I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As context for this Commencement matter, on Easter Sunday morning just past, 20 April, I was awakened in my house by what I thought was a car alarm. However, I quickly realised it was the sound of a number of smoke alarms going off. While there was no indication of any smoke in the house at the time, because the alarms were going off, I went around the bedrooms first, then downstairs to the living room and kitchen. It was only as I was making my way back upstairs I got the smell of smoke. I went back down into the kitchen, opened the utility room door and, as I did so, it burst open. I then realised we were in trouble. The utility room was totally ablaze with toxic fumes flying out. I had the presence of mind to close the door, roar upstairs to my family to get out and ring the fire brigade. I commend Cavan and Belturbet fire brigades. They were on the scene in 20 minutes and saved the house but, more importantly, saved us as a family, myself and my two young twin girls.

The reason I raise this today is that the building regulations that were introduced in 1997 covering fire safety and smoke alarms do not cover houses that were built prior to that. From 1997, a grade D smoke alarm was required in the hallway, landing and kitchen. From 2006, a grade D smoke alarm was required in the hallway, landing, kitchen and principal living room of a dwelling. From 2017, new minimum requirements were introduced which included those but also added to them attics, the audibility of alarms, the requirement to test them and various electrical specifications. In the case of houses built prior to the regulations being introduced in 1997, the owners should be contacted by the local authorities in relation to fire safety to encourage them to ensure adequate fire alarms are in their homes.

Between 2019 and 2024, there were 124 deaths caused by fire. Any fire chiefs or firefighters will say it is not the fire that kills but the smoke. In my experience, only for the smoke alarms we would be dead. Each year the fire safety authorities carry out a fire safety awareness week. In 2024, they concentrated in particular on fire safety in the home.

As we are aware, due to the new hybrid way of working now many people work during the day in their own homes, at least for most of the week. Fires can start at any time. It is vitally important people are aware of the fire safety regulations, how to try to put the fire out with the proper equipment and, more importantly, how to escape from the house if fire breaks out.

I ask the Minister of State to please consider a public awareness campaign. I know a campaign is carried out for one week during the year but I think it should be continuously carried out throughout the year on our televisions, radios and social media outlets. It is vitally important that people are aware. Believe it or not, there are people who have no smoke alarms in their houses. I spoke to a man recently who told me he considered it a nuisance because every time he was cooking it went off so he threw it out. It is very important that this matter is addressed.

Before I call the Minister of State, I welcome to the House Deputy James Geoghegan and his guest, Patrick Finlay.

I thank Senator Wilson. The last gentleman he spoke about reminded me of my father. Anytime he fries a sausage, the alarm goes off. We jest, but the Senator is bringing up a very serious matter. I thank him also for his bravery in sharing his own personal story and circumstances. That must have been a harrowing experience for him and his family. We can still hear a bit of emotion there because it was scary and he probably thinks to himself what might have been if those safety measures had not been in place in his own home. I genuinely hope that, by bringing it up in the Seanad today, he starts an awareness campaign or some type of policy change to make sure that more people feel safe in their homes. I will explain the policy position at the moment and what is being done. I will give my word that we will keep up the momentum on this from today so that we can see further advancements, certainly on the education side.

To set out what the policy is, my Department supports fire authorities through setting general policy, providing the legislative framework, running an essential training programme and issuing guidance on operational and other related matters ,and providing capital funding for priority infrastructure projects. In June 2017, a devastating fire claimed the lives of 72 people at Grenfell Tower in north Kensington, London. A Netflix show has recently been launched. In terms of this particular issue, it is well worth familiarising ourselves with that.

