Under the Coroners Act, it is the duty of a coroner to hold an inquest when a body is found in his or her district and when a person dies in State custody or detention. Given that the mother and baby homes commission has reported on mass disappeared infants' and children's remains in unmarked graves, there is a legal obligation for inquests to be carried out for each deceased individual. We know this relates to a large number of coroners in every relevant district and would be unprecedented in the use of resources.…

I commend the Minister on his engagement with the industry so far. It is quite rare on big issues such as this when engaging with stakeholders to have so much correspondence with the Minister. I hope he keeps it up and I commend him for it. We are all aware of the considerable concerns in the fishing sector, with the Brexit agreement seeing a total loss of €43 million and Ireland surrendering a greater percentage of quota than most EU states. We need reassurance for coastal and island communities that the Minister …

Over the weekend, I heard a Minister talk on the radio about how we all need to be on team Ireland during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many young people, however, will feel that they have effectively been left off that team. The pandemic has impacted everyone but the disproportionate effect on young people has not been discussed properly. It has led to cancelled plans and deferred dreams and has caused increased isolation. Young people feel abandoned by the Government. Ministers seem to take hardly any interest in the is…

I echo Deputy Cian O'Callaghan in welcoming a deal. Brexit has added considerable uncertainty and worry to families, farmers, fishing communities and small businesses across Ireland. The EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement is a welcome alternative to a no-deal Brexit, as is the Minister's work in prioritising the Good Friday Agreement and the common travel area. Small independent producers in west Cork are contacting me because they are worried about the impact of the agreement and the ongoing uncertainty and th…

The front page of today's Irish Examiner lists the 923 children who died in Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork. The burial place of only 64 children has been established. The commission has found that some of the 859 children who are unaccounted for are probably buried on the grounds. Unbelievably, there are planning applications for development on this site. I have raised this with the Taoiseach before and, needless to say, it cannot be allowed to go ahead. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, announced legislatio…

We need legislation for this.

It should be done as a matter of urgency.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. Today’s apology is welcome. It is decades overdue and comes after decades of silence, shame and misogynistic control and abuse perpetrated and facilitated by State authorities, the church and Government after Government. Ireland’s history of using shame and fear to control women and their bodies is truly horrifying in its scale and impact. In 2018, I began knocking on doors for the abortion rights referendum in Cork South-West. I did not know what to expect or what kind of reception we …

I thank the Government and Opposition for the timely introduction of this vital legislation. The amendments that I and others have suggested at various Stages of this Bill reflect our engagement with victims and survivor groups who took the very brave step to share their personal experiences. There is a remaining key issue that needs to be addressed in this law. Deepfaking, that is, making images of fake events, for example, the addition of intimate images of body parts onto photos of a person without the person's …

If no amendments are being accepted, because one would have to redraft the Bill, why are we still going through the amendments?

I know but if the Minister of State is not accepting any more on the basis that he has to redraft the Bill, I just do not understand-----

Many works need to be done by Irish Water. Despite it being a semi-State body, the State seems to abdicate all responsibility to Irish Water. I recently asked Irish Water who is responsible and it informed me that at the end of the day, the State is. Some urgent issues have gone unaddressed for years. Shannonvale has a green space that used to be the heart of the village but now it is unsafe and unusable because of a treatment plant that floods the area consistently. In Belgooly, malodours from the waste water trea…

Plans for a strategic housing development and apartment blocks at Bessborough mother and baby institution have been lodged. More than 900 children died while in the care of nuns at Bessborough and the burial place of more than 800 of those children is still unknown. The proposed development is to be built on an area that has been documented as a children's burial ground. Needless to say, this simply cannot go ahead. The State has a history of facilitating the worst kinds of abuse and a very recent history of unnece…

On that basis, will the Taoiseach intervene?

The Minister must be aware that beef prices continue to be unacceptably low. I am sure he will tell me about the leadership the task force is providing, the agreement in principle to support the protected geographical indication, PGI, application and the Bord Bia market price index. The reality, however, is the task force is a talking shop. It is unclear exactly how PGI will benefit farmers and there are significant ongoing low prices. Farmers, therefore, are not seeing any benefits during one of the hardest years …

The negativity the Minister points out I am expressing is with regard to the PGI in terms of how it can benefit farmers. It is not regarding the bigger picture the Minister is painting. I believe the broad reaction is that this is about them. The reason we can get a PGI is because of their practices but it is not benefiting them. That is where the negativity lies. It is important to point that out. Regarding the task force, farmers feel they are again being sidelined in the process. Just two weeks ago, the Irish Ca…

As I said, I do not reject the idea or the prospect of the PGI status. I believe it is important. My point was to ask how does it benefit farmers. We still have not realised how that will happen. The core issue remains the industry is out to get as much profit as possible and continues to give low prices to farmers and treat workers poorly. This is facilitated by Government after Government and we have an opportunity to change now that we have new Ministers. The scale of Covid-19 outbreaks in meat plants illustrate…

I welcome the opportunity to talk on this practical intervention to help victims of domestic violence and I thank Deputies McDonald and O’Reilly for moving the Bill. I also acknowledge the Minister’s announcement of a consultation which will lead to the establishment of domestic violence leave. This is one of the issues that we are all in agreement with so I hope we can move this Bill forward quickly and to coincide with the Minister’s consultation process to reach the best outcome for victims and survivors. Domest…

Needless to say, we should not be having this debate. There should be no need for it. We should be paying our student nurses and midwives for the work they do in our overstretched and understaffed hospitals. Students on mandatory placements are effectively working as staff for no pay, which is simply unacceptable. The practical and vocational nature of nursing and midwifery means their education involves working on wards. They are a vital cog in our healthcare system and we need to recognise that. We need to recogn…

Since our motion last week to reverse the increase in funding for the commercial greyhound racing industry I have heard little legitimate defence of the sector from its proponents. I have seen no serious effort to address the loss-making nature of the industry or animal welfare concerns or even acknowledgement of them. Instead, I have seen attacks of a personal nature on those of us who do not want to see an increase of more than €2 million in funding for a sector whose custom and practices have been so discredited…