Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for the business she outlined today. I am happy to agree to it.

I was not in the Chamber on Wednesday last week because I was attending the funeral of former Senator, Minister and Deputy Niamh Bhreathnach. I wish to put on the record my sympathies to her family, friends and colleagues in the Labour Party. I served for almost 11 years with Niamh on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. She was great fun, very warm and very friendly. When I arrived, she was a former Minister and Deputy and she was a bundle of wisdom for all of us who were kind of new. I was sad to see her passing as suddenly as she did. She was an asset to the country and the local authority of which I was a member for a number of years.

I also wish to put on record my sympathies to the people of Türkiye and Syria and their ambassadors or representatives in Ireland. Almost 38,000 people at this stage have died - I am sure that figure will rise - and multiples of that have been injured. It is important that we do whatever we can. There have been huge efforts throughout the country in helping and getting supplies for these people. It is important we do as much as we can. When I was a councillor, there were 20-something thousand people on the register. It is like the entire electoral area I used to represent died. It is a shocking number.

I wish also to send my condolences to the new New Zealand ambassador, Trevor Mallard, who is presenting his credentials on Thursday. For only the third time in the history of New Zealand have they declared a national emergency today. There are significant floods and many other severe weather events going on at the moment. As somebody who was there recently, it is a beautiful country but they are going through a very difficult time. It is a long way from here and, thankfully, there has been relatively limited loss of life so far, but anything we can do, we should to help them out. I wish to send the message from this House that we are there to support them.