Next Tuesday at 2.30.

I thank the Minister of State for attending the Chamber to hear this important motion introduced by my Fine Gael party colleagues. It is refreshing, having listened to many of the contributions that have been made across the Chamber, that there is cross-party unity on this issue that is important for so many people across the country. At the outset, I will speak on the need for mobile dentistry units to be introduced specifically to deal with patients in nursing homes and those with mobility issues. This issue was …

The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber. Like my party colleagues, I will speak in support of the motion. I am particularly struck by the comments of some colleagues who spoke about the fact that our Constitution underpins the need for a right to trial by a jury. It also allows, when the framers were framing our Constitution, under Article 38.3, for special courts to be established by law for trial of offences in such cases where it may be determined, in accordance with the law, that the ordinary court…

I thank the Minister of State for attending this morning. I believe this is our first official interaction in this House. He is most welcome. I want to highlight a stretch of the N25 road which runs from the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy bridge in County Wexford, through south Kilkenny and into Waterford city. I am referring specifically to the stretch from the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy bridge to the Luffany roundabout at Slieverue. On Monday night I attended a public meeting organised by a local committee campaigning for …

I thank the Minister of State, and I welcome the commitment by the Government in the House today to funding the next phase, which is the design and environmental evaluation phase. It will be good news for the residents in the area. One specific question that I ask the Minister to take up with his colleagues in Government and the Department of Transport is responsibility for the speed limit. There was quite a lot of discussion at the public meeting on the speed limit, whether it is to be set as a national road by TI…

I want to discuss the issue of childcare, specifically around the current planning rules that provide for a childcare facility to be made available, most commonly through the planning framework, for every 75 units that are constructed. In Wexford town most specifically, these units are being constructed but there is nobody to come on board, fulfil them and operate a crèche from them. It would be important to have a debate in this House on the model of childcare, whether the current situation of having a childcare f…

I welcome the Minister to the House today. I begin by commending her on arranging to publish this report on what happened to Grace over a long period. I am speaking on behalf of the Fine Gael Party in the absence of Senator Bradley who cannot be here today. I will start with something that really struck me as I made my way through reading, as best I could, the almost 2,000 pages of the report. In volume 3 on page 4, it states, "Having regard to Grace’s level of intellectual disability, she was and remains entirely …

Last night, I attended a public meeting of approximately 600 residents from Wexford, south Kilkenny and Waterford to discuss a 6 km stretch of road along the N25 where, tragically, there have been 12 fatalities over the past 12 years. There was a phenomenal turnout from the local area. This stretch of road is the main carriageway taking people from Wexford, through south Kilkenny, to Waterford. Hundreds of thousands of journeys are made every year along this stretch of road. Tragically, the people who lost their li…

I raise the issue of the South East Technological University. Two weeks ago, the High Court made a determination that would allow the CPO by Wexford County Council to proceed so that the council could acquire the land that was necessary for a new state-of-the-art campus in Wexford town. I hope this will allow students who are currently in primary school education to secure third level education in the heart of County Wexford on a new state-of-the-art campus by the time they do their leaving certificate exams. Follo…

I support this motion and commend the work done by my colleague, Senator Nelson Murray, in this area. I know the Minister of State has taken a personal interest in this matter for several years. These proposals are common sense and reflect many of the issues experienced daily by small and medium businesses, private clubs and societies, and sports groups. In my own county of Wexford, many of these issues have been directly highlighted to me, particularly by sports clubs and small businesses that are concerned the ri…

The Minister of State is most welcome to the House. I rise on behalf of myself, the Coeliac Society of Ireland and Councillor Brian O'Donoghue of Carlow County Council. This matter relates to people who suffer both with coeliac disease and with gluten intolerance. The estimates in Ireland now are that approximately one in 100 people - approximately 45,000 people - suffer with coeliac disease, with an estimated 500,000 people being gluten intolerant. The significance is that people find themselves unable to consume …

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I am aware that the Coeliac Society of Ireland will be making a submission to that group, looking for this. By way of follow-up, perhaps there is an opportunity here for a pilot programme to look at this in a targeted area and gather more evidence. I have seen first-hand the benefits to individual people who have coeliac disease and are then diagnosed, get treatment and go on a gluten-free diet. I ask that the Department of Health support the Coeliac Society of Ireland's…

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber. This is our first interaction in this House. I wish him the best of luck for the term ahead. His success will be the success of the country and he very much has my support. I was struck by some of the comments on the economy made by previous speakers, particularly around the uncertainty we face. Over the years, the Irish economy has experienced the 1920s and 1930s and the Economic War, industrialisation in the 1960s and the changes that brought to the economic outlook, on to t…

As this is my first interaction with the Minister of State in the Chamber, I wish him the very best of luck. He brings an enormous amount of experience to the role, having served at local authority level, in this Chamber and now in the Dáil as a Minister of State. I sincerely wish him the best of luck. I wish to make a number of points, particularly given my experience of having been elected to Wexford County Council on two occasions. The point has been made repeatedly in this Chamber that being a councillor at loc…

I welcome the Minister of State. I thank her for facilitating us with her presence. I welcome our guests. I hope they have a wonderful and enjoyable trip to Leinster House. I am the Fine Gael spokesperson on public expenditure and infrastructure. I look forward to working with the Minister of State and the ongoing engagement we have had on some of these key issues. The whole idea of public procurement has to be based on securing value for money for the taxpayer. At the moment, 99.8% of businesses in the country are…

At 2.30 p.m. next Tuesday.

I want to highlight a meeting that I attended with the representatives of the Irish Postmasters Union, IPU. The tradition of the post office is very close to my own family. My grandfather served his entire working career as both a small farmer and the local postman where my mother is from in north-west Cork. This morning I met with Sean Martin and other representatives of the IPU who highlighted the urgent need for increased levels of Government investment. At the moment, the Government through the Minister is fund…

I want to highlight the need for more to be done to ensure we have a functioning taxi network across the country. In recent years we have seen a reduction in the number of taxis available to people. Studies by Arup have shown that the number of taxis available has shrunk by 10% since 2014. That means in my area of Wexford, people who go out in the evening to a restaurant, the cinema or a bar and who have a drink or a meal are not able to access taxis. A reduction of 22% is evident in the number of taxi licences ava…

I begin by wishing the Minister of State the very best of luck in her new role. Mental health is one of the biggest issues that face this country. It is an enormous challenge. As somebody who represents Waterford, the Minister of State is more than aware of the issues in my home county of Wexford. I specifically want to highlight a motion that was recently passed by the members of Wexford County Council, which called on the Minister of State to intervene and deliver in Wexford a ten-bed unit for local urgent need, …

Like my colleagues, I welcome this Bill. I want to highlight a number of specific things in section 5. Like so many people, I have tended to avail of having my bank card on my phone and making payments through Apple Pay. I notice that when I seek cashback from, for example, a petrol station that is not possible when using contactless payment through Apple Pay. I understand the Bill seeks primarily to deal with ATMs, but it is also important that we recognise the fact that while there are traditional ATMs, where peo…