I raise the issue of apartment defects. Before legislation was to be introduced, we were promised an interim relief scheme in January this year. I met Sam and Odette Doran and others from Park West yesterday. Many on the northside are facing bills of thousands of euro this year and are waiting for this relief scheme we are yet to hear of. Turning to the specific issue I came here to raise this morning, I refer to the Judge Haughton scoping exercise into the death of Shane O'Farrell in August 2011. He was killed by …

I move: That Seanad Éireann: recalls that: - the Citizens’ Assembly and Joint Committee on Gender Equality recommended a referendum to replace Article 41.2 of the Constitution obliging the State to take reasonable measures to support care within the home and wider family, and the Government has committed to a referendum on this in November, 2023; - there are over 500,000 family carers in Ireland, and unpaid family carers save the State €20 billion a year, while the 2022 Census shows the number of unpaid carers incr…

I thank the Minister for her reply and thank everyone who contributed, namely Senators Ardagh, Burke, Boyhan, Pauline O'Reilly, Wall, Hoey, Currie and O'Loughlin. I again thank Family Carers Ireland, representatives of which are in the Gallery. Baby Willow was with us for a time and Snowflake, the support group in north County Dublin, was hoping to be here too. We are grateful to the Minister for not opposing the motion and for supporting elements of it. We very much welcome the restructuring of the long-term disab…

I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House. It is important to state we are having these statements today because Senator Black, colleagues in Sinn Féin and others in this House, along with us in the Labour Party, have been calling for this debate. It needs to be had, of course, because we are on the back of looking at atrocities that have taken place in Jenin over recent weeks where drones and ground troops were used to invade a refugee camp to, as Senator Warfield so eloquently put it, "make refugees…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. I am conscious this is my first interaction with her in her role as Minister of State with responsibility for the national drugs strategy. My question relates to the north inner city drugs and alcohol task force and I hope that when the Minister of State came into this role, this was one of the first issues brought to her attention. Over the past 26 years, successive governments have supported drug and alcohol task forces since they were established throughou…

I thank the Minister of State. We need the report. She has been in her role for seven months. Our understanding since late last year is that the report has been prepared. It is telling that while the Government and, with respect, the Minister of State, speak about commitment to the task force they sit on a report for a period of seven months or longer. If it is not for that period, then correct me. The Minister of State has said it is her intention to take steps to reconstitute the task force shortly. Will she give…

I thank the Minister for coming in. It has been a traumatic three weeks with regard to RTÉ and all the revelations that have emerged. I welcome the Bill put forward by Senator Mullen. It is obviously very timely. Pay caps in RTÉ is an issue that has been pursued by the NUJ and SIPTU for a long time. There is a particular need in this regard when we see the very large gap between the highest salaries and the average salary, which is around €45,000, in RTÉ. Many people are on fixed-term contracts. They are not on per…

I want to follow on from what Senator Ó Donnghaile said about what took place in Jenin overnight. Activities have now been escalated to a new level given the loss of life and the campaign by Israel to effectively uproot whole communities. We need to hear a clear message from the Irish Government. I very much support calls for statements next week. A second thing has to be said today. Very serious aspersions are being cast on the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, a very important organisation. While Senators may ag…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. The Labour Party very much supports the Bill and its intent. We have been awaiting it for quite some time. Its importance is evident when one considers how badly served groups of consumers in this country were for several decades, particularly in the context of insurance and banking. The issue of qualified entities came up in pre-legislative scrutiny. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment submitted a recommendation in respect of d…

I express my solidarity with the workers of Iceland Foods, some of whom have had to stage a sit-in at the Talbot Street store. I was with them late last night. It is shameful that they feel they have to stage a sit-in in order to get the wages that are due to them. Some are owed more than €1,000. These are minimum-wage jobs. The staff are owed holiday pay. It is shameful that some people have gone to the Department of Social Protection to find out that their employment was terminated a week before they actually fin…

I thank the Civil Engagement Group for this important motion. We are seeing a normalisation of the Mediterranean becoming a graveyard for thousands of people fleeing war, persecution and poverty in a desperate bid to make a life for themselves in Europe. It has become normalised, particularly in western Europe. It is a shame on all member states of the European Union to have been party to decisions to effectively delegate responsibility to third countries for those fleeing war, persecution and poverty and to put pe…

Is the amendment being pressed?

On behalf of the Labour Party, I extend the condolences of our party to the family of Paul Coghlan and all his party colleagues. I also extend my condolences and those of my party to the family of the late John Murphy. He was one of two men who were very seriously injured in an incident at the Stryker plant in Carrigtwohill, County Cork, in April this year. Sadly, John lost his life last week. It is obviously an enormous tragedy for his family and colleagues but it is important to say, while we have to await the ou…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, for coming to the Chamber. I am asking my question today from a place of utter frustration. We are all only too aware that there is massive under-resourcing and understaffing in our disability and mental health services at the moment. The northside of Dublin has the longest waiting periods in the country for an initial assessment. It is second only to Cork in terms of the waiting times for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and psychology services. That, o…

I thank the Minister of State. I do not doubt the bona fides of what he said in terms of his personal concern for this child. To be frank, however, the response we got today indicates a Department with its head in the clouds. The Department is reliant on a health system to generate reports, which simply is not capable of doing it the moment. There may be other parts of the country where CDNTs are able to generate these reports, but the CDNT I am dealing with says it cannot do so because of resourcing issues. There …

I too want to support Senator Gavan's call for a debate on the level of the national minimum wage. Yesterday in the Dáil, Labour Party Deputies brought forward a motion highlighting the appalling situation of children with additional needs being left to wait for years for an assessment of need. As we all know, getting an assessment is one thing but trying to access the services can be an enormous struggle. The situation on the north side of Dublin in the community healthcare organisation, CHO, 9 area is the worst i…

Yesterday, The Wheel, the charities association of Ireland, held its conference. A key message from it was that section 39, section 56 and section 10 organisations are on the brink of collapse. The issues, relating to recruitment and retention and the very significant disparity between the pay of the State and that of the various organisations, are not new and have been evident for years. The affected workers are in disability, homelessness, rape crisis and community services. They are providing vital services to t…

I, too, thank the Fianna Fáil group and Senators Fitzpatrick, Ardagh and Clifford-Lee for bringing forward this motion. I also thank the 1916 Relatives Association for all its work in campaigning to ensure this fantastic new children's hospital will have the name it deserves. It will ensure we are looking to the past but also establishing our commitment to the future and what the new children's hospital should embody. For some years now, the Labour Party and the trade union movement have been supportive of naming t…

I thank the Minister of State very much for coming to the Chamber today. I also offer a big welcome to all those present in the Gallery. There are three serious concerns with regard to the criteria for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grant system for retrofitting and how they apply to thousands of older homes in Dublin and across the country. Houses constructed before 1940 are effectively excluded from a large part of the SEAI energy upgrade scheme. Well over 15,000 homes within Dublin city were …

I thank the Minister of State for that detailed response. I welcome that there will be new guidance this September. A question arises about what will be offered through the one-stop shop – currently, it is only to a B2 standard – and the retrofitting community is wondering whether it is possible to bring some of the older houses to B2 or whether a lower standard would be acceptable. Another issue stands out, which I hope will be resolved in September’s document. The Minister of State made two comments, the first of…