Yes, we will suspend for five minutes to give everyone time to get to the Chamber.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in these statements. Like everyone, I was appalled by what I saw on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme. The flood of emails and phone calls that came in the following day from sons and daughters of elderly people who are in nursing home care, fearing that HIQA does not have eyes correctly on the situation in many scenarios. I agree with others that it has unfairly tarnished best-practice healthcare for older people. Sometimes the reaction to these things is rightly an outpouring of …

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this discussion. As other speakers said, it is important that we move in the near future to full membership of CERN. It is an incredible organisation at the cutting edge of science. The health sciences showed us during the Covid years how important it is for countries to work beyond international borders. Scientific questions, health problems and crises no longer follow the linear boundaries of nation states but move far beyond them. If we are to advance scientific causes …

I wish to clarify a speech I made yesterday in the Dáil, correct the Dáil record and apologise profusely to anyone who may have been offended by my comments. The speech I made was during the debate this House had on Gaza. I was speaking without a scripted speech and instead using a series of bullet points. I began by stating that the Israeli eye-for-an-eye approach has been reprehensible and that the bombing of hospitals, schools and tents alongside the killing of babies, including newborn babies in hospitals amoun…

The 7 October terror attacks on Israel are to be condemned outright but the eye-for-an-eye approach adopted by the Israeli state since has been indefensible. The bombing of hospitals, schools and tents and the killing of children and babies, including newborn babies in hospitals, is reprehensible. It is the worst we have seen in our lifetime. What is happening is not a war anymore; it is ethnic cleansing, genocide and, more recently, the weaponising of food. The British army was a bad actor on this island for many …

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the leeway; I was chairing a committee. I want to ask about the HIQA report into emergency care in the mid-west region, in particular University Hospital Limerick. The report was commissioned early last autumn and is due to come to the Government by the end of this month or possibly early next month. Is there any update on that? When might we know the outcome? There will surely be a recommendation that UHL needs to be beefed up with more beds and investment. That would be a good thin…

It is my first time seeing the Minister of State sitting on the Front Bench. I congratulate her. She is a fine representative for Carlow and it is great to see her in the elevated office of Minister of State. I will make a few comments as part of this debate. I am glad that the programme for Government includes as a priority the abolition of the means test for carers. It is only right. It is shameful that it has taken this long for it to happen. However, I will make the point that there are currently 100,000 people…

I am sharing time with Deputy Cormac Devlin. Sometimes they say a Minister is well geared to his Ministry. There is no better Ministry for Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan than the one he holds. I congratulate him on his new role. It is great to see him sitting on the Front Bench. Those who do not know Deputy O'Sullivan, or Christopher as we know him on this side, should note that when he is not here in the Dáil and has done his constituency work, he will climb over ditches and go along cliff paths to do something cal…

I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on this matter. I disagree with the previous speaker. I believe learner drivers should be allowed to drive without someone accompanying them in the car. I live in a rural county and west of Ennis there is no Luas line, no DART and no public transport of any significance. It is costing youngsters in the region of €600 to €1,000 per month to stay in on-campus student accommodation. They simply cannot afford it and it is not available anyway so mom and dad buy a car and get a …

I am sorry; I have just run up Kildare Street and did not realise my question was part of a grouping. We want to know when the review will happen. Importantly, when someone applies for a landing slot at the moment, it is solely judged through the metric of "Yea" or "Nay". It is either approved or disapproved by the IAA. We could have a regional development criterion to that application. It is unfair that 12 flights a day go from Dublin to Schiphol whereas none goes from Shannon. Hopefully the Minister can review th…

A flight from Clare would have made it easier.

I do not know whether it should be a ten-year strategy for aviation given aviation operates on a seasonal basis. So much can change from a winter to spring period. New routes get set up and some get pulled. It would be better to have a five-year plan with a midway review. I was out of breath earlier as I ran up Kildare Street and did not realise this question had been grouped. I make the point that when an airline seeks to operate a brand-new route, it applies to the Irish Aviation Authority for a slot or a permit.…

It appears there is not a shortage of driving instructors but there is certainly a shortage of driving testers. Some of the instructors could be brought over on secondment to do a day or two a week, perhaps in their own county or in the neighbouring county, so they could try to clear some of this backlog. That suggestion was made to me recently by the driver of a large vehicle, who said the waiting time was inordinate and has disrupted the company's logistics chain. Why not use some of these people and bring them i…

I raise the issue of horse control. Legislation in Ireland largely falls under the Control of Horses Act 1996. I was sent a photo by an American tourist over the weekend who visited our county. They saw a horse tethered to a metal pole outside a supermarket. This happens all around the country and it is inexcusable. The law is robust, but the enforcement is not. Nobody in this country can claim to have a cultural or traditional entitlement to own horses. If you want to own a horse, buy land, rent land or pay for a …

Thank you, Deputy. I call Deputy Whitmore. Ceithre nóiméad, le do thoil.

Okay.

I call Deputy Sinéad Gibney.

Okay.

Thank you, Deputy.

We are well over time.