Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

A few weeks ago, I called for additional support in the telephone allowance for older people. I called for it to cover broadband and to potentially become a communications allowance. Following recent storms, a number of households all over the country have been without electricity or water. At the same time, our providers are still applying standing charges to these people's bills. I do not know any other sector in which you still have to pay for a service that is not provided. I am particularly defending and standing up for our older community. Could we have a debate in this House on older people, the supports available to them and how we can better provide supports to serve those people?

I also welcome and acknowledge the delegation from Finland that was here. Our international relationships are very important and we rely on them very much. In the coming months, when our country is going to be looking for support from our European partners in respect of CAP negotiations and our derogation, those relationships with our European partners are going to be very important. People's opinions on these countries and what they say about them matter. People need to be very cognisant of that. I call on people to think about that before they vote on Friday.

In addition to that, some previous speakers have spoken about spoiling votes. The only thing a spoiled vote does is remove someone's opportunity to have a say in who is elected. I would like to acknowledge that as well.