Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the Order of Business as outlined by my colleague, Senator Chambers. Yesterday, we had moving debates about the crisis in Ukraine. It is wonderful to see the effort around the island of Ireland to support the Ukrainians, including those who are trying to help family members to come here, and those who are supporting the Ukrainians who are staying in or fleeing from Ukraine. It was heart-warming to see a photograph last night of a young girl holding up her train ticket and saying that Poland was not charging those on the trains. That was a fantastic, altruistic effort.

As a corollary, it is disappointing that Ryanair has doubled its air fares for those who have fled and are coming from Poland to Ireland. I have heard this from a number of people and seen the evidence. Flights that would normally cost less than €200 now cost more than €400. It is difficult for those who are fleeing their homeland. Many have little or no money. Families here are trying to pay for them. I know we cannot do anything about it here, but I felt it was important to raise the issue.

Yesterday was food waste day, to make everybody aware of the issues relating to food waste. Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Green Generation in Nurney with my colleague, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. What they have done there is incredible. They are taking waste food from supermarkets and turning it into a gas. It fuels its own fleet with that and generates electricity that goes back into the grid at Cush. It has a sister factory in Clara in Offaly, which is able to make cladding, bollards and railway sleepers from wrapping. It is incredible to see what they are doing. It is important work.

This country needs to follow France's lead in banning plastic wrapping. We have been warned repeatedly that our seas will have more plastic than fish by 2050 if we do not change our ways. Only 14% of plastic waste is recyclable, so we need to look at what we can do to change our consumption of plastic and decrease food waste. A UK charity, WRAP, or the Waste and Resources Action Programme, spent 18 months researching the difference between people buying loose products and people buying wrapped products. It concluded that selling produce loose, without wrapping, led to 14 million baskets of food not being wasted. We need to go that way.

The last matter I will raise is Caragh Bridge, which I mentioned here before. I thought works were going to start, but unfortunately they are not, because of other work that needs to be done. I asked that a survey be done of bridges in Kildare at that time, because both canals, numerous rivers and train tracks run through Kildare. We need thorough research and a survey of all our bridges in consultation with Iarnród Éireann and Waterways Ireland to do what we can to shore them up so that we do not have similar situations.