It is the Deputy's motion and I am sure he will respond. This is my contribution. This is a very good motion because it speaks to what-----

I am speaking to it now. We are being told that Deputy Cullinane is the greatest health Minister in waiting, so he is setting himself up for a major fall. If he cannot get through the past couple of hours with any consistency, I wonder how he will get through a term as a Minister for Health. It is 11 months since Senator Annie Hoey of the Labour Party presented a Bill on student nurses' pay. Student nurses and student midwives have been among the least respected during this pandemic. There is no doubt about that, a…

There is a crisis in the Irish dental industry and access to dentistry. We are seeing it most acutely in the exodus from the DTSS but the reasons for it go much deeper and are much more fundamental. The Minister said he is committed to reviewing the scheme but there is no real evidence of this, despite saying that work began in 2019. When will the Government start taking this seriously? It is very important. Many people do not have access to dental services. When will the scheme to update the Dentists Act 1985 be r…

I thank the Whip for allowing this matter to be added to the clár this week. I am on the Business Committee but we all know who ultimately sorts out the schedule for the week, so I thank the Whip. I welcome the opportunity to speak about and mark breast cancer awareness month. Unfortunately, breast cancer has touched the lives of many of us in this House and people throughout the country. It has had a devastating effect on lives and anything we can do, as the Parliament, to raise awareness is important. What is eve…

It is good we have the opportunity to discuss this today, given what was announced earlier this week. This virus has turned the entire world, including our country, inside out and we have seen some unbelievable responses to it that are a credit to the nation and to the State, not least from our health workers at all grades, but also from our retail workers, our delivery drivers and everyone who from day one to this, the 607th day, and beyond has been at every single front line that exists in this country. It is an …

Leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday and the key issues on the agenda are Covid-19, digital transformation, energy prices, migration and external relations. However, the issue that will dominate coverage is the growing split with Poland and the long-term impact that this will have. There is a dark cloud over the EU. Poland continues to take a confrontational approach to the rule of law and the interpretation of EU law, openly flouting rulings of the European Court of Justice. The latest escalation stems from a cour…

An extra €105 million was announced in the budget last week for people with disabilities and for disability services, which was welcome. We will talk about the disability capacity review and the amount that is needed to meet the unmet demand there when I come back with my supplementary contribution. I ask the Minister of State for more detail on how this money will be spent. I would appreciate that, along with everybody who is listening in to the debate.

This year's disability capacity review stated that we needed €350 million. That figure would not be static and would instead grow in five and ten years' time to the tune of €100 million each time. How does the Minister of State believe the next budget and the one after that will get to that figure? We undoubtedly need to reach it. Congregated settings have been mentioned. When we look back on this era of the State's history, I believe we will view congregated settings as a disastrous problem in many respects. Disab…

The disability capacity review document is very good and sets out what needs to be done and how to get there. I will submit further parliamentary questions because we need more information, although I appreciate that the Minister of State is giving me a great deal of information in the short time available. One third of people with disabilities are at risk of poverty. There are many multifactorial pressures on this group. If there is one disappointment in the budget, it is that no one group got the lift it needed. …

One of the more well-received elements of this week's budget was the introduction of a youth travel card for 19- to 23-year-olds. In the Labour Party's alternative budget, we examined the options in this regard and opted for the provision of free travel for under-24s on the basis that there would be technical impediments to the delivery of a discount or youth card. At a meeting of the transport committee yesterday, I asked the Secretary General of the Department of Transport about those technical impediments. He st…

I will focus on three areas of the budget with which I and the Labour Party have an issue. Some €105 million has been allocated for disability services. While that is welcome, we must recognise that the most important document released this year was the disability capacity review. It indicates a demographic need and an unmet need for an investment of €350 million in the disability sector. The Labour Party's alternative budget prioritised and costed that measure. It is something the Government needed to do in its bu…

To follow on from the remarks of Deputy Catherine Murphy, smoking causes 6,000 preventable deaths each year. Members may agree or disagree with that figure. I agree with it. This financial resolution is one the Labour Party will be supporting. It is aimed at young people. People under the age of 24 make up 20% of smokers. Young people are still smoking. I hope it is not an unintended consequence of the budget that money saved on contraception will go towards cigarettes. There are people under 24 who are smoking. Th…

As the Tánaiste will be aware, the march for maternity care will take place on Wednesday, 6 October, at 1 p.m. outside the gates of Leinster House. Yesterday, the Better Maternity Care campaign group met with the HSE to discuss a roadmap for maternity care and, yet again, the group was left utterly frustrated and angry. Indeed, "heartsore" was one word used by Ms Linda Kelly, a member of the group. At the meeting, the HSE confirmed that the current guidelines - these very restrictive guidelines - will remain in pla…

None of us who watched the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on Tuesday night could not but be moved by the scandalous effect on the 18 families the organs of whose poor children were sent abroad for incineration. The courage, composure and strength shown in the programme by Leona Bermingham and Glenn Callanan, who lost their son Lee's organs, were incredible and I do not believe any of us will ever forget what we watched. I commend the "RTÉ Investigates" programme itself and the work of Ms Aoife Hegarty, who is not for…

I thank the Government for allowing these statements tonight and allocating a good amount of time for them. That is important. I first made the request for the statements some weeks ago, when the airlifts and chaos were happening. I am glad the statements are taking place now because we have had a couple of weeks of the Taliban being in control and seeing what the Minister called the backsliding happening already and how it is impacting the people of Afghanistan. We have heard in the contributions about the impact …

The Minister for Transport, who also has responsibility for environmental issues, delivered what can only be described as a punch in the gut to the people of Swords and the north side of Dublin by deferring and delaying the delivery of MetroLink to 2034. Many people believe it is the indefinite deferral and delay of MetroLink. The programme for Government not only mentions MetroLink but states, "the Government will prioritise plans for the delivery of Metrolink". Deputy Micheál Martin is the Taoiseach, the chief, t…

There is no doubt this policy document, Housing for All, will be the Minister's political legacy, whether it is delivered. His reputation and success will rest on it, as I am sure he recognises. That is how important this document is and, as the Minister said, how important it is for this Government. I have a different view. I have no doubt the Minister is going to build houses. Fianna Fáil builds houses. It has the relationships with the people to build houses. Our concerns are how affordable they will be, the rel…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward. It is very timely. I apologise for not being present for the start of the debate. I had a scheduled meeting with Care Champions, who the Deputy and members of his party have met. They are relatives of people who passed away in nursing home care in the last 18 months and, with the indulgence of the proposers of the motion, I ask the Minister to engage with the group. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has done so. I am still absorbing the half hour that I…

Like any Deputy or public representative who operates a clinic or an office service, I know, because I do eight of them a week, that the vast majority of people who come in are those at the very sharp end of the housing crisis. Once woman I met more than a year ago rang me seven weeks ago today to tell me that her beloved dog died peacefully in her arms that morning. While she was devastated and crying on the phone, she said to me during the conversation that it might now be easier for her to find another house or …

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte for taking the debate. With two Ministers in the Department of Transport, it is unfortunate that not one of them is here, but I look forward to the script they have sent. Hopefully it will calm the anger in the community, particularly in Swords, north County Dublin, which is based on the reports in the Mail on Sunday that metro north was going to be delayed by many years. There is such anger because over the past three years, and for the first time in this drawn-out pr…