I thank the Minister of State for being here. It is important to say that I am not here to diss social media or to be contradictory in giving out so much about it when I use it myself every day. I use social media both personally and professionally. Professionally, it allows me to show what I am doing in my work and to see the concerns of people living in my constituency. People can reach out to politicians like me on social media, which is great. All of that is A1. For the most part, I enjoy using social media, es…

I thank the Minister of State very much. I really appreciate him giving me this information. I will refer to a few points in the statement. It is great that funding of €1.1 million was announced in the budget "to support media literacy, fact-checking and research initiatives". That is going down the educational side of things. The Minister of State also outlined that the "European Commission has commenced a range of investigations". He stated that "Commissioner McGrath announced details of the ... establishment of …

Today is another world day. It is World COPD Day. I know only too well how COPD can affect someone as my beautiful mam had it and, unfortunately, died due to it eight years ago. Some 1,500 people in Ireland will die due to COPD. Having COPD feels like a persistent struggle for breath, accompanied by a chronic cough and wheezing. Symptoms can include a tight chest, frequent lung infections and a lack of energy that makes daily activities really difficult. It is estimated that 380,000 people in lreland have COPD toda…

In light of today's motion, I asked my friend and colleague, Councillor Yemi Adenuga, to attend as a guest. I am looking forward to hearing what Councillor Adenuga thinks of this debate. Who better is there to discuss today's motion than someone who has gone through the process and has remained here in Ireland to raise her family? Councillor Adenuga is Ireland's first elected black female public representative and Meath County Council's first migrant councillor. She ran in the local elections in May 2019 and was el…

On behalf of the Fine Gael Party, I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, on his new role as managing director of the World Bank. He said in his speech that it had been the greatest of honours to be a politician in this country. It certainly has been the greatest of honours for me and many people in my party to have worked alongside Paschal Donohoe. He has been a politician for the past 20 years, during which time he was a Member of Seanad Éireann. He is somebody we absolutely admire. During all my canvassing,…

Yesterday, I was invited by the Rotary Club of Navan to the Just 1 Life event, which is the young person driver awareness programme. Approximately 350 students from St. Patrick's Classical School and Eureka Secondary School, Kells, packed the Solstice theatre in Navan. The event included presentations from An Garda Síochána, the roads policing sergeant, Dr. Ahmed Jamal, an on-call consultant from Navan and Drogheda, as well as a critical care nurse, ambulance call centre people and representatives of fire and rescu…

I move amendment No. 10a: In page 13, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following new section: “Amendment of section 31 of Principal Act 17. Section 31 of the Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following new subsection after subsection (8): “(9) The total amount of general damages awarded by a court in a defamation action shall not exceed seventy-five thousand euro.”.”. I put this amendment forward in an attempt to see if there was something we could do to deter people putting in defamation claim…

Sally E. Shaywitz of the Yale Centre for Dyslexia and Creativity said: ...science has moved forward at a rapid pace so that we now possess the data to reliably define dyslexia ... For the student, the knowledge that he is dyslexic is empowering, providing the student with self-understanding and self-awareness of what he has and what he needs to do in order to succeed. I spoke to my husband about this today. Although not officially diagnosed with dyslexia, he is in no doubt that he has dyslexia. He would describe it…

On behalf of the Fine Gael Party, I also offer our sincere condolences on the passing of Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy, who did amazing work as my colleague Senator O'Loughlin has mentioned. On behalf of the party, I congratulate Catherine Connolly on her Presidency. I would like to quote Heather Humphreys, who I thought was amazing in her defeat. She said Catherine Connolly would be President for us all, and that she will. We all look forward to working with her. Last week, an horrendous event happened whereby an IPAS ce…

I will bring up something I brought up last week and on which I had a Commencement matter yesterday. It is about donating blood. A colleague who is sitting here in the Chamber came up to me yesterday to tell me that, because of what I said, they have registered to donate blood. I really appreciate that. Another two people also said that to me. If today means I could get another three people to do so, I am going to use this time to do that. Something I did not mention the last couple of times is that I unfortunately…

I had not initially planned to speak in this debate but I am glad the Acting Chairperson called me. I got Senator Stephenson's email and I am here in the Chamber, as is my colleague Senator Ní Chuilinn, because we support her Bill, everything she has said this evening and what she represents. We have all dealt with people who have suffered domestic violence. We can see this is the right thing to do and we are here to support Senator Stephenson.

It is my first time speaking to the Minister of State and I am delighted. I thank her for coming in to discuss the critical issue of blood donations. Last week the Irish Blood Transfusion Service said it needed an extra 12,000 blood donations as most blood groups have fallen to under three days of stock. Without the selfless act of a person donating blood, the Irish health system will come to a halt. As the Minister of State knows, blood only lasts 35 days and supply is almost always dynamic. It became so critical …

The Minister of State said that the IBTS has not looked for extra funding since 2023. There is still a problem in the sense that we went to a critically low level last week. I raised this last week and I ended up doing an interview on the radio and issuing a press release. Since then three people signed up, including some colleagues. That was just because of me coming out and talking about it. We definitely need to look at the age. Why is the average age 46 if people can donate from the age of 18? Should we look at…

I would like to discuss how we need to broaden the donor base for critical blood supplies. We have all heard this morning how the Irish Blood Transfusion Service is calling for people to donate blood, such is its enormous fear that it might have to go into an amber alert in the next few days. Ireland has never been in an amber alert for donating blood. It would mean that elective surgeries would have to stop, which none of us wants to see. There are a few thing we can do when it comes to donating blood. The average…

I do not claim in any way to have the legal mind that Senator McDowell has. I am just trying to get my head around the legislation and understanding it. I am coming at it from a lay-person's point of view and from listening to business owners. Imagine a scenario in Senator McDowell's butcher shop where merchandise is scattered around the shop in lanes, aisles and areas that staff cannot see. Somebody might slip something into their pocket and maybe the staff see it, but then, by the time the person gets to the fron…

I move amendment No. 9: In page 8, lines 22 and 23, to delete “it shall be a defence to a defamation action for the defendant to” and substitute “no cause of action shall lie where the defendant can”. I will withdrawn this amendment because the Minister has indicated that he will look at something to do with retailers.

According to the most recent census, Meath had a population of 230,000 in 2022. No doubt the figure is more than that now. Only yesterday, I left my house in County Meath at 7 a.m. and it took two hours to get here - a 27 km journey. This morning, I left at 8 a.m. and I got here at 9.55 a.m. I cannot get those four hours back. We have an excellent bus service, the NX. When I say "excellent", it is excellent on weekends or at off-peak hours. Try getting it at peak times and there is a high chance it will drive strai…

I will have to take the Minister of State's word for it. Say something wonderful now.

As a spokesperson on enterprise here in the Seanad I very much welcome the opportunity to speak to the Minister today and to the budget for enterprise and tourism, which we learnt of last week. I thank the Minister for taking the time to join us here. Ireland's overall international competitive position is strong and currently ranks as the seventh most competitive economy in the world. Ireland has experienced a decade of very significant economic expansion, a strong increase in population, rapid gains in employment…

I appreciate that the Minister, Deputy Calleary, has come here this morning. While I was running in the convention, I used a quote about women to sum up myself and my late mam, who loved a strong cup of tea: a woman like me is like a tea bag; you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. There are many women in County Meath who are strong women and who are fighting for a home for their groups. Those are the Trim women's shed, the Navan women's shed and the Meath cancer support group. Trim women's…