During the Order of Business in the Seanad, I said: I congratulate the Leader on arranging today's debate on Seanad reform. I must admit that I had some doubts as to whether it would happen because it takes so long for things to happen. The Leader has moved on it, however, and I am delighted to see that former Senators, Dr. Maurice Manning and Mr. Joe O'Toole, will be here today for that debate. Nevertheless, I want to ensure that something happens following that debate. My worry is that we will have a debate on Seanad reform but nothing will happen...

During the Order of Business in the Seanad, I said: I attended a very interesting meeting in Drogheda on Monday to do with urban renewal. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation put forward a 14-point plan for urban renewal. Much can be done, particularly for the main streets of our small towns. The plan included a huge range of topics and would be worthy of discussion in this House as everybody here would have a view on it. Some towns in Ireland have so many empty shops...

During a Seanad debate on Ash Dieback disease which affects ash trees, I said: The Minister of State is very welcome. He played a very active role in this House over some years a number of years ago. I am delighted to see he is now responsible for this area. He has given us some interesting information today. He mentioned that approximately "693 ha of infected and associated ash plantations have been cleared and replanted with alternative species". He told us that this work "has involved the uprooting and deep burial of approximately 2 million ash trees since October 2012". I think it is an amazing body of work. The Minister of State and the entire team behind him are to be congratulated on that work.

In the UK, a website, www.ashtag.org, and a smartphone app were introduced some years ago to encourage the public to report trees showing any of the symptoms about which we should worry. I am glad to see that a new app, TreeCheck, which will cover North and South of the Border, has been introduced this month. It has been suggested that we could also use satellite imagery to better tackle this issue. Could we give grants to community groups to plant alternative trees?

During the Order of Business in the Seanad, I said: One of the most important areas of business opportunities is tourism. Senator Mooney regularly reminds us of that, but every time we look for changes to encourage tourism, there always seems to be someone saying that those changes do not suit...