I welcome the Minister, Deputy Martin, to the House and wish her well in the portfolio of which she is in charge, tourism. As an ambassador for tourism, she brings a new, modern approach to how we need to incrementally rebuild the tourism sector in this country. As the Minister knows, I come from County Clare, which is heavily dependent on tourism and, as such, has been heavily impacted by the lack of tourists. Tourism is a people industry and people work in the tourism industry. It is labour-intensive, when one lo…

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach. As this is my first time addressing the Minister of State in the House, I wholeheartedly congratulate her on her appointment. She is a very strong female voice in the west of Ireland and it is good to see that. I have tabled this matter on behalf of the community of Ennis that attends the Educate Together school there. Educate Together is a wonderful model of teaching young people. It is non-denominational and there is no involvement of the church or any other institut…

I welcome this update about the future of the Educate Together school in Ennis. It is comprehensive. It is accepted by all parties that a school is needed. I welcome the fact that negotiations and the necessary work to acquire a site are at an advanced, critical stage. I understand that there are commercial sensitivities but I think that, on the record of the House today, we have it confirmed that we are at an advanced stage. Councillor Ann Norton, who is chair of the board of management, will welcome that, as will…

I wish people the very best for the upcoming St. Patrick's season as well. I rise today because I was taken aback and disappointed with the statement the Future of Media Commission released a couple of days ago concerning Alan Rusbridger and his continuation as a member of that body. I do not believe it is appropriate for that man to continue in that position and-----

That is fine. I understand that but I am speaking about-----

That is perfectly fine. I will make my point about the Future of Media Commission. We have to have confidence-----

One hundred percent, but I believe that this House and the Members of this House need to have confidence in the Future of Media Commission. The role of the media and the work it does in the State is extremely important. We as a Chamber and as a body need to have full confidence in the work the commission does. At this moment in time I do not have confidence in that. It is incumbent on the commission to actually restore that confidence. If it does not, I believe it is appropriate for the Minister to intervene and re…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I wish him well in his work, which will get busier from next month on. I would like to take this opportunity to support the proposal made by my colleague, Senator John McGahon, that a plaque in memory of the assassinated Senator Billy Fox would be erected in the precincts of Leinster House. I believe that is appropriate. Billy Fox was murdered by the IRA. He was a serving Member of this House at the time. I believe we should honour his memory by erecting a plaque in the…

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire sa Teach. Sadly, I am one of those people who does not have a fluency in the Irish language but that does not in any way mean I do not have the respect, love and ambition to some day be fluent or at least have a couple of words as Gaeilge. I always had an admiration and love for the language but that was compounded by a former colleague of ours in this House, a great person, former Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh from Connemara. He grew up in London and moved to Connemara in his teenage years.…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome him to the House. I salute his commitment to local government and to reforming this particular area. I also thank the Labour Party and Senator Wall for bringing this very important Bill before the House. For a long time I have said that GDPR is extremely important. The GDPR legislation was brought in for very good reasons but there are times when it has unintended consequences and, in my view, illegal dumping is one of those situations. I do not think there is any right-…

It being local enterprise week, I pay tribute to the Clare local enterprise office, LEO, under the leadership of Mr. Padraic McElwee. It has done great work, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, in supporting businesses who found they needed to change the way they did business. I encourage anybody in County Clare with a good idea to make contact with the LEO because it gives great assistance to people. Like others, I am disgusted with the Bank of Ireland announcement this morning. Three branches in County Cla…

I welcome the Minister. His is not a job anyone would envy because it is very difficult in the midst of a pandemic. We all wish him well in doing that job. This is about public health in our country and it is the reason this legislation has been brought before the House. I listened with interest to the clamour about the need for mandatory quarantine and the hysteria about it not being in place until now. We will be the first in Europe to introduce mandatory quarantine of the nature proposed in the Bill. We are doin…

The fact that travellers must have a negative PCR test result, no matter where they are coming from, probably answers Senator Burke's question. On the amendment, I have great regard for my colleague, Senator Bacik, but with the greatest respect, I think the amendment is completely over the top. It is correct that the UK has mandatory quarantine measures in place. However, we are a member state of the EU. From the onset of the pandemic to date, the EU has handled the situation much better than the UK. As a matter of…

Is the Senator advocating zero----

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. She has a difficult and challenging job, as have many in the Government. The aviation industry is critical given the fact that this is an island nation. We are behind the curve of other European countries in terms of putting cash into the airline industry. Many other areas of aviation have been affected aside from just the direct airline industry. Those are the associated companies. Aviation and Shannon Airport have been extremely good for the mid-west over the last…

I am most disappointed that the issue of special needs education seems to have fallen down the pecking order again in terms of priority. It is great that some classes are coming back in a week's time but no classes should be coming back ahead of those containing special needs students. Every student with special needs should be back at least at the same time as the first classes that return. We need to get the Minister for Education back into the House to get an update on exactly what is happening in that regard. I…

I thank Senator Hoey for tabling this Bill. Given the Senator's years of dedication to student politics with the Union of Students in Ireland, it is appropriate that it would be a students' pay Bill she would bring to the House as, hopefully, the first of many Bills she will bring to the Houses of the Oireachtas. I also welcome the Minister to the House. He is doing a very difficult job. I have no doubt that he is putting every hour he can find or muster into his role in dealing with the pandemic. To be fair, I bel…

During the pandemic, we have seen the important role that local media has played in keeping communities connected and giving them valuable, useful and correct information, and none more so than local newspapers throughout the country. It is appropriate that the Government would provide financial assistance to help local newspapers during this difficult time for them. However, that requires a responsibility of local newspaper to treat their journalists and other staff appropriately. It has come to my attention that …

I am sharing half my time with Senator Seery Kearney. I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I wish her well in what is an absolutely daunting challenge, particularly in the area of mental health. It is daunting because successive governments from all sides failed to invest incrementally over the years in mental health services. As such, the Minister of State has taken over an area that has seen significant underinvestment. I welcome the fact there is a significant commitment in the programme for Govern…

In the first instance, I too welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to the House and I acknowledge the work she has done. The narrative and the media coverage up to just after Christmas was about the leaving certificate. Up to that point, the only person focused on special needs education and the need to get these young people back to school was the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan. I know it is her job, but she is doing a good job advocating within her Department for special needs children. It is my consi…