Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom aird a tharraingt ar dhá cheist an-tábhachtach ar maidin.

I am sure the Leader will be aware of the detention yesterday of Ms Margaretta D'Arcy who is a member of Aosdána. She is a well-known film maker and a peace activist. She was arrested a number of months ago in an incident at a protest at Shannon Airport on the use of Shannon for stopovers by rendition flights. I believe she was taken from her home yesterday on foot of that because she refused to sign a bond to keep the peace and she has been put into Limerick Prison. The reason I raise the issue is a serious one. Ms D'Arcy is a well-known peace activist. She is 79 years old. She has a serious ongoing health condition and her friends and supporters are concerned about the conditions around her incarceration. I appreciate there is a separation between the Government and the gardaí. I have discussed this and I have got the facts. The issue I raise is around her health and welfare. Perhaps the Minister could clarify the position, that her health and welfare are being properly attended to, because people are gravely concerned as she has been somebody over the years who has drawn attention to what she sees as violations of human rights regulations internationally.

The other issue is there is impending industrial action in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, which is to start on Monday. Yesterday I met members of IMPACT who told me that they are concerned about the lack of negotiation between the officials in the Department and themselves over job grades being changed, etc., in the Department where there was a competition where staff in the technical grades were not allowed to apply for certain positions. Potentially, this has a significant impact in that it would affect farmers who were receiving payments. The technical grade officers would be the ones who visit the farms and work with farmers on much of the paperwork, and they are disgruntled. The issue is not money. They are not looking for more money. They are merely looking to sit down, to be able to negotiate with the Department. The Department has stood off on the issue, it tells us, up to now. I call on the Deputy Leader to use the vestige of the Leader's office to intervene with the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and, perhaps, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, to have this issue resolved so that there is not industrial action by 600 agriculture officers in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine starting on Monday next.