I am a big fan of the Project Ireland 2040 ambition and framework. It is about future-proofing the country, communities and our economy, by looking at population growth, the necessary investment in climate resilience and ensuring we are supporting Housing for All. We do not just live in houses and homes but in communities and the infrastructure must be there. I am aware of the investment that has gone into Project Ireland 2040 in Dublin West but in reality when the supply of community infrastructure does not meet d…

I wish to support my colleague, Senator Seery Kearney, who articulated this very well. From reading the communication from Women's Aid, an organisation I want to recognise in the Gallery today, my concern is that this would be a red flag. We have come to understand coercive control a lot more in the past five years than we ever did before. The experience of Covid has shown us the depths of despair and danger that women are living in. This is a positive Bill. I cannot articulate it better than Senator Seery Kearney …

I thank the Minister for taking on board the extensive feedback he has received. It is good to see included here that the direction of travel could specifically be about all employees. The Minister knows where I stand on this. We have had a trial of remote working and we have heaped too much pressure on it as an option for all employees, when it does not work for all roles. This was an opportunity to balance that out and begin the change that is required in the work culture. As part of any review and future work in…

I welcome the Minister. I thank him and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, for their work on this issue. Thanks are also due to people like former Minister Frances Fitzgerald who contributed so much to the women's agenda. I have two wee girls aged eight and ten whom I have reared to be proud of their bodies and their gender. They are now at an age at which I am beginning to introduce them to the realities of the world, which makes me really sad and really angry. I must now teach them that they cannot always assume they …

I too express my sympathy to the Breathnach and Broderick families on their loss. They and the Labour Party are proud and rightly so. I wish to raise two matters today, the first of which is the windfall tax on oil and gas profits. I understand legislation is being worked on regarding this issue in the Department with responsibility for energy. Legislation is urgently needed and I call for progress on that legislation. When we were discussing the budget last year, it was made very clear that because of our financia…

I welcome the move by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, to formally bring childminding into childcare regulations. I welcome the language he used when he said that it is to be in a way appropriate to the home environment. My family has used childminders and I had a childminder in County Tyrone all those years ago. In fact, her name is Bridget Hughes and I chose Bridget as my confirmation name. I passed that on to my daughter, who is Rebecca Bridget, so we had a…

The Minister of State is welcome. I thank him for being here. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, has to attend a funeral and cannot be here, but she is aware of the issues I am about to raise. I hope there can be action on them. Danu Community Special School opened in November 2019 under the patronage of Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, DDLETB, in a temporary location in the Hansfield Educate Together Secondary School building. It made do while it was there even though it was on the…

The experience of the school is that because it has 36 children, everything is capped according to that, and their needs and what they need to excel are not being accommodated appropriately. It is a one-size-fits-all approach, as opposed to a child getting additional support where he or she needs it. As for the building, the classrooms are not purpose built and teachers are spending a long time doing things they should not have to do, such as minding doors as opposed to teaching in a purpose-built environment. Furt…

I represent Dublin 15, which contains Ashtown. We all know what happened in Ashtown, not only at the migrant camp last week but the community also faced the murder of a woman, Maud Coffey, a few short weeks ago. Ashtown is a multicultural place to live. It is a growing and diverse community of wonderful people. What happened last week was a disgusting and disturbing act. Probably one of the worst acts a human being can do is to target people who are more vulnerable and at a low point in their lives, and prey on the…

I move amendment No. 13: In page 13, line 2, after “arrangements” to insert “including”. All the amendments in my name in this group make the same point. I will talk about the Title first. I do not believe the Bill at any point stipulates the kinds of working arrangements that might be available. Much emphasis has been put on remote working over recent years for obvious reasons. Remote working is only one part of flexible working; there are many others. Without reference to the types of possible flexible working ar…

I thank the Minister for taking on board the direction of travel regarding what we would like to see in the review, although this was an opportunity to include it here and now. For the reasons I stated, there is a difference between legislation that will predominantly help women and, on the other hand, gender equality legislation. The knock-on effect of that is that we are dealing with numbers of women falling out of the workforce, especially as they have children, but we are also talking about a new generation of …

I hope the Cathaoirleach will forgive me for sounding like I am in a time warp but it has been a year since the Covid-19 bonus recognition payment for front-line workers was announced. Unfortunately private nursing home staff and a lot of non-HSE staff have yet to receive the €1,000 bonus payment at this stage. We know that a third party was responsible for managing the payment system but there does not seem to be any clear timeline in sight as to when these people, who have been waiting for over a year, will be pa…

I was in Westminster yesterday on British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly business and left just before the House of Lords started Committee Stage of the legacy legislation. I believe there was considerable criticism of it, just as there has been from the Commissioner for Victims and Survivors for Northern Ireland; the Northern Ireland Assembly; the Government; all the political parties on this island; US Congress representatives; Westminster's joint committee on human rights; the Council of Europe and its Commissione…

I am at a massive disadvantage in that I have not heard any of this debate, but I did want to contribute to it. The area I represent is Dublin West and Dublin 15. We have the train line and we have buses. Nobody is in any doubt about the increase in antisocial behaviour on public transport. There have been ongoing issues in Pelletstown, Ashtown and Castleknock. It is a recurring theme for any local policing forum or justice and policing committee. I commend the community gardaí on their engagement locally with comm…

I am so happy for the Cathaoirleach that he has achieved this position. They say that it takes a village to raise a child, but it takes an army to get to this point in your career. In listening to everything that people have said about him today, I felt like we were on that journey with him. I had forgotten all the milestones, challenges and brave things he has done over the years. It makes absolute sense because, from the moment I arrived here, he has been a fair, sound and supportive colleague. He is, by nature, …

I spoke about Senators Mark Daly and Joe O’Reilly earlier today but I do not want to let the opportunity pass to thank them both once again. I am delighted that Senator Daly has put his name forward for the role of Leas-Chathaoirleach. In a way, he is easing us out of having him as Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. As I have the pleasure of occupying the office next door to that of my great friend, Senator Joe O'Reilly, I get to hear his booming voice on the phone to Cavan about 12 times a day. When we come in to this C…

I congratulate the Minister of State. We really appreciate all the work he has put into this. He has made it and the Moorhead report a priority from the moment he took office. In that spirit, I thank the councillor representative groups - AILG and LAMA - and Women for Election, which do an excellent job. I see the Minister of State is very much supportive of their work with funding; and the working group of councillors and our own councillor, Lorraine Hall, for all the work that she has done. I congratulate the Min…

Okay. There were questions in the Irish Examiner yesterday from a former Senator, Councillor Joanna Tuffy, about Article 28A of the Constitution. I will follow up with any other questions I have for the Minister of State afterwards.

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Commencement matter. Not a week goes by now without us, as public representatives, hearing about shortages of GPs and the pressures on them. This is especially acute in areas where there are high numbers of Ukrainian people in crisis accommodation. We are all very aware of the unwelcome and unsavoury agitation by far-right individuals in communities. It makes sense that we respond to the shortages. More importantly, we must give an opportunity to Ukrainian people to be …

I thank the Minister of State. She knows full well about some of the barriers in the HSE with connecting qualified people to positions. This is why I am raising the issue. I am aware of what is happening with language support, which is positive. We have to look at the costs. I have raised practical issues. All of this information is great. The Minister of State and I know that when it comes to the HSE it is difficult to get it to remove the practical barriers. Not having access to the PLAB exam until November 2023 …