I acknowledge that the Minister is here in person. It does not always happen for Topical Issues but I am grateful for the fact that she is here. It is probably a reflection of the fact that she is getting the same emails I am getting from people in our constituency who are affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy. I am sure the Minister already knows about it but Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a condition that affects muscular restoration and muscular development, mostly in boys although not exclusively. It occurs f…

I thank the Minister. I join with her in thanking the HSE for the work that has been done and also acknowledge her commitment to this. Anybody who has dealt with families who are suffering with this disease understands both the heartbreaking nature of it and the urgency involved. Listening to what the Minister has said in relation to the progress and the managed access protocol, do we have a timeline for when it will be available? I accept entirely what the Minister has said about the clinical criteria for the appl…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an mBille seo. Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire freisin as ucht an luais a bhí leis. Nuair atáimid ag labhairt faoin dlí ag an leibhéal Eorpach, is gá dúinn na rialacha mar sin a chur sa dlí sa tír seo. Déanaim comhghairdeas leis maidir leis sin. Ag an am céanna, bhí mé ag éisteacht leis an díospóireacht anseo freisin. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil daoine sa Teach seo a bhfuil imní orthu faoi rudaí atá sa Bhille agus ceisteanna atá fós le freagairt ag an Aire. Labhróidh mé fúthu siúd ar feadh tama…

I support the Bill. This is not an issue to which I am a stranger. I have spent quite a lot of time in the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza. I have witnessed the way the Israeli Defence Forces have behaved. I have thankfully never been a direct victim but I have had stones thrown at me by Israeli settlers in Hebron, so I have seen first hand what is there. I have seen sonic bombs being flown over Gaza city. I understand what is happening there. I have consistently over 25 years been appalled by the ma…

I will start by saying something relatively controversial. I do not think RTÉ does a bad job; I think it does quite a good job. As a public service broadcaster, the difficulty it faces is that it is so often compared with international counterparts like the BBC, which is not perfect and which receives funding vastly beyond what RTÉ could ever expect to get in a small jurisdiction like ours. On the whole, I think it does a good job. RTÉ does a good job in the public service broadcasting space. I agree with Deputy O'…

I agree with much, if not everything, that has been said in the course of the debate by those on all sides. Balancing our skills need and development is important. I want to come at this from a slightly different angle, however. I am chair of the European affairs committee, and a delegation from the committee recently visited Luxembourg and met some of the people involved in the European institutions there. We know they exist throughout the European Union, including with Eurofound, which celebrates its 50th year in…

I welcome the Bill. The expansion of the terms in the legislation is welcome. We have to recognise that those who seek to access Dublin are not just necessarily from the county of Dublin or the immediate area, but come from further away. I am not sure about the wisdom of placing two Dún Laoghaire constituency Deputies one after the other because I listened to Deputy Devlin's speech and he hit on many of the issues that are important for our area. I, too, feel very strongly about them. One would think a place like D…

This is an issue that I have raised previously relating to a gap in the provision of the passport services. We are very lucky with the Passport Office. It does amazing work. I know from the work that my office does that the response that we get from the Passport Office is consistently excellent, co-operative and helpful. The Passport Office does not decide what goes into the passports insofar as a statutory regime provided for under the Passports Act 2008 dictates what should be in a passport. That is also in line …

I thank the Minister of State very much. I know he is providing the House with a response that has been prepared on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has described it as an "update". It is far from an update. I read through the transcript of what was said in the Seanad on 7 March 2023. There are so many similarities as there to be no update whatever so ever. It is exactly the same issue about what is required. The Minister of State said in his response is that it is not required by the Act. S…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I join Deputy Aird in acknowledging the work that is being done by people. He mentioned a number of different projects; bees were one of them. That kind of apiculture is really important. We know how much danger there is associated with the native Irish bee. There is an organisation in my own locality called Open Hive, which not only locates hives in places where they might not otherwise be - on private land, on top of apartment buildings and other places like that to…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach chun déileáil leis an gceist seo. In the election in 2024 his party and mine made a commitment to reduce the cost of childcare. This is an important tenet and in the Dún Laoghaire constituency childcare was one of the major issues people were talking to me about. They were essentially paying a second mortgage to put their children into childcare. It is an enormous cost and an enormous burden on households. The proposed reduction we promised in the election was t…

