Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 6 Nov 2024

I welcome our colleague and friend, the Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett, to the House. I welcome the daughter of the Minister of State, Heidi, to the Chamber. She is here doing work experience. I hope you have a very enjoyable time with us. Thank you for being here. You can be very proud of your mum and the contribution she is making to Irish political life. Céad míle fáilte.

I welcome the Minister of State. It is great to have her here to discuss the issue of Pewterhole Cross in Kinsale.

I asked the Minister for Transport for an update on the funding request from Cork County Council to carry out necessary upgrade works at Pewterhole Cross in Kinsale. This is a significant issue for the residents of Kinsale. It is a thriving town that has seen huge population growth in the past few years. Kinsale is now the second largest town in the constituency.

One passes through Pewterhole Cross on the outskirts of Kinsale when driving on the Cork to Kinsale Road. It is a junction of the R600 where the road meets Charleville and Charlesfort on the left and the industrial estate on the right. The crossroads and junction are a significant issue for the residents of Kinsale. The majority, if not all, of those heading towards Cork have to go through the crossroads, including the blind junction. There are huge traffic volumes. We are trying to find a solution to the problem.

Unfortunately, the proposed solution goes back many years. In 2007 the proposal was originally pulled. It was one of the last projects ever pulled from a funding stream. The project was supposed to have been completed in 2007, but has been on and off the list ever since. The latest update from Cork County Council regarding this issue does not give me much hope. Applications for funding were made in 2022 and 2023. The council has now applied for funding of €50,000 to move forward with the appraisal assessment work. Unfortunately, the money has not been allocated for 2024.

How can we get a significant funding stream in place to make sure the crossroads can be dealt with? We need to make sure it is safe. At the moment, unfortunately, it is not safe. When we knock on the doors and talk to people, they tell us the economy and everything else is going well, but an issue like this is significant for the people of Kinsale. The majority of the residents of Kinsale pass through this junction twice a day and need a solution.

We are trying to get the project on the list for appraisal work so it can move forward to the design stage and we can then make sure we can deliver the works. The project is 20 years in the making. The town has developed and changed like no other town in Cork South-West. It is a thriving town. This piece of infrastructure is badly required.

I refer to other towns in Cork South-West. The Bandon bypass needs a funding stream to be put in place. The project will take traffic out of the town, which will benefit the entire area. Bandon is the gateway to west Cork. At the moment, the majority, if not all, of lorries in the area have to go down south Main Street and past my office. We need funding for key projects that would mean so much for people.

Councillor Marie O'Sullivan in Kinsale continually raises this issue and calls for updates and funding to be made available. Her campaign needs to be acknowledged. It is about trying to make sure that we get movement. I know we are in the last dying days of a Government, but we need to make sure there is movement on this for the residents of Kinsale.

I thank the Acting Chair. I thank the Senator for the question. I am here on behalf of the Minister for Transport.

As the Senator is aware, as outlined in the 2024 regional and local roads programme, the Government is strongly committed to protecting the existing road network. This network is fundamental to connecting people and places across the country. It facilitates business, education, tourism, healthcare, agriculture and the provision of critical services and activities. At this point, it is important to highlight that the improvement and maintenance of the regional and local road network is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the Roads Act 1993.

Works on these roads are funded by from the council's own resources and are supplemented by State road grants. The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the local authority. Ireland's regional and local road network spans over 96,000 km and, therefore, requires significant funding to ensure it remains fit for purpose, safe and resilient. As such, this year €658 million was allocated to regional and local roads.

On 31 May this year, the Department of Transport announced additional funding of €30 million for local authorities through restoration and improvement grants following persistent rainfall over the winter and spring. Of this, Cork was in receipt of over €86 million to fulfil the council's statutory responsibilities for maintaining regional and local roads. This €86 million is intended to supplement realistic contributions from the local authority's own resources. Due to the vast scale of the network, the Department of Transport employs an array of grant types to target investment across the regional and local network.

Within the budget available, State grant funding is allocated on as fair and an equitable basis as possible to ensure that all local authorities are in receipt of funds to maintain their networks. The allocation of the three biggest Exchequer grant types for regional and local roads is based on the length of the road within a local authority's area, with additional weighting based on contributing traffic factors in specific areas.

