Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is true of everybody. It is actually quite worrying to hear the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, talking about managing the cap in the middle of October as if we are going to somehow ration travel in the next eight or ten weeks before Christmas. That debate certainly will be welcome and I will request it as quickly as I can.

Senator McGahon raised the very important work that Outcomers does, not just in his home area of Dundalk but all the way across north Dublin, County Meath and most of County Louth. For anybody who does not know Outcomers, it provides safe, social, relaxed environments for people who are discovering or struggling with their sexuality and provides a chance for them to be able to talk in a very comfortable environment and seek advice and friendship. It is really important. If anybody thinks we have done that work and it is all right for anybody to come out any day of the week these days, I think we all know that is not true. We can all see the rise in opinions against people in communities and we certainly need to be mindful of financially supporting outreach support workers in all our towns and villages. I will speak to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to see if there is anything that could be done on that.

Senator Davitt spoke about some of the concerns he has regarding the gambling legislation. Senator Davitt will be able to have those debates on Committee Stage which will happen in the next few weeks.

On the matter raised by Senator Lombard, I do not know if it is my age but I look forward to the extra hour in bed now. I never did when my kids were small as his are, because there was mayhem. It is an odd thing and we have this recurring debate every single year. The thing which, I will not say impacts me but which is a realisation, and again is probably something to do with my age, is that the reduced hours of daylight we have in the wintertime have an impact on people's mood. I say that not in a light-hearted way because some people see a desperate change to their mood in the wintertime. It is probably something we should look at but perhaps we should do it in advance of the week before we are about to change the clocks. It does seem a bit odd that we are still doing something 100 years after it was decided it was a good idea.

Both Senators Cassells and Boyhan spoke about the presentations we received yesterday from our local newspapers. They all raised different concerns regarding national advertising on behalf of Government agencies. We need a debate on the circulation, which is drastically reducing. Senator Cassells is right in that all our local authorities spend money with their local press people but our national Government agencies do not. For argument's sake, when we look at the profile of the people who buy the Meath Chronicleand deem it not to be the right medium in which to advertise the fuel allowance, there is something wrong there. We are not putting the fuel allowance in IMAGE Magazine for our young ones. There definitely is something wrong with the way in which media buyers are buying.We need to look at that. There is also something wrong with the transition from our local newspapers to the digital world. Our kids read the sports news in the Meath Chronicle but they are not paying for it. They get it through Facebook, joe.ieor Twitter. They do not even realise they are not paying for it. They get the news but the Meath Chronicledoes not get the revenue for it. There are a couple of things we need to do but the media fund is hugely important.

Senator Craughwell said I was nodding in agreement as he spoke. I certainly agree 205 extra special education teachers are welcome to our schools, as are 260 extra SNAs. I am not sure he is right about the capitation fee because €420 million of core funding was increased to our schools this year. That does not add up. I will check and come back to him directly. We now have a €10.4 billion education fund which excludes third level; we have never had anything like it. The Senator mentioned free schoolbooks, which is great.

Particularly close to my heart is the expansion the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has been able to do in respect of free school meals. I started it as a pilot a number of years ago and had to fight for the miserable few bob I got to start it but am glad I fought because she has managed to explode that scheme. Every child born today will have a free school meal in primary school. That is a welcome effect.

Senator Maria Byrne spoke about the win of the gardaí in controlling the 44 scramblers and taking them off our streets. These people obviously know they are not doing right because you do not go around on a scrambler with a bloody balaclava on you if you are not trying to hide your activities. That win is well deserved.

I did not hear the name of the company Senator Gavan mentioned.