Hear, hear.

I wish to ask the Minister about his plans to expand and prioritise capital grants for accessibility upgrades in arts centres, galleries and theatres in County Louth and nationally with a particular focus on improving facilities for disabled performers and disabled patrons and whether additional ring-fenced funding will be made available to support essential works such as accessible backstage areas, adaptive performance spaces, sensory-friendly infrastructure and improved mobility access throughout these venues.

Under the national human rights strategy, we have an opportunity and an obligation to really drive forward all those ambitious things mentioned by the Minister. It is about making sure we have an clear and ambitious plan to expand and prioritise capital grants specifically for accessibility upgrades. The Minister mentioned the new capital plan on which the Department is working. So many of our theatres are accessible but they are just accessible. The Minister mentioned disabled artists. We have forgotten about disa…

I am really heartened by the Minister's really positive response because, as he said, culture belongs to us all. It is not just for people who are able to get access or enjoy it. I look forward to seeing the Minister bring that attitude to practical policies and ensuring that all our people can enjoy our culture and cultural experiences because we have much to offer and a lot of people are not getting access to it.

I am an endometriosis sufferer. It is physically, mentally and emotionally draining. Some days I come into this House and I am in absolute agony. I negotiate how I sit down and I am afraid I am not fit to finish the day. As the Minister knows, our job is demanding. It is people-facing. It feels like a knife-fight is going on inside you quite often. Many women and girls have to tolerate that pain and agony day in, day out. It is chronic and absolutely exhausting. I am grateful for the Minister's work and that it is …

The Minister is absolutely correct. I ask for mental health supports alongside the framework and fertility education and counselling for women who are not ready to have children. I am blessed that I have four children. I bucked the odds. I am eternally grateful my body was able to do that for me. We need that GP training and dedicated research funding. This is an autoimmune disease. In Ireland, we have quite a lot. Women are more inclined to have autoimmune diseases. We probably do not have a test bed because of th…

I have had four. It does not fix it.

I am standing up here for the people of Louth because my constituents, neighbours and families are being denied essential neuro-rehabilitation services that most other regions have or plan to have. Let us be very blunt about it: Louth has no community neuro-rehabilitation team, CNRT, - not one. That is not because the need is not there; it is because one has not been provided. The HSE has confirmed to me directly that HSE Dublin and North East which includes Louth, is one of the only regions in the entire country w…

It is a pity the Minister is not here this morning because the Minister of State is reading out a response I have received several times to parliamentary questions. I know all this stuff. I also know that Louth does not have a community rehab team. I deal quite regularly with people who have acquired brain injuries, MS, FND or Parkinson's disease and they are not being cared for. The rationale is that they should go to Dublin, but the exhaustion of having to travel to Dublin from north Louth, south Louth or indeed …

Along with my constituency colleague, I want to pay respects to those poor five souls, the young people who lost their lives in the car accident at the weekend: Chloe McGee, Shay Duffy, Alan McCluskey, Dylan Commins and Chloe Hipson. It is a desperate loss for their families, friends, work colleagues and everybody. I only hope their families can find the strength to walk along the pain and agony that comes upon a family when they lose someone so tragically. It seems almost futile and frivolous to mention it during …

The shared island unit has real potential and has had real results and benefits for County Louth and the country, as the Taoiseach said, in terms of the arts, emergency services and biodiversity. Yesterday's announcement that Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT, will gain university status alongside Queen's University Belfast is incredibly exciting news. It will be transformative for the north east, and will be a really complementary match-up with Queen's University as well. This is a huge opportunity for the sha…

It important to speak on this issue on behalf of children and families who have been let down. I am devastated for them. Deputies across the House are angry and upset because what unfolded in our paediatric spinal service is not just some abstract policy failure. It is a human tragedy. It is a breach of trust. It is so profound that any parent would question how they would ever rely on a system that left their own child waiting in pain again. I am glad the State is confronting this horrendous situation fully and, i…

I wish to speak to the gravity of what is happening on our Continent with the war in Ukraine. It continues to inflict devastating human and societal geopolitical damage and change. According to one of the latest briefings, the scale of the suffering is humongous. The bombardment of cities, with its civilian casualties and with its infrastructure under relentless attack, is severe and it must not be ignored. It is not at the top of the headlines in the news anymore but the war is happening still for those citizens o…

I welcome all the farmers' organisations in the Gallery here this evening. The Mercosur trade agreement is moving very quickly towards a qualified majority vote. That means Ireland cannot rely on an imagined veto. We need clarity, conviction and a firm defence of Irish farmers. Fianna Fáil welcomes this debate but let me be very clear: unless this agreement contains real enforcement protections, Ireland cannot and should not support the Mercosur package. Barry Cowen, MEP, has done detailed and difficult work on thi…

-----in something as consequential-----

I do not. I am speaking. I do not run a Department. Am I a Minister?

Do not interrupt me. If you agree with me, shut your mouth. Do you agree with me?

Do you agree with me?

Do you agree with me?

If this is how the Department operates on a domestic scheme, why would farmers trust them with something as consequential as Mercosur? Fianna Fáil's position is straightforward. We support trade but not at the expense of Irish agriculture. We recognise the export opportunities in services, engineering and life sciences but not at the cost of the farmers in the north east or anywhere else. The programme for Government is explicit: Ireland will stand by like-minded EU countries to defend our farmers and oppose any Me…