I thank the Minister of State. I do not doubt his bona fides on this topic. I started by acknowledging the work that has been done. I believe the commitment to reduce the cost of childcare was a serious and sincere one. Insofar as I have had any dealings with the people who fund the programme for Government, I believe that. I recognise the progress, the increased funding and all the rest. However, I will say two things. First, the Minister of State said a small number of facilities have exited the scheme. I would b…

Baineann mo cheist le fostaíocht san Aontas Eorpach. Tá gá orainn níos mó a dhéanamh chun eolas a thabhairt do dhaoine, go háirithe anseo in Éirinn, faoi na poist atá ar fáil agus an bealach ar féidir iarratas a dhéanamh orthu le go n-éireoidh leo lena gcuid iarratas agus na poist sin a thógáil. Tá sé sin thar a bheith tábhachtach, go háirithe an tseachtain seo nuair atá Lá na hEorpa á cheiliúradh againn Dé hAoine. Caithfidh muid a bheith in ann a rá i rith Uachtaránacht an Aontais Eorpaigh go bhfuil muid ag déanam…

I agree with the Minister of State on the effort being made. I acknowledge the work done by the Department of foreign affairs and European Movement Ireland. I also acknowledge that Noelle O'Connell has left as the head of European Movement and has been replaced by David Geary. We wish him the best of luck there. They do a particularly good job in terms of advertising jobs and making people aware. While I acknowledge that there has been success there, many of our highly qualified capable graduates are not aware of t…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an mBille seo. Tá sé thar a bheith tábhachtach. Tá gá leis na rudaí atá sa Bhille. This is welcome legislation. I want to particularly paraphrase what my colleague, the Sligo county councillor, Fergal Nealon, said in the media this week. He talked about psychedelic nicotine pushers. He was talking about shops in Sligo town that his own child was trying to get him to go into, even though they were vape shops. He said that the windows are designed essentially like a cartoon shop, a Disney shop or …

I will start by welcoming the Bill. Given that it amends the Air Pollution Act 1987, it is somewhat overdue in terms of updating a lot of the terminology. I have looked through it. While I welcome the Bill, its contents and the idea behind it, I want to start with a criticism. This is a criticism that I frequently make of legislation, particularly updating or amending legislation of this sort. When we look at the table of contents of this Bill, it amends the 1987 Act. Every section refers to things like,"Amendment …

The issue I want to raise with the Minister today has some similarity to the last issue in that it relates to Garda action, particularly in respect of juvenile antisocial behaviour cases. "Antisocial behaviour" is an umbrella term that covers many different activities. Some will say that antisocial behaviour is just that, antisocial, but of course it encompasses criminality as well. I fear there are certain young people who are behaving antisocially, but by extension criminally, with impunity. They are not being he…

I thank the Minister for his acknowledgement of the work gardaí in Dún Laoghaire and Blackrock are doing. I was delighted to welcome him to Blackrock when he visited recently. I appreciate his attention to the issue. I also acknowledge what he said about the progressiveness of the Children Act. That is important but if we are relying on Oberstown or incarceration for children, the system has already failed at that stage. There are people locally who tell me that there are young children who will say to them when th…

I join with other Members who have talked about the value of football and what it does for communities and for the nation. I congratulate both our men's and women's teams for their successes on the one hand and their disappointments on the other but their effort in both cases. Beidh lá eile acu. We have a great foundation to build on despite the disappointment in Czechia recently. I will focus on football at a local level. In Dún Laoghaire, we are blessed to have more than a couple of really excellent local footbal…

I welcome these measures and recognise that they are not enough to cushion everybody in this country from the effects of the greatest global energy crisis we have ever seen. It is unrealistic to tell people that the Government is in a position to do that. Let us be honest with people. Deputy Collins and I were on the radio this morning talking about this and he said he did not block anyone. I am not saying he did, but he supported people who did. Let us be honest about it, because those blockades stopped people get…