Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----or, indeed, next year's budget because there are many legal issues that need to be dealt with and we should prioritise dealing with them. That is my view. I have always articulated my view to both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance. Overall the budget has been exceptionally positive. There certainly is a feeling of optimism and the Apple decision today adds to the optimism. This new confidence is important.

I wish to acknowledge that today is World Sight Day. I wish to acknowledge the more than 250,000 people in this country who suffer blindness or are visually impaired. I commend An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, because yesterday, the day after the budget, he spent an hour launching a bursary for the National Council for the Blind of Ireland that encourages young people with sight loss to attend third level. The bursary is entirely funded by the NCBI and it does an exceptional amount of fundraising.

The bursary will benefit a number of young people next year. Yesterday, the scheme received a strong and significant endorsement from An Taoiseach at Government Buildings. At the event he met some students who will benefit from the bursary and had his photograph taken with them. He also showed the representatives of the NCBI where he displays the Proclamation in Braille, which the NCBI presented to him when I organised for its representatives to meet him when he was the Minster for Social Protection. It is one of a few items that are displayed in his office, which indicates his commitment to making the lives not just of blind or visually impaired people in this country better but people with disabilities in general. I thank him most sincerely for that.

I wish to acknowledge the challenges and difficulties that the Halawa family is facing. It is a disgrace that Ibrahim Halawa has still not been released from prison three weeks after being found innocent of all charges.