Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and other stuff we wanted to hide away, not a national treasure. I will send a letter today. I acknowledge the Senator’s welcome of the increased funding for Longford County Council.

Regarding the matter raised by Senators Boyhan and Murphy, I welcome yesterday’s announcement of €10 million. Any money that goes into the horticultural industry is welcome. The conditions being applied to it are outrageous, though. I say that with respect to Senator Hackett as a Green Party Minister of State who wants to encourage and incentivise people towards organics. While that is a good thing, it should not exclude the few remaining growers we have. I raised this matter with my party leader a number of weeks ago. We used to have 400 growers in this country. Today, we have 60. I am not just referring to strawberry, mushroom or cucumber growers – what we call “horticultural growers” – but to the entirety of our growing community. If this decrease does not show the serious crisis and the disregard of people we have taken for granted for so long, I do not know what does.

I will cite an example. Senator Murphy spoke about how we could incentivise people and give them extra aid. On behalf of the horticultural industry last year, I tabled an amendment to the Finance Bill 2022 to give those growers who used glasshouses and sequestered carbon extra money and tax rebates. I was genuinely surprised when the then Minister for Finance very kindly accepted my amendment. It was included in the Act, but we are still waiting on the Revenue Commissioners 12 months later to come up with a way for growers to apply for a tax rebate. That is 12 months during a crisis when our number of growers has decreased from 400 to 60. The State can act, yet we are not doing so. I will ask for a debate. Please God, all of the Senators will join me in highlighting the things that are wrong and those that we could do to save what is a vital industry for Ireland.

Senator Davitt asked for a debate on the tenant purchase scheme, particularly the anomalies preventing people from availing of it. We will certainly do that.

Senator Maria Byrne and, prior to her, our Fianna Fáil leader for today spoke about the Corbett family. I listened to the victim impact statements on RTÉ this morning. You could not help but have stinging tears in your eyes listening to the dignity and composure of those young people. Thankfully, the lives they had lived and their experiences were taken on board by the judge yesterday. I acknowledge Senator Maria Byrne’s experience with the Corbett family locally in Limerick. The Irish people’s hearts are broken for those two young people today and we send them every good wish.

Senator Keogan suggested making changes to the law to reduce human trafficking in Ireland and asked for a debate on the matter. We will ask for one.

Senator Lombard spoke about the castle in Kinsale this morning and sought a debate on Ireland’s natural resources that could be contributing to our tourism industry but are not.This morning, Senator McGreehan welcomed the increase of 35% in GP training places that have been made available through the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP next year, which is really welcome.

Senators Paul Gavan and Róisín Garvey both spoke about Gaza this morning. I know it is something that is on everybody's minds all day, every day at the moment because it is very hard to escape the awful atrocities and the images of suffering that we are seeing on our screens every single day. I would say to Senator Garvey, who was very emotional this morning, that she has absolutely no need to make any apology for being a human being and reacting in such a normal way to the devastation that we all see. I acknowledge that and commend her on it. There have been various requests to say that we should be doing something. I want to let people know that we actually are calling for a ceasefire. This is not necessarily just a humanitarian ceasefire, as I know that language is being used by some international leaders who would be supportive of Israel. We all should be supportive of Israel's right to defend itself but by the same token we are all well able to see the reality of what is going on. I want to let colleagues know that we are working daily at the EU. The Taoiseach is in Paris today meeting EU leaders. We are also working at the UN to make sure that inch by inch, we live up to what is our international reputation as peacemakers and peacekeepers. I wanted to acknowledge that and let people know.

Senator Gavan also spoke about a Cork business, and I will take it up with the Leader's office to make sure that we follow up in seeing if there is any way we can help that.

Senator Fiona O'Loughlin spoke this morning about Bereaved Siblings Month, the dementia initiative down in Mahon Point, which I really think is a great initiative. She also spoke about the use of CCTV cameras and the code of practice we await from the LGMA. We might write to the LGMA to see if there is anything we can do to help it along.

I want to speak about Senator Craughwell's intervention here this morning. Clearly, I was not in the Chamber on Tuesday but I think what the Senator can best do is write to the Commission, or the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight, if there is a grievance he has and that he feels needs to aired with regard to the exchanges that happened here on Tuesday. That would be the best course of action. One thing I will say is that in this Chamber, we respect each other. We do not always agree with each other but the very least we expect from each other is respect. For the record, I completely concur with Senator Craughwell. It is inconceivable that we would think of appointing a person who is not Irish and who does not have long experience in An Garda Síochána to be the head of our security and intelligence services. I completely concur with him, and that certainly is not a racist comment.

Finally, Senator Martin Conway acknowledged that the various political parties, including ourselves, have met with both Dr. Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, the beautiful and lovely representative from Palestine, and HE Dana Erlich, the ambassador from Israel, who is meeting nearly all of us. Those of us she has not met, she will meet in the coming weeks. We need to keep the pressure up at every level to make sure that our voices our heard, and that the innocent people who are being so damaged on a daily basis know that the world is watching, hoping and wishing for their better outcomes.