This approach also means that while central Government is supplying significant funding, we acknowledge that local authorities are best placed to make determinations for their own areas for maximum delivery of results.

Indeed, the initial selection and prioritisation of maintenance and renewal work is a matter for each local authority. There is flexibility within the State grant programmes for councils to direct resources to address specific problems as identified on their networks as they see fit in aspects such as safety. Any road improvement project proposed by local authorities for consideration under the specific grant programme are assisted by the Department on a case-by-case basis. All projects put forward by local authorities for consideration must comply with the requirements of the public spending code and the Department of transport's capital appraisal framework.

Given the limited funding available for regional and local road improvement works, it is important for local authorities to prioritise projects within their overall area of responsibility with these requirements in mind. Cork County Council has been allocated more than €3 million for six projects under the 2024 specific improvement grant programme, in line with the priorities identified by the council. Unfortunately, Pewterhole Cross is not one of the projects currently being funded.

In summary, the Department and the Minister recognise the importance of the funding provided to local authorities for the renewal and protection of the road network. This funding helps to maintain a functioning, safe interconnected network that facilitates thousands of people in their day-to-day activities. In the case of the specific improvement grant, the Department has allocated funding to schemes in line with the priorities identified by Cork County Council through its application process.

It is because of the significant size of County Cork that we do not get the funding that is required. County Cork encompasses one eighth of the geographical area of the State, but we do not have one eighth of the actual budget from the Department when it comes to road restorations. That becomes the key issue when we are trying to maintain roads and get structures put in place to make sure road networks can be maintained. My huge geographical area starts at Ringabella Bay and goes down to Ardgroom. It would take me two and a half hours to drive it any day. We do not get the amount of funding from the Department that we should get. The argument has to be about what we are doing regarding the funding of our local authorities.

The Minister of State mentioned the amount of money the local authorities received. Obviously it is not adequate, because if it were, this issue - which has been around since 2007 when it was first granted and later pulled because of the economy - would be solved. We have another issue in other road networks that I mentioned, such as Bandon. There are other issues in rural road maintenance that need to be looked at as well. We need to see movement on that issue, particularly in Pewterhole Cross. We have been waiting 25 years. The town has totally developed and changed. The population has nearly doubled in that time and the transport implications for that are huge. We need to have funding for this project. It is a very serious issue.

I thank Senator Lombard. I do not disagree that it is a serious issue, but the State grant funding is allocated on a fair and equitable basis road on road length. Yes, Cork is a vast county. It has a lot of road network and gets a proportionate amount based on that compared to other counties that have less of a road network and get a lesser amount. It is done on a fair and equitable basis.

Notwithstanding that, there are opportunities within the council for Cork County Council to identify the road project the Senator has highlighted and the issues with that. Pressure needs to be put on Cork County Council to deliver on that, and it then will put the pressure on the Department. That does not fix it in the here and now, but that is the route of travel from now on. If this is important, which it is and I am not discounting it, pressure must be put on the council to identify it as one to put on its list for next year. That is the advice I have. This is the same in many other councils across the country, but priorities have to be made. Councils make priorities and the Department makes priorities based on some of that advice.

This Commencement matter is on the non-commencement of section 6 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014. This Act was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas on 27 November 2014, and was signed into law on 4 December 2014. As per section 1(3) of the Act, the Minister must commence certain sections. This last happened in 2020 with SI 550 of that year, which commenced sections 5, 7, 8 and 9. This was brought to my attention by the assistant registrar general of the Department in October 2023, when I raised this Commencement matter at that time. Today, I am forced to raise it again. I was misled by a contradiction of the Irish Statute Book's website regarding the commencement of these sections.

