Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the students from Tullamore. I am from Rathangan which is just down the Kildare-Offaly border. They are very welcome. I keep up to date with events around Tullamore also.

I have just come from a really interesting exhibition in the visitor centre in the Phoenix Park. It is a national exhibition with a Kildare slant called "As Life Goes On". It is a collaboration between the local history group in Newbridge and a collective of nine artists called SULT Artists. The work they have produced interprets the change that took place over 100 years ago when the British troops left Kildare. For those who may not be aware, in the Newbridge area there were 20,000 troops. Senators can imagine the impact of 20,000 people leaving at the same time, all on the same day, on the local economy and so on. While there was great joy there was also sadness in terms of business, economy and friendships that had been made. Nine artists have come together to interpret all of this. It is really worth going to. It is in the OPW centre in the Phoenix Park until the end of November.

On my way back to the House, I listened to the 11 o'clock news where we heard that 13% of those working in Facebook are going to be laid off. This is on top of other job losses in the tech sector such in as Twitter and Stripe. In Kildare we are very concerned about Intel also. It is very worrying and we are all concerned. We have a highly educated workforce here and we have been lucky to be able to attract high-level jobs to Ireland. We really need to ensure that we retain excellent employment opportunities. We also need to ensure that employees are supported and every staff member gets the full protection of domestic law. It is important that we have a debate in the House with the Tánaiste on protecting existing jobs and also looking at trends for the future in respect of the type of employment we can attract.

I was in Strasbourg yesterday for the handing over of the Irish Council of Europe presidency to the Icelandic presidency. I pay tribute to Ambassador Breifne-O'Reilly and his team in Strasbourg, to Ragnar Almqvist and his team in Dublin and of course to the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, for the leadership they have shown at a very difficult time in Europe. There were more than 65 key events in Ireland, Strasbourg and across Europe. As part of that we made a call for a fourth summit. There have only been three in the 73-year history of the Council of Europe. It is vitally important as we are at a crossroads in Europe, not just because of the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine but also the new generation of human rights, looking at areas like climate change, artificial intelligence and gender-based violence. We should have a debate in the House on those new rights that need to be brought to the forum next May.