraiser that the IWA put in place referred to only three other nations. Israel was only named after I raised my concerns with the IWA. I do believe that there was an element of deception in this and I think it is something that needs to be addressed. With the tournament just weeks away, why has there been no promotion on IWA or sports-----

Senator, in making accusations against people outside the Chamber, you have to be very careful and mindful of Standing Order 52. I know that raising issues of public interest is what people do in this Chamber, and that is very important, but we just need to strike that balance. Please continue. I will add on more time.

Thank you.

With the tournament just weeks away, why has there been no promotion of the event on the IWA or IWA-Sport social media? Was there a decision not to publicise the Israeli fixture until the tournament commenced? If so, who made it and why was it made? I also have to ask whether responses to these concerns have been condescending. Would questions about transparency around an Irish international team be treated this way in any other sport? Wheelchair basketball deserves the same scrutiny and accountability as all international sports. The IWA stresses that the final board decision was unanimous, but were concerns raised or alternatives proposed before that vote? If the IWA stands over its robust process, it should be comfortable explaining it. After five weeks, straightforward questions remain unanswered. What is there to hide? Like I said at the start, the wheelchairs are sitting in Jordan. They should be in Gaza. Israel has created so many wheelchair users that it is completely unacceptable that the Irish Wheelchair Association would accept an invitation to play Israel. Israel, like I said, has caused a genocide and the Irish Wheelchair Association is engaging with it and playing with it. This is just unacceptable. It is not acceptable in wheelchair sports; it is not acceptable in any sport.

I am delighted to see my colleague Senator Brady as Acting Leader. Well done to him.

On behalf of myself and my Fine Gael colleagues, I pass on our condolences to the usher Seamus Carroll and to all the staff who were friends with him. We are very sorry for their loss.

For the past two weeks, I have been a mammy going around secondary schools on opening nights and trying to figure out the best place for my daughter. I have two girls. They are "Irish twins", so there are decisions to be made for both of them because they come one after the other. I feel the weight is on my shoulders about making sure they get into the right school because going into secondary school is such a massive step.

This morning, I got a phone call from another mammy in the exact same position as me. She is going around trying to find the best school for her daughter. Her daughter has autism. She rang some schools in the Meath West constituency and asked what provisions there are for an open night for her daughter. She asked whether there would be less noise and fewer people and whether they could come in 15 minutes or 20 minutes beforehand. Unfortunately, the schools had not thought that some children with autism might be coming in and might need to just have a bit of calm. That is something I would like us to look at when we talk about inclusive education, and we use those two words quite regularly. The other thing the mammy said to me was that she had gone around two schools. There were four schools her daughter could apply for but only two had autism units. Of the 540 students who will be looking for places, two autism places were going to be available for 2027, so her child has a one-in-270 chance of getting into an autism class. Her child wants to be in a mainstream school and wants to feel accepted by her peers but she needs that extra bit of help in an autism unit. When listening to this lady, I felt so selfish thinking about my concerns about going around looking for a place for my daughter when I do not have the extra worry of trying to figure out whether there will be an autism unit in a mainstream school for her. Although we are spending more than ever, and although I am sure that the Government will put even more into this year's budget, we have to keep looking at what we are doing for students with autism, where the autism units are and, with densely populated areas like Navan with almost 40,000 people in it, how we can possibly have only two schools with autism classes for girls to go to. I plead with the Acting Leader to write to the Minister for education and ask where we are on autism units in Navan and in Meath West more widely for girls who are looking to go to school in 2027. I cannot imagine the stress that that mammy is under right now.

It is great to see Senator Brady in the role of Acting Leader. I wish him the very best of luck with it.

I also pass on my condolences to the family of Seamus Carroll and all his friends here. It is very sad news. Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam.

