I thank the Minister of State for stepping in on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley. I am here on behalf of St. Luke's National School in Tyrrelstown which was hoping that it would be awarded DEIS - Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools - status in the review of DEIS. It put a great deal of effort into the appeal. I have to say I am scratching my head to see this school not being brought into the DEIS system, and I cannot express the disappointment the school is experiencing. DEIS supports schools and stu…

I thank the Minister of State and reiterate I appreciate he is in a difficult position in standing in for the Minister, Deputy Foley. I understand the next phase will explore the allocation of resources and that there will be an updated Pobal HP deprivation index in quarter 3 of 2023, but I do not understand why that could not have been done concurrently. Missing this school means there is something wrong with the process. How could there not be, given that the national average receiving a STen score of 1 in Englis…

I concur with that.

I thank the Minister of State. I thank the Senator for raising the issue. I concur with him about opening the helpline to MLAs and MPs. I know a communications campaign was run in the North. There have been calls in this House for a passport office in Belfast and the north west. That would be helpful too.

Perhaps the Minister of State might bring that back to the House as well. That concludes the Commencement matters.

The price tag for the sale of a Dublin Airport car park is €70 million. That is how profitable a Dublin Airport car park could be. That is how locked into car dependency our airport is and how vulnerable travellers are to airport car charges. MetroLink is on the way. Planning for it will be launched in September but it could take 12 years to complete. Why are we not prioritising airport bus routes? It will be 2024 before BusConnects reaches Dublin 15 and that is not good enough. Direct airport routes need to be pri…

-----or to burn the posters and symbols of your neighbours. If people celebrate their religion by threatening another, or if they use it to promote sectarianism or misogyny, we need to see outright rejection of this behaviour. We need political and community leadership and action. It is not that long ago that we witnessed an abhorrent video that was shared during Queen Elizabeth's jubilee. This kind of behaviour also comes from hate. At every opportunity, the despicable acts of sectarianism should be condemned.

If we are stamping it out, we need a zero tolerance approach.

I am sharing time with Senator Maria Byrne. I welcome the Minister of State and commend her on her commitment to special educational needs. Her office is always available, as is she, and we are very grateful for that. I hope her legacy will include the reorientation of this system that puts the weight on parents and families to secure appropriate accommodation for their children instead of the State automatically stepping in. The experience parents have is upside down and it forces people who already have too much …

The relationships across these islands are experiencing turbulent times. Nowhere else is the impact of the policy of brinkmanship pursued by the British Government and Conservative Party more clear than in Northern Ireland where the principles that brought communities and opposing philosophies together 25 years ago have been completely undermined and disregarded. People should never have entertained the idea that Boris Johnson would be given the privilege of staying on as caretaker Prime Minister until October. His…

We have had quite a black and white view of entitlements for workers. In recent years we have seen how we do not have to be so black and white about things. With regard to the trust issue, in recent years we have also seen that employees can be trusted to work, and to manage their work, remotely and that sometimes the fears are greater than the reality. In saying that, it is all about finding balance. I was struck that in a survey Iceland was described as having the best approach to sick leave. In Iceland I believe…

This legislation is groundbreaking, as has been said frequently. It is about supporting people who cannot afford to be sick at present. We have heard personal examples of that. I have sympathy for the Minister of State in this scenario. It is easy to talk about employers all in the one bracket but we are talking about employers who, in this scenario, will have to pay 70% and then may also have to find replacement workers at 100%. They are already working in very difficult situations, increasingly so, with wage incr…

In section 7, we were discussing the understandable reasons employees would want 100% pay cover, as well as the understandable burden on small employers who are already very concerned about having to pay 70% of the statutory sick pay in addition to the replacement cover. This was brought to my attention by the Local Jobs Alliance that consists of small, local and family-run businesses, including the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, the Retail Grocery Dairy and Allied Trades Association, RGDATA, Irish …

The word "opportunity" is often overused in politics, but not when it comes to the impact that greenways have had on our tourism market and on recreation. In Dublin, the Royal Canal and Grand Canal urban greenways are being progressed. In Dublin 15, we have seen rounds of non-statutory consultation and we await the next planning stage. I believe that an application in respect of the Royal Canal greenway will be submitted in autumn. Environmental surveys are being conducted currently and there will be a report on th…

Yes, we are making great progress in this area and the level of investment reflects that. The recruitment of active travel personnel in county councils reflects it as well. I am here because I see an opportunity for Dublin 15 and I want to put every effort into seeing it happen. The Minister of State spoke about the greater Dublin area cycle network. There were errors in it, actually, as part of the greater Dublin area transport strategy, and the Liffey Valley greenway was dropped. There were still routes on the ma…

This is an important debate about the cost-of-living crisis. It is interesting when we talk about widening who we are targeting with supports to people who have so-called good salaries that we are shamed for it by some people in this House. We must focus on our ongoing fundamental responsibility to those who are suffering the most, namely, those in and at risk of poverty and people who are surviving, barely surviving or not surviving. However, we must also look at people who are struggling now more than ever and th…

I also offer my sympathies and condolences to the family of Councillor Collins. As someone whose life, personal and political, has been defined by the values, the ambition and the achievement of the Good Friday Agreement, I cannot stand by and let the British Government and the DUP misappropriate it. For the British Government to claim its motivation for the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill is to protect the Good Friday Agreement is deplorable. It has twisted the Good Friday Agreement and the achievements of our coll…

Amendments Nos. 27, 28 and 32 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Amendment No. 29 is in the names of Senators Higgins and Ruane, and arises out of Committee proceedings. Amendments Nos. 29 to 31, inclusive, are related. Amendment No. 31 is a physical alternative to amendment No. 30. Amendments Nos. 29 to 31, inclusive, may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

As it is 9.57 p.m., the debate on this Bill must now be adjourned in accordance with the order of the House today.