Yesterday, the Scottish Parliament passed fantastic legislation, the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act, which means period products are now available free of charge in all schools, colleges and universities. I welcome the move because it lights the way for girls and women, or all who menstruate, to be fully supported with the cost of their periods during their time in education and without a means test or qualification. Sanitary products can cost between €2 and €6 per product. Previous governments hav…

On biodiversity, just transition and ideas around that, about 25 years ago, my husband was involved in pioneering the plantation of blueberries in Allenwood and the peatlands. It was an idea to see if this fruit would take in Irish soil and it was a great success. There are ideas that have been out there for years and it is great to see them being embraced now. When I was a councillor, I asked South Dublin County Council why we were not planting on top of bus shelters. We could do with a redesign of bus shelters to…

I extend my congratulations to the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, on her lovely and exciting news this weekend. It is a very exciting time for her family and for us. We will travel along the journey of someone at Cabinet being pregnant. This raises the whole issue of the lack of maternity entitlement for particular parts of society. It is a great challenge. It is the first time that we have had to deal with this for a Minister but not the first time a Member of the Oireachtas has been pregnant, has been deni…

During the course of the pandemic, the circumstances shone a light on domestic violence and its prevalence in our community. I am proud that throughout the pandemic, our Government has responded extremely well and promptly provided increased funding to combat this issue. I lament that the conversation needed to happen at all. It is pretty horrific that anyone would be frightened, particularly within an intimate relationship and within the confines of their own home. However, I am glad that the issue of domestic vio…

Today is the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I have just come from the Joint Committee on Disability Matters where we had an exceptional, inspirational and challenging meeting with Special Olympics Ireland, Trinity Pathways and WALK in Drimnagh on their incredible work. Every Christmas, I look forward to the RTÉ news report of the children from Chernobyl arriving in Ireland. It is always very moving. On this day, when we remember disabilities, I wish to speak a little about them, because while th…

I want to talk about the general data protection regulation, GDPR, which normally nods people off to sleep, unless they are like me and get very excited about it. When Max Schrems took Facebook to court here in Ireland, a decision was made which brought about a change in the obligations on companies. Until then, if a company was exporting data out of the European Union or a European Union-aligned country with an adequacy decision, all it had to do was have standard contractual clauses and other mechanisms to ensure…

I find myself going backwards and forwards and checking and rechecking because when I hear the contributions being made I wonder whether I am missing something. The text, as per the amendment made on Committee Stage by the Government, clearly states a planning authority "shall consult with members of the public". The element of consulting with members of the public is absolutely preserved in this legislation. There is no question of the public not being consulted. We are talking about how it is consulted. That eith…

Senator Higgins is correct that the “or” does make it binary, so I would urge a review of that and to allow the possibility of "or both". I have full confidence in the views of the executive and the members in local authorities around the country, and that they would not be so minded as to hide behind the word and say that if they had it online, they could not have a public meeting. I do not believe that is likely to happen. As many of us are former county councillors and elected members ourselves, we appreciate th…

I welcome the Minister to the Seanad. This is not his first time to be here since we have been open, engaged and in this term but it is my first time to address him. I begin by thanking him most sincerely for the exceptional work he has carried out on behalf of our country over the last term and this term in bringing us to this point. We are in his safe hands in terms of leadership on this issue. I want to address two areas. My colleagues here have been very eloquent in their needs and talked about imports and expo…

I am not without sympathy for Senator Boyhan's position. I have some reservations with regard to the restrictions or potential for restrictions contained in the Bill. I recognise 100% that we need progress and we need to move with the times but we also need to recognise that online is not accessible to everyone. This is a fact. When I raised this with the Minister last week, the answer was that his 85 year old mother or father is online. One instance of success does not a proper public consultation make. Only this …

I agree with Senator Fitzpatrick. We need to be constructive and I am not sure this debate has been particularly constructive. I had sympathy with regard to how discretion will be exercised. However, while we are amending the wording of the legislation to state that a planning authority "shall consult with members of the public in such manner", we do not make it mandatory to hold public meetings. The element "shall consult with members of the public" makes it obligatory to consult with members of the public and it …

The Minister of State is welcome. It is always good to see him and the optimism that he brings. I am happy and anxious at the same time. We stand at the end of a lockdown period that has been, largely, a great success, whether we agree with it or not. It would appear that we have had a second wave of infection, experienced a peak and are managing the case numbers and caseloads that are coming through. All the trends are downward and that is positive and great. I am fearful about opening up on 1 December, although I…

For the information of Senators, a copy of the Minister's speech is available outside the Chamber. I was not aware of that until it was brought to my attention by a colleague. Copies of speeches are normally distributed in the Chamber. There are amendments being referenced that we may wish to address. It is beneficial to have the speech so all Members need to know that it is available outside.

I appreciate that but we were not aware of it. We made the assumption we were not being given a copy of the speech but it is available outside. I thank the Cathaoirleach.

I thank the Minister for being here today and for initiating this legislation in the Seanad. I am also a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage and I want to acknowledge the Minister's wholesome and fulsome letter to the committee and his apology for any slight that may have been experienced by some members who would doubt for a moment his bona fides in bringing this forward and understanding the emergency of the situation. I put that on the record of the meeting this wee…

It is really important to note that our colleague, Councillor David McManus, was called a liar in the Dáil today and the record must be corrected. The figures given by the Minister are correct and our colleague indicated those exact figures on employment.

It is shocking to hear the news of the 10,000 images, on which the Leader has also spoken. That the images were gathered in the first place is really sinister and suggests an orchestrated facility to exchange images of women and underage girls. While some of the photographs and images were taken unbeknown to the victims, many of the images were conveyed in a trusting relationship where the original recipient was someone who was known and trusted. Consent is everything and the context of sharing is everything to the…

I am happy to wait until we adjourn.

I thank the Minister of State for his time. All three Government parties gave commitments in their manifestos to carrying out a feasibility study of metro south west. This was given on the back of considerable campaigning by the Metro South West group. As the Minister of State might imagine, the campaign group was delighted when it heard that the study was going ahead but when it sought the terms of reference, it found that the study was confined to a stand-alone metro to Knocklyon. The group was informed by offici…

I note and fully respect the openness to modality changes for our entire population. There is no question that we are trying to encourage that. The Minister of State outlined an evidence-based framework that goes along with work patterns, residential capacity and predicted development. However, the terms of reference for the Knocklyon feasibility study with Knocklyon being a stand-alone link, suddenly removes whole sections of the population who are currently only being served by buses. Therefore, having the metro …