I want to speak in solidarity with the 100,000 public sector workers who are on a work to rule today. Many employees in this House will be affected by this. There are 19 unions involved, including the largest unions in the country, namely, SIPTU, Fórsa, Unite, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, and the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO. Right across the country, people will be affected by this, but they are affected because these workers have not been given the demands they looked for. We all rely so much on the public service of this country. Nobody wants to do this. Safe staffing is a huge issue, and they cannot keep working under the current staffing rules. There has been overwhelming support from all the union members that there will be industrial action on 14 October. The Minister, Jack Chambers, seems to lack the understanding that pay and living standards must be protected and that public sector pay has fallen by as much as 5% as inflation has grown. This is disproportionately affecting newer people in the sector who are just starting off on their careers. We can see the fallout of this because of the high cost of living. People cannot afford to live. We see this particularly in bigger cities like Dublin. There are people coming out of the public sector. They have trained in the public sector. They have chosen the career path of working in the public sector, including the Civil Service, yet they just cannot afford to live.

I urge the Minister, Jack Chambers, to engage, to actually listen and to put pay at the start of talks, not say it will happen at the end. He seems to be digging in his heels. Inflation grows and wages need to grow. The work to rule starts today, and I am in full solidarity with the workers because they do not want to do this. We all know in our own working lives and in our own families how much we rely on the public sector, including the Civil Service. Nobody wants to go on strike, and that needs to keep being reiterated. It is not too late for the Minister to intervene, to actually listen to what the unions are looking for in the first place and to give them the respect they need. Their public sector deal ended on 30 June and there has been no consideration of getting this back again the way it should have been.

I thank you personally, a Chathaoirligh, for assisting outside today with the Walk Out for Women campaign. There was cross-party turnout here, as could be expected. The Walk Out for Women campaign is a really important campaign. It is a simple exercise that sends a strong message that there can be no place in our society for abuse of women. Women's Aid's femicide watch told us that, by July of this year, eight women in our country had died under violent circumstances. Now the campaign says that that number has grow to ten by the end of September. This is a real problem, and behind every one of those statistics is a woman, a family and a community. I commend Jim O'Callaghan, the Minister for justice, and the wider Government on what they are doing to address gender-based violence, but there is an onus on all of us - as elected representatives, but also just as human beings - to say loud and clear that there will be no tolerance of abuse of women and no tolerance of coercive behaviour, bullying behaviour or violence against women. I commend everybody who partook in the Walk Out for Women today and say to all of us, let us continue to be vigilant every moment of every day, wherever we are. We need to protect our girls, we need to protect our women and we need to protect one another.

Thanks to everybody who participated in the Walk Out for Women. It is important that the Oireachtas stand with those who are suffering from abuse and coercive control and, obviously, those families who have suffered bereavement as a result of gender-based violence, oftentimes at the hands of people they know intimately. It is something I think we all stand together on.

I wish to extend my condolences to the family of Seamus Carroll, the usher who passed away.

I acknowledge what Senator Goldsboro mentioned earlier about PV solar panels for medically vulnerable individuals. She had a number of questions and was seeking a debate. It is something I spoke about in the House last night during our motion on fuel and energy supports and it is something I have raised here repeatedly. I even tabled a Commencement matter with the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley. It is a great scheme in which the batteries are now going to be included. Senator Goldsboro was wondering how it is being promoted and how the message is getting out there. There is an onus on us to do an awful lot of work on that. It is something I have raised in the constituency and on which I have received very good feedback. I know there are people within the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, who will support public representatives in getting those allocations for medically vulnerable individuals.

That leads me on to another issue that I did not raise last night during the energy and fuel discussion, which is external wall insulation. It is a substantial business. In 2023, 6,100 homes received SEAI-supported external wall installation, with an average cost in excess of €20,000. The market is worth in excess of €100 million per year. When we have a market worth that much and a Government that has money supporting a scheme like that, and when there is pressure on the wider community to retrofit their homes, sometimes standards can lapse. I am worried that the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, might not be doing enough in ensuring the quality of the external wall insulation that is going in. There are a number of stages that qualified installers have to complete. There is project-specific design but there is also preparation, boarding, base coat, finish and completion. There are photographs and evidence of materials used that have to be registered the whole way along that process. However, I have been led to believe that installers of this external wall insulation have the opportunity once a year when it comes to their NSAI renewal to select the project they wish to submit and put forward as evidence of them meeting those standards. I do not want us sitting in this Chamber in ten or 15 years’ time looking at an external wall insulation redress scheme. We need to ensure that the standards are in place today and that the standards that are in place are monitored and kept up to scratch with. I call for a debate in this House with the Minister on external wall installation but also with regard to a lot of the supports that are there.