In response to the Grenfell tragedy, the then Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government directed the national directorate for fire and emergency management, NDFEM, to convene and co-ordinate a high-level task force to lead a reappraisal of fire safety in Ireland. My Department published Fire Safety in Ireland, the report of the fire safety task force, in 2018. Among the recommendations contained in the report were maintenance of community fire safety with a focus on people vulnerable to fire, additional fire safety awareness-raising activities and fresh fire safety messaging campaigns. Since the recommendation, my Department has established a new website, [ www.fireireland.ie ] , to provide information to citizens in the area of home fire safety including prevention, detection, evacuation and how to conduct a routine fire safety check. This website and general fire safety messaging is supported by a national campaign run annually by my Department on TV, radio and online. The latest media campaign benefited from a refresh campaign developed in 2024. The NDFEM has also developed fire safety leaflets, which were updated in 2023, and are delivered annually to fire services throughout the country to assist fire services' delivery of community fire safety messaging.

My Department annually runs national fire safety week which the Senator spoke about, which aims to enhance fire safety, particularly in the home. This is run jointly with the 27 fire authorities in Ireland and with Northern Ireland fire services, and begins with a live launch. The live launch in 2024 was held in Kildare and the 2025 launch is being held in Northern Ireland.

My Department also develops and funds a number of schools' education programmes for primary and post-primary education. In 2024, the primary school programme was updated, bringing Rua, the fire hound, to schools. Following these educational programmes, children often become drivers of fire safety in the home themselves.

The Department also worked with the Health Research Board. The latest research is aimed at examining geographic characteristics and other factors associated with alcohol-related fatal fires in Ireland. A paper relating to this research was published in early 2025. The research helps to understand causes and will be used to develop messaging.

I will come back with a short supplementary answer, but I completely take the Senator's point. I thank him for raising it. He is doing everyone a favour by highlighting the matter. There is policy around education. It is strong, but we can always do more and it can always be stronger.

The education aspect is vital. I am aware of some of the programmes conducted by the local fire services. An excellent programme is conducted in Cavan for third class pupils. I would like to see that extended to secondary schools as a refresher course, if possible.

The main message I want to get across, however, is that without smoke alarms, if there is a fire in your house, there is a 90% chance that you or your family will not wake up. The anomaly is that before the new regulations were introduced in 1997, houses were not required to have smoke alarms in permanent locations. We need an education programme, especially aimed at the owners of those houses, telling them to get fire alarms for every part of their homes. A fire alarm is not a nuisance. Someday, it could save a life.

I thank the Senator for the passion he brings to the topic. The Department has a community smoke alarm scheme which funds approximately 12,000 smoke alarms annually. It was further extended to include more vulnerable and high risk households through the introduction of alarms for the hard of hearing in 2023-24. So far in 2024-25, the scheme has seen 15,000 standard alarms and 240 alarms for the heard of hearing supplied to fire services. There is a scheme. It could be expanded and rolled out on a greater scale. I do not know how practical it would be to address every household, but, certainly, the more households we can get these alarms into, the better. There are approximately 1.8 million households in Ireland, but the Senator is targeting those built before 1997. That makes complete sense. On the back of this, we definitely need a further focus on education and not just a weekly campaign in the year, but an all-year-round campaign on fire safety and the extension of the community alarm scheme to make sure more households get alarms. I again thank the Senator for raising the matter.

Before we continue, I welcome guests of Senator Rabbitte, namely the students from St. Ita's Primary School, Loughrea, who are visiting Leinster House.

I ask the Acting Leader to propose that we suspend because a vote has been called in the Dáil. We will come back immediately after it is held. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House.

I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to be in the Chamber to take this matter. I acknowledge my colleague, Councillor Rory Cocking, who has been working closely on this issue with me.

The issue I raise is particularly important at present as we traditionally see a big increase in the number of passport applications made at this time of year, as people head off on their summer holidays. From first-time applications to renewals because of lost or out-of-date passports, I am sure all my colleagues have been contacted at some point regarding a passport application.

We currently have two publicly accessible Passport Offices, one on the South Mall in Cork and one in Mount Street in Dublin, in addition to a passport printing facility in Balbriggan in Dublin. Of these three buildings, only two actually print passports and both are located in Dublin.

Last year, more than 1 million passports were issued and we see forecasts of similar numbers to be issued this year. It is vital that the Department carry out a review of the necessity to establish a passport printing service outside the capital.

