Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo Senator Conway's remarks. Like other people, I found this morning's report chilling. That a senior citizen should find himself in a situation so terrifying that he had to leave his home in the dead of night is truly appalling. Senator Conway is correct that we need a strategy for supporting older persons in our communities. It is important they are given advice on issues such as keeping money in their homes and so on and that every possible support, through Community Alert and otherwise, is available to them. The use of technology makes so much possible now. It should be possible for us to support our senior citizens in a more consistent and sustained manner.

I am not whetting myself with gratitude to the Government for its decision to re-open the Vatican Embassy. This is a U-turn. It is an acknowledgement that what it did was very wrong from a diplomatic point of view and was petty politics. Many senior and eminent diplomats criticised that decision at the time. The Government has now come back to us with its tail between its legs just as we approach the local and European elections. The Government knows that it annoyed a considerable section of the community, who realised just how petty it was being, and is now expecting some type of political reward for its decision to re-open the embassy when all it is doing is finally coming around to serving the national interest given the vital listening post that that particular embassy is. This announcement deserves, at best, a qualified welcome. Our message to the Government in this regard should be "It is about time."