Section 6 of the Act has not yet been commenced. It has been nearly 4,000 days and the commencement order has not been given. I have submitted a Commencement matter on this matter for a second time in order for us to hear why this is the case. This section relates to the registrations of births and the naming of the children's parents on documents in cases where the parents are not married. It provides that it is a duty of both parents to comply with the registration of the birth of the child, notwithstanding that they are not married to each other. Where the mother of the child attends alone, she must provide information as to the father's name and contact details. Where the mother furnishes evidence and a statutory declaration that her spouse is not the father of the child, the registrar must make responsible efforts to contact the spouse. Where parents fail to agree on the surname to be registered, the registrar may complete the registration by leaving the surname field blank, or, where a surname is already registered, leaving the surname in place. These are practical and common-sense provisions that were debated and voted in favour of ten years ago. They will also allow people in the future to be able to trace their lineage back, more importantly to get in contact with the estranged family if they wish to do so, and engender greater certainty in the birth registration system.

I understand that the amending Bill is being drafted by the Department to correct a technical issue in section 6, causing it to reference subsection (1)(a) instead of subsection (1). If this assists in getting this section commenced, it is a welcome move. Why has it taken so long? I understand that the legislative drafting measure is necessary. It is an exceedingly exact science that cannot be rushed, but ten years seems an awfully long time to wait for the commencement of any legislation.

When I last raised this matter in 2023, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, stated:

... prior to commencement, a technical error was discovered in the relevant amending legislation. This technical error is required to be corrected and this will be achieved in the forthcoming civil registration (electronic registration) Bill, which, as the Senator will be aware, was considered in pre-legislative scrutiny and approved for drafting by the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development, and the Islands.

The Minister of State continued:

The Bill is currently with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and is at [the] advanced stage[s] of drafting. [That was in October 2023.] The Minister, Deputy ... [Harris], looks forward to bringing the Bill to the Oireachtas shortly.

The Minister of State added:

Given the passage of time since the training was delivered and the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, further engagement with the HSE will be needed to ensure operational readiness prior to commencement.

I hope the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, might be able to shed some light on the matter, particularly whether additional steps have been taken in the meantime.

I am here on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection, who thanks the Senator for raising the issue again.

The Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 principally, as the Senator said, amends and extends the Civil Registration Act 2004. The Act was signed into law on 4 December 2014. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, previously outlined to the Senator the sections referring to the law relating to marriages contained under Part 6 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 were commenced in 2015 and these sections primarily referred to marriages of convenience cases. Other sections have been commenced in 2016 and 2020. Sections 6 to 9 of the Act referred to by Senator Keogan are related to the requirements under Part 3 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 to the registration and re-registration of births. The Senator will know that sections 7, 8 and 9 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act were commenced on 20 November 2020.

Sections 7 and 8 substituted existing legislation concerning the re-registration of births. The new sections permit a birth to be re-registered in circumstances where the mother was not married to the father, amends some of the regulations around acceptance of court orders and provides a new system of rebuttal of paternity in cases where a married mother requests a registrar to re-register a birth with a father who is not her husband. Section 9 introduces a mechanism around registering a birth where there is a failure between the mother and father to agree a surname for the child.

The only section referred to that has not been commenced is section 6. Section 6 of the Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014 introduces new provisions relating to the registration of the father where the parents are not married to one another. This section sets out that the mother, if she attends alone, is required to name the father of the child with limited exceptions applying. Registration of the father will then be dependent on the man acknowledging paternity of the child.

Commencement of these provisions was subject to the HSE arranging dates and venues for the delivery of training to registrars and this training was delivered in early 2020. It is true that prior to commencement at that stage a technical error was discovered in the relevant amending legislation. This technical error was corrected in the recently enacted Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Act 2024 and the Act was signed by the President in July of this year. This will now facilitate the commencement of section 6. Further engagement, however, is still needed with the HSE on the operational readiness necessary prior to the commence but the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is pleased to inform the Senator that officials in the General Register Office are engaging with the superintendent registrars in the HSE in this regard. Department officials are happy to engage further with Senator Keogan on this matter.

I thank the Minister of State. I realise much of this response is what I received the last time. While I welcome that the technical error has been corrected with the Civil Registration (Electronic Registration) Act 2024, it still has not moved forward during that year. We knew there would be an issue regarding the HSE in getting this matter dealt with in regards to training. One year later, we are still nowhere. I really want this to move forward. Many fathers out there have been deprived of having their names on birth certificates, and of their rights as fathers throughout this country. It is important this legislation is dealt with as quickly as possible so fathers have certainty with regard to their rights to their children.

