The Minister may be aware that Balfour Beatty is closing down its operations in Ireland. It has had a contract for years with Gas Networks Ireland that is paid for by public money. That contract is being taken over by GMC, which is seeking 70 redundancies from the Balfour Beatty workforce. The Minister may not be aware that GMC is bullying and intimidating workers into taking redundancy on the basis that if they do not take it now, they will lose out in a year's time. One of the reasons GMC is giving for these redu…

-----on our gas infrastructure. It is a breach of the principles of just transition.

It feels as if each summer, at least I think it is each summer, we reach the part of the Dáil session in which a motion to support post offices and keep them open is before the House. It has been a regular feature in the Dáil since I was elected to the House. Support for urban and rural post offices is shared across all parties and appears to unite all colours of political opinion. Every programme for Government states that it will support the urban and rural post offices. It is odd, therefore, that despite univers…

My question concerns the importance of social dialogue. I want to say that it is ironic that the State continues to treat many groups of workers appallingly. One key group is that of school secretaries, who do myriad jobs and who, during Covid, were heroic in keeping the schools open and being on the front line. Yet, questions remain unanswered about how social dialogue is treating them. Will school secretaries have to sign on for social welfare once again this summer? Why is there a delay in the WRC talks on this …

Last night, I watched “Prime Time” but I suspect most people here and elsewhere were watching the football. It dealt with the question of strategic housing developments. It was very interesting to watch it because it showed that current policy is clearly a failure of enormous proportions. It is good to see that it is being scrapped in October. However, a plethora of developments have been allowed to go ahead under strategic housing development, including one the programme touched on, which is the Player Wills-Baile…

Those projects are a disaster.

They are an utter failure.

They are not for the local people. They are build to rent.

It is the wrong type of development. The Taoiseach should watch the "Prime Time" programme.

For profit.

That is the point. We do not need houses for profit.

I do not agree with the previous speaker that extending the time limit is the only thing that we can do. We could scrap the current tribunal structure and listen to the 221+ patient support group, which pulled out of talks with the Minister because the group was not being listened to. The fact that this Bill exists at all is an admission by the Government and Minister that the original Act has failed. If the Act had succeeded in its aims, it whould not be necessary to extend the deadline. The extension is an admiss…

Are we taking the whole section together?

I believe amendment No. 2, which I tabled, has been ruled out order. Is that correct?

Okay. I wish to back up the arguments made by Deputy Cullinane. At the end of the day, there is a significant exclusion of all sorts of categories of women from the tribunal. For example, if one's case involves a spouse, one cannot go before the tribunal. That would mean that Vicky Phelan and Jim Phelan and Ruth Morrissey and Paul Morrissey would be excluded from the tribunal were they to try to apply to it. As I stated earlier, if Vicky's case was starting today, she would be totally excluded from it. The other ca…

I move amendment No. 4: In page 4, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: " Amendment of section 17 of the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019 2. Section 17 of the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019 is amended by the insertion of the following after subsection (6): “(7) The Tribunal shall be entitled to award aggravated damages in circumstances where— (a) the Tribunal determines that a claimant has been cross-examined in an unnecessarily aggressive and/or adversarial manner by a respondent, or (b) the Tribunal de…

I do not understand that response. We have all gone through the debate here today, as short as it was. It was a short debate on a most important topic. The Minister is telling me that the safeguarding of women against adversarial proceedings is built into the process, but the provision for it is not in the Act. If the Minister accepts that, and I am tabling the amendment that he originally tabled, why would he not accept the amendment, at the very least to indicate to those who do not trust the tribunal that he is …

I want to reply to the Minister because he said at the outset the Bill was necessary because time is of the essence and people are very sick and need access and things to move along. Why, therefore, did he not listen to the women and their representative organisation, the 221+ group, when they made the point to him that eligibility criteria to gain access to the tribunal must be extended for it to be real? If it is not, the Minister is excluding around 300 women from access to the tribunal. That is why there are so…

I move amendment No. 5: In page 4, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: "Reports 2. Within 3 months of the passing of this Act the Minister shall prepare a report for the Oireachtas which shall detail--- (a) the costs of the Tribunal to date, (b) the spend on the Tribunal's own costs, (c) and the amount spent on compensation to victims of screening failures, and (d) the numbers of applications to the Tribunal, and provide to the Oireachtas a statement on whether the current Act is fit for purpose in addr…

In answer to the last question, on why the Government has to wait 12 months to do anything, it parks everything for 12 months no matter what we bring before the House. I welcome the Bill and thank Sinn Féin for introducing it. Watching the ongoing housing crisis, specifically the issues in the private rental sector, including those concerning tenants' rights, security of tenure and rent security over the past five years, has been akin to watching a train crash in slow motion in that everyone can see where we are he…