Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)

I extend my welcome to the distinguished guests. Times are difficult across the world and there is a lot of doom and gloom, some of it merited and some of it not. We all need moments in our lives where we get to witness joy and to see creativity and music. It was incredible to hear so many people speaking about tuning into Glastonbury over the weekend. My youngest brother was there. I have not spoken to him yet but I understand from different communications that everybody had a wonderful time. I know that many people really enjoyed tuning in. I see that RTÉ has confirmed that it will not cover any of Electric Picnic this August. It was 2017 when RTÉ last covered any major Irish music festival. I think that needs to change. For so many people who would not have the opportunity to attend, and it is not that we would be taking away from ticket sales because all of these events are sold out quickly, it would be wonderful to expand the joy, the excitement and the music to everybody, and I would like to see that being taken up.

I want to give a shout-out to Junefest in Newbridge, which I spoke about before. It is a wonderful festival. The incredible Annie Morris, who is the chairperson, created a record for the longest bunting. This is formed from a yarn bomb that she started in 2016. They are now taking down the bunting, turning it into scarves and sending them in hope boxes to Africa for Christmas. It is a great initiative. I have just come from the Fáilte Ireland briefing. Fáilte Ireland does incredible work. In asking about regional funding, which is obviously important, I realised that Kildare only gets €5,000. I do not know how big the fund is but if we are to give meaningful support to local festivals such as Junefest, that should be expanded.

The last item I want to raise relates to IVF. I and now Deputy Catherine Ardagh introduced legislation in this House to ensure that State funding would be given to couples undergoing fertility problems, which is a medical disease according to the WHO. We all know couples who have been impacted by not being able to have a family. IVF is very expensive. It comes with a huge financial and emotional toll. We were delighted when the then Minister, Stephen Donnelly, took this up. Since September 2023, 2,500 have been able to avail of this facility. I appreciate that, during the week, the current Minister extended that to families who already have one child. One of the areas that people cannot access funding in is if they have gone through IVF treatment before. People have already taken out those loans, gone through the toll and not been able to get funding. I appeal to the Minister to change these criteria and ensure that if people have already had a round, they would be eligible for funding.