Finally, I congratulate Senator Brady on taking his maiden voyage in the Leader's seat. I know he will do a wonderful job.

First, I would like to congratulate Senator Brady. I wish him the very best in his new role.

I stand this morning to talk a wee bit about Seamus Carroll. He was such a lovely person; always smiling and full of energy. Honestly, he would give you the coat off his back if you were stuck around the Houses looking for anything. I remember in 2024 when I was campaigning for this seat. He said to me that he had spoken to such and such a person and told them to give me a number, and I would say, "Oh God, Seamus, thanks very much". He was the life and soul of Leinster House. His wife has also worked in Leinster House. Seamus has been here since 2015. I encourage all politicians, although we are always nice to the ushers anyway, to be a little bit kinder this week because they have lost a friend and a really good work colleague. I am thinking of Seamus's family and all the ushers in Leinster House this afternoon.

We can do as many walkouts as possible around gender-based violence and the courts, etc. I know from personal experience over the summer that the family courts do not work for women in this country. I did not get involved in the walkouts because, as many people here will know, I do not want to be in front of cameras saying, "I support women; aren't I brilliant?". I call on the Houses to have a special committee to deal with gender-based violence and with the family courts. The family courts need to be dealt with in this country. They are not fit for purpose. The courts happen behind closed doors. Women's voices are very rarely heard in the courts. A new organisation has been set up in County Donegal called Survivors Informing Services and Institutions, SiSi, which supports women in the justice system. Once again, what is the walkout going to change unless every single politician in here who says they support women's rights and does not put up with gender-based violence gets involved? Why are we not calling for better policies and better legislation for women? Why are we not seeking to reform the family courts for women? In many cases, women are forced to go back into violent situations. For the record, I am calling for a special committee around the family courts and gender-based violence.

Today, I also want to give my condolences to the family of Seamus Carroll and his colleagues and friends. He was a very pleasant, chatty usher and he will be missed.

I want to talk about the decision to light up buildings, including the Mansion House and Trinity College Dublin, for International Safe Abortion Day. It is an oxymoron in that it puts two contradictory words together. The Mansion House is a public building and everyone should feel welcome and represented by it. The National Women’s Council of Ireland, NWCI, co-ordinated this initiative, but that organisation does not represent women as a whole. Its members have not been elected and they have no public mandate. Women are not a hive mind who all believe the exact same thing and the National Women's Council should recognise this. It is funny that when women were commenting on its social media posts last night disagreeing with the lightning up of public buildings, the NWCI turned off comments and deleted comments, silencing other women's voices. There was no outcry from the NWCI when a woman in County Donegal was forced by her partner to take abortion tablets against her will. That person has been prosecuted and sentenced since. Women like me who share a different opinion or who differ from what these groups decide is the correct perspective are treated as though we are social pariahs. That is wrong. I try to respect the views of others and other women even though I fundamentally disagree with them. The reality is that the NWCI only wants women's voices if it is an opinion it agrees with. As an NGO that receives funding from the taxpayer, it should be accountable to the public. It is also surprising to see a Fianna Fáil mayor give the go-ahead for this because I know it is not a position shared by many of the members of the Fianna Fáil Party. The Mansion House was essentially used as a vehicle to promote abortion. I think we are forgetting that somebody dies in an abortion. Public buildings should not be used as billboards for only one side of a deeply contested issue.

I join my colleagues on congratulating Senator Brady on his first response to the Order of Business. Anois, the Acting Leader, an Seanadóir Brady.

I thank the Cathaoirleach. Before I respond, I confirm that the time for the group spokespersons on No. 3, statements on the school meals programme, is eight minutes and not five minutes as I mentioned earlier in my opening statement.

