I commend Sinn Féin on its motion. It is very good. We are probably debating something we should not be debating because there should not be a need for a debate on special education for children, yet we continue to debate it not only in this Chamber but also outside it. The issue may seem abstract when debating it but it is not so abstract when it comes to parents and their children not being provided for in September. It is completely unacceptable that this continues in 2022. History will judge successive Governme…

My questions in on the pandemic recognition payment. That payment, which everybody welcomed, was to recognise the sacrifice that healthcare workers made during the pandemic. Thus far only two hospitals have paid the bonus to healthcare workers. It is incredible that this situation is continuing. Who is getting the payment is quite arbitrary and there is much frustration in regard to front-line workers. Will the Minister address the issue as to when workers will get this payment, hopefully within the next couple of …

People Before Profit largely welcome this legislation. There will be amendments and changes made on Committee Stage and, hopefully, at the end of that process, the legislation will be fit for purpose. This has been seven years or more in the making. Some references, for example, those relating to the lunacy laws, date back 140 years, which shows how antiquated this legislation is. The more I read the Bill, the more I realise how complicated it is. Legal, moral and ethical questions arise and must be answered. At th…

Earlier, the National Traveller Mental Health Network held a protest outside the Dáil in respect of Traveller mental health. It held a similar protest five months ago. One of its main calls at the time was for a meeting with the Taoiseach. At today's protest, there was a sense of music and a sense of poetry but there was also a deep sense of hopelessness and despair within the Traveller community regarding Traveller mental health. It is an atrocious situation. On "Morning Ireland" earlier, a member of the Traveller…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — medical scientists carry out the same work as other scientist colleagues in hospital laboratories, but are paid on average eight per cent less, with fewer promotional opportunities and less support for training and education; — pay parity with clinical biochemists was awarded in 2001 following the Report of the Expert Group on Medical Laboratory Technician/Technologist Grades and was agreed by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health, however, this was…

I thank all Members for their positive commentary on this important issue in the past two hours. I also thank the MLSA members in the Gallery for attending to hear what Teachtaí Dála from the Opposition and the Government are saying about their workplace. We again thank them for their continued work in their jobs. I will cut to the chase. If there was an anomaly in Deputies' pay it would not have taken 20 years to fix. It would have taken 20 minutes. Let us be honest that Deputies are overpaid and if this situation…

Today, the HSE announced a good initiative for the reduction of harmful drug use at festivals. It is a good, progressive step. There is a major anomaly in what the Government has done previously compared with now. I do not think it has the stomach to tackle drug use in Ireland. The citizens' assembly on drug use has been delayed, nearly two years into the term of this Government, which is incredible. I do not get a sense of urgency or that this is an important issue. At the same time, people are dying because of th…

Over the weekend, the Psychiatric Nurses Association confirmed that 11 out of 23 beds would close until September at the Linn Dara site in Cherry Orchard. We were here five years ago. Alarm bells ring when a state-of-the-art facility such as Linn Dara, which provides an absolutely vital service for young people, cannot provide staff. If this happened five years ago, why did the HSE and the Department of Health not foresee this? It is just not acceptable, in 2022, that a facility such as Linn Dara should have to clo…

Journalism is an art form. Many of us admire the great journalists who have exposed the brutality of some terrible regimes. It is a skill in itself. It is a skill of telling the truth to us all. Those words could summarise Shireen Abu Akleh. She was a journalist who enjoyed great trustworthiness and respect across not only the Middle East but the whole world. Two weeks ago, Israel murdered her in cold blood. She was just one of many journalists targeted by the Israel Defense Forces over the past 20 years. Believe i…

This centres around the community safety innovation fund the Department announced on 11 April. I want to find out about the longevity of the fund. Will it be directed towards communities affected by crime?

I welcome this funding from the proceeds of crime and the Criminal Assets Bureau. I can think of many initiatives and projects that could benefit from this funding, particularly in the area I represent, which has been greatly affected by organised crime. The profits largely go unseen by CAB but the community will benefit from an element of them through this fund. From my understanding, there is no correlation between the funding and areas affected by crime. The initiative is welcome. Its precursor was the Dormant A…

We agree that the best way to tackle the causes of crime is to invest in communities. I would argue that social deprivation and marginalisation draw people into criminality. It can be very complex. Criminality involving drugs is extremely profitable. With the trappings comes a huge amount of money. There is an echelon who do extremely well out of that and who generally do not live in the communities affected. Communities then feel the effects of that criminality. I do not have time to tease out the reasons. We must…

On my way to Leinster House today, I visited Cherry Orchard Hospital, where medical scientists are on strike in relation to pay and retention, among many other matters. On the way here, many of us would have seen a lot of flags around the place indicating support for front-line workers. There are two such flags in Kilmainham, which I go by everyday. I always think of that time when front-line workers protected all of us in the context of Covid-19. It is absolutely shambolic that 2,000 medical scientists are on stri…

I welcome this important debate. Just transition is not just a national policy but an international policy. Environmentalists use the great phase that we must act locally and think globally. Everything we do locally is everything we do globally. For a just transition, we need to think of the environmental space as the place and country in which we live and the world we all share. That policy is important, as the Minister of State knows, because to tackle the environmental damage that has been done, and continues to…

Like me and most Members of the House, the Taoiseach will have been horrified by the cold-blooded murder of Palestinian journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. To compound that misery, the Israel Defense Forces attacked sympathisers just for waving the Palestinian flag. Some 50 Palestinian journalists have been systematically murdered by the Israel Defense Forces over the past 20 years. Many people in this country will say that we have to go beyond condemnation and sanction the Israeli state on the basis of systematic murde…

To say the past two weeks have been a sorry saga is an underestimation. In the past nine years, successive Governments have had a chance to get this right but have got it very wrong. We all agree that maternity services in the places where women have children are antiquated. We all agree with that. Those services need to be modernised. The heart of the debate, and not only in the past nine years, has related to religious interference in healthcare. Such interference has a sorry past. We must look at the past, the p…

I raise an issue that is very different from those we have just discussed. In two months' time, the Clondalkin Equine Club, which promotes urban horse ownership and equine education, will close. This is incredible because thus far the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has spent €800,000 building and funding the project. I cannot fault the Department whatsoever; it has done a brilliant job. We are in a situation where 20 young people will have nowhere to stable their horses come July. This is a travesty…

The council said it will not do that.

I welcome this Bill, which is very topical in the context of workers trying to weather the current storm of inflation. It is up to the Government to determine whether it will legislate for a living wage, but the trade union movement also has a huge part to play in representing the one in five workers who find themselves in low-paid employment. Most of that employment is in hospitality, retail and food production. Some companies in those sectors are extremely profitable while paying their workers what can only be de…

I raise the shortage of hormone replacement therapy, HRT, products in the State. Several factors are at work here, including demand, supply and price. Some women are finding it difficult to source some HRT products in the State. The British Government has prioritised this issue in respect of the demand, supply and price. What is the State doing about the situation many women here find themselves in?