Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I concur with that. I welcome the students. It is great to have visitors here in the people’s House – it is their House.

I return to Senator Boyle. As I said, I was a member of Cavan County Council for 20 years. Senator Sarah O’Reilly followed me onto Cavan County Council some years later, and she may tell me, formally or informally, if this continued to be the case, but the question of planning, including one-off planning, and the capacity to build houses in rural areas was always on the agenda. It nearly arose monthly. Cavan had one of the most benign planning systems, and I would have thought one of the most sensitive in the country, yet it arose. Donegal is a beautiful and fabulous county. I agree with Senator Boyle that we should have a planning system where, within health and safety guidelines, needless to say, and those parameters only, it should be possible to build a home, live and raise a family, live on family farm or buy a local neighbour’s site and live there. It is reasonable. Senator Boyle, as always, raised an important matter. It should be dealt with. It is across a couple of Departments and it is a local authority issue as well. We will bring it forward and see what can be done. It certainly arises. When our Seanad group meets - I presume all parties are similar - the question of planning laws also arises. We will keep it there. Senator Mullen raised the very interesting question of the walks and the Irish caminos, if you like, such as St. Declan's Way. He asked about the O'Sullivan Beara walk right through the country up from Kinsale. He made the point that we should talk about our tourism walks, identify them, market them, make them fit for purpose and make them accessible. The Senator makes a very good point. In the town of Bailieborough where I have the pleasure to live, we will have a Plantation museum because that is Plantation country. It is in that genre and that sphere that heritage sites, heritage walks, religious trails etc. should be celebrated, made fit for purpose, made accessible and marketed by our tourism people. If people will go to do the camino, why would they not come here and do St. Declan's Way? There is a new camino in Killashandra in County Cavan which is doing very well and has a walk a couple of times a year.

Senator Lynch has drawn our attention to the 40-year commemoration of the community alert scheme. It is certainly one of the better schemes. In an area called Laragh near me, I get messages every day from the community alert there. It is a wonderful scheme involving communities and is very reassuring for older people. It is a great thing and those involved are all volunteers. I gather, anecdotally, that, at the moment, it is very difficult to get volunteers in everything because of two people working in homes, because of commuting and because of so many societal pressures. We should celebrate our volunteers. The Senator is right in identifying this group of wonderful volunteers who bring comfort and service to people living in isolated places. A son of mine just did a thesis on the impact of rural isolation on people. I have read it. I actually helped him get some people to do the interviews for him. Rural isolation is challenging in its own right without adding to it, and community alert is a great help here. Indeed, there is also isolation in cities and towns, so it is very important.

Senator Sarah O'Reilly mentioned Paul Brady, whom I know very well. He is a professional colleague from primary teaching. He is a nephew of Senator Keogan or a first cousin.