Senator O’Loughlin spoke about the Baldonnel Singers and cancer, and awareness regarding FND in Athy. We would welcome a debate this House around FND. I thank Senator O’Loughlin for putting forward this motion. She also spoke about the commuter belt and the budget expenditure per head of €1,152, which is below the national average. It is surprising to see anywhere below the national average, but especially a town like Kildare that is seen as part of the commuter belt for people coming into Dublin.

It is certainly surprising to see it below the national average. I hope that the Minister can bring it above the average in time.

Senator O'Loughlin also discussed a debate on public safety and public representation. Any debate regarding the safety of our councillors and other elected representatives is certainly welcome. The Local Authorities Members Association and the Association of Irish Local Government have done great work on the safety of our councillors over recent years. Making members' addresses open to the public leaves them in danger of attack. We should look at that. Anybody who is elected should have the right to not have his or her private address advertised on any leaflets from the local authority or anywhere else. It is certainly a discussion that needs to be had. I would welcome discussion with the representative bodies, the AILG and LAMA. They might come forward with something that we can address. I thank the Senator for taking the care to bring up the concerns of our local councillors.

Senator Cathal Byrne spoke about Macra na Feirme in Wexford and about the great work that Macra na Feirme does. We saw the wonderful work it does, especially with young people, at the ploughing championships. It encourages young people to get into farming. As we all know, if our young people are not encouraged into farming, we will not have farmers. The Senator said that one in three farmers is over the age of 65. Another stark figure is that one in three is under the age of 35. The figures are alarming to the say the least if we intend to have food security in this country. I hope there will be supports for younger farmers in the new CAP budget. Everybody has lobbied for that. We need a strong CAP budget if we intend to protect our younger farmers and encourage young people into farming.

The Senator also spoke about people retiring after farming land and the supports they will need from Government with regard to pensions and so on. I support his proposals. These people are after giving their lives to the farming sector. We would welcome a debate on generational renewal and where we intend to go with that. I thank the Senator for his comments.

Senator Sharon Keogan spoke about people who were at the protest in Moate last Sunday and about the anger and anxiety in that room. I attended that meeting in Moate and there was certainly frustration. The supports the Minister, Deputy Heydon, has rolled out, including fuel support for another five months, were very much welcomed at that meeting and were acknowledged by the top table. The supports that Government has given to the sector were welcomed and acknowledged by the people at the top table. Everybody knows where we are at this moment in time with regard to the fuel crisis. We had a debate on it here yesterday evening. The problem is not the price of crude oil but refining the oil when you harvest it out of the ground. We see all the damage that has been done to oil refineries all over the world. Unfortunately, this has seen the price of fuel increase all over the world. Ireland is in the bottom ten EU countries with regard to fuel prices. I would like to see supports in respect of home heating oil such as those the Senator spoke about. I hope the upcoming budget will include supports for people who use kerosene for that purpose.

Senators Collins, Lynch, Fitzpatrick, Nelson Murray and Cosgrove all mentioned this morning's walkout and protecting women from violence. Nobody can condone domestic violence. This morning, we saw people from across parties walk out to the front of Leinster House. We certainly have to support this sector. I hope we will see a debate in this House regarding gender-based violence. I thank all the Senators for raising the matter here this morning.

Senator Collins also spoke about CCTV in Limerick and about the €800,000 it costs to fund the CCTV cameras in Limerick city. It is a small amount to protect the citizens of Limerick. She also spoke about the regeneration fund and about the Mayor of Limerick having to put in funding. I suppose this falls under the remit of the Minister for justice. I was not really sure but it falls under his remit. CCTV is very important not only in Limerick, but all over Dublin and in our own towns, including Longford, because it gives everybody in the community a sense of security. It gives our gardaí a back-up so that, when crimes happen, they have something to go to that allows them to deal with the problem sooner rather than later. I certainly welcome that.

Senator Imelda Goldsboro spoke about the power outage in south Tipperary. She thanked the council and the ESB for the way in which they dealt with that outage. We have seen a number of storms, including Storm Éowyn, leading to outages in the past. The Senator spoke about medical supplies and about the vulnerable people in society who will need to be encouraged to take up PV environmental schemes. We are talking about vulnerable people in our communities, especially those who rely on electricity to run air mattresses or to support other health needs. Civil Defence is always available to provide support in an emergency. We encourage any citizen who needs back-up services to avail of them. I hope that funding will be in place to support this community.

