I would like to be associated with Senator Murphy's remarks about the late Paddy Moloney. He is truly a great loss; he leaves a fantastic legacy. I wish to bring to the House's attention and seek a debate on the care of migrant children who have come to our country as unaccompanied minors and their oversight while they are in care. I pay tribute to Ms Shamim Malekmian of the Dublin Inquirer and Ms Fiona Finn of Nasc, the migrant and refugee rights organisation, for highlighting that there is a difficulty. When a ch…

I will finish now, and I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for his indulgence. The House needs to debate this subject. I will raise it as a Commencement matter with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. We need to focus on this. As a state, we have a responsibility to these children. They need to be represented and spoken for in the Houses.

As chair of a drugs task force and as part of that network, I know the Senator gave a commitment to speak strongly on that issue. I am proud of the Senator and the drugs task forces would be proud of how she has represented their needs. I trust the Minister of State is on a trajectory of engagement that will have a positive outcome in the review.

I now call on Senator Eugene Murphy. I ask that all remaining Senators stick rigidly to their time. There will then be time for everyone to speak.

If Senators speak longer than their time, some Senators will not get to speak. I call Senator Alice-Mary Higgins and thank Senator Lombard for yielding his speaking slot.

Thank you. I call Senator John Cummins, who is sharing time with Senator Paddy Burke.

You have half one minute.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I support the motion before the House wholeheartedly and I commend Senator Currie on championing it and affording us the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. When the British Government speaks about amnesty, it all sounds very philosophical and abstract. It is a language far removed from the lived experience of people's lives and losses. It is cruelly disrespectful of the people who were subjected to the most heinous atrocities and the families who must pick up the…

I know we will have statements on the budget later but I have to express my delight at the announcement this afternoon of the change of the national childcare scheme, NCS, to include projects such as those in the Dublin 8 After School Alliance, including the Robert Emmet Community Development Project and the Solas Project. Those organisations have been advocating for that change because as an unintended consequence of the introduction of the NCS, children in disadvantaged areas in particular were unable to avail of…

Hear, hear.

I am proud of this budget and am delighted that it will tackle the cost of living for families, with a record €716 million investment in childcare as well as the extension of a range of housing, health, education and welfare supports. Addressing the cost of childcare has been a top priority for Fine Gael. The investment total of €716 million in early years services includes a new €69 million funding stream for childcare providers from next September that will ensure the sustainability of those services and attract …

I want to give a big shout-out to Dublin 8, which came 15th in the world ranking of "coolest" neighbourhoods to live in. It is an area that is full of historic places and fantastic eateries, and everybody should make it their business to visit Dublin 8 as well as other areas in Dublin South-Central. I wish to raise a serious issue and ask for a debate on it. I have just come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters where we talked about inclusion in political, cultural and social life. Horrific e…

The difficulty is that it is across every Department.

I want to echo the requests from Senator Ardagh and the Dublin 8 After School Alliance. The alliance came before the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth yesterday to make a strong case as to why we need changes. I want to bring to the attention of the House the fact that over the past few days Fine Gael has launched the care of the child policy lab report and seek a debate on childhood and the care of children in childhood. The policy lab came about after extensive engagement with mor…

Well-being in early childhood needs to be systemically prioritised so that it links into workplaces and community spaces and infrastructure owned by the State, such as schools, is used. We need to deploy what is already in place so that the well-being of children, parents and all of those in the sector are brought together and united in the support of childhood.

To come into Cabinet and take on the gauntlet of the health ministry is a daunting challenge at any time, but it is particularly daunting to come into that role at the height of a pandemic. It has been no joke. I say "Well done" to the Minister. We are where we are largely due to courageous decisions that have been made. The roll-out and uptake of the vaccine have been fantastic. I look forward to the next phase, encouraging the last section of the population to take it, and its possible extension to younger groups…

I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to be here today. It is really important that we highlight dyslexia and its impact on those affected. I had the experience of supporting someone doing a degree in UCD. While that person could not sit down and write an essay, he could walk the length of the room and dictate a 3,000 word essay and be able to picture it in his head and instruct me to go back to a particular point and type it. I was merely the scribe or the secretary throughout the process and it really…

As someone with many family members who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and successfully come through treatment, thankfully, it is great news. I thank the Senator and the Minister of State. In the minds of parents who do not have a child with special or complex needs such that their child needs to attend a special school, there is a perception that special schools have the ability to cater for all of these complex needs. There is the perception that these schools have staff who are fully trained and resource…

I thank the Minister of State very much and I appreciate that expenditure is at an all-time high. The creation of the Minister of State position dedicated to special education and inclusion is a flag-bearer that this is a very big priority for us as a Government. It is a surprise that the number is as high as 32, which is beyond what I thought it was, which was a figure in the early 20s. I acknowledge the creation of a school in my own home constituency of Dublin South-Central, which I appreciate. We have clearly s…

I welcome this opportunity to speak. One of the best things we can do as parliamentarians is to call out the truth as we receive it. I have connections with some people in Belarus and with organisations that work there. I will use my time to call out the truth of their experience and what they report, some of which has been mentioned in this debate. I want to begin by remembering Kim Samusenka who is in prison. He is a prisoner I sponsor and have written to. His brother is sponsored by Senator Joe O'Reilly. They ar…