Seanad debates

Wednesday, 27 November 2019

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Pádraig Ó CéidighPádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I dtús báire, at 4 o'clock we have Professor Kate Kenny coming in to the audiovisual room. She is the leading European expert on whistleblowing. A lot of EU regulations will come down the tracks over the next six to 12 months and, therefore, I strongly encourage all Senators to go to the audiovisual room to hear her presentation. There will also be plenty of opportunities to ask questions. She has written a number of books on the topic of whistleblowing so I urge Senators to please avail of the event if they are free.

I do not know how many Senators met the farmers yesterday but I hope everyone did as it was well worth doing so. Senator Conway-Walsh met them last night. The Senator and I spoke to the farmers and they are ordinary, decent people. They do not want to be in Dublin but want to be farming. It takes an awful lot to get ordinary, decent people like them to come here to protest. I fully support the passionate comments that Senator Mulherin made about farmers. I ask her to use whatever influence she has on the Government to get it to move faster on all of the issues.

I shall now talk briefly about rural Ireland. There are between 31 and 32 local enterprise offices, or LEOs, in Ireland. Tá Údarás na Gaeltachta i gceannas ar na LEOs i gceantair Ghaeltachta. Faigheann na comhairlí contae ar fad roinnt airgid le cabhrú leo LEOs a eagrú. Níl sé sin ag Údarás na Gaeltachta. I ask the Leader to use his office and ask the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, to give equal treatment to rural Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta in terms of getting the normal amount of funding that all of the other organisations get in terms of LEOs. I need two minutes to mention one final matter.

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