I thank the Senator for her acknowledgement that some progress has been made and that the technical error has been corrected. I will relay her continued concerns about this matter. The commencement of section 6 will provide an opportunity for all fathers' names to be recorded in the register of births and I will follow up with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, after this Commencement matter to see if we can hasten the training needed for the HSE registrars.

In 2014, when Irish Water was established, responsibility for the provision and operation of water and sewerage systems transferred from local authorities to Irish Water. Since then, the policies undertaken by Irish Water have been very much to develop and facilitate existing water and sewerage infrastructure. Little or no new investment has gone into villages where there was no existing infrastructure. I have seen that as a major negative in terms of assisting villages that want to grow, have the capacity to grow and where there is a demand for development.

In 2020, when this Government was established I led a delegation to meet the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to make the case for two villages in County Clare - Broadford and Cooraclare. I did so on the basis that these were shovel-ready projects that had been around for decades and needed to move because there was a demand in those villages for housing. I was mindful at the time there were other villages in County Clare that were at an advanced stages, places such as Carrigaholt and Doolin, among others. There were other places that had to come on as well but I wanted to get these two projects moving. I drafted a paper for the then and current Minister around how this could be done, to effectively establish a pilot project and to give devolved responsibility for the development of sewage treatment in the villages concerned to the local authority. I sought the advice of Clare County Council, the then and current chief executive Pat Dowling, and he was prepared to do this. In the middle of 2023, the Minister announced a scheme on foot of my intervention where he opened it up to counties across the country to come forward with a number each per county of two projects. Clare put Broadford and Cooraclare forward and in December 2023 an announcement was made effectively accepting the proposal I had put through. Funding was put in place for a number of projects across the country, up to 20 of them. Broadford and Cooraclare were amongst those. Sadly, since 7 December 2023 we have heard no more about it. Various different letters have moved between the Department and the council. We are now in early November 2024, almost a year since. Projects that were shovel-ready in Cooraclare and Broadford are still dragging on.

I have been around this House for a while and I do not like to call out officials but it seems to me that the decision the Minister took to go ahead with these projects, and to move small-scale projects back to the local authorities, was not well accepted or received by officials in his Department at the time. I had meetings with them and knew of their resistance. It seems they have managed to put the dead hand on these projects so villages such as Broadford and Cooraclare are still waiting to see the ground broken, pipes put in the ground and the basic development necessary to ensure sons and daughters can build their houses in the villages. We have this ongoing problem with rural planning, which is another matter, but here are villages where we can have lights, footpaths, collect the sewage and provide treated water. Yet for us as a Government, and I think for elements within the permanent government, and also within the local authority - because while the chief executive is very energised and excited about getting these villages up and running - there are people for whom this will be an extra bit of work. They has seen that transferred to Irish Water and I suspect they were happy enough to see it transferred.

In the dying days of this Government please give some sense of recognition to these villages that there is a pathway forward, that when government and politicians get together and devise a scheme to make something happen and when moneys are set aside to do it that the officials will respond and react and make them happen.

I thank the Senator for the question. I am here to address the topic on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien.

The Department is committed to supporting rural Ireland and continues to provide the funding needed for the provision of improved water services in rural areas. The Department’s multi-annual rural water programme, using Exchequer funding, is the main capital funding stream delivering improvements to water services, including wastewater services, in areas of rural Ireland that are without public water services. A key strategic objective of the multi-annual programme is - through its various funding measures - to improve the quality, reliability and efficiency of water services for rural dwellers where public water services are not available.

In April 2022, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’ Brien, launched a new measure under the multi-annual rural water programme for the waste water collection and treatment needs for villages and settlements without access to public waste water services. An allocation of €50 million has been committed under the national development plan to fund that measure. The principal aim of the measure is to provide additional funding for local authorities to take an innovative approach to address environmental and public health issues in locations of need, across the country, on a prioritised basis.

