Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will address the comment the Chairman made about asking the public to submit petitions. I served on the first committee on public petitions. At that time, Senator Buttimer and I were very strongly of the view that once the committee got settled in, and now that I am back on this one, it should consider moving outside Leinster House for a meeting and publicising that meeting. I am not looking for junkets throughout the country but to get our message out. On the day we move into one province, we could contact the radio stations and local newspapers there and have a sort of public forum. This will obviously not happen before the recess but maybe it is something we could put on the agenda for discussion in the autumn. There is a lot of benefit from this committee. There are always people who are not satisfied with answers elsewhere and they have a forum here, if we see they have a point of view that can be brought forward. Maybe it is something we can consider. Of course, the Covid pandemic destroyed all these plans but we might discuss it in the autumn.