I welcome the Taoiseach and all colleagues back. I want to raise with the Taoiseach what is known as the Sligo cancer bus, which brings patients from Sligo-Leitrim and parts of County Donegal to the centre of excellence in Galway for treatment. There are two issues. First, the bus has no toilet facilities and is not wheelchair accessible. It is unacceptable for sick patients to have to travel in those conditions. A new bus is needed and it is needed now. The second issue, which is also crucial, is that it is essent…

My time is short so I wish to emphasise the critical importance of tax justice nationally and internationally and how Ireland must play a full proactive role in ensuring social solidarity in the global tax regime. Knowing how political the Commission can be, I was initially concerned about what we would call competence creep but the ECJ has backed the Commission and we have to learn lessons and move on. A sum of €14 billion is a very substantial pot and while everybody, including me, has a shopping list, it is esse…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. The only addition I would make to it is to emphasise the need to ensure that parents can access childcare. Just today the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation was in Buswells. One of the issues it raised with me was childcare. While costs are less than previously, its members have huge difficulty in accessing childcare. One of the reasons for this is that some of the smaller services, in particular those which entered core funding and had to freeze their fees, ar…

I too welcome the lifting of the travel ban on Tori Towey. I recognise the fact that Sinn Féin raised the issue but I thank the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs for their work in helping to ensure her release. The issue I wish to raise today, along with my colleague, Michael Fitzmaurice, is the fact that the Expert Review Body on Nursing and Midwifery recommended to extend the revised clinical nurse manager and clinical nurse specialist salary scale. This salary scale applies to those and other linke…

First of all, I extend my best wishes to Simon Coveney, who has announced that he will not run in the next general election. The reason I am doing so in this debate is that I knew Simon as an MEP and subsequently when he chaired the European Agriculture and Fisheries Council during the CAP negotiations in 2014. That was certainly a critical time for the future of the CAP and while I did not agree with Simon on the share-out of basic payments to farmers, nonetheless, his influence was so powerful that in Brussels th…

I listened to the Taoiseach's various responses on the totally unacceptable situation where workers at the NAS have no option but to strike. At the end of the four-day engagement last week, the highly respected independent chair put forward a proposal that was accepted by the union but not by management. There seems to be real intransigence on the part of management and the Department in not accepting the recommendations of the chair. The Taoiseach raised the issue of benchmarking. Where did that come from? The sca…

Time, Deputy.

First, I welcome this legislation. It tackles a specific and important issue in regard to student accommodation. This is the requirement that students must be able to rent their accommodation for 41 weeks of the year whereas previously many students had to rent it for 51 weeks of every year. This was an extortionate practice by those accommodation providers who were trying to extract the maximum amount of rent from students and their families. It was an abhorrent practice. I am glad to see that this legislation wil…

For more than eight years, the constituent whose name was best known in both my offices, in Brussels and in Sligo, was Lucia O'Farrell. I will be honest. At times I wondered how Lucia O'Farrell could keep going, but every time she contacted me I knew why. What astonished me was that each time she contacted my office the list of errors, mistakes, omissions, misjudgments, gaps in information, confusion and chaos in this case grew and grew, a bit like Pinocchio's nose. I do not have the time to go through the shocking…

I am looking for an update on progress in upgrading the N17 from Knock to Collooney. This is a major issue of concern from a strategic, economic perspective and a safety perspective. Progress has been slow. It is the main artery from Galway to the north west so I want to hear what progress is being made.

From what the Minister said, he is talking about bypasses of Tobercurry and Charlestown and nothing else. While that is fine, there are a number of really dangerous stretches on this road, especially between Curry and Tobercurry. I do not know whether he is familiar with the road. There are also some very dangerous sections between Tobercurry and Collooney. Work needs to start on those sections. One of the main reasons to upgrade the N17, apart from the fact that it is an economic corridor, is safety. I want to see…

It has to be.

I hear what the Minister is saying about safety and towns. I will come back to that in a minute. It is also important to remember that the N17 is a strategic economic corridor for the north west. That cannot be left out of any calculations. Regarding safety schemes on the N17 and national roads, one of the issues raised with me is that, rather than having a minor improvements scheme, which usually cost between €1 million and €2 million, a smaller scheme costing a couple of hundred thousand euro might be considered,…

I thank the Minister for his reply. For the past couple of years, we have been waiting for this final all-Ireland rail review. People are waiting with bated breath because, as Deputy Kenny said, we have to look at the western economic corridor. What are we talking about here? Earlier, I asked the Minister about the N17; we are now speaking about the western rail corridor. Those plans have to be in place in order that people can know and politicians can plan for what will happen. The Minister mentioned only Athenry …

I will raise the case of a person who spent five years of his early life in Nazareth House, Sligo. While his situation is unique to him, many others found themselves in the same circumstances so my ask is a general one. Nazareth House was an orphanage and care home but this person was not an orphan. Some three days after giving birth to him, his mother was forced to emigrate by her family, local clergy and, indeed, wider society, who did not want what was then called a "fallen woman" in their midst. A three-day-old…

The Tánaiste and I agree on the historical aspect. My question is about how the State in some way tries to compensate a little bit for some of the awful experiences of those children in its care. I looked at the review clause in the legislation and I am not sure there is actually a possibility to extend it. However, section 49 states that the Minister, in considering whether an institution shall be inserted, because the Minister has that power, shall have regard to the circumstances experienced by persons resident …

Yes.

I may not use all of the eight minutes. I am here because I have known Dan Brennan for a long time. I am not a member of the agriculture committee. I congratulate its Chair and the various members of the committee for their tireless and unceasing work on this. It gives me great faith in the committee and in the workings of this House that we can get to this point. I will come back to the Minister's response in a moment. I got to know Dan Brennan when I was a Member of the European Parliament. He does not live in th…

Sligo University Hospital houses the oldest renal unit in the country. I am requesting an update on the new unit. In February this year, the HSE informed me that the feasibility study on the unit is to be completed within a two-month period and that was two months ago. The response also states that national capital approval will be submitted at stage 1, quarter 2, 2024. We are now in quarter 3. The reason I am asking the Taoiseach for an update is that we have had delay after delay. Over 12 months ago, the Departme…

Last Tuesday week, I attended an event in Manorhamilton, County Leitrim, which had been organised in the previous 48 hours simply to respond to the sentence handed down to the man convicted of brutally assaulting Natasha O'Brien. About 200 men, women and children turned up at very short notice. They recognised that gender-based violence has become an epidemic and has seeped into the lives of so many women and children and some men. The men are fewer than women but they are still there. They recognise, as we do, tha…