I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to contribute a statement on this topic. I acknowledge the Minister of State's speech, his work in this area and the considerable progress he has made since coming into office. I thank Pavee Point nationally and, more locally in my own area, Southside Travellers Action Group, for their engagement with me over the past year in my role as equality spokesperson for Fine Gael and as a representative of Dún Laoghaire. While I have had the opportunity to speak several…

We cannot have it both ways, but we can have a bit of balance. I have seen people outdoors all over my constituency in small groups. I thank Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for the effort it has made to put in appropriate outdoor seating, to change the streetscape to accommodate restaurants to make it easier to have people outside in a structured way when they reopen and to put in place public facilities such as toilets and bins. That has made a big difference. I hope to see people out and about in as safe an…

What about Question No. 10?

We sent a note to the effect that I would take it if that is okay.

Yes.

The question relates to the efforts the Department is undertaking to increase the number of childcare places in Dublin city and county, recognising not only that affordability is a challenge but also that availability is a significant challenge, particularly in my area, which has an increasing number of very young children who need crèche places.

I thank the Minister for that comprehensive reply. Fine Gael has done some research with parents recently. We surveyed 2,300 parents and childcare providers, most of whom were parents of very young children. The responses were really interesting because while 76% of them talked about the need for more affordability, when they talked about flexibility, including flexibility of hours, and a choice of different types of services, whether community-based or private, it really was choice that was important to them. As a…

I could not agree more with the Minister. The provision of accessible childcare within housing communities is incredibly important. Another point from our survey is the perspective of the professional staff involved. Pay is a big issue but so is the recognition of professional qualifications and experience. The top ask of the State is more financial support but also greater recognition of professional qualifications. While there is a dissatisfaction with pay, one other concern coming back from the childcare profess…

The women of the Dáil and the Seanad are shouting about this matter. They are shouting for a complete rethink regarding the narrative of miscarriage and how we care for those who experience them. Some 14,000 women in Ireland experience miscarriage every year, one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage and one in ten women will experience it during their lifetime. This is a completely foreseeable event and yet we do not provide for it in our employment law. We ask women to go out and work but we do not provide for t…

I thank the Minister. There are a number of advantages to placing this on the Statute Book. It recognises that the issue is a practical one that affects people and that a legislative response is appropriate. Another great advantage is that it allows people to simply call their HR department and invoke their right, or ask their partners to do it on their behalf. It would be automatic and there would be certainty to the matter, which is really important. Many of us have had miscarriages. I have had a miscarriage. It …

I thank the Minister for sharing his time. It is not acceptable to use children and civilians as human shields, and it is not acceptable to harm and kill them where they are being so used. The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, claimed this week that it is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties but given that nearly half of the casualties in Gaza are women and children, their doctors and schools, the IDF is either not doing that or is not very good at doing it. We need an immediate cessation of violence on b…

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate on Deputy Funchion's amendment. I have seen in multiple organisations examples of two solicitors doing the same job in an in-house commercial firm where it was only by accident that the woman found out she was doing the exact same job on a different side of the business as the man for 25% less pay. I recall a similar situation in another professional services firm: two people doing the same job. He was doing it for €70,000 and she was doing it for €58,00…

I acknowledge Deputy Howlin's role as a Minister in the Government that brought in this legislation. I also acknowledge the role of the then Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter. It was a priority in the civil law division of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and important legislation. I was thinking about our debate yesterday on the Private Security Services (Amendment) Bill and the mechanism for the enforcement of court orders to repossess property assets. What we are debating today is related to…

It is a pleasure to be able to speak in support of this Bill and I recognise how many Deputies have spoken in support of this amending legislation today. It is a necessary fix for what was a genuine wrong. The scenes we saw in Dublin and elsewhere were deeply wrong, difficult to watch and should not have happened. The enforcement of court orders generally, whether in relation to property, maintenance, access, family law or domestic violence, is a continual problem. I note that as a House we spend more time dealing …

I wish to highlight the same issue in my own area. I thank the Minister of State for meeting representatives from my area about the Irish Water difficulty in Dún Laoghaire and the waste network that needs urgent upgrading. I thank him for providing the report on what Irish Water is doing to identify the scale of the issue and replace it, but it is a really urgent problem right across the coast of Dublin Bay. I know the Minister is aware of it and we have an awful lot of work to do to try to upgrade it.

I am raising with the Minister of State this evening the opportunity to continue with some of the work practices of local authority staff and councillors that have emerged during the Covid pandemic. Adopting the new flexible working practices we have seen has led to a better and more balanced way of life for many people and their communities. There will be less pressure on public transport if staff are not needed in the same way as they were. I am interested in hearing the Minister of State’s thoughts on this.

I thank the Minister of State for all his work in this area. It is so important in supporting people going into local politics, attracting a more diverse group and keeping them. The Minister will be aware that while Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which is in my area, is the first with a 50:50 gender balance, two of its female councillors, namely, Councillors Lorraine Hall and Eva Dowling, have had babies since the election in 2019, because that is what people do. In Ms Hall’s case, there was no provision fo…

I thank the Minister of State for the update on that work. It is such welcome work and it is so important. There has been a big change for council staff. We are hearing reports from councillors to the effect that, in many ways, they have been even more accessible in recent months because people have been sharing mobile phone numbers and so on. That has made connectivity much easier, rather than leaving messages at desk phones and so on. It has been possible to resolve many little problems very quickly, which is goo…

We have heard the fantastic news today that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, has had a baby boy. Huge congratulations to Helen and Paul. It is powerful proof for young women watching that they can hold high office and still be supported in having a baby. However, as the Tánaiste said, we have more to do. As Deputy McEntee has said, that was a temporary sticking plaster. I hope today can be a springboard moment and that the Government will now commit to a plan to introduce the necessary permanent arrangements to suppor…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and also the Minister of State for attending to listen to us raise this significant issue for people. Obviously, passport services have had to be decreased and the Passport Office closed for this period. What I want to ask about is the contingency planning for reopening. There is a significant backlog in excess of 80,000 applications. We were getting queries at an early stage where some people concerned had genuine life-and-death emergencies where they needed to access a passport. I than…