We will discuss the motion on loneliness, brought forward by the Green Party group. Time is limited to 60 minutes, with speakers having six minutes apiece. I welcome the Minister of State to the Seanad.

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Originally, I was not going to speak on this topic. When I saw that the Green Party had tabled a motion on loneliness, I thought that was interesting. Then I read the motion and realised that what it calls for is absolutely critical within society. As Senator Boyhan said, we have many action plans to tackle loneliness in this country but we have not had any action around those plans. It is really important that the focus is on what we can do in the here and now and what is doable by the Minister of State's Departme…

I must first say that I stand in solidarity with the Minister for Justice, Deputy Helen McEntee and with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman. The hassle these two representatives had to go through in the last number of weeks has been absolutely appalling. I just wanted to put this on record. Yesterday the National Museum of Ireland launched the Mincéir archives. One of my good friends and colleagues, whom many Senators in the House have known for years, Oe…

I welcome students from St. Pius school, Terenure, to the Chamber this morning. We hope they enjoy their visit. It is always lovely to see young students in Leinster House getting a feel of the place. Hopefully, one day, one of them will be in here.

I welcome the Minster of State, Deputy Butler, to the House. Senators Kyne and O'Reilly are going to share time. This will be interesting. I have never seen this done for a Commencement matter before.

Hear, hear.

I thank Senator Moynihan for sharing her time with me. I very much appreciate it. As a member of the Traveller community and probably one of the only women in both Houses from an ethnic minority, I am sick to the pit of my stomach of the do-gooders in the absence of the inclusion of Muslim women and Black women and of our voices being heard equally around the table. The Minister spoke about the gender equality committee. While I welcome its action plan, very little has been done for minority women in this country u…

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I welcome to the Chamber Anna McBrearty, a 16-year-old young woman on a placement with me from County Donegal. Yesterday, I said to her to write up something that is really important to her and we will bring it up on the Order of Business. Anna wanted to talk about the publication of the annual report card by the Children's Rights Alliance around mental health. She expressed her disappointment in how the Government has failed young children with regard to mental health. While there has be…

Over the past few weeks, I have been questioning where humanity is in the world. Over 28,000 Palestinian people have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks and more than 11,500 of those were children. More than 17,000 Palestinian children are left by themselves. Every single night since 7 October, when I am at home with my two little girls, hugging them and putting them into bed, I have thought of the mothers in Gaza, Palestine, who are tucking their children into bed and trying to comfort them. We have to bring this …

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