Senator Tully also spoke about the walkout. She also spoke about children's shoes. In counties all over Ireland, children's shoes were placed on the steps of courthouses in a protest regarding the family law courts. She spoke about social workers, Tusla and child safety. Of course, child safety is a must. It is certainly not something I am going to delve into today. Everybody knows how I feel regarding child safety. It is certainly something we can discuss in the House going forward.

Senator Kennelly spoke about the Vintners Federation of Ireland and support for rural pubs in the budget. As he said, rural pubs are the lifeblood and soul of rural communities, especially in Kerry and in my hometown in County Longford. We have a rural pub, the 98 Bar. On Thursdays, all our young people come there to play trad music. It is wonderful to see 35 to 50 young people coming on a Thursday night to play trad music, to listen to each other and to embrace each other. It is a special occasion for everybody locally. It is the lifeblood of the community. Everybody looks forward to listening to Irish music on a Thursday evening. The Senator is correct. He spoke about a rural pub in south Kerry that the community bought and took over.

I compliment the people of Kerry for doing that. It is a new initiative that shows us they have belief in their community and they have strength in their community. It is very welcome. It is unfortunate that they had to do that but I am glad to see that they can keep the lights on in a rural pub. That is very important. I wish them well with that. Hopefully the next time I am in Kerry I will call in for a beverage. I look forward to seeing it.

Senator Noel O'Donovan spoke about infrastructure and the investment that Irish Water has done. For once in this House we have somebody coming in here not criticising Irish Water and instead complimenting them on the investment and the infrastructure they are putting into his local community, which is welcome to hear. The positives have to be heard in this House as well as the negatives. I welcome that. I hope going forward that we will hear a lot more of those news stories from other counties regarding Irish Water and the infrastructure.

The Senator also spoke about roads funding and maintenance in County Cork, and the maintenance of our local roads falling back to our local engineers who have knowledge on the ground. Certainly that is something a local engineer would have a level of knowledge and a level of experience of, and would see at first hand what is happening on the ground. There certainly needs to be discussion regarding roads funding and the full allocation coming down, with some of it ring-fenced for maintenance during the winter period. It is a worthwhile motion and something that we should discuss in this House.

Senator Andrews spoke about Seamus Carroll. Along with everyone in the House, I would like to sympathise with all the ushers, Seamus Carroll's family and his close friends. It must be very difficult for all his usher friends and all his work colleagues in this House on this very day. I hope we will have a one-minute silence afterwards if that is possible.

Senator Andrews also spoke about the Irish Wheelchair Association going abroad to play a game against Israel. I think our sentiments in this House have been well discussed regarding where Ireland stands with regard to Israel and sport. Any Irish team that travels abroad and represents our country on a national or international level is certainly welcome, and especially people with disabilities. I believe that we should not stand in anyone's way when sport comes into play and especially when they represent our country. The other night our Irish team spoke with their boots on the ground when it came to the victory in the soccer match. I have enough said on that. If there is any more that Senator Andrews needs to know on that, I will ask the Leader to follow up on it.

Senator Nelson Murray spoke about her two beautiful daughters and the decision on the best school for them to attend. The Senator also spoke about autism. One thing she does not have to worry about, but unfortunately other people in the Meath area have to worry about, is the lack of autism spaces in that county. The Senator spoke of the need for schools to have a calm area in the morning around children with autism and for the Government to provide adequate spaces and units, not only in County Meath but all over Ireland when it comes to autism. I will get the Leader to write to the Minister for education to get an update for Senator Nelson Murray regarding autism places in County Meath.

Senator Cosgrove also had sentiments regarding Seamus Carroll, our usher. The Senator also spoke about the over 100,000 public sector workers in the areas of health, education and local authorities who are being instructed on action today for a work to rule. Nurses, civil servants and school staff are among those taking part in the action over the delay in engaging with new public sector pay deals. I know that the Minister, Deputy Chambers, has been ongoing in negotiations with the workers. I hope that there will be a package in place in the upcoming budget and that we will see this resolved sooner rather than later.