In some cases, we are literally talking about a matter of hours as to whether a passport is printed and dispatched or collected, allowing an applicant to travel or not. People may be required to travel to Dublin at short notice to collect a passport and then return to Cork or Farranfore to catch a flight. The current concentration of printing in Dublin is a disadvantage to those coming from other parts of the country. We need to see an expansion of the service.

I welcome the Tánaiste’s recent confirmation that there are 117 staff employed in the Cork Passport Office and that the department is to be moved to a new building next year to allow for increased staffing. This is great news and I really welcome it. It provides us with the perfect opportunity to start printing passports in Cork.

We also see the expansion of Cork Airport, which I note was awarded best European regional airport last week, and the fantastic works going on there, with an estimated 3.4 million travellers expected to use the airport this year, increasing to 5 million within five or six years.

I also mention the possibility of a quicker urgent passport appointment service. This service ensures the quicker turnaround of renewal applications for a slightly higher fee. Currently, urgent renewal services in Cork Passport Office take four days whereas in Dublin Passport Office, the service is a same-day turnaround. We see again here a gross disparity between the Cork and Dublin services. Many from Cork and the surrounds tend to use the Dublin service, as time can always be of the essence. The strong demand for the service means that appointments are at a premium, particularly during the summer and school holidays. As a result, I believe a reduction in the turnaround period in Cork would see in an increase in service users locally, which would, in turn, decrease the pressure on the Dublin services and free up appointments.

I thank Senator Lynch for tabling this Commencement matter, which I am taking on behalf of An Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris.

The passport service is successfully meeting current demand for passports. To date this year, the passport service has issued more than 536,000 passport books and cards. As the Senator said, last year was a very strong year in terms of the number of passports delivered. The customer service hub is responding to almost 12,000 phone and webchat queries every week.

The passport online service offers Irish citizens the ability to apply online for their passport 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This award-winning service has allowed for the centralisation of passport processing, which has resulted in greater efficiencies for our citizens across the country and for the passport service. Passport online is a user-friendly, efficient service.

Over 93% of all passport applications are now made through the passport online channel, which is available to 99.9% of applicants. Almost half of adults now renew online, and that is the vast majority of passport applications. In that instance, most are processed within two working days. To achieve these types of results and continue to improve the service, the Department has made a huge investment in the passport service. The passport service employs a total of 848 staff, which represents 97% of the approved staffing target for this year. Additionally, where necessary, the passport service offers voluntary overtime to staff to ensure service continuity. This workforce planning ability has allowed the passport service to maintain its current turnaround times in the face of what are really increased demands. The passport service operates three passport book printing machines, and as the Senator said, two of those machines are located in the main production facility in the Balbriggan campus, and the third machine is located in the Dublin 2 office. All three machines are currently located in Dublin.

The printing and dispatching of passports is, as Members are aware, a highly automated process in what is essentially an industrial production system. All production facilities can print passports irrespective of the channel through which the application is processed. We can now print 250 passports per hour through each printer. An Tánaiste is satisfied that the printing capacity of production equipment currently employed by the passport service is sufficient to meet both the current and the projected future demands for passports.

The passport service estimates that the initial capital cost of purchasing and installing a new printer and mailing machine would be in the region of €5.3 million. In addition to that capital investment, these highly sophisticated machines require expert engineers to be on site when they are in operation to maintain and serve the machines and to repair them when necessary. The running and maintenance costs alone are estimated to be approximately €600,000 per year. The public offices of the passport service in Dublin 2 and in Cork, as the Senator mentioned, operate an urgent appointment service for renewals. While I appreciate that the Senator is not satisfied with the turnaround time in Cork being so different from the turnaround time in Dublin, it is still a four-day turnaround time. Therefore, it should help people.

I reiterate that just 1% to 2% of passport applications we deal with require an urgent appointment service. For those reasons, a business case cannot be made to invest the required level of funds to facilitate the very small proportion of applicants who wish to have their passport renewed within a one-day timeframe in Cork. I appreciate that is not the news that the Senator or Councillor Rory Cocking is looking for, but it is the business case I have been asked to outline on behalf of the Tánaiste. He assures me he is satisfied that the current passport online service and production capacity meets the need of passport applicants. We will continue to consider ways in which we can enhance this service going forward.

