Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Bhí díospóireacht an-mhaith againn anseo inné ar chúrsaí iascaireachta. Fáiltím roimhe sin, ach tá neart eile fós le rá faoin ábhar sin.

I concur with fellow Senators who have spoken about the space mission and the brilliance of being able to land a probe on a comet that is hurtling through the stratosphere, or whichever sphere it is. I am not a scientist, so I would not be 100% sure of the sphere. I was told about a comment made on the radio by a lady who lives in the Aran Islands to the effect that it was absolutely fantastic that they could land a machine the size of a dishwasher on a comet, but they still cannot deliver proper broadband to the Aran Islands. Hopefully, we can get some of the brilliant scientists involved in that project to come and help us out with the technological challenges we face in rural Ireland.

I thank Members of the House and others who have congratulated me on being appointed party spokesperson on the diaspora, a challenge I look forward to. Over the past couple of years, I have been lucky to travel to North America, Canada and a number of European cities, where I have spoken with Irish citizens. Some of those people are doing well and others not so well. I welcome the report published today by the Oireachtas committee regarding voting rights for the diaspora. The report recommends that the Government should accept the principle that voting rights should be extended to Irish citizens abroad, that it should proceed to design a workable system to accommodate that and that an electoral commission be established to implement these recommendations. We have had a number of general discussions on this issue, but we should have a debate on the report and its recommendations. I call on the Deputy Leader to take this into consideration.