I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins.

I raise the very pressing and worrying issue of Russia's plans to conduct a military exercise in waters off the Irish coast next month. The area is about 130 nautical miles off the coast of Cork and is firmly within Ireland's exclusive economic zone. We can all agree that there is grave concern in both military and political circles in Ireland. I will certainly not pretend to be a military expert on this but I note that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, has told Russia that the exercise is not welco…

Senator Doherty talked about this as an issue that is in the shadows. If the House will be good enough to indulge me, I would like to share some of the evidence and testimony that was gathered in advance of putting this Bill together. This work was done by the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO. We have referenced the fact the INTO is the organisation that has been pushing this matter. It did a considerable amount of work and research and gathered some very personal testimony, if I may be honest. People sha…

First, I express my sympathy and condolences to the Murphy family and the Tullamore community on the senseless murder of Ashling Murphy. Second, I warmly welcome the announcement made today that public healthcare workers who worked on the front line during the Covid-19 pandemic are to receive a once-off €1,000 tax-free payment. I note and particularly welcome that student nurses who did placements in hospitals and healthcare settings are also in line for the payment. That is good news for student nurses to kick off…

I welcome the Minister to the House and welcome the Chair of the committee. I will only cover a couple of points from the report and the recommendations. It is a hefty report and the Deputy read out the ten recommendations from it. I flag, first of all, the concerns regarding the ability of special needs assistants to maintain social distance. As I stated to the Minister previously, I am in a number of education chats and there are many issues coming up. That seems to be something that is still raising concern in t…

I have my full Christmas regalia on today. I want to reflect on the news that Cappagh Kids is not going to receive additional funding for orthopaedic paediatric care in 2022. I think we can all agree this is devastating news for patients, parents and staff who are trying hard to care for children with scoliosis. It is hard for me and for the children and carers affected to understand why cost effective, sustainable healthcare is not being considered. Children are waiting for too long in severe pain for surgery. Let…

I welcome the Minister. Many of us saw this day when we would need to have extra restrictions coming. I remember saying here that it would be a nightmare to have to come back here and do all that again, but here we are. I suppose that is the nature of the pandemic. I hope we are operating as though this is the last time it is going to happen. We can hope it is the last time but we must plan as though it is not. We need a strategy and antigen testing that works. The Taoiseach told my colleague Deputy Duncan Smith th…

I will be sure to tell the people who have mentioned it to me. We need to talk about the long term. We keep coming in here to discuss these emergency measures but according to the WHO, Covid will be with us until 2023. I hope we can come up with a better legislative approach than repeatedly coming into the House and having the same arguments over an hour, when we all recognise what we need to do. The debate in the public is becoming more base. It is becoming poorer. People are engaging at a much more base level. Th…

I have been listening to the debate in my office. I did not jog here, because I am in a brace, but I did walk very swiftly. I did not get to contribute yesterday. We are all speaking about our own secretarial assistants and people who we have worked with. I have to speak about Ellen Murphy who works with me. She does the Lord's work and goes above and beyond. We are a team. She keeps the office going. Everyone has said this. She has kept things flowing smoothly over the past year, particularly when my father was si…

I refer to the Fórsa campaign. There was a briefing in the past hour. I would say it is hot off the presses but, alas, the campaign is about an ongoing issue. It is the Respect for SNAs campaign, which aims to highlight the value and role of special needs assistants. This is following up on the Department of Education's refusal of a new union claim for a new minimum qualification for SNAs. This has not been altered since the introduction of the childcare assistance scheme in 1979. The campaign is to gain recognitio…

I welcome the Minister for Education to the House. I am the education spokesperson in the Seanad but I also cover further and higher education, innovation, research and science. If the Minister will indulge me, I might discuss education from primary level to tertiary level. I am the Senator for students, after all, so I might try to cover a couple of different areas, if that is all right. I want to refer to government and leadership. I appreciate that the Minister will continue to do everything to keep schools open…

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy James Browne, to the House.

I welcome the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, to the House.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. Senator O'Loughlin has four minutes.

I thank the Minister of State for coming in to address the matter and Senator O'Loughlin for raising it.

We are using a lot of language about extracting and harvesting. I do not know if that is a reflection of what we are talking about when we speak of removing peat from the earth. It is more suitable to say we are mining peat because it is not renewable in any relevant timescale. It takes an enormous amount of time to renew peatlands. We should start calling it mining. I do not know how the public would feel about that but it is a useful word to put into people's minds. Many of the points made in the debate end up be…

I thank the Minister for coming to the House on this issue. On behalf of the Labour Party grouping, I express my sincere sympathies to all survivors and their families. We have received, as has every Oireachtas Member, an enormous amount of communication on this issue. We have met and spoken to survivors and affected persons and their families. Even when walking through the corridors of Leinster House, I have stopped and spoken to people who have been deeply affected by this issue. I want to put on record my person…

The first issue I wish to raise this follows on from the abortion working group. I am aware that the group has contacted the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to express serious concerns over the confusing and somewhat contradictory messages regarding the legally mandated abortion review. I share the group's concern. The review was announced last March and six months on there is still a lack of clarity on the timeline and scope of the review. When he was questioned on 9 November, the Taoiseach had very …

I wish to share my time with Senator Mark Wall. I want to flag some areas that I hope are of importance to the Taoiseach. I could not stand up here without referring to student nurses and midwives. As a former Minister for Health, the Taoiseach will be all too familiar with the work they do, but the issue of pay has still not been resolved. This is scandalous. I plead with the Taoiseach to show leadership on this issue; leadership that I can assure him the country is calling out for. The Taoiseach said in his openi…

I thank the committee Chairman for being present for this discussion. First, I will say for the record and for anybody who is listening to or watching this debate who has survived sexual assault, rape or any sort of violence, I believe you. I know that you were there. I know your pain. I believe you and you did nothing wrong. You survived and however you chose to handle the moments, hours, days, weeks and months after, you did their best. I stand with you. I know that I am not the only Member who feels the same. I …