Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I strongly support Senator Conway's call for us to do everything possible to give equal access to sport for people with disabilities. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending some time in the company of a woman who spends a good deal of her spare time working with people with disabilities and involving them in sporting activities in my home town of Ballinasloe.

I wish to remind the House of the tragedy that took place two weeks ago in Bangladesh, where over 400 people lost their lives and over 1,000 are unaccounted for or injured as the result of a horrific fire in the Rama Plaza clothing manufacturing facility.

There is a danger that as media attention moves focus from that tragedy we would forget about it. There is a deadline of 15 May for putting in place a fire and building safety plan to which government, unions and employers are signing up. It is essential that Irish retailers which operate on our high streets sign up to that agreement. All of them are active in the Single European Market. The conditions in the factory are of huge concern. As customers, we have an obligation to put pressure on the stores to which we give our custom. We should keep pressure on them to ensure they sign up to the agreement to which I referred, and that they sign up to ethical trading and sustainable employment conditions for those working in the factories. As politicians, we need to keep this issue on the agenda at national and European levels. It is appalling that people lost their lives in such appalling conditions, and we have a responsibility to ensure this never happens again.