I welcome the Minister to the House and look forward to working with him over the period ahead. Listening to the live broadcast of the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform announcing a budget of almost €18 billion, of which more than €17 billion would be on expenditure, like many others, I looked forward to a new social contract with the Irish people, one of which we could all be proud. Granted, there are many fine aspirations in the budget but as the dust settles on yesterday, we…

Like other Members, I had the opportunity yesterday to listen to the pre-budget webinar of Family Carers Ireland. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, to the House to debate the issues raised in that webinar as well as the fact that almost half of all carer's allowance applications are refused. It is fair to say that during the pandemic carers have ensured that many people have been able to remain in their homes. They are our unsung heroes and need …

I welcome the Minister of State. I thank Senator Sherlock for her considerable work on the Sick Leave and Parental Leave (Covid-19) Bill 2020 which recently went through Second Stage in the Dáil and for her work in preparing the motion. When a government has no moral argument against a proposal, it seeks to kick it down the road. Unfortunately, that seems to be the approach being taken in the Seanad this evening. The issue will be given a further kick along the wrong road to be dealt with in six months' time or lon…

I welcome the Minister of the State to the House and I thank Senator Conway for sharing time on this very important matter. The Minister of State will no doubt be aware of the delays in these income limits, as has been outlined by Senator Conway. We are now just three weeks away from budget 2021 and the Government has not yet delivered on these simple budget commitments from last year. The budget commitments meant income limits for medical cards should have increased by €50 per week to €550 for a single person and …

I thank the Minister of State for his kind comments. I recently dealt with a 69-year-old gentleman who spent five months in hospital and then came home to County Kildare. The first letter he got from this Government was not congratulations on beating Covid or the disease he had, it was instead a renewal letter for his medical card. His first comment to me was, "Do they want to put me back in there again?", such was the distress the letter caused him. I am sure the Minister of State is aware of that but it needs to …

I will not be taking the full five minutes. I welcome the Minister and thank her for holding a Zoom meeting for Oireachtas Members from County Kildare while we were in lockdown. All the Members appreciated the time she took from a very busy schedule to answer a lot of questions for parents and students alike, so I thank her very much for that. I thank the entire school community for the way they have handled the reopening. It is my experience that from principals to teachers, SNAs, school secretaries, caretakers an…

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I also thank the Oireachtas Library and Research Service, which has given us an update on and very informative assistance with this motion. I thank the Fianna Fáil Senators for proposing the motion. We in the Labour Party will support it at what is a very difficult time, but we feel we need to address a number of other important points, which I will outline later. The simple facts are the outright failure of the British Prime Minister to uphold the withdrawal agreemen…

I welcome the Minister of State and wish him well in his role. I look forward to working with him. My party's spokesperson on housing, Senator Moynihan, outlined our concerns regarding what is a very flawed Bill. Senator Boyhan noted that there are 40 amendments tabled for debate on Committee Stage. Senator Moynihan and other colleagues will talk us through those amendments in due course, which seek to address the flaws in the Bill. I have several points to make that are relevant to the debate. The first is to addr…

I support Senator Ó Donnghaile's amendment. He is right in what he says about Cahersiveen. He mentioned my colleague, Senator Hoey, who has raised this very important issue. We will back his call for an amendment. The issue I wish to raise is that of medical cards, particularly the renewal of same. I ask the Deputy Leader to invite the Minister for Health to the House in order that we might debate with him the issues surrounding medical cards at this time. This is nothing new for me to bring up here. In April, the …

I join others in welcoming the Minister to the House. I wish her well in her new role and look forward to working with her. Notwithstanding the changes that the Minister announced in her U-turn today, the Bill leaves us with more questions than answers. I hope that she will be in a position to reply to them, which I am sure other Senators will also have. It would seem that, with no public notice she introduced SI 242 of 2020 on 12 July. The Minister might confirm whether that was actually the case. It changed the r…

I join my fellow Members in welcoming the Minister to this House. I wish her very well in her new post. There is no doubt that this is a challenging time for tourism in Ireland and for those employed in the industry. As the recently appointed Labour Party spokesperson on tourism, I look forward to working constructively with the Minister on solutions to the current problems and to develop the massive potential tourism will still have in a post-Covid-19 Ireland. The Minister will be aware that 2019 saw a record numb…

I wish my two colleagues on the opposite side of the House well on reopening. I also take the opportunity to wish all of our SMEs well on their reopening and to welcome the Minister of State to the House once again. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I am sure we all recognise the importance of providing finance as quickly as possible to all businesses that have been affected by Covid-19. This pandemic has had a devastating effect on every corner of this island. Every small village, rural town a…

I raise the immediate problem of public transport in our rural towns, an important matter about which I am sure other Members have also been contacted. An article in The Irish Times on Wednesday stated that 64% of licensed coach and bus services throughout the country are now not operational. We also heard this week that, thankfully, 250,000 people have returned to work since the March outbreak of Covid-19, which can help us to appreciate the seriousness of the problem I am raising. I have been informed, on the bas…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I congratulate him on his appointment and look forward to working with him over the coming period. The importance of local businesses to our local economies and community life cannot be overestimated. These same SMEs, we are told, employ 58% of the total workforce. Many of these are long-standing family-run businesses and play a vital part in the economic and social life of our communities. In my hometown of Athy, and I am sure it is the same all over Ireland, it is oft…

I add my voice to those voices calling for the extension of maternity leave for women. If this pandemic has taught us anything it is the importance of family life. The call is loud and clear in terms of the extension of maternity leave by 12 weeks. The Minister must take that on board as quickly as possible. I also wish to be associated with my three colleagues who raised the poor conditions and poor pay the members of the Defence Forces have to put up with at the moment. I heard with horror this morning on my loca…

I wish the Cathaoirleach well and I thank him for giving me the opportunity to say a few words in my maiden speech in the Seanad. It is a great honour for me to stand in front of Members today, to look around the room and to recognise so many famous faces that I have looked up to in recent years. The Cathaoirleach mentioned the great role that family plays in political life and I acknowledge the Cathaoirleach's family who are here today. I would also like to acknowledge my wife Michelle, and my sons Cathal and Eoin…