I stand to congratulate the Government on the national retrofit plan. The funding for the plan is unprecedented. It is fantastic that we are being proactive in improving people's homes, making them warmer, better, far more efficient and cheaper to run. I worked in the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in Dundalk years ago. I have since been interested in, and have worked on, a State-backed loan system. Green-energy, low-interest loans have been talked about for a long time. I am looking forward to hearing the…

This is a good and positive day for everyone in Ireland. It was wrong that stalking was not part of our legislation. Women like Eve McDowell, Una Ring and all the other victims have been pushing for this legislation. Thankfully, our colleague Senator Chambers took up that mantle and brought this Bill to the House. The rarity of a Bill from the Seanad being brought through by a Member of this House must be acknowledged. That in itself makes this an historic day. This Bill is part of something bigger that is happenin…

I congratulate "RTÉ Investigates" on last night's heart-wrenching and infuriating programme on domestic violence. I say "infuriating" because there are so few practical supports for people who suffer from domestic violence. We cannot stand in this Chamber any longer and allow this gender-based violence to continue and increase. This morning, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Helen McEntee, said that the third strategy on domestic and gender-based violence would be released very soon. I ask that as soon as that happe…

I wish to highlight my huge concerns regarding the actions of the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, agriculture minister. It is very concerning that he would go on a solo run to obstruct, increase tensions and order workers at ports to break the law and cease checks that were put in place by an international agreement passed by both parties to that agreement, namely, the UK Government and the EU. These are sinister electioneering tactics by the DUP. This morning we heard that the DUP First Minister will apparently re…

I thank the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, and the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Heather Humphreys, for renewing their annual call for people to protect lambs and sheep from dog attacks, especially during lambing season. As someone from a farming community and a sheep farmer, I know the damage that dogs can do to pregnant ewes and lambs. It is devastating. Our family had 13 sheep killed last year in just one incident. All that is needed is for the d…

The Minister is very welcome back to the Chamber for this debate on another important issue. I thank her for accepting the anti-stalking Bill that was brought through the House in the previous session. This is no country for women, and that is shameful. I find it hard to have these contradictions in my head and heart. I love this country. I am so proud to be Irish, and to be living in a modern European democracy. I am happy to be bringing my children up in this country. On the other hand, however, I have an overwhe…

I raise the question of trust in the HSE as an organisation and in medical procedures and practitioners. What happened with CAMHS in south Kerry was disgraceful. I will not say much about that or the 40 or so families who may bring legal cases. However, I would like a debate with the Minister for Health on how he proposes to ensure that the HSE has proper structures for complaints in order that people be made accountable for their actions. In any job, we should be accountable for wrongs. When there are wrongs of a …

I welcome the Minister to the Seanad. I congratulate Senator Chambers on her stellar work as Chair of this committee. I was not a member of the committee, but as someone who lives in the Border area, I took great interest in its workings. The report is an excellent report which should be read by those in the shared island unit and by all those living here who have an interest in the future of this island over the next 100 years. Others mentioned how worrying it was, particularly for those in the Border community, w…

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity to speak. I do not have a whole pile to say on this other than to congratulate my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne, on bringing forward this important legislation. As a councillor and active citizen in my community, I have wanted this type of legislation brought forward for a long time. I live in probably the most beautiful part of Ireland, namely, north County Louth and the Cooley Mountains. We are scourged with fly-tipping and illegal dumping. Every we…

I want to request a debate on special needs assistants, SNAs, within our schools. The Leader will be aware that there are approximately 18,000 SNAs working within our school communities and looking after our children. I would like a debate primarily on the Department's plans for the future of SNAs within our schools and on how we go about looking after them and protecting their contracts. It is also about protecting them as really valuable people and as being different but equal to the teachers in their own schools…

I welcome the Minister to the Seanad. It is always great to have an opportunity to speak about agriculture and climate change in this Chamber. As the Minister well knows, I am passionate about our indigenous industry. Agriculture is who I am, how I was reared, how I rear my children and part of my daily life. The Minister highlighted his commitment to his brief and to his community. He mentioned how he has travelled around every single county in the Republic asking farmers their opinions during his consultation pha…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. In the few moments I have him, I wish to ask him what he is going to do. Is he going to listen to women? Is he going to listen to expert groups like Safe Ireland which has endlessly written reports such as No Going Back. It would be great for the Minister of State, and for all the women of Ireland, if he would listen to organisations like Safe Ireland. Before the Minister of State answers our questions, I ask him to think of the girls, the vulnerable women, the girls an…

I send my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of, and everybody who loved, Ashling Murphy, and indeed to all the women who we have lost and whose lives have been stolen in this country and across the world. We know lives have been taken, lives have been destroyed and lives have been threatened continuously in this country. We speak about it in this Chamber quite often. I and other colleagues have been raising gender abuse, abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault continuously for months and years in thi…

I thank the Minister of State. I hope those people can get around the table because it is a very important issue.

I would like to address Senator Buttimer's remarks about closing schools early. The coming period is a wonderful time for our children in primary schools. It is important that they stay in school until the end for many reasons. I know there will be public health advice if a school needs to close due to its own specific circumstances. I think that, in general, schools should remain open until the end of the school term. I welcome the UK Supreme Court judgment that the PSNI decision not to investigate the so-called h…

Absolutely. This type of injustice and the intergenerational pain and trauma go on without answers. These families are suffering time and time again. They do not know where their family members are. We come in here repeatedly and we ask the so-called best Opposition in the country where the bodies are. Where is Columba McVeigh? Who killed Jean McConville on the beach where I played as a wee girl? Who killed her and left her there to rot? Who killed Tom Oliver? None of these answers are ever given. There is no hiera…

Hear, hear. I agree with the Cathaoirleach's sentiments. Today is day 1 of 16 days of action against gender-based violence. For the next 16 days, I urge Senators as basic humans, as legislators, as parents and as sisters or brothers to consider how we can act at an individual level to eradicate gender-based violence. They say that domestic violence has been the shadow pandemic for the past two years, but gender-based violence was simply more hidden before Covid. It reached breaking point during Covid and people cou…

I too want to lend my support to the secretarial assistants. As a former secretarial assistant who also worked in this House I am fully behind them and they need proper pay. The main reason I stand in the Chamber this morning is to ask the Deputy Leader for a debate on energy and on our fuel and energy security. The hauliers are coming to Dublin today beeping their horns and highlighting the real problem we have in this country with the cost of fuel and of living. I heard on RTÉ that snow is expected for the next c…

Hear, hear.

Does Senator Mark Wall have anything more to add?