I thank the Minister of State. It is great to hear that commitment. The commitment to Portiuncula University Hospital and the Saolta group mean that our healthcare teams in the west will be able to cope when faced with the worst public health crisis ever. It means that patients in our hospital will receive the care that they deserve. I ask the Minister of State to accelerate the project if at all possible. We need it now. As far as I know, the modular unit is up and running. Funding was received for that and the ho…

Like Senator Murphy, I have received notice, in the last hour, about what has been happening in east Galway. It is a private nursing home. The circumstances indicate exactly why we have moved to level 5, which is to protect and save lives. All of these measures that we have to endure, such as wearing a mask and taking a step back, are about saving lives. The nursing home is in dire straits. We are talking about the tracing and testing capability of the HSE but we also need to ensure we are supporting private nursin…

It is my first time speaking today but I spoke on Wednesday's Second Stage debate as well. The testimony and experience of the people who have spoken today is very powerful and there is a wealth of experience among all of us. Senator Bacik mentioned she has represented people before the institutional abuse redress board and Senator Boyhan spoke very passionately earlier. However, this is about justice for the survivors and families of the survivors. The question was asked if we had spoken with survivors and it was …

I will be brief. I thank the Minister. What he said was welcome to hear. For many of the volunteer groups, it will be welcome news. While having a database is important, the groups speak about how having access to original records for people whose loved ones went through this, for example, a copy book or something else that their loved ones produced, would mean a great deal. By "non-redacted", I meant that the documents would be transferred to Tusla in a way where there would be no redactions. Therefore, the databa…

I will follow up on some of the points Senator Gavan made as well. There are many volunteer groups helping survivors and members of their families to access these documents at present. The original records are still with the Departments. There is a challenge in the time and effort required to do that, but survivors and members of their families are accessing some of that information at present through the volunteer groups that are working on their behalf. However, it is not an easy process.

I welcome the Minister to the House for this debate on what is a very difficult topic. With the exception of Senator Craughwell, it is all women in the House today. We realise how important this situation is for women, including young women. I come from east Galway and the mother and baby homes in Tuam and Glenamaddy are the ones that are very much on my mind. I am mindful of the impact those homes had on these extremely rural areas in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, when society here was extremely conservative and whe…

I will try to divide it.

I will speak carefully and quickly. I welcome the Minister. This is an incredible budget for one of the most challenging times Ireland has faced. We are dealing with the loss of life and with the loss of our loved ones every day. We are fighting a battle against Covid-19 that will take all of our stamina, determination and resolve. As a country, our first priority is to protect and save lives. We are in the eye of the storm again. There are 32 people in intensive care, 22 of whom were admitted in the past 24 hours.…

I thank the Minister. I really appreciate her time as I know it is extremely hectic at the moment. It is shocking what happened with the calculated grades. I appreciate that the team within the Department of Education and Skills discovered these errors and brought them to the Minister's attention, and that an immediate plan of action was put in place. My question concerns the company that was involved, Polymetrika International, which the Minister mentioned in her statement last week. There was an investment of rou…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As per the Acting Chairman's instructions, I will keep my contribution brief. I very much welcome the investment in the HSE winter plan and acknowledge the fantastic work being done by our healthcare teams in primary care and in hospitals. The investment in community healthcare networks is particularly welcome, as are the additional 4.76 million home support hours provided under the home first initiative. I want to raise an issue that is local to me. Social services in …

I welcome the Minister of State, who is representing Galway and the west. It is also great to see such able representation of the west by so many Senators. The Minister of State has responsibility for international road transport and logistics. I thank her and her departmental team for the level of detail provided to the House today. Indeed, the detail and statistics that have been given are shocking. I recall running for the local elections last year and speaking about the fact that 32 million passengers had been …

I want to speak today about keeping swimming pools open across the country during Covid. I found out this week that Galway County Council is to make a decision this week in regard to the proposed closure of swimming pools in Ballinasloe and Tuam. Why should this matter to all of us? Most local authority swimming pools are operated by private operators. In the case of Ballinasloe, the swimming pool is operated by an Irish-owned, family-run company, which is a fantastic company that operates seven other pools across …

I am really surprised. The debate is to be on the amendments and the legislation. Instead, the Minister of State is getting attacked about what has come through in submissions. We know there have been over 9,000 submissions. There are over 12,000 people working in the sector who Senator Boyhan knows full well are waiting to ensure that they still have employment, that we get this legislation through and that we streamline and speed it up. Instead, we are listening to attacks on when we are going to hear about the a…

I welcome the Minister to the House and I thank him for the information he provided and acknowledge the proactive engagement with third level institutions by his Department over the last few months. The Department of further and higher education, research, innovation and science is a welcome development, bringing together the funding agencies of Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council. Ireland is renowned as a centre of learning, from Clonmacnoise to the excellence in research shown by our Irish r…

I welcome the Minister to the House. It is great to be in this wonderful room. To have the opportunity to speak twice today is a real honour. I thank the Minister for the detailed update. She went through a lot of information. To make a general point about the reopening of schools, I know that there was great excitement. I kept hearing about all the kids who were excited for the first week back and thought every day was like a school tour day. That novelty might now be wearing off but the joy of parents is still th…

August was a busy time for the west. There were more than 600 submissions to the Galway to Athlone cycleway project office in Ballinasloe, which shows the desire and need for the cycleway from Dublin to Galway to happen as soon as possible. I thank the more than 200 people who called to my office in Ballinasloe to make a submission on why Ballinasloe would be the perfect next destination on the greenway route. It would transform our town, particularly through working together with all other towns by consensus. Alon…

I congratulate Senator O'Reilly. It is a wonderful day. There was much support in Roscommon, especially from Pat, Mary's brother. It is a special day and the Senator will celebrate it well with his family. These are difficult and challenging times but the Senator will show us, in the time to come, all the wisdom and experience that he has learned so far. He has been very helpful to us, particularly to new Senators such as Senator Currie and I. It is a baffling, bewildering world at times, but Senator O'Reilly has a…

Like Senator Casey, I would very much like to thank the staff. I am very new, so this is a wonderful experience. It is wonderful to be in the Dáil Chamber and to see the sunshine coming in from outside. We do not see it on television, but it shines very beautifully on the ceiling. It provides haloes for all the angels here in the Chamber. I would like to discuss the stay-and-spend initiative. We have talked about it so much, but August is about to begin. For people who are thinking of taking a staycation, I wish to…

If people do not avail of the declaration, they are able to accrue time to build up their legal rights in the accommodation. I have heard a lot about tenants in today's debate. There seems to be an argument that we do not understand what it is like to be a tenant. As a tenant for many years, I know what it is like to be asked to leave one's accommodation. I know what it is like to be told that, because of the amount of time one has spent in a place, one has a given number of months to find somewhere else to live. I…

From my time on Galway County Council and having dealt with a number of housing queries, it was always Threshold that would come back to the tenants who made those queries. In every instance where a tenant presented a notice of termination of residency or tenancy, the first advice we always gave was that he or she should contact Threshold. That is what is done in Galway County Council and I assume it is the same in local authorities.