I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. We welcome and support any measures to increase the number of special educational or additional needs education places and supports. However, I see this legislation as a very small measure in the overall need to ensure we provide for children with additional or special needs. Once children are diagnosed, they are entitled to a certain number of services. However, time and again I come up against the basic issue of getting a diagnosis. In the Cabra-Grangegorman …

Will the Minister of State address the case of St. Gabriel's National School in Stoneybatter?

The school was continuously engaging with the Department, however.

I thank the Minister for coming into the House. I first heard of mica about five years ago. That we are this stage today shows this Bill has been a long time coming. I pay particular tribute to the campaigners, elected representatives and the thousands of people, including the affected householders, their families and the communities who have campaigned to get the Bill to this point. As they would say, it does not far enough. Let us not forget it took two massive protests where 25,000 people attended on each occasi…

I second the amendment.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, to take No. 19 before No. 1. No. 19 relates to the introduction of the Broadcasting (Gender, Cultural and Other Diversities) Bill 2022. I extend my support to Senator McDowell on his earlier comments. I am introducing this Bill because I believe we need to see greater representation on our airwaves of women, those of colour and all types of sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. We want our airwaves to be representative of this country, the people who make it u…

Yes, indeed.

I move amendment No. 32: In page 42, lines 26 and 27, to delete all words from and including “(1) The” in line 26 down to and including line 27 and substitute the following: “(1) The Registrar shall maintain the Register of Political Parties and shall cause it to be published on the Commission’s website.”. I will speak to amendments Nos. 32 and 33. We very much welcome that a register of political parties will be established and maintained. According to section 51, the registrar shall maintain the register of polit…

I warmly welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the House and thank her for taking the time to be here today. I had hoped the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth would have been here but I understand there are other commitments. I acknowledge efforts he made in response to matters we raised with him last year. I want to be fair to him about those efforts with the national childcare scheme and in particular the eligibility for after-school hours. Today's question relates to…

I thank the Minister of State for reading that reply. The statement of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth that it has an effective process in place to support providers is simply not true. To say that the buck should be passed to the city and county childcare committees is simply unacceptable. The question here is not about the day-to-day costs; it is about undertaking a lease in a new facility. The providers to which I refer, one of which is a community provider, do not have a …

I also express my support for all those employed by the Irish Wheelchair Association, IWA, who took the decision to go on strike today. Those people last saw a pay increase in 2008. I stood with those workers this morning in Clontarf and, believe you me, they do not want to be out on strike. It is important to say that minimum levels of care continue to be provided, so people are being looked after today. These workers, however, have been forced to go on strike because they feel they have no other option and that n…

I want to speak on amendments Nos. 4 and 5. This boils down to how we distinguish illness from other entitlements such as holiday leave and other leave. Illness is not something that workers invite upon themselves. I listened to Senator Buttimer. The vast majority of workers do not abuse sick pay provisions if they are provided in their workplace. The key issue is trust. We must understand that not every worker will be sick every year. We saw in the regulatory impact assessment an estimate of costs. This was based …

I move amendment No. 5. In page 5, to delete lines 30 to 32.

There is no doubt this Bill is ground-breaking in terms of providing all workers in this country, once they have served 13 weeks, with a right to paid sick leave. We in the Labour Party very much welcome that, and the Minister of State earlier acknowledged the Bill we put forward in September 2020 to give a right to all workers with regard to paid sick leave. When we look at this, we have to remember who in this country has an occupational sick pay scheme and who does not. The more a worker earns the greater the pr…

Unless the Minister of State wants to respond, I am now going to put the question.

I think the Minister of State has responded so we will now put the question.

The Senators have made their questions extremely clear. The House has heard them. We have heard from the Minister of State.

Senator Boylan wants to come in.

I have to bring in Senators Doherty and Boylan quickly. I am conscious that we do want to put the question.

The question is-----