I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

The first thing to say is that the Minister is as good as her word. She promised to take four of my amendments back to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. They have returned to the House this evening as three amendments but all four are captured. I thank the Minister for that. It is unusual and rewarding as a Government backbencher when a Minister engages constructively with the amendments and we find them making their way through into the final law, I hope, presuming that we pass them here this evening. The M…

I thank the Minister for taking what I had proposed to the OPC and coming back with an amendment. Of course, I had originally two individual amendments on this but the OPC found a better place to do it with one amendment. As the Minister said, it is in section 69, which provides for AE provider schemes and risk levels. I am firmly of the opinion, as the impact climate change will have in the coming decades begins to dawn on people's consciousness, they will realise that there are investments that are very bad ideas…

From the outside, if you had a look at this amendment, which removes the word "may" and replaces it with the word "shall", even if you did not have a knowledge of the legislative process, you would ask what are those guys doing in there that something like this is what is taking up their time. However, this is probably the most consequential amendment. Certainly, it is the most consequential of the amendments that I have managed to get the Minister to introduce during the debates on this Bill. Section 74(2) contain…

Deputy Sherlock made reference to a good day's work. More than a good day's work was put into this. The Cathaoirleach of the committee cannot be here today but Deputy Ó Laoghaire and I are so, on behalf of the committee, I am thankful for all of the support at the pre-legislative scrutiny stage. We might have liked to see more of the recommendations being taken on board in the final shape of the Bill, but we found the Minister and the Department very willing to come to us at all times. This legislation is substanti…

I am an enthusiastic supporter of the well-being framework and the move to go beyond GDP in how we assess the health of our economy in order to remind ourselves that the economy should work for society and not the other way around. I want to raise three issues that should be part of the discussion on how we implement it. First, the Taoiseach mentioned the summer economic statement and the national economic dialogue. We really have to stitch the framework into these. It has to involve more than just tagging. It has …

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor - To discuss recruitment for children's disability network team, CDNT, services in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 5. Deputy Bernard Durkan - To discuss the need for school places right across Kildare North, including special education places. Deputy Thomas Gould - To discuss the placing of all Cork hurling championshi…

I wish to raise an issue around joint family visa applicants. Like so many of these issues that we get into our offices it goes from the particular to the general once one starts looking at it. A constituent got in touch with my office. He is working at University Hospital Waterford and he is well integrated into both the workforce and the wider community and wants his wife to come and join him here in Ireland. He has applied for the visa. I am advised that visa applications are processed chronologically in the ord…

I am taking this on behalf of Deputy Leddin. We have faced a massive challenge, particularly since 2022 with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The outbreak of war in mainland Europe is not something we have seen in decades. For the most part, we as a country and particularly communities, have risen to that challenge magnificently. Over 100,000 people have been given shelter on our shores over the last two years . My question is about some of the funding schemes that have been put in place under the Department to assi…

I think the Minister of State is right in emphasising that even though what dominates our news cycle are the instances where integration has gone wrong or has failed to take hold, in communities across the country, there are small stories of community integration where it is going right. I would point to my home town of Tramore. We have had direct provision in Tramore for well over 20 years. I have taught those kids. You look at the pictures of the county final and you see the evidence of positive integration withi…

I have a short personal story. I happened to be in UHW visiting a family member over the weekend. I met a nurse there whose accent I could not place. I asked her where her accent was from and it was from Somalia. However, it was not really a Somalian accent, or it started as a Somalian accent but it had a good 20 years of Waterford knocked into it as well. Even had I known at the start of the conversation that she was Somalian, I think I would have struggled to place the accent. It was Somalia by way of Barrack Str…

I raise very similar concerns to the issues raised by Deputy Stanton. In the case of the naíonra in Tramore, it applied for that previous loan. It needed significant capital investment to maintain what has been an outstanding service for the past 30 years. Similarly, we see the number of housing estates cropping up all across the city and in Tramore. We are already at capacity within the town or city. Where are those children going to go? There is a bigger question if the State does want to make this capital invest…

I am smiling wryly at the Minister's previous answer. Teachers are very protective of their classrooms: "If they come into mine, they better not mess up the copies or anything else." As regards the fourth strand of the together for better programme, we have ECCE, the access and inclusion model and the national childcare scheme. The first three I understand quite well, but we have a proposed equal participation model on which the Department is working. I am not terribly clear on what we are proposing here and I woul…

I believe passionately in this and that we should not confuse equality of outcome with the equality of opportunity we often get in a meritocracy, whereby you start from 50 m and I start from 100 m, we say the finish line is in the same place and we say, "Was it not great we all got to run in the same race?" That is not really how society works. Well, it is how society works but it is not how society should work. I believe we should move in this direction. I read all the language on the together for better website b…

Additional staff and additional training for existing staff make all sorts of sense to me. The Minister will know that better informing parents is difficult. He talks about targeting that group. Trying to get people to actually interact with the services will be difficult. Will the Minister explain to me a little more about, as I said, the basic nuts and bolts? If I understand this correctly, it is aimed at early learning care and at school-age children. Are we talking about a wraparound support? Are we talking abo…

I am also asking this question on behalf of Deputy Leddin. There has been huge progress in the amount of family leave that is available and things like work-life balance, in particular working from home. I think of the difference between when I had my first young fella versus my third. I had three days leave for the first. By the time it rolled around to the third fella, it was two weeks' leave. That made a difference to me for sure but it made an enormous difference to my partner. For the full two weeks and whatev…

There is a lot there that I welcome, but what the Minister has said on deferred leave is important. The Irish Cancer Society has been in touch with me and several other Members of the House to get that point across. That is something we would certainly like to see. The domestic violence leave is a superb piece of work and I congratulate the Minister on it. Neither the Minister nor I is likely to benefit from the breastfeeding supports, but by God I think anybody who takes on that job of work deserves every bit of s…

I would not underestimate the cultural handbrake that is also there. There is definitely a societal pressure, in particular on men, to get that fit of child rearing done and get back to work. That is the thinking on it. I do not subscribe to that view. I think that time you put into your child at home is incredibly valuable and, to speak to our earlier question, gives that best start and early start. We need to be serious about supporting the caring economy and that income replacement rate the Minister is talking a…

I again raise a long-term and ongoing issue at Heilbhic Pier in Gaeltacht na nDéise just outside Dungarvan. For a number of days each month when the tide is at its lowest, the RNLI boat cannot launch. It cannot exit the slipway. The harbour is silted up. I have been around the houses on this. It has been a case of pass the parcel. I have put questions to the Department of agriculture, which has directed me to the Department of housing. I get kicked on to the local authority. I do not much care who solves this issue…

I will pick up where the Deputy left off in echoing his comments about the rights of nature and the establishment of the expert group. We do need that constitutional change to recognise people's right to a healthy environment on one hand and the rights of nature on the other. We know from very recent history that referendums are tricky. In the longer term and particularly as we look at the question of Northern Ireland, we need to think about a constitutional convention where we look at devising a new constitution f…