Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I begin by welcoming the news that a tender has been issued for the Narrow Water Bridge. Senators will know this is a long-standing commitment by the Irish Government and the Executive in the North. I know the Taoiseach and several other Ministers joined John O'Dowd, the Infrastructure Minister in the North, at a recent event at Narrow Water. It has huge potential to transform the whole Carlingford Lough area and the south Down and north Louth areas in terms of tourism and community development and so I welcome that step forward.

I would welcome the opportunity to hear from the Minister on promoting all-Ireland tourism in the time ahead, particularly as the Seanad voted recently to oppose a measure. We see potential implications of things like the British Nationality and Borders Act, which would mean non-British and non-Irish citizens would have to apply for a visa when travelling from the South into the North.

Senator Craughwell and other colleagues were right in saying that we will have a significant opportunity to talk about the budget over the coming days, and we will take that opportunity. Before the budget issues begin to dominate, I again call for statements from the Minister for Health on the issue of organ donation and, in particular, for an update on the human tissue Bill. In the North, we recently passed legislation, appropriately called Daithí's Law, named after Daithí Mac Gabhann, a young boy from Belfast who was born with hyperplastic left heart syndrome. Daithí has campaigned vigorously, inspirationally, colourfully, loudly and really positively for a change in law in the North to ensure organ donation is on the basis of a soft opt-out. This would mean we would all become organ donors unless we specifically sought to opt-out from it.

To be fair, the heads of Bill and the general scheme of the Bill were published by the previous Minister for Health in 2019, I think. Substantial time has passed since then and while I fully appreciate the impact of the pandemic, an update would be timely. There are many wee boys and girls like Daithí all across Ireland and this list would operate luckily on an all-Ireland basis for all those who are waiting for organ donation. It would be a welcome opportunity for us to talk about that specifically but to talk about the issue and its importance more generally as well. Sin mo chuid, go raibh maith agaibh.