The second half is five years.

I start by welcoming ambassador H.E. Dana Erlich and Jeremy Wilmshurst from the British Embassy who are here in our Gallery to witness this very important debate and the range of views across the House. Like everyone, I am devastated at the scale of human suffering since 7 October. We have all been looking at appalling images on our television screens, on our phones and in our newspapers. The brutal act of terrorism perpetrated by Hamas on innocent Israelis shocked the world and, as the Tánaiste outlined, it is the…

I thank our colleague Senator Pauline O'Reilly and her colleagues in the Green Party for proposing this very important motion. It is great to have the opportunity to discuss it, coincidentally on World Menopause Day. We cannot discuss women's health enough because such discussions were sorely lacking for years. It was never discussed in these Houses or beyond it and that has stored up an awful lot of problems. Senator O'Reilly rightly pointed out that funding has increased year-on-year since the start of this Gover…

The Senator should join Fianna Fáil. He would be more suited.

Tomorrow at 9 a.m.

I will give a quick welcome. I acknowledge the work of Lusk ICA, which does tremendous work and has been supporting women in north County Dublin in rural areas for generations. This is a very strong branch that contributes an awful lot to the overall ICA network in Ireland. I am delighted to have them here today. I thank the Cathaoirleach for that welcome.

Whatever I say today will be completely inadequate next to Senator Clonan's contribution. I can hear the passion in his voice because he has been through this with a very vulnerable child who had to face a number of serious surgeries. Senator Conway, when he was a child, faced some very serious and life-altering surgeries. Like Senator Clonan, he has personal experience of this. We have all been shocked to the core by the revelations. We are still grappling in the dark because we do not know what happened. It is ve…

The Minister of State is very welcome. He and my colleagues will not find it any surprise that I will raise the issue of the family law court complex that was promised for a long number of years to be delivered at Hammond Lane. I have spoken about this ad nauseam since my election to this House back in 2016. I was very happy to see it included in the programme for Government that this site would at last be developed and a fit-for-purpose combined family law court complex would be delivered at Hammond Lane. What is …

What percentage-----

It is-----

I thank Senator O'Loughlin, who has plenty more to say on this issue. I appreciate the work she has put into this, and that of the women's caucus. It is a very important motion. It is very long but contains so many facets. It is very important that we have the conversation because, as she outlined and as is mentioned in the motion, care is very gender based. There is unpaid and paid care. Both forms of care are rarely mentioned. There is low pay in the paid care sector, which involves predominantly women in very pr…

Everyone is very welcome back. I wish to raise a matter I saw on the front of the Irish Mail on Sunday last week. I was very concerned to read the front-page story about the €14 billion hole in the national development plan budget. I believe a memorandum was brought to Cabinet today by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, on this inflation-driven deficit. It is very concerning. The memo apparently indicated that projects such as the metro, DART+ and road projects would have to be recalibrated or scaled back and…

That is correct. We will speak for the six minutes each, with the agreement of the Chair and the House.

I welcome the Minister back to this House and to the Houses of the Oireachtas following her maternity leave. I am in favour of hate crime legislation. It is not before time that we are updating the position. However, I have some concerns about the legislation and more so about what is not in the legislation rather than what is. Specifically, I am concerned at the lack of antisemitism protection in the legislation for Jewish people. There is also some vagueness in parts I would like to see cleared up. I will be tabl…

The Minister is always welcome to the Seanad. I do not know where to begin with his statement because it is so large. Having more than €1 billion in funding available is phenomenal. The Minister also mentioned primary care centres, surgical hubs and the national children's hospital. It is all fantastic work and we are very happy with progress and the amount of money that has been rightly designated for these major infrastructural projects. I hope the national children's hospital will be up and running in the very n…

On Tuesday, 13 June at 1 p.m.

Now.

Now.

I thank the Minister and his officials for progressing this legislation. Although technical in nature, it is very important because it ties up loose ends and provides for a more streamlined health service. We will all benefit from that. I thank everybody involved.

I welcome the Minister. We very much welcome the Bill coming to the House. It will streamline and modernise our health service and I commend him on taking those steps because they are long overdue. He outlined comprehensively the system of registration for social care workers, and the complaints investigation function of the Medical Council will be strengthened and enhanced by the Bill, which is important in this era of greater awareness and greater participation of patients in their own care. The enabling of holde…