I appreciate that the Minister of State is here at very short notice. I acknowledge that the Department of Health has emailed myself, and Senators Gavan and Conway, to explain that the Minister for Health is not available. Issuing an email is an improvement on the usual lack of communication. I am here to discuss an issue that pertains to a small group of people whose quality of life is very much affected. I will quote from a letter written by a person with cystic fibrosis, CF: I am a 36 year old CF patient and rec…

Yes.

As a party colleague and since he took up his post as Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell does nothing but work diligently, and he is very good at following up with his colleagues. However, the speech he has been given is three minutes of absolute piffle that has nothing to do with the question that was asked. It is an obscenity that someone in the Department of Health thought it fit to provide a Minister with a speech that goes on with a load of stuff that has nothing to do with the question I asked.

There is small group of people whose lives and quality of life depend on action being taken. The advocacy group Cystic Fibrosis Ireland has spent more than three years asking for a consultant who will prescribe Kaftrio for post-transplant CF sufferers but what I have got back are vague phrases like "being approved shortly" and "will be recruited". There is no urgency shown towards the people of the Republic the Department of Health is there to serve. That is its job. It is obscene that the Department is not serving…

I thank the Minister of State. I do not doubt his sincerity but I doubt that of the Department.

I completely support my colleague, Senator Doherty, in her call and what she has said here on the St. John Ambulance. I commend her on bringing it to the House in the first place and for the motion and for being a champion all the way through for Mick Finnegan and all the other men who came forward. I have stood there with them and I have heard their experiences. That included one of them being singled out and approached when he stood there on his own one morning. Throughout, the St. John Ambulance has behaved in n…

I read a quote this morning, which states: Here's to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them. I would add to that, saying here's to the men who support us, respect us, work with us and who are great colleagues. I would count the Minister among them as being a really good colleague. From the moment he stepped into his job, he has done nothing but advance the cause of equality, not just for women but across our whole society. Well done on that. I am departing from the theme of the day and I …

Hear, hear.

Yes. I am speaking at a conference at 3 p.m. so I cannot break to go back. However, I am happy to relieve the Acting Chair if she wants to go.

There is no one else for the Government bench.

I appreciate if the Acting Chair needs to go.

The Minister and I exchanged messages earlier. I will obviously support the Government’s position. The privilege and the difficulty of being on the Government bench is that while you may not always agree with or like what goes through, you support it. On Monday of this week, I sat for a long time with a woman in the context of a completely different conversation that I will come back to in the coming weeks. This woman spoke of the level of abuse in a relationship over the last number of years and its consequences. …

I support the Minister on this point. It is found in other legislation and in general legal terms " in loco parentis " means anyone who is in the position of the parent. It does not just apply to foster carers. It applies to anyone stepping into that position.

Now.

It is quite a despicable act of politicking that people would take the opportunity to laud the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, who has only been in place since December, and completely ignore the incredible work done by his predecessor, who was in the Department for seven years. It is shameful that anyone would do that. I want to talk about apartment defects and the fact that there are homeowners who are looking at massive bills that they are unable to pay. There are people in large apartment complexes w…

Yes, but-----

The Leader is abusing her position.

I congratulate the Minister of State on the passage of this Bill through the Dáil and its progress to the Seanad. It is good legislation and we give our full support to it. The sex offenders register can often be misinterpreted by the public. People imagine it should be publicly available without understanding that while it ensures the Garda has information about who is living in certain areas, where they are and how to monitor them, there is also a rehabilitative element to it. Scholarly articles look at recidivis…

I commend my colleagues, Senators Ardagh and Crowe, on bringing forward this legislation. It is valuable and important that we move to a place of absolute transparency. There is no excuse now for it not being so. There is discrimination and there are clear disparities in rates of pay, depending on where one is from, and on one's ability to negotiate in a new workplace. Unfortunately, in many instances we see that people from eastern Europe, in particular, are exploited. Over the years I have been involved in cases …

Agencies are mentioned, however. Agencies are prohibited from seeking-----