Before I call Senator Warfield, I welcome the visitors in the Public Gallery who are guests of Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú. They are very welcome to Seanad Éireann and I hope they enjoy their day in Dáil Éireann as well.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also want to acknowledge that last night I received a phone call from the office of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to say she would unfortunately be delayed as she had a prior commitment today. There is a trend this morning in some of the Commencement matters that have been raised, because this is the third time I have brought up the issue of assessments of need, AONs. It continues to be an almost daily issue for my office and indeed for people who ring me wh…

I first want to thank the Minister of State for his reply and for going through it in such detail. He underlined in his reply that they do not require an assessment of need. I have been here before with every family I deal with. The first question they are asked is to give that piece of paper with that assessment the need, so something needs to change there. We need to tell the clinicians and everybody else that they do not require an assessment of need. This is probably the third or fourth time I have said this in…

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank the Minister for his time.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The Labour Party supports this proposal for Ireland to opt in and be involved in the EU talent pool. As the Minister of State said, we have been very fortunate that many hard-working people have decided to come to Ireland and live and work here in recent years. They are not just from our EU neighbours but also from outside the EU. As the Minister of State said, go to any hospital or nursing home in this country and you will find excellent staff from far afield. We reall…

I will raise a few issues with the Leader today. I have just come from the social protection committee where I once again raised the matter of the housing adaptation grant. The reason I raised it is that I have dealt with three cases in the past two weeks. In one case, a woman has just come from hospital where she spent six months. Thankfully, Clare County Council has approved a grant to her. Unfortunately, it is €30,000 short of what she needs to be able carry out the necessary housing adaptation work to maintain …

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Browne. I thank my colleagues in the Labour Party, and particularly Senator Moynihan, for preparing the motion. Not for the first time I will mention Garda Sean O'Mahony. He is my local community garda. I have mentioned him previously in the House. He is on the ground day in and day out. He has built up relationships with everybody including all of the public representatives. I mean all of the public representatives, but also all of the communities he represents. When I hear …

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am taking this debate on behalf of my colleague, Senator Moynihan, but I put on record again my own call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which is badly needed and urgent. Senator Currie spoke of helplessness and that is reflected by so many people I meet day-in and day-out in Kildare. It is reflected by the figures cited this evening by the Tánaiste: 136 long days of war, 100,000 dead or injured, 1.9 million displaced and 90% facing acute hunger. It is terrib…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the House.

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I thank Senator Martin for drafting this Bill down and asking me to cosign it. Unfortunately, technology, I believe, got in the way of that happening. However, I am happy to speak in support of the Bill. That this is the second time Senator Martin has brought a Bill of this nature before the House. Obviously, and as other Members have said, indications are that domestic violence is on the rise. In 2022 there was an 8% increase in domestic abuse incidents. As has be…

I, too, welcome the Minister of State to the House today to have what is an important conversation for a growing number of people in south Kildare on the issue of special school places. I sought this Commencement matter this morning because it was announced by the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, in early December that four new special schools will be established this coming September and are to be located in Limerick, Meath, Wexford and south Kildare. This was in response, as the Government stated on the day, to…

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that reply. The most important thing we can take from it is that we will have a special school in south Kildare in September. That is the message that needs to go out to the many families who ring me and all public representatives in south Kildare because, as I said in my introduction, when you hear the stories you realise the stress on families. The message is that we will have a school. I have mentioned that there is a location in Monasterevin, County Kildare. There are…

I want to raise two issues today. The first is about school places. I know there is a meeting tonight regarding the lack of school places in Prosperous in mid-Kildare. This is an ongoing issue that I have raised. I ask that a debate be organised with the Minister for Education. The specific issue I want to raise on school places today relates to Scoil Mhuire in Ballymore Eustace, in my own area of south Kildare. There is an issue with primary school places. The school can only take in 26 students each year. Unfortu…

I welcome the Minister. We welcome the Bill and its attempts to reform the social welfare system with regard to maintenance. We are told the Bill is designed to give legislative effect to two changes in the previously mentioned social welfare system so that child welfare maintenance payments may no longer be assessed as means and the discontinuation of the liable relative provisions. As other Members have already mentioned, I have sat in many clinics with completely stressed young women sitting in front of me. They…

Absolutely.

I wish to be associated with the welcome to our distinguished visitors. Given the good news the Minister has brought forward in respect of those in full-time education up to the age of 18, I will again raise the issue of foster carers. I know the Minister announced in the budget an additional payment of €75 for foster carers, €25 of which came into place from 1 January. Given the good news in respect of those in full-time education and child benefit, I ask the Minister to look at the additional €50 payment which wa…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, to the House for what is a very important Commencement matter. This is the third time since I was elected to this House that I have raised this matter. We discussed this on the last day the Minister of State was here and he has heard of similar experiences in his own offices. Not a day goes by but I deal with an application for, or a query about, a housing aid or housing adaptation grant. As I have said, and will put on record again, these are very worthwhile …

I thank the Minister of State for the reply but, unfortunately, it is a bit of déjà vu because the last time we spoke, this report was with Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for discussion on changes to be brought forward. At the same time, as the Minister of State said, people are not being allowed to live independently in their homes, which this grant would give them the opportunity to do. Will he go back to the Department and confirm a timeframe for those changes? Ma…