I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and thank him for taking the motion. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Brophy and his staff, the staff at the Passport Office, and the Minister's own staff, including Ms Laura McGonigle, who has done incredible work, especially on passports that are difficult cases. As public representatives we all deal with cases that are difficult. We must recognise that of the volume of passports that go through the Passport Office, the vast majority go through without any prob…

We have had a very positive discussion from all sides of the House. It is always a good sign when Senator Gavan is agreeing with the motion and welcoming it. In fairness, he and his colleague Senator Ó Donnghaile brought up some very good points about MLAs and people in Northern Ireland who would like to use the passport service. The Minister perfectly explained in his contribution the demands facing the passport service over the next year. Over 100,000 applications are being processed very month. It is a phenomena…

If her business card could be sent out with the speech the Minister provided, that would be hugely helpful. On an emerging issue, if the Cathaoirleach would allow it I would like to give a minute of my time to the Minister to respond to the announcement from the Minister of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland, Edwin Poots, on checks at Northern Ireland ports. Brexit is a very significant issue with regard to Irish passports, in particular, and I and the House would be very interested in …

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and thank her for coming here to speak on this matter. I am aware the issue is important to her, her colleagues and the Department. However, it is also an issue that is important to the Government, because it commits in the programme for Government to addressing this in its lifetime. Instead of having our current system for people who wish to donate their organs when they pass away, whereby they must sign a donor card that allows for donation if something happens to th…

I thank the Minister of State for her response and her support. The most important line in her response is "Signing up to the opt-out register will be a definitive expression of the person’s wish to not become an organ donor after death." This means that the current confusion will be gone. One organ donor can save eight lines. It is phenomenal. The Minister of State gave an example of the case in her own county. Members may also have seen video footage of other families who have met the individuals who received org…

I acknowledge Senator O'Loughlin's presence in the Acting Leader position today on what is St. Brigid's Day. I welcome that, during Private Members' business tomorrow, we will debate passports with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and we will all have an opportunity to contribute on it. As public representatives, we all encounter people who have forgotten that their passports are out of date. Obviously, many people are also applying for first-time passports. There is something that we and companies can do to improv…

I am sharing my time with Senator Doherty. I welcome the Tánaiste to the Chamber and I welcome the Bill. I acknowledge Senator Doherty's previous role, as Minister responsible for employment affairs, and her role in bringing this Bill to a certain stage. There has always been confusion over tips. I was examining some of the main issues that hospitality workers spoke about in respect of dealing with tips with employers. Some workers do not even receive tips; for others, tips are regarded as part of their pay. I work…

Next Tuesday.

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I ask that we have a debate with the Minster for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on childcare providers. There is a whole range of things that we need to do to improve the service and how they manage. Parents are telling me about a real situation at the moment on foot of the really positive news last week that everything is reopening. We have parents across the country who have had children at home for the last two years. They are now getting calls from their employers to come back to work nex…

I wish to share time with Senator Maria Byrne.

I listened to Senator Casey talking about a connection date of December 2023. We in Tipperary would love to get it by December 2023. The connection to my house will be in December 2024 and connections to other people's houses in the county will be in 2025 and 2026. That said, God knows where we would be if we had followed the route advocated by others, especially the Independents who voted against this and wanted to start all over again. I hear with frustration the Independents in my county talking about the slow r…

I welcome the announcement yesterday by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, on active travel funding. Some €289 million is being spent on walking and cycling across the country. Tipperary was successful and secured €6.6 million, which is very welcome. However, as I stated last week, it is extremely frustrating for us to be told before Christmas that the N24 road project from Cahir to Waterford was being shelved because of a lack of funding. The Department of Transport has lots of money. All we were asking for …

If it is agreeable, I will share half my time with Senator Maria Byrne.

The Minister is welcome to the Chamber. I will follow on from the comments made by Senators Malcolm Byrne and Kyne about the work the Minister did before Christmas in visiting marts. I was at a mart with the Minister in Thurles and I think he was there for four and a half hours. If anyone says the Minister is not willing to talk to ordinary farmers on the ground, that was not the experience I had with him in Thurles. After the meeting, the view was that the Minister was there to listen and take on board what everyo…

I wish the Cathaoirleach and everybody a happy new year. The Leader will know that I and many of my colleagues in the Fine Gael Party fought for weeks and months to get roads projects on the national development plan and to convince the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, of the logic of this. I do not just stand literally behind Senator Carrigy in the Chamber; I stand with him to fight for road projects around Ireland. The N24 from Limerick to Waterford is a key project that needs to be continued within the lifetime of t…

I welcome the debate on the Bill, and I offer my support for it. I wish to touch on the point Senator Hoey finished on regarding stigma. As public representatives, we talk to people who are probably open enough to talk about it and do not suffer from a need to hide anything, or at least they do not anymore, while they might have had at the time. There are so many people in this country, even family members, who do not talk to each other about it. There are probably people in this room who have a family member who w…

To follow up on what Senator Higgins said, we want good people to get into politics. There are lots of reasons at the moment why people would not, such as social media and work-life balance. There are a million reasons. There are changes we can make to encourage people into politics, especially women. Senator Higgins spoke about maternity leave, which is an obvious one. Paternity leave is also an issue. The Minister has done an awful lot in that regard in her time with the Department of Social Protection and that m…

Now.