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. As she correctly outlined, it is not the response I hoped to get. I take the point that passport renewal is a fantastic service, and 99% of people are able to avail of it. However, the issues around time generally are not caused by renewals. They are caused by new applications. It is important for that to be mentioned along with the disparity between a one-day turnaround in Dublin and a four-day turnaround in Cork. I have already mentioned the massive extension of passengers and footfall in Cork Airport. We also have Shannon Airport and Farranfore Airport. These are three quite substantial airports in the south west. This would be a good investment. I appreciate the business case. It is quite a substantial amount of money. I completely accept that. However, the turnaround times are causing difficulty; it is not the renewals. I wish again to pay tribute to the passport staff and the Department staff because in my role as a Senator and in my former role as a councillor, they have been incredibly efficient and helpful. As I said, I feel that this is an area where we are lacking.

I thank the Senator. Demand for passports is increasing. That is happening throughout the country and in the Senator’s region too. Given that Cork Airport, Shannon Airport and Farranfore Airport are in the region, I can appreciate that there are people who want to be able to collect and go straight to the airport, but the message from the passport service is not to rely on an urgent turnaround time and to apply on time. Demand for passports is, as I have said, increasing quite dramatically. Due to the Department's vigilant monitoring of passports and proactive management of resources, the passport service is now in a position to meet the forecasted demand for 2025.

The Senator mentioned in her opening remarks that the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, spoke about plans to move the passport service in Cork to a new building. To give an update on that, it does at this point sound like this will be ready in the second half of 2026. That is going to give us an opportunity to expand the footprint in Cork as there is need and indeed demand, as the Senator outlined. That investment shows the Government’s commitment to providing Cork with a world-class passport service. I hope that timeframe is welcome news for the Senator and Councillor Rory Cocking.

I thank the Minister of State. I understand the Minister of State is staying with us for the next two Commencement matters. I thank her very much for her time.

I am here today to raise a matter that speaks to bodily autonomy, trauma-informed care and basic respect for women who have gone through far too much. I refer to the case of Sarah, a woman who underwent a radical hysterectomy in 2019. Her uterus, cervix, ovaries, Fallopian tubes and surrounding tissue were all removed. She has been medically confirmed not by one but by three different doctors as no longer requiring cervical screening. These include the surgeon who carried out her operation in London, her gynaecological oncologist here in Ireland and her own GP. Yet five years later, Sarah remains unable to opt out of the CervicalCheck register. She has asked repeatedly to be removed, at first providing medical grounds and documentation and later simply requesting to opt out. Despite this, the national screening service insists she undergoes yet another pelvic examination and a GP informed submission to confirm, once again, that she does not require screening. This is not only medically unnecessary but deeply traumatising. Sarah is someone who was failed by CervicalCheck in the past. She had three smears between 2016 and 2019, all of which were marked normal despite being symptomatic. Her pathology report following surgery revealed abnormal cell growth that had been entirely missed. She trusted the system once and it failed her. Now, instead of recognising the trauma that it caused, the system is forcing her to relive and all to be believed about her own body.

Why is a woman not allowed to make the decision for herself? Why is a signed declaration or existing medical evidence not enough? This policy is not rooted in patient care. It is rooted in paternalism. It reflects a broader culture of mistrust and a lack of agency for women in how their healthcare is managed. I ask for this policy to be reviewed urgently. Women who have undergone a total hysterectomy and have sufficient medical evidence must be able to opt out of the CervicalCheck register without further invasive procedures or bureaucratic barriers.

I thank the Senator for raising this really important issue. I am taking this on behalf of the Minister for Health and I have been provided with a script which I am sure will be provided to the Senator. I am quite concerned because the situation the Senator has outlined does not tally with some of what is in here. Let me read what is in here in relation the Senator's very specific question about opt-out procedures.

