Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. I stand today with colleagues and a nation in expressing my deep sympathy to the family and friends of Ashling Murphy. As a nation we joined in the grief that the family, her friends and community suffered and I hope that that grief and the loss of her life will not go to waste. As legislators in this House and as a House, we need to ensure we are at the very forefront of the discourse to ensure there is a cultural change in our society. We need to discuss topics like consen…

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I join other Members in what has been said about maternity leave for politicians. I am a politician who took maternity leave during my Seanad term, but, in fact, it was not maternity leave because I had to hand in a sick note to the one-stop shop. That is wrong. I was not sick; I had two children. We are all ad idem in terms of regularising the situation. The Minister stepped up to the plate, as we discussed yesterday. We must also regularise the situation regarding cla…

Now.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. It is great to see her here. I think she comes to the Seanad once a year and Senators usually have a list of asks for her. My asks will come at the very end of my contribution. It is important to recognise why we have a Department of Social Protection. I will rely on statistics compiled by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. There are 630,000 people who live below the poverty line. I know it is the Minister's job and she is passionate about bringing those people above t…

Tomorrow.

I join my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne, in calling for the full implementation of the Irish Sign Language Act and the introduction of Irish Sign Language as a second-level subject. Senator Fitzpatrick was able to give us a lovely presentation on one of the reports done by her constituents who are studying politics and society, which was not available when I did my leaving certificate. We need to move with the times and having the Irish Sign Language as a key subject in the leaving certificate should be made a p…

I congratulate my colleagues on Dublin City Council who approved the scheme to build 853 homes on the Oscar Traynor site. It includes 40% cost-rental, 40% social and 20% affordable housing and is a physical manifestation of the legislation that was passed in these Houses, so we should congratulate the Minister on that. It is a hugely welcome development but there are other really important developments around the city, such as St. Michael's Estate, where I would like to see a scheme approved. I raised this last wee…

It is a genuine honour to be on the Taoiseach's Fianna Fáil team in the Seanad. I have a few small issues to raise. I commend the Taoiseach and his team on all the women's health initiatives. The shared island unit is a huge part of our tradition as members of Fianna Fáil and a huge part of our republican ethos of treating children equally, but it would be remiss of me to stand up here without mentioning HSE community health organisation 7, CHO 7. There is a serious lack of funding and a serious fallout over missin…

I want to talk about antigen testing. This is an issue I have raised on many occasions in the House. I welcome the extension of antigen testing to schools, but I feel it is not going far enough. In the UK an individual can order seven antigen tests and QR codes for a household and report the results of the tests. We are just not going far enough. I realise there is a great cost involved. The cost is not as much as that associated with PCR testing, but if we invest in antigen testing we will be able to keep our econ…

Today, I wish to raise two issues. First, I seek a meaningful debate on the St. Michael's House rejuvenation project. This is not just any development; it is one of the State's flagship cost-rental developments. At this stage we do not have a meaningful update from the Minister on where exactly we are with the project in terms of the budget envisaged and the timeframes. I would like the development to be treated with more urgency. It is a huge vacant site in the middle of Inchicore. Traditionally, it housed hundred…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I thought her speech was very honest and informative. I wish to convey some positive news about the way we treat people with disabilities. There are 12,700 people with autism and learning disabilities in the education system and €9.2 billion was put into education funding in budget 2022 with additional special education assistants and teachers. Obviously there are a lot more obstacles for pupils and teachers when it comes to deciding who goes into these special…

I thank the Deputy Leader for attending. I wish to raise the matter of disability services in Dublin 12. The first service to which I wish to refer is the EmployAbility service in Dublin west, which is based in Bluebell. Service users were told in November that the office would cease operating next month and that it would continue to give support until then. When I made my own inquiries with the Department as to what was happening to the EmployAbility service in Bluebell, however, I was told that its contract will …

I ask you to bear with me for two minutes, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. The group has told me that not one child in Dublin 12 is receiving therapy. We know that the three-month assessment rule applies and that children are getting assessed within that time, but there is no point in a child having an assessment of need if he or she is not going to get the therapy arising from it. It makes no sense. A parliamentary question was tabled by an Oireachtas colleague asking how children are affected and a blurb outlining the poli…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. We know that no budget is a panacea. Each budget has to be ambitious and try to change people's lives. Our representative in the Department, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and his counterpart, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, have come up with a progressive budget that lays the foundations to ensure that people have better lives, especially when it comes to childcare, and in some other aspects. It is not perfect but it goes some way to giving a little back.…

I will raise the issue of early-school education and after-school education. I raised the issue last week in the context of the national childcare scheme and how it is disadvantaging children from lower socio-economic areas of the city and country. I support those providers, and parents, who were outside Leinster House yesterday in their campaign to get clarity. They hope the employment wage subsidy scheme continue because at the moment it is masking major deficits in the national childcare scheme. Ultimately, the …

I thank the Minister for attending the House today. This is a topic on which many of us are ad idem . Many of us had the opportunity meet Ms Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya when she was in this country. We know Sviatlana, along with her compatriots, have unceasingly and courageously stood up for human rights and basic freedoms. As others have outlined, they have sought democratic elections in the country. Others have said Ms Tsikhanouskaya put herself forward because her husband was jailed by the Lukashenko regime. I know…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Josepha Madigan, for coming to the House today. As we all know Fianna Fáil has a very proud tradition in education. Famously, and radically, in September 1966 Donogh O'Malley announced plans to introduce free second level education, something we take for granted now but at the time was very radical. In 1996 our former colleague, Niamh Bhreathnach, introduced free third level fees, which was a game changer in regard to upskilling our workforce and attracting foreign investment. …

The Minister of State indicated that this work is under way. Can she give me a timeline for its completion in months or years? I would appreciate if she could be a little more specific for the benefit of the schools that would like to be included. I seek a timeline.

I would like to get a timeline.

I raise the issue of crime on our streets. We have seen a surge since the pandemic of groups of teenagers terrorising people on our streets. There has been a substantial increase in homophobic and xenophobic attacks. Every second day, we see a video go viral on the Internet of people being attacked. They are shared widely and it is terrifying. It puts people off going into the city to socialise and it puts businesses off setting up and reopening. We need to see a policing plan in place. Looking at these videos, the…