A total of 23 individual applications from 13 local authorities were received including from Clare County Council for projects in Cooraclare and Broadford. All applications received were referred to an independent expert panel who assessed and considered recommendations. The panel completed its work and in December 2023, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’ Brien, approved funding of over €45 million for seven projects. As the Senator outlined, included in this approval is €6.4 million in funding for Broadford and €5.5 million for Cooraclare. All projects are being co-funded with the individual relevant local authority.

To maintain momentum, the Department has facilitated significant and ongoing engagement between the two key stakeholders, these being the local authority and Uisce Éireann, to work through the steps required to successfully deliver the projects. It is important to note that capital projects of this nature are complex. They take time to plan, design, tender and construct.

This is under way. The stakeholders are working together to complete these projects as quickly as possible. I cannot give a timeline but there is a real sense of frustration and I get that.

I thank the Minister of State. She will understand my frustration as a public representative who has put together a concept, drafted it, got it through the political system and back office Department system and had it announced and put to tender. It took from 2020 to December 2023 to get it through, only to find a year later virtually nothing has happened. I do not accept it is as complex as suggested. Irish Water has a framework agreement with a number of contractors. We are not reinventing the wheel. Irish Water has framework agreements to make contact with any contractor and say what is needed. Within a very short period, work could begin. It does not have to be retendered because Irish Water has framework agreements in place in which is agreed the cost of every metre of piping that has to go into the ground. It knows the cost associated with treatment plants based on the projected size.

My concern is officials are slowing this down for no good reason because they are not happy there has been a process to circumvent the dead hand of Irish Water. There is no reason for any further delays. I ask the Minister of State, Minister and Government to instruct the local authority to proceed without delay and get this project in place. The moneys have been assigned. Get the work done. The people of Broadford and Cooraclare deserve to see their villages have the potential to grow and survive into the future. Other villages are coming behind, whether Doolin, Carrigaholt or a myriad of others across County Clare and other counties, that need life bred into them. They need the go-ahead now.

It is clear the frustration is real, not just the Senator's but that of the communities of Cooraclare and Broadford and others in County Clare and elsewhere. Adequate and effective sewerage schemes are essential for communities. We are trying to encourage people to live in villages and towns and that is a fundamental part of it. I will bring the information back to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and re-inform him of the continued frustration of the Senator and people in the area. I will ask him to ask his Department officials to further engage with officials in Clare County Council on delivery of this. I am told planning design, tender and construction are all under way. As the Senator says, it is a shovel-ready project but nothing seems to be happening yet on the ground. I will bring that message loud and clear to the Minister.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. I seek an update on the new school building for Clonturk Community College. I ask this on behalf of a frustrated school community. We understood a master plan for the campus on the Swords Road was to be ready by the first quarter of this year. That deadline has been missed. We are told by the Department a design team has yet to be appointed. That is unacceptable. This is a 1,000-pupil school that has been waiting a number of years for a plan to be put in place for the new school building. It is to be one of four new schools on that campus.

We welcome the announcement last week about An Cosán moving to that campus but while we are getting announcements, we are not getting action. The school community is getting increasingly frustrated about the impact on the school, including the lack of a proper hall. At one stage, transition years were having to go to a hall up the road separate from the school campus. There are prefabs there whose planning permission, we understand, is due to expire soon. There are concerns about having the appropriate space, particularly for those with additional needs, and resource space.

The school is thriving, in enormous demand and oversubscribed. It has done all the right things since it was set up a number of years ago but has been left waiting for its new school building. I was on the board of management five years ago and the school building was a subject of serious concern then. We have had little or no progress since then - a lot of talk and statements but no actual progress. I hope the Minister of State can provide a concrete update on timelines for Clonturk Community College and its new school building.

I thank the Senator for the question. I am here on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley, but hope to provide some updates new to the Deputy on the proposed development of this multischool campus on the Swords Road in Whitehall. A memorandum of understanding, MOU, between the Department of Education and City of Dublin Education and Training Board, ETB, was finalised in March 2022. This MOU sets out an ambitious agreement between the two parties which delivers strategic benefits across the schools and further education and training sectors by maximising the value of properties across north Dublin city. Under the proposed agreement, City of Dublin ETB will take a long-term lease of the Cathal Brugha Street-Marlborough Street property and will consolidate some of its further education training provision there, including provision currently made at Killester College of Further Education and Marino College of Further Education.

