I thank the Minister of State for that reply. I had not intended going into the details of the particular situation I raised with the Department last week, but just to be clear, the management is meeting with parents tonight. The meeting is not with staff. In fact, that takes a whole other week. It is perhaps a reflection of the disrespect to staff in this particular matter. The other crucial point is that the Department has been misinformed. The reality is that there are people who can only accept an afternoon ser…

I will start by saying it is a great honour to be able to stand in the Dáil for the first time as a TD for Dublin Central and be able to contribute to this very important debate today. Before I speak directly to the motion, a Cheann Comhairle, I want to say that I know we are two months on from the election and it is very much in the rear-view mirror for many of us now. Many of us, though, are elected because of the nature of our proportional representation with a single transferable vote, PR-STV, electoral system.…

It is absolutely unacceptable that the Central Bank would take that position.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. I seek an update on the new school building for Clonturk Community College. I ask this on behalf of a frustrated school community. We understood a master plan for the campus on the Swords Road was to be ready by the first quarter of this year. That deadline has been missed. We are told by the Department a design team has yet to be appointed. That is unacceptable. This is a 1,000-pupil school that has been waiting a number of years for a plan to be put in plac…

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I note the Department states a significant amount of work has been done but I do not believe that is felt on the ground by the school community. The reality is that it has taken a year for the programme manager to put together the procurement process for the multidisciplinary design team. The tender documents have only gone out now. There is a very clear issue. The school needs clarity on when it is going to get a building. We understand the design team will only be appo…

I second the proposed amendment to the Order of Business. I warmly welcome the Bill and the updating of the 2015 legislation. It is hugely important that we talk not only about a living wage but a living income in terms of the adequacy of income, particularly for low-income workers. The issue I want to bring to the attention of the House is that last Friday a report arrived on the desk of the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment from the Labour Court containing a recommendation for a sectoral employment or…

I very much welcome that we finally have this Bill here. The campaign fought by the Irish Cancer Society has been a long one. We spoke about this two weeks ago when this Bill was before the House. I very much welcome the work done by the Minister and his Department in eventually bringing forward this legislation as there have been delays along the way. To follow on from what Senator Ruane said about the inclusion of a provision on non-disclosure agreements, that is hugely welcome. I am somebody who worked in the tr…

I raised a matter on Second Stage and I will raise it again. It is a huge disappointment that in the context of this Bill, which seeks to recognise that women who go through a severe, serious health condition or illness while pregnant, or just after giving birth to their baby, that the Government seeks to distinguish between a physical health condition and a mental health condition, and that the criteria for recognising a mental health condition has to be inpatient hospitalisation. I said on Second Stage and I will…

I rise to propose an amendment to the Government's motion. I find it very frustrating that year after year, we have this vote on funding for two specific sectors. I am deeply conscious that they are sectors that are held in great love and affection in certain rural communities in this country but they also have very serious animal welfare questions to answer, in particular in the greyhound industry with regard to the registration system that is in place and the delays in registration, occurring 12 weeks after the b…

Vótáil.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. My question relates to the expiry of taxi licences and the situation that will obtain from January next whereby cars purchased in 2015 will be forced off the road because their ten-year licences will have expired but cars purchased between 2012 and 2014 will continue to operate as taxis. Wheelchair-accessible taxis older than ten years are allowed to continue for 15 years, and vintage models do not have an expiry date. There is a serious anomaly and inconsist…

I thank the Minister of State. He indicated that the Minister for Transport is responsible for policy. However, the Minister is washing his hands of the matter and presiding over a situation whereby there will be fewer taxis across the country this year. I do not believe he can have it both ways. Previous responses from the Minister referred to initiating recruitment campaigns with the NTA. Yet, when it comes to the actual number of taxis, there is a retreat from or an abdication of responsibility. It makes no sens…

I join Senator Flynn in calling for us to press on with this legislation at this stage. Many hours have been dedicated to this Bill. There have been issues, particularly with regard to definitions, but ultimately we in the Labour Party are supportive of the Bill and what it is trying to do, particularly when we see a rise in the number of reports of attacks driven by racism, homophobia and transphobia. To us, this Bill is all the more necessary now. It is with some disappointment we see the Minister deleting the up…

I am very relieved we finally have this legislation and I thank the Minister for bringing it forward. In particular I pay tribute to the Irish Cancer Society and we have Suzanne Dowd and Krista Costello here today. I was struck when I listened to the experiences of Erica Tierney, Mary Canavan and Emma McGuinness, who spoke so movingly about having to forfeit their maternity leave because of their cancer diagnosis and treatment. I am very relieved we finally have the Bill. It is overdue. This month last year the Min…

I extend my condolences to my Fianna Fáil colleagues and all her family on the passing of Mary O'Rourke, and also to our Fine Gael colleagues on the untimely recent passing of John Naughten. We have seen newspaper reports in recent days about one of our elected representatives in either the Upper or Lower House being, effectively, a Russian spy. That has been treated with a degree of amusement and it should not be because it is deadly serious and it casts a cloud over us all. I would like to hear from the Leader wh…

I absolutely appreciate that but it casts a cloud over us all-----

-----so it needs to be clarified whether there is an elected representative acting as a Russian spy or otherwise, notwithstanding if no law has effectively been broken. I propose an amendment to the Order of Business to take No. 12, Workplace Relations (Exemplary Damages, Unfair Dismissals and Other Provisions) Bill 2024 as the first item. The purpose of this Bill is effectively to bring up to date the sanctions for bad employer behaviour. We have a bizarre situation where certain breaches of employment law incur v…

No.

I move: That leave be given to introduce the Bill entitled an Act to enable the award of exemplary damages in certain circumstances by adjudication officers of the Workplace Relations Commission and by the Labour Court; to make certain non-disclosure agreements unenforceable as against employees who have not received independent advice; to make amendments to the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 in order to give fuller effect to Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on tran…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, for taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for Education. There is a certain irony to the fact that we are discussing the fate of the school building project for Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire on budget day, given that €4.9 billion has been spent on school building projects in the State since 2020 and yet this school has waited 22 years for a new school building. It has watched the Celtic tiger come and go, the physical condition of the building …