What the Department has advised is that the national screening service advises that any woman may remove herself from the cervical screening register if she wishes to discontinue her participation in screening and she is not required to provide a reason. This can be done by letter, email, phone or by completing the opt-out form. That sounds different from Sarah’s experience as outlined by the Senator. I am concerned by that because the official advice is it should be possible to opt out of this. To give a little bit of background to it, the Department has been quite clear that, if a woman has had a hysterectomy, in some instances cervical screening may still be advisable. It is not that in all instances, if someone has had a hysterectomy, they should be, ought to be or may wish to be removed, and that it does come down to clinical advice that has been provided. Therefore, the national screening service will often ask a woman to confirm with her gynaecologist at the time of her hysterectomy, in particular if it has had to do with cervical cancer, if she has any residual cervical tissue. Sometimes that needs to be monitored and that is often a reason women may wish to and may get medical advice to stay on the screening register. In Sarah's case, it sounds like she has had that medical advice and that appears to have been very clear. The advice from the Department is very clear, that this should be doable.

I am happy to raise this directly with the Minister on the Senator's behalf. If she wants to follow up with additional information, I am happy to take that too. The Senator will get a copy of the full and formal response, but that is the piece I think is most relevant, and diverges from the experience outlined by the Senator on the floor of the House today.

I thank the Minister of State. I would love the Minister for Health to come to me directly on this issue. This case highlights that the person in question has had three different medical professionals saying she does not need to be there and can opt out because there is no need for it. It is causing her trauma. As the Minister of State said, regarding tissue perhaps being left over, etc., this person has none of that. Everything has been removed. It is very traumatising for her every time to have to prove she has actually undergone this traumatic experience. It is not good enough. I would really welcome a response from the Minister for Health on this issue.

Every year, 250 women in Ireland are diagnosed with cervical cancer and, sadly, around 90 lives are lost to this disease. It is something the Government takes very seriously. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is very passionate about it. Ireland is on track to eliminate cervical cancer in just 15 years, by 2040. That will be remarkable progress that will save lives. Cervical cancer, as we know, is among the few cancers that can be effectively prevented with vaccination and cervical screening. This is why it is so important that we continue to advise people to take part in these screenings, where it is appropriate for them.

I thank the Minister of State for being here to take this Commencement matter. I know she has a particular interest in County Kildare because she told me previously that her mam is from Ballymore Eustace in south Kildare. I am sure all the Minister of State's relatives there are very proud of her success. Fair play to her.

I am raising the issue of a proposed secondary school that will for up to 1,000 students. It has been agreed it will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 will have 16 classes for 425 pupils and phase 2 will have an additional 21 classrooms, including provision for special educational needs, as well as PE facilities, a library, etc. This school is going to be on a shared campus with two primary schools, Gaelscoil Mhic Aodha and the Kildare Town Educate Together national school. Why is it that this school is so urgent? Basically, we have a major capacity issue in Kildare town and Newbridge. Kildare town only has one secondary school. For the past six or seven years, there has not been enough space for all the children from Kildare town, let alone those who come from places near at hand that do not have secondary schools, including Milltown, Suncroft, Cut Bush and the Curragh. The secondary schools in Newbridge and Kildare town are the feeder schools for these areas, even though some of these schools are not official feeder schools. This causes a huge problem when it comes to sixth class. The stress the students, parents and families are undergoing is huge. Every year, from October and November on, many calls are made to me and other public representatives in this regard.

The agreement was that the Curragh Community College would be given temporary accommodation by the Department of Defence to try to fill the gap. It has done an incredible job in difficult circumstances. In fact, I had a Commencement matter in the House not too long ago on providing proper transport from Newbridge and Kildare town, which is not happening. I understand from the Minister, however, that we should hopefully have something in place in September. This is now a crisis. Our schools in Newbridge and Kildare town are full. The school proposed for the site of the former Magee Barracks is to provide badly needed capacity in a modern building with four SEN units. This is to be welcomed.

It took some time for the contract to be signed with the vendor. The planning application was lodged in October 2023. It took a year to get planning permission. An appeal to An Bord Pleanála was granted in January 2025. To be fair, the board dealt with the matter quite quickly. The issue mainly concerned the traffic management plan.

