Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)

I thank all Senators for the contributions here this morning starting with Senator O'Loughlin who congratulated Naas on being deemed the best-kept and cleanest town according to the IBAL survey. She rightly commended volunteers for their work across many communities over many years. She is right, of course, that it can take a long time for certain villages and towns to get to the stage where they win awards but that journey has to be, and is, recognised in these awards. She also spoke about the importance of family resource centres and also the lack of them in her own county of Kildare. She has called for a debate with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and I will certainly raise that with the Minster.

Senator Boyle spoke about festivals and the importance of festivals such as the Rory Gallagher Festival and its value to the local economy, which I absolutely agree with. Regarding the sources of funding, he is right. I know there are small-scale festival funding applications and local authorities provide funding to certain festivals as well. With rising costs, particularly of insurance and the like, some festivals are under pressure. Again, it is volunteers who are organising and running these. If the Senator put down a Commencement debate there might be a more detailed response forthcoming. It requires engagement across a number of Departments, including the Department of tourism, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht. That might be a way to go about that.

Senator Mullen raised vape shops and concerns regarding the sale of psychoactive substances. I am not sure of the latest on that. We have passed an amount of legislation relating to vaping. More legislation has been planned. If there is a criminal matter in this regard, I will certainly raise it with the Minister for justice. Senator Mullen also raised issues pertaining to my colleagues in government and Senators Fitzpatrick and Daly have dealt with that so I will have to leave that between them.