Senator Fitzpatrick spoke about the walkout this morning and the work that the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, has done. She certainly highlighted the work the Minister has done regarding violence against women. The Senator said that there should be no tolerance for anyone who has committed a crime of violence against any woman. It should be welcome in this House that there should be no tolerance regarding any violence against any man or woman. We have seen an increase to the point that ten women have lost their lives this year already. In the papers this morning we see another three suspected cases in Sligo, Galway and Dublin. It is certainly on the increase. It is something that the Minister will have to address and will have to tackle going forward.

Senator Scahill spoke about the PV solar panels, which he raised yesterday evening. He also spoke about the supports for retrofitting, the NSAI, the building regulations and building controls regarding retrofitting of new homes and older homes, and the grants that are available. It was not the grants that the Senator was actually speaking to; it was about the building controls around the regulations. He is fearful that certain fly-by-night companies may have come into the sector for the quick buck while mixing some of these glues with a different mix and using it to stick the Styrofoam to the walls. He is concerned that in years to come, we will end up with another redress scheme. I agree with the Senator's sentiments that we must have proper building regulations and building controls. I hope that they are there. I certainly will ask our Leader to address this with our Minister to make sure that these are in place and that every company fitting insulation is registered and using the right materials for the climate we have in this country.

Senator Flynn also spoke about Seamus Carroll, our usher, as "the life and soul of Leinster House". She knew him on a personal level. The Senator also spoke about the walkout this morning for women in domestic violence and the Courts Service. When it comes to sensitivity around the courts, families going to court and the break-up of families, it is a very sensitive issue for anybody to stand up in this House and speak about families breaking up and one thing and another. I hope our Leader might get back to Senator Flynn with the information she asked about regarding how she can readdress the courts and the court system. I would not like to make a comment here today on that as I would be afraid to give the wrong comment.

Senator Sarah O'Reilly spoke about buildings being lit up in Dublin for certain communities and for certain organisations.

Some people have agreed with it and some have not. I will ask the Leader to give an update. I was not sure what buildings have been lit up. She said the Mansion House and other buildings had been lit up in the last number of days. I will ask the Leader to give her a full response tomorrow at the earliest convenience.

Senator Mark Duffy spoke about pensions for former An Post workers. An Post workers have been the link to rural communities. The person delivering the post may be the only person some of our elderly people living down boreens and lanes ever see on a daily basis. The Senator spoke about the 1984 dissolution of the then Department into An Post. I will call for a debate regarding that. I would hope that all pensions from that time would be brought up to the same level. I would be hopeful that we may be able to have a discussion in this House on that. I would openly welcome that debate.

Senator Craughwell-----

He congratulated Fine Gael on the training.

Senator Craughwell spoke about the taxi service and some companies owning 20 licences or more and hiring them out for €6,000. He also looked for a debate on the ownership of the taxis and why some companies owned 20-plus licences. He spoke about sole traders and the need for a debate regarding sole traders, taxi regulation and taxi services. Certainly, I would welcome a debate on this.

Senator Rabbitte spoke about solar farms. I am delighted that somebody has raised solar farms again. There has been no regulation of solar farms. England has a tiered system from 1 to 5 regarding agricultural land and peat land, with 1 being agricultural land of the highest use and 5 being peat land of the least use. It is not devaluing the land but pointing out that agricultural land has the most value for agriculture and not for generating electricity. Certainly, we should have a debate and look at that in this country. We cannot have vast amounts of good land given over to solar panels. We have seen it in County Longford and the Senator has also spoken about it in Galway. There is certainly a need for regulation of solar panels as well as a debate on funding of community-led initiatives from farmers regarding solar panels. If we got our electricity grid up to standard, the farming community could produce a lot of energy from solar panels on sheds.

I hope I have not missed anybody and if I have, I am very sorry. Senators will forgive me; it is my first day doing this.

Well done.

The Acting Leader has proposed a minute's silence to mark the passing of Seamus Carroll, a great friend of everybody in this House.