Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator Kyne spoke once again about Inland Fisheries Ireland. He was supported by Senator Boyhan in calling for statements. I have made a request to the Minister to come to the House to speak on the issue. That request has not been acceded to as of yet, but I will continue to work with Senators Kyne and Boyhan in order to try to get statements or answers from the Minister. Perhaps a motion will be the only option for us at some point, but we will work with Senator Kyne on the issue. In fairness, he has been very consistent in raising this issue in the public interest. He has done that almost on a weekly basis in the past number of months.

Like many other colleagues, Senator Fitzpatrick wished Nicola Sturgeon well as she resigns from office. Ms Sturgeon is a strong female leader. Regardless of gender, she has been a very good politician and public representative for her community. We should take note of the way politics has gone and the direction in which it is going. We are driving good people out of public office.People are coming into public life, if they are brave enough to do so in the first place, and are leaving prematurely. We may look at Jacinda Ardern and people may ask also why she left politics prematurely. It is well documented and evidenced that female politicians in particular, bear the brunt of online abuse in respect of the personalisation, the attack on the individual, on their appearance, how they sound and look, their family life, and how they walk, talk, and everything in between. It is something to be mindful of here as we will be meeting very shortly with the Ceann Comhairle to discuss safety measures for female Members in both Houses of the Oireachtas. That is where things are at in this country also. We will get to a stage where we will not have people or will only have very few people coming forward to going to public life. We are looking for more diversity and better female representation and I fear that we are going backwards. We are making it a more toxic place and difficult environment to work in.

It is regrettable to see somebody like Nicola Sturgeon feels she can no longer do the job because of the online abuse. She made a very good point in acknowledging that she is a politician but that she is also human being. Words and how you speak to people matters. We are all, every one of us, impacted by what happens in the online space. We do our best not to read it but we are not able to completely disconnect because we have to use those online tools. They can be very good and helpful because they allow you to connect with people, to talk about what you are doing, what you are going to do, and to discuss your ideas and deal with your constituents but there is a limit in respect of how much negativity one person can process in a day. The job is getting to a point where many people are staying away from doing the work they would like to do, or from the online space, because on certain days, they cannot deal with the negativity. It is incumbent on all of us to perhaps support one another as well and to call it out, to not whip up anger or to encourage a pile-on, which often happens. People will know what I am referring to in that regard and that can also happen within these Houses among ourselves. Sometimes we exacerbate the problem, where perhaps we did not intend to and perhaps sometimes we had intended to. In any event, this should be a warning sign to all of us and we will move on now from that point.

Senator Fitzpatrick also spoke about the ongoing humanitarian crisis and emergency in Turkey and Syria and the €10 million that has been sent by the Government to their emergency response. She has made a call on all us to do what we can in donating to the Irish Red Cross or to the Irish Emergency Alliance, and to give our support to those people in need. The scale of the disaster is huge, as is the loss of life and the impending loss of life because of the conditions within which people are trying to survive which is devastating.

Senator Fitzpatrick also put on the record some very good news about O'Devaney Gardens, an area and development with which we are very familiar, even for somebody like myself from Mayo, because it has been raised consistently in both Houses for a very long time. It is positive news to see that commencement has happened for the construction of 1,000 new homes in a variety between cost rental, social, affordable and private housing units. It is a very good development and is also good to see some good news in the housing sector for that particular community in Dublin Central.

Senator Boyhan dealt with a particular issue and we will come back to him and to Senator Kyne in respect of that.

Senator Ó Donnghaile spoke this morning and alerted the House to a rally this Saturday in Parnell Square at 1:30 p.m. in respect of an Ireland for All to celebrate our cultural and ethnic diversity in the country and to celebrate the diverse communities we now have an Ireland. He has encouraged Members to attend and take part in that celebration.

He has also requested statements from the Minister for Foreign Affairs on Israel and I will make that request to the Minister and arrange for that debate at the earliest opportunity.

Senator Hoey spoke about the young 16-year-old girl, Brianna, I believe, is her name. Senator Warfield also mentioned her yesterday. It is a very tragic case and it is awful to think that that would happen but it could happen here also. This is something that we need to be very mindful of. The Senator is correct in that language and how we speak about people matters. We have a great deal of work to do in that space. We can turn the tide and it has not gone the way it has gone in the UK here yet. We have an opportunity now to learn from what has happened elsewhere and of other people’s mistakes. We can certainly keep that issue alive and keep talking about it in this House. We send our condolences to Ms Ghey’s family, her community and to her friends.

Senator Davitt spoke this morning about Georgia and I will put on the record of House that we are approaching 25 years of the friendship group with Georgia which I think is a significant milestone. I wish the ambassador here and all of the team in the embassy well and I thank the Senator for putting that on the record.

Senator Ahearn spoke this morning about the group of young students who will be at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine today between 12 noon and 1 p.m. to present a letter to the Department on biodiversity. They are looking for a policy change in respect of a financial incentive to maintain hedgerows and to pay our farmers to do so. I commend those students on taking the initiative and I hope they enjoy their day at the Department and here at Leinster House as well.

He has also requested a debate with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in respect of the energy sector and I will request that debate. The Senator raised an issue around the price of electricity. We know that the wholesale price is reducing. The Senator made a very good point to ask why, when the price goes up at wholesale level, the consumer price goes up immediately but that when the wholesale price comes down, the consumer price takes 18 to 24 months to reduce in tandem with this wholesale price change. I do not have the answer to that question but perhaps the Minister may be in a better position to have that debate with us. We will request, then, to have that debate with him.

Senator Gavan spoke this morning about the Mandate trade union briefing. All I can say to the Senator is that I did not receive an invitation to that briefing this morning, nor did any of my colleagues. I have checked with our party headquarters and it did not receive an invitation to it. We have asked Mandate to contact us on that particular issue. We were not asked to attend that meeting this morning but we always engage with unions on workers’ rights and I am sure it is the same for other Government colleagues. This is an issue about which we care very much but we cannot be in the room if we are not told about the meeting. Perhaps Senator Gavan might bring that back to the organisers as we would very much like to attend the next meeting.