Yes, three and three is fine.

I thank the Minister of State for coming here. It is great to come into the Seanad after all the work has been done in the years beforehand and be able to say "Well done" on getting this legislation through. This is a delight. I was watching on the screen closely and the Minister of State was doing the exact same as the person signing on the screen and it was very clear. We talked about hopefully someday having representation in this House and I remember during the Seanad election campaign there was a candidate who…

It is unusual to be here today and not talk about student nurses with the Minister of State, as we have done every week for goodness knows how long at this point. It is a different topic today. I welcome the spirit of this motion. I thank the Green Party for putting this forward. We need access to contraception and it is high time we sorted this out. I know we have talked about it and there is a phased approach in the programme for Government. I am, however, deeply concerned about how sometimes when we do things st…

I will be jumping around a couple of topics if that is all right. I draw attention to the Labour Party request sent to all Deputies and Senators that they pledge their support to getting the Covid-19 vaccine if and when it is ready and to encourage constituents and people they know to get that vaccine. I mention it for the people who have not yet signed up or tweeted their support. It has the hashtag #vaccineswork. It would not be a normal week if I did not stand up to speak about my favourite topic, which is pay f…

I want to take a moment to reflect on an interview I heard on radio yesterday. I do not know if anyone else heard it. It was with three young carers under the age of 18. They were brilliant, kind young people who had taken on a role far beyond their years. The interview came about on foot of new research from Family Carers Ireland. The report suggests that almost 67,000 young people in Ireland, aged between ten and 17 years, provide regular unpaid care for a loved one. That is a large number of young people. The ce…

I have never spoken from this part of the Chamber before. It is a different layout or space for me. The referendum in 2004 is one of my earliest memories of politics. I was 16 at the time so I was aware of the concept of politics but it was the first time I was really aware of a political discussion happening. I remember being quite uncomfortable about the way some girls in my school were talking to others. I remember a sense of unease around it. I was not entirely sure what the story was, but I was uneasy. I remem…

I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss the technological universities agenda. My notes are scattered across various pieces of paper so I apologise to the people typing this up. First, I congratulate the Minister, CIT and IT Tralee for signing today for the legal establishment of the Munster Technological University, which will be effective from 1 January. As I always do when I speak in the House, I shall toot the horn of the student movement. When I was president of the Union of Students in Ireland, the stu…

The issues I will raise are not those I thought I would be talking about. This morning we had the first meeting of the Sub-Committee on Mental Health of the Joint Committee on Health. Senator Black is not here at present, but I commend her on getting that committee set up. We had a fruitful discussion about mental health during Covid and the knock-on effects that we will see for society and our mental health services beyond Covid. I will mostly talk about some of the issues we discussed this morning. We have had re…

I wish to reflect on third level education. There is a lot of talk about what will happen when students go back to college, if they go back after Christmas. Third level educators and the staff and teachers have been left in a grey area as to how they are to teach. They have been left in the grey a few times already this year, and that cannot happen again. I agree with what IFUT has said, that there needs to be a clear, agreed process as to how to conduct teaching and lectures for the new year. While the student exp…

Every time I stand up here, it seems like "Annie's confessions" and what anecdote I can bring to the House that is informing my political views. My views on animal rights are no secret, and that is what I will focus on. Like many in this House, I abhor animal cruelty. We have a long way to go towards living in harmony with our furry, scaly and winged friends. We are a country of animal lovers but we are also a country that, at times, has had a poor track record in accountability for animal cruelty. There are no cir…

Domestic violence does not just happen as physical violence behind closed doors. It also happens on mobile phones, family laptops and iPads. It can be image-based, financial, verbal or in a closed WhatsApp group. As our means of communication change and as our lives change with technology, we have to assume that this behaviour carries into the new wave of living too and we need to regulate these spaces. There are no stereotypes in domestic violence. It can happen in any home, on any platform, in any town, in a numb…

I have a timer so I can stay within my time. The Members will have to bear with me as I jump from page to page. I feel for the poor people who have to take note of my speeches. The Minister of State said in his speech that more than 45% of the Irish population holds private health insurance. In light of Senator Kyne's point, I find this an interesting figure. For the last five years or longer we have been talking about implementing Sláintecare. Millions of euros have been invested and countless hours have been give…

Senators may have seen over the weekend a rather discouraging piece in TheJournal.ie . A series has been done by Noteworthy on the way staff in the higher education sector are being treated. Many are on zero-hour or term-time only contracts or are not being paid for the enormous amount of overtime they do. Institutions will argue that they do not have the budgets to pay all of their staff, hence the use of these contracts and postgraduate students for unpaid tutorial or lecturing work. This is no way to treat staff…

Today I will reflect on two issues, both pertaining to gender. Over the weekend the Leader may have seen the hashtag #IrelandTurnsPurple which was floating around social media with many photographs of locations around Ireland lit up with purple lights. It was quite stunning to see images from Cork to Dublin to Galway and everywhere. The reason was that Sunday was International Intersex Solidarity Day. To commemorate the day the Intersex Mapping Study in DCU launched the Ireland Turns Purple campaign. More than 60 l…

I have a timer with me so, hopefully, I will not take too long. I welcome the Minister of State. We all appreciate the reality of the situation. We have been doing this for what feels like forever. People almost do not know another way. We are just living with Covid and in and out of things. I commend the efforts of everybody doing their bit to tackle this virus. I particularly wish to thank my sisters, one of whom is working long shifts to ensure we have sanitation items while the other is a healthcare worker cari…

I want to take a moment today to reflect on some of the global issues pertaining to human rights. Only two weeks ago, the situation in Nigeria in respect of corruption and other problems was raised in this House. I express my solidarity with the Nigerian community here and also to the people of Nigeria as they continue their campaign against corruption and for peaceful democracy. I also want to take some time to think about those living in Poland. I refer to the rolling back of protections regarding access to abort…

I was struck while reading this Bill by how, in such a short space of time and with the Government willing to tackle a crisis, compressive - albeit flawed, as Senator McDowell pointed out - and far-reaching legislation can be written, printed, amended, debated and passed through both Houses of the Oireachtas. While I agree the health crisis is of major national importance and is arguably one of the most important issues facing both Houses today, I find myself wondering how effective this Government could be in tack…

I put on the record my agreement with my colleague, Senator Boyhan, on behalf of the Labour group in opposing the Order of Business with its five guillotines in 24 hours. I have only been here six months but it seems like a record, even for this House, so I reiterate that we will oppose the Order of Business on that basis. I am thinking of all the many Nigerians living here in Ireland today. They are in all our communities. #EndSARS is a movement against police brutality in Nigeria and for an end to the special ant…

I rise to speak about maternity care in the time of Covid. Senator O'Loughlin has already spoken about this. Yesterday was Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I am sure Members will join me in thinking of those who have suffered a miscarriage, are waiting for their rainbow baby, have suffered infant loss, are struggling with their fertility, have suffered a stillbirth or are still yearning to be parents. We have all heard on the news, from friends and from constituents about the ongoing issue of lack of acce…

I thank the Minister for coming again to the House. She has been in and out regularly and we all appreciate her taking the time to be lambasted by questions about what has obviously been a challenging and difficult time for her. We accept that she has an enormous amount on her plate. She has dealt with reopening schools and had a lot of inherited messes to deal with. I do not think any of us would wish that on any Minister, particularly not a first-time Minister. I must commend her tenacity at what has obviously be…