Members need to speak through the Chair.

Senator, you must go through the Chair. Senator McDowell, to continue without interruption.

Time, Senator.

I have given the Senator a lot of latitude.

I believe we heard the Tánaiste say in the House last week that it would be extensively reviewed. He welcomed that as an idea.

I thank the Minister for attending. The champions in the face of adversity are the leaving certificate students of 2020 and 2021. They will go down in our State's history as being the group that faced adversity and the most unprecedented circumstances. I welcome the dual assessment and that the Bill will place it on a statutory footing. We must prepare for every eventuality and the Bill certainly does that. Although 80% of students are opting for the traditional exam, having the second option as a back door, suppor…

I thank the Tánaiste for taking our statements today and I welcome him to the Seanad, although that feels a little ironic coming from me. The time has been, undoubtedly, stressful and challenging. However, this period has also given us the opportunity to see increased initiative. Covid-19 has ignited a sense of enterprise and initiative. Our duty is to ensure we harness that in the best way we can. We have seen a transformative thinking in that there has been a turn towards the accommodation of remote working and o…

The Minister is very welcome to the House.

I offer my condolences to Senator Mullen. I have a matter to raise with the Leader which I need her to write a letter about, but I need to respond to Senator Gavan's remarks. What is happening in Iron Mountain is highly regrettable but nothing in this State stops someone from joining a union. In fact, one's entitlement to association is enshrined in the Constitution. Furthermore, unions themselves need to be much more transparent about how they make decisions about whether to go forward to the Workplace Relations C…

Good afternoon everyone. I welcome the Minister of State, who has been here a lot this afternoon. The Minister of State has ten minutes, all spokespersons have eight minutes and all other Senators have five minutes.

I apologise to Senator Malcolm Byrne but there is a difficulty as he has not been allocated a seat and, as a consequence, is not supposed to be allowed to speak. However, I understand from our conversation that the Senator made arrangements with Senator McGreehan on that.

I thank Senator O'Reilly. I know he is very passionate about this issue.

How does one follow Senator Cassells's very powerful contribution? Part of me just wants to say "Hear, hear." There is no question but that gambling is an appalling blight on families throughout our country. Senator Wall read out an email from someone who was affected by gambling. When he referred to this person as "she", it came as a surprise. That is one of the issues. There is misperception that this is a men's issue when it is not. It affects both men and women. Women are also affected through bingo and the man…

I echo the advocacy of my colleague, Senator Black, regarding the action that needs to be taken to support the work of the Irish Community Action on Alcohol Network, ICAAN, in particular. Last week's report by the Health Research Board contained shocking statistics. There was a doubling of alcohol-related discharges from hospitals, a trebling of cases of alcohol-related liver disease and an average of three deaths per day related to alcohol in the country. That is frightening. For nearly a year, I have been advocat…

I welcome, as others have, that this Bill will be completed today and ready to go to the President. It will be a huge relief to the families who have found themselves in the most peculiar place of not being able to speak about their children. I could not imagine anything more horrible. I value that we are now in a position where the court has unequivocal discretion to have a bespoke answer to every situation, while we also have a protection for all children going through the legal system, particularly in these horr…

Now.

I propose to share time with Senator Ward.

I very much welcome the motion. The Green Party motions are always very long and informative and we learn a good deal from them. I thank Senator Garvey for it. It is very good and comprehensive and reflects the programme for Government on which our three parties came together and agreed to move forward together. I also welcome the White Paper. There is a great deal in it. I hope the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, negotiations work very well and that the local authority employees feel comfortable about all the…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this debate at such short notice. We really appreciate it. I also thank Senator Ruane. Her comments were very powerful. I pay tribute to the whistleblower, Shane Corr, for his bravery and integrity in pursuing this matter. I also pay tribute to Conor Ryan of RTÉ. This was an example of public broadcasting, the fourth pillar of our democracy, at its best. I do not have to imagine the horror and sense of betrayal families who have children with autism felt last Thursday becaus…

I thank the Minister of State. I got a text today from someone in the group the Minister of State mentioned. A very good friend's son was vaccinated today. The sense of relief for everyone is fantastic.