Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleague, Senator Murphy, in expressing concern around what is happening to our retail workers. Conor McMorrow prepared an excellent package for the "Prime Time" programme last night that showed some horrors, including the physical and verbal attacks faced by those who work in shops and service stations. I know this from talking to owners of convenience stores but also to people working in them around the country. It is just not acceptable and we need to toughen legislation in this space. We should look at a Scottish law, namely, the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021. The Act provides for specific offences with regard to attacks on retail workers, especially when it comes to their having to enforce age-related rules. In light of this, I ask that we facilitate a debate around how we protect those workers.

I also echo Senator Hoey's concerns about the passage of legislation in Uganda that makes being LGBT a criminal offence and mandates the death penalty for a person who describes themselves as such or engages in any consensual same-sex sexual activity. This is not acceptable. It is not good enough that we just protest about the matter. We have an embassy in Kampala. I ask the Deputy Leader to write to our ambassador there on the House's behalf to express our concerns. I ask that she also write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, but the time has come when we start debate whether some of our overseas development aid should be linked to ensuring human rights are properly protected. I ask the Deputy Leader to regard both matters as priorities.