I spot my colleague, Deputy McAuliffe and his mum and dad in the Gallery. I want to say "hello" to our visitors. It is nice to have people back in the House. We have been waiting a long time for that. They are most welcome.

I am thankful for this opportunity to speak today. I want to begin by thanking the members of the committee but, importantly, the clerk to the committee, Christy Houghton, and members of the secretariat, John Foyle, Claudia Zelli and Haley O’Shea, who worked with myself and committee members over the course of a year to put together this final report on Brexit on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Without that secretariat and team, we would not have the fine body of work we have today to …

It is vitally important that at the first opportunity in this Chamber we rise to our feet and raise with the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy Browne, the recent horrific and tragic killing of Ashling Murphy. Our hearts go out to her family, her partner, her friends and her community who are all grieving this loss. As a nation we are heartbroken for the life stolen from Ashling, but as women we are furious that we are not safe in our communities. That anger must now turn to action. As a country…

On behalf of my colleagues, I thank the Minister of State for his response. We join him in supporting a zero-tolerance approach but we must get a definition for that. What does it mean or what would it look like? We welcome the imminent publication of the national strategy but, again, the devil will be in the detail. What does it suggest, will money be put behind it and how will it be implemented? Let it not be another report or strategy gathering dust somewhere on a shelf. We must see concrete action in the weeks …

The Order of Business is No. 1, motion regarding the Technological Universities Act 2018 (Section 36) (Appointed Day) Order 2022, referral to committee, to be taken on the conclusion of the Order of Business, without debate; and No. 2, motion regarding the report of the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science entitled The Impact of COVID-19 on Primary and Secondary Education, to be taken at 5.30 p.m., the time allocated to this debate not to exceed two hours and …

As expected, almost all Members rose this afternoon to express their condolences and deepest sympathies to the Murphy family and to Ashling's community, friends, school colleagues and the children at her school on what was an extremely tragic and horrific murder. Many colleagues have requested a justice debate. We have secured a debate with the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, next Thursday. The Minister will come into the Chamber for a debate specifically on violence against women. We welcome that debate for …

I move: That the proposal that Seanad Éireann approves the following Order in draft: Technological Universities Act 2018 (Section 36)(Appointed Day) Order 2022, copies of which have been laid in draft form before Seanad Éireann on 29th November, 2021, be referred to the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, in accordance with Standing Order 71(2)(b), which, not later than 1st February, 2022, shall send a message to the Seanad in the manner prescribed in Standi…

The Minister is welcome to the Chamber. It is great to be able to stand in this House and welcome such a large social welfare package. We can be very proud of our country and the levels of spending we see here across all areas of social protection. That does not happen everywhere in the OECD and beyond. We see a record budget for next year, 2022, involving an increase of €558 million. We see increases across all social protection payment recipients: pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, lone parents - every…

I second the Order of Business as outlined by the Leader. I rise this morning to raise three specific issues, the first of which is the reporting that the British Government is bringing through new legislation around immigration laws that will require non-Irish EU citizens resident in Ireland to provide an electronic travel authorisation to cross from Ireland into Northern Ireland. It is not quite clear how this will be enforceable. That is the first question. This legislation has gone through the House of Commons,…

I welcome the Minister to the House. I will not speak at length because many of the issues have been covered. I welcome the legislation but join others across the House in saying it is difficult. They are uncomfortable regulations and legislative measures to have in place. Nobody wants to be working in a pandemic with restrictions on civil liberties but there is a recognition that what is being done is in the interests of public health and trying to keep our citizens safe. We have lost many people during the pandem…

Next Tuesday.

The Order of Business is No. 1, Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2019 - Report and Final Stages, to be taken at 1 p.m. and the proceedings thereon, if not previously concluded, to be brought to a conclusion at 3.30 p.m. by the putting of one question from the Chair which shall, in relation to amendments, include only those set down or accepted by the Government; No. 2, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) Bill 2021 - Second Stage, to be taken at 3.45 p.m. and to conclude no later than 5.15 p.m., with …

I thank all Members for the contributions on the Order of Business. Senator O'Loughlin kicked off today's Order of Business and raised once again the issue of Garda numbers in Kildare compared with areas of similar population size in the State. I note that the Senator has expressed frustration that she has no forum in which to raise this matter. I understand that the Cathaoirleach has attempted to facilitate that. It is only right and proper that the Senator has a forum to raise those issues, which she said again t…

The Senator also said that a third of people voted for abortion. Actually, more than 66% of our citizens voted to remove the eighth amendment. That is the factual position. That amounts to two thirds of the country. However, I agree with the Senator that the views of people with a pro-life position need to be facilitated, should be given a space to be articulated and should be respected. We must do everything that we can to ensure that the review is done in a respectful and balanced way, and that it is credible and…

I will start by updating Members on how we got on in our football match yesterday. I am sure Senator Ruane will speak about it, but it was brilliant. It is fair to say the Breakthrough organisation wiped the floor with us. If it were not for our star player, who was our goalkeeper, it would have been a lot worse. We managed to claw back a couple of goals at the end and I managed to get my foot on the ball at some stage, so that was a positive.

We are not totally wounded today; we are managing to walk around. It was great craic. I thank Senator Ruane for organising it. It was a nice thing to do yesterday. I raise an issue I read about this morning, which was one of the most distressing articles I have read in a very long time. It was a report by RTÉ on the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan. It was shocking to read that almost a million children are at risk of dying of hunger within weeks - not in the long term. Some 3.2 million children are suf…

The Order of Business is No. 1, Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2021 - Report and Final Stages, to be taken at 1 p.m., and the proceedings thereon shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 2.15 p.m. by the putting of one question from the Chair; No. 91, motion 2, Private Members' business, motion regarding human rights in China, to be taken at 2.30 p.m., with the time allocated to this debate not to exceed two hours; and No. 2, statements on Covid-10 and the new measures from the Departmen…

I thank the Members who contributed on the Order of Business. Senator O'Loughlin kicked off the Order of Business by informing the House that today is aunties' day, which I was not aware of. I send a shout out to all the great aunties. I have a couple of really good aunties myself. They are all good ones, obviously. It is nice to start on a positive note. The Senator raised a specific issue in respect of Garda numbers in south Kildare and gave very good statistics on the numbers of gardaí in various areas with corr…

Very good. I am sure he passed on the congratulations and well wishes of the House on behalf of all Senators. Senator Ó Donnghaile also spoke about the commitment of the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, to holding a referendum on independence in 2023. He requested a debate on the shared island initiative by the Department of An Taoiseach. I will certainly request that debate. Senator Moynihan spoke about the 40th anniversary of the AIDS pandemic, as did Senators Malcolm Byrne and Buttimer, and the need …

Senator Dolan mentioned that Friday is the day to recognise people with a disability and asked people to wear purple. I thank her for raising the matter. Senator Maria Byrne raised the issue of cancellations in the hospitality sector. She also spoke about the pyrite remediation scheme in Limerick and noted that homeowners who had been accepted for the scheme had not yet received word. That would be a suitable topic to raise as a Commencement matter with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to see…