Yes, it is important to mention region and transition and the regional spatial economic strategy as well as investment in the west.

It is very important to represent the needs of the west, particularly the east Galway wastewater treatment plant. I call Senator Alice-Mary Higgins, who is also from the west.

I thank the Senator for making great points. It is also very important to increase LocalLink transport services. I call Senator Gavan and he has six minutes.

I welcome the Minister of State here today and wish everyone Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona. I almost forgot that St. Patrick's Day will be next week. I support this Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill and the amendments. As the Minister of State mentioned, it is a priority Bill to reform the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 and the Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Act 2015 to support people facing personal debt. When we are talking about personal debt it could be people simply facing credit card debt as well as those facing m…

I welcome the Minister. It is great to see this Bill before us and I am delighted to support it. What we are looking at here is increasing the duration of parents' leave from two to five weeks' paid leave for parents of children under the age of one. It shows the Government's support to young families. I also welcome the support for same-sex couples to avail of adoptive leave. The Minister also mentioned increasing the number of board members of Tusla from five to nine. Out of curiosity, I would be interested to kn…

I welcome the Acting Chairman, Senator Currie, who has taken the Chair on this auspicious day - International Women's Day. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit Collins and I thank him for joining us here today. Today, in Ireland, the actual amount of female representation in senior positions at third level is shocking to many. We need change and this has been proven by: the Equality Tribunal in 2014; the 2016 Higher Education Authority, HEA, review of gender and equality; the Gender Action Plan 2018-2020; and the gend…

The Athena SWAN charter is one thing but it is not enough. We need to ensure that women come through. Although there is 26% of professorships, only 30% of applications came from women. In other words, we need to ensure there is funding available for starting investigators, PhDs, post doctorates and increasing funding at IRC and SFI level. We need to make sure that the centres of excellence being funded bring through women principal investigators, PIs, as well and not solely excellence. We know excellence exists. Lo…

It may take another 20 years to do it.

I wish the Leader of the House a happy International Women's Day. I thank Sinead Guckian for such a wonderful work of art. It is absolutely beautiful. Today, we celebrate hard-won achievements by both men and women for equality and gender diversity. However, unless women are sitting at the table, then we do not have equality and we are not making the decisions. Angela Merkel spoke about the EU gender equality report and the impact of Covid-19 on equality. All of the lower income jobs lost in the hospitality, travel…

I have enjoyed the past half an hour, listening to everyone's statements and the stories that have been told. There has been a richness to the stories about our families and the strong women in our lives, including our mums and grandmothers. It hits me that we are very fortunate. All of those women lived through hard times such as the war-torn years in the 1940s, and we know the infant mortality rates in that time. They lived through times of recession and emigration. I sometimes wonder how we are here today at all…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. Táimid an-bhródúil as a bheith ag caint sa Teach seo. Tá ráiteas an Aire Stáit ar fáil lasmuigh den Seomra. Tá ocht nóiméad ag gach urlabhraí. Glaoim ar an Seanadóir Mullen.

Glaoim ar an Seanadóir Clifford Lee anois.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as an ráiteas sin, inar luaigh sí an bhean an tí a bhí aici agus í sa Ghaeltacht.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir. Tá na grúpaí atá ag obair ar son na Gaeilge an-tábhachtach. Beidh ráiteas an Aire ar fáil nuair atá sí ag caint. Ní bheidh sé ar fáil before then. Glaoim ar an Seanadóir Ó Donnghaile.

Glaoim ar an Seanadóir Catherine Ardagh anois.

Tá an ceart ag an Seanadóir. Tá beagáinín Gaeilge agus Béarla ag gach duine agus is tábhachtach iad a úsáid gach lá.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir. Tá Gaelscoil, Scoil Uí Cheithearnaigh, i mo bhaile i mBéal Átha na Sluaighe ach ní raibh sí ann nuair a bhí mé ar scoil.

Is lá na mban é, a Sheanadóir Garvey. Tá an teanga an-saibhir agus tá an-suim agam in etymology na mbailte freisin. Glaoim ar an Aire labhairt anois.

I welcome the attendance by the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, on behalf of the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, to discuss this urgent and serious issue related to the building section of the Department. In 1996, the Department of Education amalgamated two national schools in Ballinasloe, St. Grellan's boys' school, which dates to 1937 and the opening of which my father remembers as he was one of the first students, and the Sisters of Mercy junior infants' and girls' national school, which was my primary …

I thank the Minister of State for her response. It is important we get clear timelines from the Department. I request that the design team completes the current specification request of Galway County Council and meets the safety requirements, such as safe drop-off and pick-up zones, that the Department of Education commit to co-fund the land outside the school buildings section, that new planning permission be submitted by the design team by the end of April 2021 and that there is a commitment from the design team …