Gabhaim buíochas, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. County Clare is one of the counties that has welcomed a significant number of Ukrainian refugees in the past number of days. Almost 1,000 refugees from Ukraine are now living among us in north and west Clare. Of those, 500 are in the town of Lisdoonvarna and almost another 200 are in the village of Ballyvaughan, just up the road. That brings challenges with it but challenges we as a nation, a county and an area are certainly very capable of stepping up to the plate to meet. I…

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House and thank her for taking this Commencement matter. Shannondoc is a community healthcare service, a co-operative of doctors as it were, in the mid-west region to provide out-of-hours service. We can recall how years ago, doctors were on call all the time. It could be 6 p.m. or 8 p.m. it did not matter; doctors were still on call. In order to give doctors a quality of life and to improve the quality of service, and to ensure that there was a service, the doctors came …

I again thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber with a logical answer to an important question. Of course, Covid has been a problem and much healthcare ended up being stalled because of it. Progress, and the incremental progress we like to see, has been challenged. The problem with Shannondoc is that on many occasions there has been no cover. That was simply down to the fact that GPs could not be got and were not available, as was the case for locums and so on. That is always a problem because the pub…

It is humbling listening to Senator Mullen sharing his experience of the on-the-ground reality of his father having dementia. I regularly spoke to him in the latter years of his father's life. Rónán always bore the challenge, which it is and was, with dignity and compassion. I really admired the way he and his family did that over the years. It is a lesson to everyone. It is not the end of the world. There are ways and means. It is a matter of being creative and different and thinking outside the box. It is hearten…

Like some who have already spoken and, I have no doubt, others who are going to speak, I acknowledge that today is International Women's Day. We men have a role to play in trying to achieve the type of equality that women deserve. I am talking about real equality in sport, culture, arts, business, education and politics. The inequality women have experienced over many decades has largely been a result of the negligence of men. Therefore, the men in our society must step up to the plate now to embrace, promote and d…

I support Senator McGahon's proposal to invite EU Commissioner Ms Mairead McGuinness to the House to discuss the sanctions. I am sure the Commissioner, who is from Ireland, would be very happy to address the Seanad on the mechanisms and methodologies being used to impose sanctions on Russia. Hopefully, we will see uniformity across Europe and the world in the imposition of these sanctions. It would be a very interesting discussion to have if the Commissioner was prepared to make herself available. Today is World Bo…

I thank the Leader and the Cathaoirleach for facilitating the debate on Ukraine last night. A lot of emotion was shown and a clear message was articulated by this House on the ongoing situation in Ukraine. We now need to move onto more focused discussions on Ukraine. We need a specific debate on sanctions. How will the sanctions impact on us? What is the role of the IFSC? We all know if we cut the money supply we will have some chance. We need to get an understanding of the sanctions, how they work and how we can p…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend him on the steady manner in which he is going about his business and serving the people he is honoured to represent. The manner in which credit unions have succeeded over the years has been phenomenally Irish. In my home town, Ennistymon, I was born and grew up next door to a credit union. That credit union has provided incredible support to the entire north Clare community, even branching out into towns such as Miltown Malbay and Lisdoonvarna. The credit unio…

The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, is very welcome, as always. Clearly this debate is very impassioned. I will start by saying there are wrongs on all sides with this. There is no doubt the Palestinian people have suffered greatly over the years. I have not studied the Amnesty International report in great detail. Amnesty as an organisation has done more good than bad in the world as a whole. It certainly has and does call out injustices that have taken place around the world over many decades. Amnesty's contribu…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am aware of his own personal commitment to this issue from the meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly yesterday, and so on. What is happening in Ukraine is quite appalling. However, we must remember that what happened in Georgia in 2005, and in Crimea in 2014, was appalling. Yet, the world stood by and allowed Vladimir Putin to get away with what he did in Crimea. I must ask why we are letting him get away with it now. Yes, we are introducing sanctions, a…

I also welcome Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and her daughter to the Chamber. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who has become a regular visitor, is very welcome to the House. I know this particular issue is of great interest to you, a Chathaoirligh, given the locality involved. What happened should not have happened, but it did happen. It is not about what happened but about how it is dealt with. Once the system became aware of it, it put the necessary procedures in place to deal with it. We need stronge…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Chathaoirleach. I welcome my three good colleagues and friends to the Chamber. It is a great privilege to have them here. I especially acknowledge Mr. Kelly for his long service and for achieving MEP of the Year. I raise with the MEPs the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. What is their view on Ireland's ratification of that and the fact the optional protocol has not as yet been activated here? How is the UNCRPD progressing in other European countries? Is…

It is always a pleasure to have the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in the House. I am raising this matter about the adult metabolic services at the Mater hospital in Dublin. I am sure the Minister of State is aware of the importance of the work that this unit does. However, it is, unfortunately, significantly under-resourced. There are much-needed resources required for this unit to operate at a reasonable capacity. At the moment, it is not operating to its capacity at all. It certainly is not reaching its poten…

I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive update. It is very positive news. I sincerely hope that the recruitment of the additional three or four whole-time equivalents happens and that it does not fall into the HSE ambitious plans for recruitment that does not happen. This is specialised and critical and I imagine it will have to be an international recruitment process. The reason people want adults to avail of Kuvan, in particular, relates to the fact they have seen its success with children and the dif…

On behalf of the Fine Gael group, I accept the Order of Business. I also join with colleagues in welcoming Lord Mayor Kelleher and his son to the Chamber. It is a very prestigious position to be Lord Mayor of Cork, our second city. I wish him well during his trip to Dublin and for the course of this very important year. The Cabinet is today approving the disbandment of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and the removal of most remaining public health measures, including the wearing of masks. It is ap…

This is extremely important legislation. It is probably some of the most important legislation that we will debate in this House because of the far-reaching effects it will have on people’s lives. With that, I would like to thank the Minister for coming in today. It just shows how important this piece of work is, that the Minister is here with us. I commend the manner in which she is running her Department and dealing with issues. Given that Internet companies are unable to regulate themselves and have clearly fail…

As people know, there is going to be a new strategy for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It will be launched in April by the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee. As part of the strategy, a survey has been launched which will be open for three weeks. It is a very straightforward survey to get the feedback of people and their suggestions on what they believe should be in the strategy. The strategy will have four pillars: protection; prevention; prosecution; and policy co-ordination. We need to eliminate t…

Well done to the Cathaoirleach and to the team here in Leinster House on the lovely event yesterday. We all learned something from it. There was super engagement between our colleague, Senator Norris, and former President and Senator, Mary Robinson. I look forward to an enjoyable Seanad100 over the coming months. The announcement last week of a 20% reduction in the cost of public transport is welcome. I have spoken on a number of occasions in this House about equality of transport costs and I believe the Seanad sho…

I am sharing with Senator Carrigy.

I probably will not require that amount of time, but I thank the Acting Chairperson for that. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. There have been problems with committees publishing reports and the reports being left on shelves. However, the Seanad debating and discussing reports is a new initiative. It has not often happened in previous terms in which I have served. I believe it is a good initiative and I commend the committee on the work it has done. This debate is very useful. We know the importance of…