It is lovely to see the Minister in the House again. Even though the cost of the Covid crisis, financially, economically and socially, has been monumental, I am still optimistic about the future. We have the same raw ingredients that pulled us out of the last recession, including one of the most educated workforces in the world and the youngest population in Europe. Our cost of borrowing is low and our reputation for financial management is high. In the recent past, we had full employment and the fastest-growing ec…

I welcome the Minister. It has been so long since I have seen him. There are many positives to focus on in this Bill and there are areas to build on as well. On the positive side, it extends parental leave from two to five weeks' paid leave, and that will include the first two years of the child's life in order to cover the parents who had children during Covid lockdown and restrictions. We certainly owe them recognition for what they went through. The Bill fixes a gap in the legislation for same-sex marriages and …

I wish everybody a happy International Women's Day. Lá fhéile na mban sona daoibh. I have received notice from Senators Aisling Dolan and Sharon Keogan that, on the motion for the Commencement of the House today, they propose to raise the following matter: The need for the Minister for Higher Education, Innovation and Science to make a statement on the measures proposed to incentivise gender-balanced representation within academia and research posts at third level institutions. I have also received notice from Sena…

Happy International Women's Day 2021, or is it 2017? According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers women in work index, progress for women in work could be back to 2017 levels by the end of this year. Some are rightly calling the effect of Covid-19 a global "shecession". The index measures 33 OECD countries across the gender pay gap, labour force participation, women's unemployment and full-time employment. Ireland has mixed results. The gender pay gap has lessened, but the female unemployment rate in 2020 increased at dou…

It will be hard for me to squeeze my five-minute speech into two and half minutes.

We cannot help but focus on Covid today and the inequitable effect that it has had on women. What are we going to do about it? We cannot allow for these experiences and insights to merely become ink on reports or for us to sleepwalk into a global she-session going back on progress that we have made in women's economic participation. The structural inequalities that exist are staring us in the face right now more than ever and we need to see action, investment and long-term change. I hope to touch on three things, t…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on illegal dumping and this Bill which aims to ensure that CCTV can be used to prevent it. As I dropped my children to school today, I went down Tinkers Hill and along the Lower Road through Strawberry Beds and noticed the rubbish. I made a mental note that when I came in today I had to ring the council about the rubbish on Clonee Road, Clonsilla Road and Ongar Distributor Road and at Ongar Wood, Tír na nÓg park in Carpenterstown and the 12th lock in Castleknock, as well as the la…

I condemn the protests and attacks on gardaí in the city centre at the weekend. As my colleagues said, it is devastating for front-line workers everywhere. I understand debate around approaches to Covid-19, which we have in this House. However, I do not understand how anyone can justify an erosion of trust in democracy or attack the media and gardaí as part of that. We need to call out this behaviour when we see it, including those who engage in double speak on it or are gaining from it. I very much look forward to…

The reason to raise this Commencement matter is to call on the Government to deliver wholly on the purpose of the Parent's Leave and Benefit Act to facilitate working parents to balance paid employment and responsibilities to their children in a fair and equitable way. At present, each parent is entitled to two weeks' paid leave for children born from November 2019. The amendment extends this to five weeks for each parent, and under the EU directive it could extend further to seven or nine weeks. The Act currently …

I thank the Minister of State. From his answer it is not looking like this amendment is going to happen at this time. In his response the Minister of State stated "It is important to note that entitlement to parents' leave is for the individual parent, it is not an allocation per family." In these instances, however, such parents are doing the job of two parents. They are under a lot of pressure and I believe we must take a broader perspective on this to look at the poverty rates and employment rates for lone paren…

We have seen the dramatic effects of Covid on transport and mobility patterns. To what extent can long-term changes be made regarding those patterns? I am thinking, in particular, about the changes to transport in the Phoenix Park proposed by the Office of Public Works, OPW, which are currently subject to public consultation. It is acknowledged in the report and research that the park plays a strategic transport function in Dublin 15 and beyond because of a lack of alternative road and public transport infrastructu…

It is looking like the schools might reopen in some fashion on 1 March, maybe for junior infants, senior infants and up to second class, and leaving certificate and fifth-year students. There are positive signs from the Cabinet subcommittee but nothing has been set in stone. The reopening of schools is the single most important action that we can take for students' physical movement, education and socialisation, and it will be a huge relief for a lot of parents. I am at a loss as to how the same collective empathy …

It is a month since the report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes was launched and since the State apologised for how our most vulnerable were failed, shamed and traumatised, institutionally, systematically and holistically. The report could have offered survivors some ownership or empathy but disappointed many because of its detached and legalistic tone. We as a Government wanted the 22 actions coming from the report to be the start of a process of healing for what I can only imagine is …

I move: “That Seanad Éireann: - supports the recent Government launch of the National Remote Work Strategy by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; acknowledges: - the transformative impact remote working can have on the workforce and communities; - the difficulties people have faced working from home under emergency Covid-19 restrictions; - the progress already made by recent Governments, including investment in co-working spaces, a network of hubs like DigiWest, along the Atlantic Economic Corridor,…

The remote work strategy marks a significant move towards changing how we work for good. It is a framework for long-term change, and we need it. For over 100 years, we have used the same traditional model of work for office workers, a version of 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. that is office-based and location-based. For approximately one third of the population, this involves leaving home early in the morning, making an increasingly long commute to an area of high employment and coming home again in the evening. If we were de…

I thank the Minister of State and everybody for their comments and contributions. There is so much work to do with this and it is important that we recognise the challenges because only by recognising the challenges can we come up with solutions. That is what I ultimately want to do and the people who are invested in this want to do that as well. We have had so many naysayers about remote work for years and then Covid happened and it showed things could be done differently. So, when people tell me again that someth…

At 10.30 a.m. on Friday next.

I want to acknowledge the amazing work of our front-line staff in our mental health services, and all the organisations supporting people at the moment. They are thinking outside of the box and pivoting in how they connect with groups, such as school classes and sports teams. In Dublin 15, we are blessed with a network of community centres. In places like Huntstown and Castleknock, when people could not go to the community, the community came to them and looked after our most vulnerable. I am very proud of the resp…

I thank everyone who has led on this issue over the years. As I have only two and a half minutes, I cannot name everyone. This Bill and the Labour Party Bill relate to the provision of free period products, but they are also about social change in a country that will no longer accept the stigmatisation of menstruation, taboos around women's health or their bodies. Bodies and what they do is not something to be controlled, but accepted as natural and normal in all of our wonderful diversity and difference. Stigmatis…

I welcome the Minister, or Arthur's grandmother, to the House. Families are in the midst of peak stress and anxiety because of level 5 restrictions and schools being shut. The stress today is palpable when people are going back to work. The enthusiasm for homeschooling, for instance, is waning. Speaking for myself, we have not made it out for our 100 days of walking over the past two weeks. A lot of families are in the same boat. We are in a better position than most in terms of the support we have. A lot of people…