I move amendment No. 5: In page 16, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: “(fa) who, being ordinarily resident in the State, is returning to the State having travelled to another state for— (i) an unavoidable, imperative and time-sensitive medical reason, or (ii) a termination of pregnancy, and the reason is certified by a person who is a registered medical practitioner or a person holding an equivalent qualification outside the State,”. We raised this issue yesterday on Questions on Promised Legislation …

I commend Deputy Paul Murphy and his group on bringing forward this Bill. It is very timely but it is not the first time the Deputy has brought up this matter. In fact, if memory services me correctly, this matter was brought up as far back as the Covid committee, which was summer of 2020. This is something, therefore, that group has pushed for for a long time. The reason they and others have done so is because this is a real measure that will help reduce and suppress the transmission of this virus. It is not a rea…

I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Howlin. What is the number of Covid-19 cases in our Prison Service? What has been the impact on the service and the Courts Service? I would like an update on that.

The intent of this question was to seek a genuine update. It was not a "gotcha" question or anything like that. The Prison Service has done a remarkable job since the start of this pandemic in keeping the virus out of our prisons. In this fourth wave, we know the virus is everywhere and it is important that we do not forget about our prison community, both workers and prisoners, many of whom are living in very cramped conditions. Before the pandemic, concerns were expressed about a number of our prisons in regard t…

I thank the Minister for her reply. I am happy to receive a response on hospitalisation in an email or in writing. It is a credit to the Prison Service, which is doing an unbelievably difficult job in very difficult circumstances. Many Members of this House have not forgotten our prisoners and prison workers during this pandemic. When issues come up, we will raise them.

Like the Tánaiste and I am sure many other Deputies, I have experienced an escalation in my office over the last couple of weeks of people seeking clarity on when they will get their booster vaccines. A 68-year-old gentleman was on the telephone to me this morning. He is going through chemotherapy and he was seeking clarity on when he will get his booster. His consultant oncologist could not tell him, nor could his GP or the HSE vaccine line. He is not seeking to skip any queues; nobody was. He is just seeking clar…

I commend the two previous contributions, in particular that of Deputy Mac Lochlainn. This is a technical Bill, but all Bills and everything we do in this House have an impact in the real world and to hear the stories shared by him brings home that fact. On the surface, this is a straightforward task as the legislation before us is a technical Bill that it is legislating and resourcing the State to continue maritime regulations and provide for an investigative body to examine maritime accidents. The EU Commission l…

Hear, hear.

I wish to share time with Deputies Howlin and Nash. I will take five minutes and they will have two and a half minutes each, or perhaps it will be six minutes for me and two minutes each for them. I will see how I get on.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for her statement that people with mental difficulties such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression will be now offered a booster dose. She did it previously in the first round of the vaccination programme as well. I know she gets how serious this is for people who are living with those conditions. In recent weeks I heard of an individual whose story will not be captured in the overall figure of 5,609 as someone who died with Covid, but they passed as a…

I would like to pass on my best wishes to the Ceann Comhairle and wish him a speedy recovery from Covid-19. I want to continue on the issue of capacity in intensive care units. As stated, an organ was unable to be used for transplant because of a lack of capacity in ICU. Transplant operations are very complex and may, on many occasions, be cancelled for a number of compatibility reasons. However, for an operation to be cancelled because of a lack of an ICU bed is cripplingly devastating to the person who needed tha…

On the ICU beds, where will our permanent ICU capacity be at the end of this year? There is no doubt that we are doing an unbelievable number of PCR tests. However, the Government has had to get the private companies into Dublin, Cork and now Shannon airports to try to meet demand. Last year, I and others in opposition asked the HSE to set up facilities in airports. The Opposition has been trying to give practical solutions over the course of this pandemic. If we had been listened to at the time we would not be scr…

I refer to the request for speaking time on testing. We have statements on Covid-19 and the new measures tomorrow. Perhaps we could lengthen that business and convert it to a questions and answers session on the issue of Covid and testing in the interest of trying to find a solution.

Antigen tests are finally being rolled out. We have affordability issues, which I hope will be overcome. I do not want to focus on those now. We also have issues regarding how the tests are being used or should be used. I do not necessarily want to go into that now either but over the course of this pandemic, we have learned that antigen tests are best used in a serial and regular manner in places such as large building sites and big companies, where they have been used to catch asymptomatic cases. In the medium to…

I ask the Minister of State what plans the Government has to incentivise electric vehicles, EVs, by means of a scrappage scheme.

I thank the Minister of State. We sell 7,500 EVs per year and another 7,500 on top of that but it is 7:1 compared with diesel and petrol. We will not hit the target for 2030. The scrappage scheme is important because it will tackle the affordability anxiety people have. We do not have range anxiety in Ireland; we have affordability anxiety. The vast majority of people, even with the measures brought in by the Government, still cannot afford to switch to an electric vehicle. Something has been brought in for the SPS…

We are not there with a general scheme yet but it can be rolled out over the next few years and I hope it is kept under constant review. I represent a constituency that has a large rural area. I also represent an awful lot of people who are on low incomes who live in those areas. People who are on low incomes cannot afford newer cars or even more fuel-efficient diesel and petrol cars. They are driving older cars with higher carbon emissions. This is where we need to look. This is where we can be brave and ambitious…

I am finding it hard to separate the two debates taking place today in the House, namely, this one and the one we had before it. It is like an old-fashioned revue, where we had the first act, the actors went off for a short interval and now they have come back and taken up different parts. I cannot understand how any proposer of this motion, which is an excellent motion in itself that is supportive of student nurses and midwives and other healthcare workers, could vehemently oppose the extension of emergency powers…

I have been sitting here for the past 30 minutes listening to the debate and wondering how that can be the case. When this is boiled down, why exactly are these emergency powers being introduced? They are not politically popular; nobody likes them or wants to support them. Why, then, are they being extended? Their extension is happening because the case numbers are five times higher than they were this day last year, when we had 748 cases. We are heading into an uncertain winter, with 90% of people aged over 12 vac…

I have listened; I have listened to the entire debate. The Deputy can respond to me later.