The MOU also sets out the provision of schools infrastructure across City of Dublin ETB sites, including a new school building for Killester-Raheny educate together national school at the Killester College of Further Education site and a multischool campus at the Swords Road site in Whitehall. This multischool campus site was identified as a solution to provide a new 1,000-student school building for Clonturk Community College, a new 1,000-student school building for Ellenfield Community College and a new eight-classroom primary school for Gaelscoil Áine, which is under the patronage of An Foras Pátrúnachta.

The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, the Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion, Deputy Naughton, and Dr. Christy Duffy, chief executive of City of Dublin ETB, announced in October 2024 that a permanent building for An Cosán Community Special School will also be included on the Whitehall campus, which will make this the State’s largest ever multischool campus. This shared campus approach promotes an inclusive learning environment for all students in the community and reflects the Department of Education's commitment to the co-location of new special schools with mainstream schools where possible.

The continuation of further education and training provision on the Swords Road site has also been identified as a priority by City of Dublin ETB. In that context, the Whitehall campus project on the Swords Road site will include master planning for potential further education and training facility development. The project will be delivered under the Department's ADAPT programme, which uses a professional external project manager to co-ordinate and drive the design team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages from architectural planning to tender and construction. The campus project is in early architectural planning, which involves site surveys, school design stages and the preparation of statutory applications.

The programme manager for the ADAPT 4 programme was appointed in quarter 3 2023 and has been progressing the tender documentation for the procurement of the multidisciplinary design team consultants, which has now issued to tender. The tender competition is due to close before the end of this year and it is anticipated that design team consultants will be appointed early in quarter 1 2025. Following those appointments, the project will commence stage 1 preliminary design. The design team will then progress the project through the design stages.

Unfortunately, as with all school building projects, the exact timeframe for delivery of the permanent accommodation will be dependent on securing the grant of planning permission. However, the advancement of this key strategic project is a priority for the Department and for City of Dublin ETB. A significant amount of work, as the Senator outlined, has already been undertaken on the project, including close stakeholder engagement on some critical strategic aspects of the overall solution. This advance work positions this ambitious project well to progress as part of the Department’s capital programme pipeline.

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I note the Department states a significant amount of work has been done but I do not believe that is felt on the ground by the school community.

The reality is that it has taken a year for the programme manager to put together the procurement process for the multidisciplinary design team. The tender documents have only gone out now. There is a very clear issue. The school needs clarity on when it is going to get a building. We understand the design team will only be appointed next year, which means it will be many years before the school will have a building. We need greater clarity on dates from the Department. More importantly, we need a commitment that it will be done in a speedy fashion. The other side of this for Gaelscoil Áine is that I regularly meet parents who are trying to decide whether to send their children to Gaelscoil Áine based on its current location on Mobhi Road when it may be in its new location in Whitehall. The two locations are quite different. My experience of this school project to date is that the Department has been extremely slow. It has dragged its heels. We need to see much quicker progress on this school campus. It will be fantastic when it is done but it is taking way too long.

The Senator is right. It is going to be a fantastic campus when it is done. The million dollar question is when it will be done. The Department continues to engage closely with City of Dublin ETB and An Foras Pátrúnachta, the patron of Gaelscoil Áine, to advance the project. I understand the frustration that this is not being seen on the ground. Perhaps communications with the wider school community could be improved. Continued engagement is essential. It is important to keep people on board because it is going to be a fabulous facility and a very exciting school campus in what I hope will be the not-too-distant future.

Before we go, I thank the Minister of State for spending her time with us. I know she is busy so I thank her for giving us her time to deal with the four Commencement matters here today. As this will be my last day in the Chair in this term and given that the Minister of State is here, I acknowledge her very significant work. It would be a challenge for anyone but it is particularly challenging for a Minister of State who is also a Senator. We in the House are very proud to have had a Minister of State with us. We have had some before but very few. I wish her well in the coming days and I thank her for her work and for her engagement with us. It must be a very proud day for the Senator's daughter, Heidi, who is here with us in the Visitors Gallery. We send the Minister of State our good wishes for the coming weeks.