I thank the Minister of State for bringing this motion to the House and for her opening remarks. I thank everyone involved in the mandatory hotel quarantining system, specifically hotel staff, Department officials, private security firms and members of the Defence Forces. It is important to remember that the mandatory hotel quarantining system was established at the peak of the third wave. Despite all its imperfections, which everyone can appreciate at this stage, it has achieved many limited goals. First, it assis…

Community pharmacies are now actively involved in the vaccination programme. It is great to have them on board. The House appreciates that community pharmacies have significant latitude and autonomy in terms of whom they vaccinate first. That is entirely as it should be. Has any consideration been given to asking community pharmacies to prioritise indoor hospitality workers, particularly in the light of what is coming down the tracks in the next week to ten days? We are not looking for a rigid set of rules or anyth…

I very much welcome the Minister's acceptance last week of two significant amendments to the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021. I strongly support that. The reason is that the two amendments will ensure, for the first time, that the farming community will get due recognition when it comes to capturing and storing carbon on the land, be it in hedgerows, soil or the trees. This is potentially very positive from a farming perspective with regard to setting carbon targets, carbon budgeting…

I thank the Minister for his genuinely useful and helpful response, particularly regarding how farmers may be able to monetise this situation, which is definitely good news. The Minister mentioned that an amendment will be tabled in the Upper House tomorrow. Does the Minister envisage any more amendments being accepted and can he indicate when the amended Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill is due to be brought back before the Dáil for consideration and final sign-off?

We are all aware that representatives from the hospitality industry and officials from the Department of Health are currently meeting to discuss how best to tease out the reopening of indoor dining over the next couple of weeks. That is a good thing. We are also aware that there are approximately 750 pharmacies across the country in which members of the public are being vaccinated on a first come, first served basis. Has any thought been given to asking or directing the pharmacy sector to prioritise the administeri…

I am delighted to speak on this important topic of post offices in Ireland. I am also grateful to be here as a member of the Regional Group. As the Minister of State is most likely aware, my colleagues and I never come in here to trade insults with the Government of the day. Rather, we come in here to trade ideas and exchange potential solutions to address the problems of our time. It is on that basis and in that spirit this motion has been brought back before the House, nine months after it was first discussed. I …

I have three brief points to add to the contributions I have made over the past couple of weeks. First, I very much welcome this legislation. This is a historic day for the Reserve Defence Force. Its members have been screaming for this Bill for literally decades and it is finally here. It really is a defining moment for the Reserve Defence Force. It is 60% below strength but I see that as the low watermark for the Reserve and it can only get better from here. I would of course like to see employment protection leg…

I wish to focus my question on paragraph 12 of CCR 451. This is a formal agreement between the Department of Defence and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, from 2013, which provides for the advancement of medical officers from captain to commandant after three years' service. I understand there has recently been some resistance to implementing this provision and would be grateful if the Minister could outline his position.

I thank the Minister for outlining his position. It is a useful starting point at least. This administrative matter is actually below the Minister's pay grade. I would like to think it could have been solved at a lower level. I only bring it to his attention because it is a matter of the utmost importance. For instance, a quarter of Defence Forces medical officers are actually on the cusp of leaving the organisation as a result of the non-implementation of this provision. That would have huge consequences on our ab…

I thank the Minister for the commitment that he might at least review this or perhaps look at it and see if there is any latitude or flexibility that can be applied. My understanding - and it is just that - is that the CCR was open-ended and not specific to 2013 but again I will take the Minister's views on board from that perspective. That is all I have to say. I wished to highlight that this issue is really important. I am not joking in saying a quarter of medical officers are really considering their positions i…

I wish to focus this question on the Army Nursing Service, specifically the review that I understand may have been ongoing for a short while. Will the Minister indicate when the review commenced and is likely to finish, and will he make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister for that useful and helpful response. What can I say about the Army Nursing Service? It is a fantastic component of the Defence Forces, but I assume the Minister agrees that it is in decline. In its heyday a number of decades ago, there were approximately 100 nurses. Now, there are only three or four. That is a major pity because, over the past 15 months during the pandemic, nurses would have been useful both within the Defence Forces and in dealing with the public, including from a nursing hom…

The Minister will agree that the nursing component of the Defence Forces is very important, given its scope of practice and the particular skill set and mindset that nurses bring to proceedings, particularly from an overseas point of view. It would be unusual among the EU 27 for a military not to have an army nursing service. Thankfully, we have not had a casualty overseas in 16 or 17 years, but we are on borrowed time. If we recruit nurses, we should be able to deploy them overseas like any normal military does. T…

I wish to focus on the high-level implementation plan which is two years old next weekend and specifically on the specialised instructors allowance for commissioned officers. This allowance was payable up to 2012, when it was discontinued as a result of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, cutbacks. The high-level implementation plan left open the possibility of reinstating this allowance and I would be grateful to hear the Minister's thoughts on the current position with that and if he w…

I thank the Minister again for that very useful update. Nobody knows better than the Minister the amount of induction training going on now in the Defence Forces at the recruit, apprentice, direct entry and cadet levels. The commissioned officers involved in those training institutions are working flat out. They are working day and night, night and day and on weekends. Unlike other professions, they get no overtime whatsoever. This specialised instructors allowance is an opportunity to give those officers some fina…

I appreciate that response from the Minister. I am conscious of the clock, but my final point is that the specialised instructors allowance was introduced as a result of the work of an independent commission, the Doyle commission, and subsequent reports in the late 2000s. It was brought in for the good reason of addressing issues of burn-out and exhaustion in the training institutions of the Defence Forces. If it was good enough in the late 2000s, then it is good enough now. Given there is a staff retention crisis …

I will focus my questions on the worrying case in Belarus, particularly the welfare of the Ryanair passengers forcefully removed from a flight in Minsk at the end of May. I would be grateful if the Minister could update the House on the most recent developments at European and international level.

It is reassuring that the welfare of the two Ryanair passengers are uppermost in our minds at both the national and EU level. I very much welcome the targeted sanctions, asset freezing and travel bans for the 86 people and entities associated with the Lukashenko regime. It is a very positive development. I also welcome that the Belarusian national airline is banned from EU airspace and it is likely that more targeted economic sanctions are coming down the track, perhaps even as early as this weekend. How does the M…

I thank the Minister again for outlining the European and international dimension. Is there anything we can do at a national level to demonstrate our solidarity with and support for the people of Belarus and the political opposition in exile? I would be grateful for the Minister's thoughts on whether we should invite the opposition leader here to address the Houses of the Oireachtas, whether at a committee or in plenary session, either in person or remotely. He met her in Brussels recently and she appears to be ver…

I raise the important issue of the volunteers who have been working so hard in mass vaccination centres and Covid testing facilities all over the country. These are very fine people who, last March, signed up for what they thought was going to be a couple of months, but a couple of months has turned into a couple of years. Has thought been given to how the State will recognise the significant contribution these people have made during this time of national crisis? For instance, could a very small honorarium be cons…