Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all Members back. A fantastic job has been done on the Chamber. Like everyone else, I am delighted that we are back in this historic room. I hope we will have a productive session right up until next summer, at least.

I echo the comments of Senator McDowell and others about Lyric FM. Lyric FM's budget is a tiny percentage of RTÉ's total budget. It has been suggested that its budget is €6 million, whereas RTÉ has revenues of €340 million. We are talking about 1% or 2%. It seems that RTÉ has decided to deal with that. If it had cut some of the top salaries, it probably would have found €6 million handy enough. This is something that could be looked at because Lyric FM provides a valuable service that would not otherwise be available.

It is important that we focus all of our energies on Brexit issues. We have seen what has happened in the UK today. We keep saying it is unprecedented and it is not going to happen. We cannot believe what is happening. Every day, something new happens and we say the same things. Dublin Port has 3 km of road available, but it will need far more than that in the event of a no-deal Brexit. I urge everybody on our side and on the UK side to try to keep cool heads and get some kind of a deal that works for us as well as possible. Obviously, most of us would prefer if Article 50 were revoked. I do not see that happening. We should try to focus on the least worst deal that is available.

We all need to play our part on the issue of climate change. We need to bring in the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment on a far more regular basis to discuss what is happening. It is great that young people and their families are concerned, but we need to look at everything from our settlement strategy to how we build our schools and hospitals, how we allow people to build houses and how we get around. Irish Rail has told people to try to travel earlier or later because the Minister has not sanctioned enough rail carriages for them. We need more public transport. We need capacity on that public transport at the right times. This is something that is in the hands of the Government, but it has refused to take action.

We urgently need to do something about the cost of insurance, which the Seanad has debated on many occasions. People are facing significant challenges. Over the summer, play centres, playgrounds and adventure centres closed down because there had been massive increases in their insurance costs. Work is being done, but it is happening at a slower pace than many people would be happy with. It certainly needs to be tackled.

We need to focus on the budget, which will be tabled by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, two weeks from today. My party has facilitated the last three budgets and we intend to do so again in two weeks' time, subject to the parameters that we have outlined being agreed to.