I am aware the NTA had signed off on a 115-page plan from Kildare County Council in regard to that. This project is being managed under the accelerated delivery of architectural planning and tendering, ADAPT, programme. It is currently at stage 2b. It had been agreed that the school would be open for August 2026. We still have enough time for that to happen, but I am concerned because we are only at the tender stage of the process. Every commitment I have been given, once we had the initial delays, was for a date of August 2026. We must have this school open and functioning, even if it is just in phase 1 at that point. That is the reason for my question. I have been raising the issue on a continual basis and I will continue to seek updates.

I thank Senator O'Loughlin very much for raising this matter, which provides me with the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth and to outline to the Seanad and the Senator's constituents the current position on the major building project at the Curragh Community College in Magee Barracks in Kildare. As she outlined, this project is a very important school building project for Kildare. She spoke about schools in Kildare town and Newbridge being under pressure and the extra capacity this school will provide and how welcome it will be for the area. For that reason, this project is included in the Department of Education and Youth's construction programme, which will be delivered under the national development plan, NDP, as part of the Project Ireland 2040 framework.

As the Senator outlined, the brief for this project is to provide a new permanent school for the Curragh Community College. The project is designed to be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 will deliver accommodation for 425 students and phase 2 will deliver the remaining accommodation to provide for a long-term projected enrolment of 1,000 students at the former Magee Barracks site in County Kildare.

Senator O'Loughlin outlined that the design team lodged its initial application for planning permission for the preferred design option with the local authority in October 2023. There was a substantial request for further information, RFI, from the local authority in respect of the planning application. Following the submission of the information, the local authority made an initial decision to grant planning permission, with conditions, in October 2024. The initial granting of planning decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála and the design team received An Bord Pleanála's decision to grant planning permission in early February of this year, just a number of months ago.

Senator O'Loughlin mentioned that the project is currently at the architectural planning stage - stage 3 - tender action and award and it is a priority project for delivery by the Department. The Senator also mentioned the ADAPT programme, which is all about accelerated delivery.

The design team issued the tender to the Department's design and build framework of contractors, with a return date of May 2025, just last month. The design team is currently reviewing the tenders received and will forward its report to the Department, with its recommendations, for review and approval. Once the Department has the review, it will then be in contact with the design team and the school to progress the project. I understand the urgency of the matter for Senator O'Loughlin and the people she is dealing with, in particular to get phase 1 up and running. I hope she can see that progress is evident.

I thank the Minister of State. It is welcome news indeed that a number of tenders have been received and are currently being reviewed, and that the report of the review team will then be submitted to the Department. What is sadly lacking in the response is a commitment to the end date and to enabling students to start in August 2026.

I appreciate that a number of steps must be gone through. We had a horrific situation in St. Paul's Secondary School in Monasterevin where a contractor who was not awarded the tender took the Department to court, which unfortunately pushed that project out. I seek some level of surety that if things go according to plan - none of us can ever plan for unintended consequences - the school will be ready to open on schedule. The Curragh Community College, which has been in existence for some time, is pushing the boat out to accommodate the extra numbers, but it is causing problems with transport and for those who have to move away from their town. Could the Minister of State bring back the message to the Minister that we need surety?

I absolutely hear the Senator on this. She wants to know when students will be able to walk into the school. Unfortunately, I cannot answer that today. We must make sure that the tenders that come in are valid and are awarded correctly. Then the construction phase must be entered into. I am sure that is something the Minister will keep the Senator informed of. Certainly, the Department will work closely with the school management to make sure that happens in as timely a fashion as possible.

The Department continues to support the delivery of an extensive school infrastructure programme. Since 2020, the Department has invested in the region of €5.9 million in our schools throughout the country. That has involved the completion of over 1,350 school building projects. I have no doubt that the Department of education is working hard to make sure that the school building to which the Senator refers is added to that list shortly.

I thank the Senator for raising this matter and for giving me the opportunity to answer on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth. I assure the Senator that the Department is conscious of the need to continue to support the operation of the school system in County Kildare and will be in contact with the school and its patron as soon as the tender process is completed.