I wish to raise the issue of the mental health of LGBTI young people in particular, who have had a very difficult time in recent months. They have not had a comfortable environment or been accepted. There has been a significant increase in referrals to BeLonGTo and other organisations. I raise this issue very strongly on behalf of those young people.

I thank the Minister for bringing this important Bill to the House today. It is not the sort of legislation that anybody wants to have to bring to the House at any time but it is a clearly nuanced, sophisticated and graduated effort to try to effect as much compliance as possible so that we can continue to open our society and our pubs, night-life and entertainment industry. It is a step towards that. I thank the Minister for all the work that needs to go into that. Looking at the Bill, there is the tradition of ex…

My question relates to the 39 schools that were directed to provide special classes. Has every support that the Department and its officials can provide been provided? Can we get an assurance that the Department has responded to every request for additional resources and space that the schools have made recently and previously? Be it down to a difficulty or unwillingness on the part of the school or a lack of communication or failure in administration on the part of the Department, the parent of a child with additi…

I thank the Minister of State and appreciate her commitment to the issue. I wish her every success in that work and it is fantastic that she is in that seat. I wish to raise a linked matter with the Minister for discussion with her colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. The greatest issue that will face the education sector is that of children who have not received a timely disability assessment under the Disability Act to determine whether they have additional needs, communication needs or se…

I appreciate that commitment and the Minister's support. This matter is something that Deputies will have to raise time and again because it is of such concern, which the Minister recognises. I would welcome it if the Minister reverted to the House and updated us on the progress she has made, perhaps at the occasion of our next education Question Time. We will raise the matter with the Minister for Health separately. I thank the Minister for her commitment.

I wanted to ask about the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. I have already heard the Minister state that it is going to be extended to people on the PUP. She might outline the way in which they might go about making the application and the timing in which they might get it. For some on the Covid payment this might be the first time they have applied. Will the social welfare offices be reaching out to inform them that this is available to them?

I thank the Minister. As I understand from her answer, these were people who were already in receipt of the allowance and who would have expected to be in receipt of it again. However, for that cohort of people on the Covid payment who have not gone through this process previously, how many people does the Minister believe that will apply to in those circumstances? The Minister confirmed that the other qualifying criteria - the means test and the necessity to be part of an approved scheme - are still in place. Coul…

I thank Deputy Durkan for sharing time. I draw to the attention of the Minister of State the importance, in establishing this new Department, of remembering those people with intellectual disabilities and their participation in third level education. They should be given the same opportunity to participate as everybody else, which in turn can lead to full participation, where it is appropriate and wanted by somebody with an intellectual disability, in the world of work. The Minister of State is almost certainly alr…

I congratulate my colleague from the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, Deputy Foley, who is now Minister for Education and Skills. I wish her the very best with the work of her Department. I also congratulate the Minister, Deputy Harris, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Madigan and Niall Collins. There is a lot of work to be done and I wish them the best. We have talked a lot today about Covid and the return to schools. I will raise a longer-term issue which I believe must be raised now to ensure it is pl…

I too offer my congratulations to the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, on their deserved promotions and wish them the very best in their offices. I also congratulate and thank the previous Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and the previous Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, who worked exceptionally hard in recent years. I again highlight the issue of domestic violence, some of the practicalities around that at the moment and the question of how funding and policy are connected. Domestic violence and…

I would like to mention some of the targeted initiatives the Government has undertaken to promote increased energy efficiency in historic buildings, something which will become more and more important as the years go on. Every year the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht provides funding via the built heritage investment scheme for maintenance and minor repair works to historic buildings. Along with the historic structures fund, this year's funding for historic buildings came to over €4 million. This …

I join my colleagues in the House in condemning the brutal murder of George Floyd in the United States and all that has gone with that since then. One positive thing to come from this is a coming together of a range of different people and races peacefully, as has been shown in recent days, to stand together against the abuse of and discrimination against black people. It is worth putting on the record of this House the concept of white privilege and how that can be normatised in our own lives. As we develop as a m…

I thank the Minister for updating the House on the work on the maternity issue. Of course it is a matter of legitimate expectation for women coming back to work. On the Minister's comments on international sentiment and our ability to be able to continue to borrow, what is his view on the trajectory on deficit reduction? My question relates not only to Ireland but also the evolving view in Europe. Deputy O'Donnell mentioned the Merkel-Macron fund. What is the Minister's view on how that might be paid for? Does the …

I thank the Minister for providing an update on the July provision for children with special needs. It means an awful lot to parents and children to be able to plan, so we welcome the further detail on that. I wish to refer to another category of parents and children with vulnerabilities. A particular case of which I am aware relates to a lady who has a baby with cystic fibrosis. She is a teacher expecting to return from maternity leave to school in the autumn. Clearly, she is now in a different position in light o…

I want to take this opportunity to highlight the issue of domestic violence and ask three simple questions of the Minister. I will give some background. I refer to the expansion of the safe intervention units by gardaí, such as the one in Dún Laoghaire, for intervening safely in case of domestic abuse and coercive control; access to the courts for victims of domestic abuse; and the question of abuse and coercive control playing out through family law proceedings more generally, including the manipulation of court p…