I thank the Minister. Even now that their placements have been suspended, many student nurses and midwives are back in hospitals working as healthcare assistants. When offered the opportunity to stay at home or find work elsewhere, many have gone back into hospitals, which is incredibly admirable. A student described it to me as: Terrifying, stressful, feel unsupported, feel as if I am a staff nurse and not an intern - 8 of my patients tested positive for covid, all staff nurses present were identified as close con…

I thank everyone for their contributions. I thank the Minister for being here. I have recovered a little from my nervous jog up the stairs and I am a little calmer now that we are on the other side of my first go at this. It seems that all in the room are in agreement that student nurses and midwives should be paid while they are working. It is clear from the testimonies of the students I read into the record today that student nurses are working from their first year all the way up to their final year. We are havi…

Next Tuesday.

I thank the Minister of State for her reply and engagement on this issue, which I thank Senator Mullen for raising.

I thank the Minister of State for her reply and for being here this morning through three Commencement matters. I thank Senator Buttimer for raising this very important issue, which we have discussed at the Joint Committee on Health.

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Noonan, to the House.

While we have the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, here I might suggest a slight change to the running order as proposed by the Cathaoirleach and call Senator Fiona O'Loughlin next and then move to the matter to be dealt with by the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien. I have been in the Chair 20 seconds and the power has gone to my head. I am causing chaos and changing things up and down. Is that agreed? Agreed. Whatever will I do next?

I am causing chaos. As that has been agreed, I call Senator O'Loughlin to raise her Commencement matter.

I will bounce through a number of issues today as quickly as I can. The first is about students travelling for practical laboratories. A number of students have contacted me because they are concerned about bringing Covid-19 into their homes. On-campus laboratories are still mandatory for students completing courses with a practical element, which has left students throughout the country who are back in their family homes or in counties other than their place of study left in the position of having either to travel…

I am very glad to be a part of this discussion. I welcome the Minister of State to the House again. We chatted at a different session earlier today. We are living through the most strange and difficult times. We are living with restrictions for fear of our health and that of our loved ones, with the sense that no matter how hard we try to do what is asked of us, the goalposts keep moving. It can be a daily struggle for us all. The past few weeks has been particularly tough for many of us, and I am not afraid to say…

I can wrap up pretty quickly; I will not use the whole slot. I want to take a moment to reflect. Senator Seery Kearney spoke about her dad having his sleeve practically rolled up for the vaccine and the hope that is giving to him. On New Year’s Day, my dad was having a general new year's telephone call with his friend. They are both ever so slightly hard of hearing so we all heard the call. They were roaring down the telephone at each other about whether each was getting the vaccine and one would say he could not w…

I rise to raise an issue of serious concern for students across the further and higher education sector regarding their placement requirements and their inability to fulfil their obligations in that regard due to Covid. A number of courses have a required placement as part of their professional qualification in order for students to proceed through their degree. I have been contacted by social care students, who for the second academic year in a row are not able to complete their placements. If they do not complete…

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I thank the Minister for coming into the House to talk about this issue. We are all talking about the same things and thinking about how AstraZeneca is going to impact on us. It is important, as was outlined, that the Government needs to turn its attention to the plan it has for our own vaccination programme. I know that the existence of the vaccine has provided an enormous amount of comfort and certainty for many people. This is at a time when an awful lot of things have occurred outside…

That is no problem. I will start by thanking the many people who have taken the time to speak to me over the past while on this particularly sensitive topic. I thank the Acting Chairperson in particular for talking to me last week and being kind with his thoughts and experiences. I thank some other people, including Samantha Long, who has been an eternal voice on this issue, for being so generous in publicly sharing her story again and again. I thank people like Maeve O'Rourke and all the legal experts who have giv…

I will go through two serious issues before we get to the niceties. It came up in my memory that this day two years ago, the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 passed through the Seanad. It has been two years since that legislation went through, which means it is up for review in the next 12 months. I know we have had a pandemic and things have been knocked off keel a little bit in terms of scheduling but I ask the Leader to make sure it is on the agenda for next year. It is an important matte…

I am pleased to be able to talk today on the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017 and that it will be known as "Coco's law". As many Senators here have, I commend Ms Jackie Fox for her relentless campaign, not only on getting this law passed but also to tackle the scourge of online bullying. I also think of, and commend, the other parents who have lost their children due to suicide because of online bullying. I can only image their pain and anguish when they tried to get legal recourse …

I am sure many Members saw items on the news about Hungary in the last 48 hours. I am sure many Senators will join me in expressing my dismay. For those who do not know, Hungary has amended its constitution to change the definition of family, preventing LGBT couples from adopting. Many people here will agree that this is an egregious backward step for LGBT people in Hungary and in Europe. I hope Senators will join me in expressing solidarity with LGBT people in Hungary, for whom this is a very difficult time. I als…

I am raising the need to address the issue around higher education funding being potentially lost to students who withdraw from their courses and the knock-on consequences that this will have not only for free fees - a term I use lightly - but also for their access to Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grants. There is a certain point, usually at the end of October, by which students must withdraw from their courses or serve notice that they do not wish to continue their learning if they want to be able to ac…

I thank the Minister of State for that. He indicated that an exception may be allowed. He also stated that a student who leaves a course mid-year may be eligible for a partial refund of contribution from the relevant higher education institution. Would that effectively set students who would not be eligible for a SUSI grant back to point zero? I note that SUSI has discretion to award a grant for a repeat period of study in exceptional circumstances. Will the Department be advising SUSI to consider circumstances rel…

Can I share my time with Senator Wall?