The Minister is very welcome back to the Chamber. I also welcome Mary O’Reilly who has strong Roscommon links. I know she is the backbone to Senator O’Reilly. I welcome the motion from my Sinn Féin colleagues. We all know the importance of youth work. We know how it is preventative and how early intervention is very important in reducing long-term costs in health, justice and social protection. We also have to acknowledge that about 450,000 young people engage with youth services nationally every year. The work is …

I want to highlight the announcement this morning by the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, of €48 million annually for the new DEIS plus scheme and the DEIS strategy to 2035. It is a significant step up in addressing educational inequality across the country. As part of the announcement, it was confirmed that 121 schools will receive funding and the plan will deliver 400 additional roles, of which 350 will be teaching places. I want to mention that Scoil an Chroí Naofa in Ballinasloe has…

I welcome the Minister. I want to raise the issue of a post-primary school teacher voluntary relocation scheme. This is something the Minister will be familiar with from her former work. I have been told by a lot of teachers that there is a need for a scheme like this. They feel that there is no way out of the situation they face. When a teacher becomes permanent or gets a contract of indefinite duration, it is a recognition of their experience and work. However, if for whatever reason they decide to move school or…

I thank the Minister very much for her detailed response. I am glad she brought up the ongoing engagement with the TUI because the motion passed at the 2022 congress instructed the executive to negotiate with the Department of education and other employers to establish a national voluntary redeployment panel. It is good to see that there has been correspondence on that. It now looks like the Minister is still waiting for the TUI to engage with the other stakeholders. That is very important, especially at this time …

I agree with Senator Flynn. Senator Tully and I, among other Members of this House, have done an awful lot of work in the education committee around dyslexia and dyspraxia, and we have met young people and seen the opportunities for them. Their disabilities, as some people might call them, are actually their superpowers and we have to give them the opportunity to realise that power. I raise today the venerable status of Fr. Flanagan from Ballymoe in County Galway, conferred yesterday. He was born in 1886 in the dio…

I would like a debate on the provision of dental services in Ireland, especially by practices that accept medical cards. In my home county there are four dentists registered for the scheme, but between them being at capacity and other issues, no one seems to be taking on any new patients. There are 810 dentists nationally registered for the programme and I believe only about 600 of them are actually active. Back in 2019, there were 1,500 dentists accepting medical cards. We have had a huge loss of dentists involved…

Today, I raise the European Union Drugs Agency's report that has been covered in national media today about the increased levels of ketamine and cocaine use in the country based on water surveys carried out in Ringsend, Dublin, that showed increased levels on Fridays and Mondays. There is a new national drugs strategy and the focus is moving towards a public health approach, reducing harm, supporting recovery and improving healthcare access for people using. I do not believe that the education is working. The simpl…

I, too, commend Senators Murphy, Duffy and Kennelly on this Bill. It is a very topical issue at the moment. As all my colleagues have said this evening, the punishment must fit the crime. If the Minister did not have access to his legal briefs and staff and if the Cathaoirleach did not have access to the clock, bell and mallet, where would we be? What delays would we be looking at? As the previous speaker mentioned, delays in tradespeople completing their work only add to the national issue we have in trying to del…

Contrary to what Senator Stephenson brought up this morning, I compliment the Department of foreign affairs, our embassies abroad and the consular crisis office on the exceptional work they have been doing. Like so many Members in this House, I have been inundated with calls since Saturday night. On the response that we are getting from the staff on the ground, I have had situations where I have raised it directly with a team and ten minutes later, I have got a call back stating that they have spoken to that team. …

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Public transport should be simple, accessible and modern yet passengers on Bus Éireann services across the country are still required to carry cash. In 2026, that simply does not reflect how people live, travel and pay for services. Card and contactless payments should be accepted on board Bus Éireann services. Across Ireland, contactless payments have become the norm. Our Local Link services already accept card payments and, since 2022, all licensed taxi services have been legall…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I am glad to acknowledge Local Link because I know it is within his remit. It is great to see the 43% increase Local Link will be receiving to support its roll out of the services. Sometimes, we seem to overcomplicate these things. Local Link and the taxi services are able to do this. There are white-box solutions out there for just about everything at the moment that are very easily implemented, adapted and which are able to do this. We spoke about volunteering last …

Since I came into this House, I have tried to do certain things behind closed doors and I found it quite effective. An issue has come up in the west of Ireland with regard to the ambulance service that is not being resolved. The front page of our local newspaper carries a story about a man in his mid-80s who had symptoms pointing towards a stroke or a bleed on the brain. He was in the doctor's surgery locally and had to wait nearly four hours for the ambulance to arrive after repeated attempts by the doctor and the…

The Acting Chair is very good at that himself. The Minister is very welcome to the Chamber once again. The key point I want to begin with is that special needs assistants are an essential part of our education system and the Government is committed to ensuring that children who need support in school continue to receive it. Across the country every day, SNAs work alongside teachers and special education teachers to support children with additional care needs. Their work helps children participate in school life, ga…

I hope Senator Casey was not saying that we cannot talk about balanced regional development-----

-----because that is where I am about to go. I welcome Fianna Fáil's motion. It is very timely. We are all fully aware of the constraints that obtain in respect of housing delivery, balanced regional development, economic competitiveness and climate transitioning, but how we experience these and see evidence of them on the ground is completely different. First and foremost, we are very close to opening the first section of the N5, a €450 million investment in Roscommon that will allow people to access Mayo and the …

I am sure the Leader is aware that this is enterprise week. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend the enterprise awards in Roscommon and I want to acknowledge some of the winners. In the social enterprise category, we had Triest Press in Roscommon, an organisation providing a great service to the community while The Upholstery Company, Dunbar Pharma and Waldron Family Meats were also recognised. Tully Forge, an engineering company in Ballaghaderreen, was the overall winner in Roscommon and will now go on to re…

I welcome the Minister. I thank my Fianna Fáil colleagues for tabling the motion. I will begin by referring to a short film available online called "Let's Change the Norm". I am sure people are familiar with it. It was released by Smartphone Free Childhood in the US. It struck a chord with millions of people because it highlights something that many of us, especially parents, can see happening every day. The film shows how smartphones and social media place huge pressure on our children and calls for a return to a …

The Minister is welcome. This Bill deals with a deeply sensitive and painful part of our history and it is important that we approach it with care, respect and balance. The Institutional Burials Act 2022 was designed to allow the State to step in where there is clear evidence of inappropriate burials, while also respecting the dignity of those who are buried and the wishes of their families. This proposed amending legislation would significantly lower the threshold for intervention. It would allow excavations where…

I thank the Acting Chairperson. I hope I am allowed the same additional time everyone else has received.

There is an issue raising itself across Ireland at the moment. While on the surface it might seem quite minor, in reality, it points to a much deeper failure in how we manage our national infrastructure. Following last year’s storms, communities saw widespread damage to telephone lines. Poles were strained, wires were brought down and networks were disrupted. To their credit, service providers acted quickly. In many cases, lines were restored, connectivity returned and phones and broadband worked again. That is onl…