Having been in my seat, the Minister will appreciate how difficult time and the management of time is for backbenchers. If this situation is as the Minister has said, we still do have a certain amount of information. We can provide information to people on the basis of the information we do have. I prefaced my remarks by recognising that we would get more vaccines and not less, that we would get more speed and not less and that it would be a schedule which will be expediting over time. The Minister will have the op…

I thank the Minister of State and Deputy Howlin for all their work on this Bill. I, like many others, have spoken with Safe Ireland, the Rape Crisis Network and all the other groups involved in helping us refine and develop this legislation brought forward by Deputy Howlin. He really pushed it through and I congratulate him on it. I hope the Minister of State will be able to accept one of these amendments regarding deepfaking. It is wonderful to have such cross-party support on this. Deputy Michael Collins is right…

I agree with Deputy Kenny in that we had a detailed discussion on this on Committee Stage. We are aware that the offence is prosecuted and is being prosecuted by the Garda under harassment legislation at present. I agree with the general point on getting the Bill as right as possible. On the previous amendment, the Bills Office has been able to insert additional amendments. A Labour Party Senator could try to submit an amendment tomorrow. On the amendment under consideration, No. 16, the harassment legislation cove…

Last week, the Taoiseach, utterly correctly, gave the support of the Government and this House to an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, a lawyer murdered in Northern Ireland in the late 1980s, as did a Seanad motion, the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, of which I am a member, and the Alliance Party, as an absolute imperative for the rule of law. Will the Taoiseach join with me in acknowledging the anniversary this week of another lawyer murdered in Northern Ireland, Ed…

I am here.

I am delighted to have an opportunity to contribute to this Bill and to congratulate the Minister for bringing in the largest social welfare budget in the history of the State. It is an extraordinary achievement which is based on how we have been able to borrow money to fund the essential services that my colleague has talked about. It includes wage subsidy schemes, Covid schemes and the pandemic unemployment scheme, all of which have been integral to maintaining not just people's incomes, but the social solidarity…

Tairgim: “Go gceadófar go dtabharfar isteach Bille dá ngairtear Acht chun an Bunreacht a leasú.” I move: “That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Constitution.” I am pleased to introduce this Bill today and I thank the House for the opportunity to do so. This is a Bill to provide for the possibility of remote voting for Members of these Houses. As present, only Members of the Oireachtas who are physically present may vote in Dáil and Seanad proceedings, which is appropriate in all nor…

Tairgim: "Go dtógfar an Bille in am Comhaltaí Príobháideacha." I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

How have the Department and its associated agencies adapted to the challenge of Covid-19 to try to continue to develop new markets for Irish food and drink producers?

I congratulate the Minister of State on that work. Agrifood is a very significant part of our export economy and our national economy. It has developed and it is great to see the momentum. It is clear from the Department and from listening to the Minister's and the Minister of State's responses today how much emphasis there is for dairy and beef, which is appropriate, but I might also flag the innovation-led businesses that are not on that side, such as in dry goods and other products. I am thinking of early start-…

I thank the Minister of State. That is so welcome. One of the challenges for small businesses is that they have been able to take some of their own steps where there has not been a language barrier but the United Kingdom leaving the European Union makes it much more difficult. Indeed, the agencies are very supportive. I suppose some of the smaller businesses feel that there is this emphasis on dairy and beef and it is just to make sure that we are still investing in that innovation-led food enterprises to give them…

I thank the Minister, and Deputy O’Reilly also for introducing this very important piece of legislation and its contribution to the debate that we are having again and again about domestic violence and how we try to approach and stop it. It is obvious and clear that victims need to be given the time to assess their situation and to determine a plan in their own best interests and those of their children. They may need to move house or schools and, if they are going to stay where they are, they need to develop a saf…

It is satisfying to raise an issue that the Cabinet has addressed at least in part today, with the publication of who is going to get the Covid vaccine and the logic and the sequence of how that is going to happen. People are going to be understandably impatient and they are going to want as much information as possible. How and when they are going to get it will be crucial if we want to keep people with us as we roll out this vaccine. It is simply extraordinary what science has managed to achieve in discovering th…

What the Minister of State said is very welcome and it is appropriate to wait for the EMA sign-off. I believe in people's minds that has already happened and they are planning when access to the vaccine might happen for them. In that sense what I am saying about the how and the when becomes important. There may be ways in which we can use the technology we have, such as the Covid tracker app, for people to be able to register an interest, select their location and get a sense of where the centres will be located. A…

I am pleased to speak on this motion. It is important that we debate pensions as it is one of the fundamental structural issues of our time. It would be a better debate if it was based only on facts because otherwise it does a massive disservice to people on pensions, people expecting to get pensions soon and those working to fund the pensions of today in the hope of receiving a pension later. I am particularly concerned about women who have taken time out of work to raise children and who have been penalised for h…

It is clear to everyone in the House that the second lockdown has impacted our society, possibly more than the first. That is notwithstanding the participation of children in schools and the continuation of certain sectors of the economy. Thankfully, we have the hope of several vaccines for 2021. Without them, I believe the picture would be grim indeed. We know the impact lockdown has had on domestic violence. We know, or are beginning to know, the impact on mental health. We thank every person in Ireland who has s…

I am confident I am not the only Deputy who has seen the reports and been contacted with great concern about the sharing of online images of women and girls. More and more information is emerging about that. We have not seen it to verify it yet. However, the practice of publishing intimate images without consent is a major problem in Ireland today. The effect on the victim is one of complete powerlessness, humiliation and indeed of permanency to them and their perception of their reputation. It is an aggressive act…

I am here to state confidence in the Tánaiste and express confidence in the Government and all of the Ministers working hard to recover our country and society during this dreadful pandemic. It is preposterous that this Parliament is spending its time today on this political stunt by Sinn Féin instead of on the major issues of the day. The Tánaiste made himself immediately available to this House. He answered every question put to him and was happy to do so, as was appropriate. Having spent time on that, causing th…

I thank the Minister for coming to the House with these necessary, if unwelcome, measures. It is unwelcome for everybody to have to impose measures of this kind but of course the circumstances behind them are most unwelcome as well. We must deal with the public health measures and the enforcement of those public health measures in the interests of the protection of the health and well-being of everybody in our society. There is no government or Member in this House that wants to introduce measures of this kind. We …

Today is international pregnancy and infant loss remembrance day and I want to highlight it in the Dáil on behalf of all of the people we know who have experienced the pain and loss of losing a baby at an early, middle or late stage of pregnancy, during birth or in the immediate neonatal period. We all know that the shock and pain of losing any family member is one of the worst of life's experiences but there really are few traumas or sadnesses like the loss of an infant. What compounds it is that it happens so oft…