I support Senator Boyhan's call for a debate on prison conditions in light of the horrific revelations from the report of the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on the dreadful plight of a prisoner in Cloverhill Prison. It is a relatively new prison, so it is quite a shocking report. I urge that we would have a debate on prison conditions as a matter of urgency. I thank the Leader for ensuring we have a debate today on domestic and gender-based…

I thank the Leader.

I would like to ask the permission of the House to share my time with Senator Hoey.

I welcome the Minister to the House and commend her on all the work she is doing on this issue. I welcome the opportunity to speak on combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I will say a little, as the Minister did, about the dreadful news of the sharing of so many intimate photos of people. This large-scale leaking of images was distressing and a horrific abuse and my colleague, Senator Hoey, will speak more on that. I want to acknowledge, as the Minister has done, that my Labour Party colleague, Dep…

I thank the Acting Chairman and welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is good to see her back here again and I thank her for all of her work on the areas within her brief. I am aware that the Seanad recently discussed day care services for persons with disabilities. My Commencement matter has a specific focus in asking the Minister of State to outline when community social day care facilities for older persons and respite facilities for older persons and their families are expected to reopen. It is a more …

I thank the Minister of State. As always, she gave a comprehensive response and I note more detail is provided in the written response. I always endeavour to be constructive. This is clearly a vitally important issue. The Minister of State frankly acknowledged that while the plan was to reopen in September, unfortunately that has not been possible. It is still very disappointing and frustrating for persons in need of these services and their families not to have any sense of a timeline. It gives hope to hear that a…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and his stated commitment to reform in this area, which Senator McDowell has also noted. I commend Senator McDowell and his colleagues on bringing forward this important Bill. I also note Senator McDowell's most interesting account of some of the context and background to Seanad reform. I spoke on this matter last week when we debated Senator Malcolm Byrne's Bill and I mentioned a sense of déjà vu which I believe many of us feel when we discuss this topic. It is useful t…

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

I second the amendment.

Try sitting on this side.

Hear, hear.

To follow previous speakers on the issue of living with Covid, we have statements on that tomorrow, which I welcome. The figures of recent days have been disheartening, to say the least. All of us are hoping we will see a turnaround in the next two weeks while we are still at level 5. This indicates even more clearly the need for a clear exit strategy and a clear message from the Government, in particular on the very difficult issue of people coming home for Christmas and how we manage this. There is very welcome n…

I welcome the Minister of State. I commend Senator O'Loughlin and her colleagues on proposing a Bill on hate crime and, indeed, on raising the issue and keeping it on the political agenda. As previous speakers indicated, it is long overdue for legislation on this to be put in place. Hate crime laws are well established in other jurisdictions. They are seen as important because they vindicate the rights of victims and those who have experienced hate crimes. We heard such eloquent testimony from our dear colleague, S…

I thank the Leader for facilitating the debate today on non-Government motion No. 5 proposed by my colleague Senator Mark Wall on the siege of Jadotville. I am really glad that we have Government time today to debate that issue, which is of interest to quite a number of Members. I also renew calls on the Leader for a debate on the gender pay gap. Monday was Equal Pay Day and I know that colleagues spoke yesterday in this House of the need to bring forward legislation urgently to tackle Ireland's continuing gender p…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the House. I thank her very much for giving us such a clear overview of the position on disability day services. I also thank her for her appearance before the Joint Committee on Disability Matters last week. It is very welcome to have such opportunities to debate with her the provision of services. I acknowledge the importance of the Minister of State's statement that the provision of disability services is regarded as an essential public service. That is very m…

I am very grateful to you, a Chathaoirligh, and to my colleagues. I hasten to add that the party will mostly take place on Zoom and entirely in keeping with regulations. I welcome the Minister of State. I commend Senators Byrne, Cassells and their colleagues on proposing this Bill and highlighting Seanad reform so early in the term of this new Seanad. Reform is clearly long overdue as the Senators have said. Many of us who have been in this House for some time will feel a strong sense of déjà vu because we have deb…

I echo what Senator McDowell said about the work of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. I am glad we had a productive meeting this morning. I thank the Cathaoirleach, his staff and colleagues. We have all been working constructively to try to reach the position where we can use our Chamber and engage in voting in the normal democratic way thereby fulfilling our constitutional function. I am glad, therefore, that we have had progress on that this morning. I ask for a debate on the extension of citizenship to …

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion to extend the legislation which we debated in the House barely two months ago. I checked and we debated all Stages on 10 September. It was unfortunate at that point that we were debating all Stages in one day. There have been several different occasions on which we have had that experience. We did not, however, oppose the Bill on that occasion but we did put down amendments. On behalf of the Labour Party, I spoke abo…

I welcome the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to the House and congratulate her on her appointment. It is my first opportunity to do so. To echo the words of previous speakers who spoke of the Bill as "technical", and I believe the Minister of State used that word himself, the Bill is primarily technical in nature. We have, however, seen some Bills purporting to be technical in nature rather rushed through this House that have created a great deal of controversy in recent weeks. So, I have heard those words with a somewh…