I welcome the Minister. I concur with Senator Ahearn and thank the Minister for his leadership in his Department over the past 12 months. I believe that we urgently need to convene a forum and an open, transparent, public debate on the future of banking and financial services in Ireland. We spoke about a number of significant announcements by banks in recent months to close branches and leave some communities without banking services. Ulster Bank is to gradually withdraw from the market here in the coming years. Ba…

The Minister is very welcome. I acknowledge the work she has done in the Department. It has been a difficult year and she has been a steady pair of hands. Well done to her. I also acknowledge the difficult years students throughout the school system experienced in 2020 and 2021, especially those for whom the leaving certificate has been their primary focus for most of their lives. It is important that this year we were able to offer them a choice of sitting the examination, opting for accredited grades, or both. It…

I thank my two colleagues for giving me time. I welcome the Tánaiste to the Chamber. I welcome yesterday's announcement of the reopening of the country. The Government had committed to this and I am glad that the path ahead is clear and realistic. I thank the Tánaiste for his leadership throughout the pandemic since March 2020. That point is made to me daily in my home county of Longford. Everyone in the country has worked hard and made sacrifices since March 2020, but brighter days are ahead. Millions of our child…

Like Senator Chambers, I was listening to the radio on the way up this morning and I heard Mr. Andrew Geary speaking. I am not acquainted with this man at all. He is from Cork and he was speaking about his son, Calum, who is deaf. and he made a statement that as a country he felt that Ireland does not cherish his child and that he had been a failure as a father. I want to say one thing to Andrew, which is coming from a father of a child with additional needs as well, that he is by no means a failure but that I hone…

I second that.

I concur with Senator Dooley's comments on the staff throughout the network being classified as front-line workers during the pandemic. Sometimes that can be forgotten. I welcome the Minister of State here to discuss the sustainability of the post office network, which is very important. Why should we support the network? Because the network is at the heart of communities in rural and urban areas. It has a proven track record in the delivery of services and as a brand, it has one of the highest recognition levels i…

I rise to speak about the importance of a positive result for the Ballymahon Pobal le Chéile project under the 2020 rural regeneration and development fund. A category 1 application has been made and all the necessary consents are in place. The project is a collaboration between a number of organisations in the town, namely, the Tidy Towns team, Bridgeways Family Resource Centre, the local day care centre, the Men's Sheds group and Longford County Council. The project proposes the creation of a cluster of community…

I speak today not only as a Member of the Oireachtas but, like Senator Ruane, as a parent who has acute knowledge of the system, the lack of services within it and the weekly, monthly and yearly fight for diagnoses to access services. Last week, I was sickened to watch the "Prime Time Investigates" programme and to hear how our State acted in gathering such information with the goal of aiding the Department of Health in developing a legal strategy to determine when would be a good time to settle or ask people to wi…

I agree with Senator McGreehan that it is not living with Covid-19 but coping with Covid-19. It is important to remember those who have died due to Covid-19, and their families, and express our sympathies. The restrictions have prevented people from comforting one another at a time of grief, which has made it more difficult for families to mourn. It is something Senator Keogan and I know on a personal level having both lost a parent during Covid-19. The restrictions were in place, however, to contain the number of …

I echo the comments with regard to what we have read in the newspapers this morning. The CEO of the HSE should answer whatever questions we have. I want to raise an important issue in my area, which is turbary rights, Bord na Móna and all that goes with it. Many families in the midlands and throughout the country have such rights and have cut turf for generations, and they are entitled to a just transition. I ask that Mr. Kieran Mulvey, who is the just transition commissioner, be brought in and asked to mediate on …

The Minister is welcome. I thank her for the opportunity for Senators to discuss the impact Covid-19 has had on the tourism and hospitality industry. The importance tourism has for our economy can never be overstated. It played a major role in our recovery following the crash, driving job creation, particularly in rural and regional areas, and directly contributing 260,000 jobs in 2019, 11% of the total employment figure. It provided numerous job opportunities, particularly in rural areas away from the main cities …

I welcome the return of children to school, in particular, the 100% return of children with special needs. Parents of children with special needs require assurances. I do not think the union, Fórsa, acted fairly towards them given that children were off school for two months. This is almost the only country in the western world where that happened. The unions need to give assurances to parents that this will not happen again no matter what happens in the country and that we will not have a situation in which childr…

I second the proposal.

It is important to acknowledge the huge impact the closure of the power stations in Lanesborough and Shannonbridge, and the end of peat production, has had on communities and families which have worked in them for more than 50 years. The jobs at Mountdillon and Lough Ree power plant provided the communities of Keenagh, Killashee, Newtowncashel, Lanesborough and beyond will be difficult to replace. However, I welcome the substantial funding which was announced last year for a number of projects under the just transi…

I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive list of funding that is available. My priority is my local area of Longford. We have a unique centre in Corlea which is right on the 3,000-year-old bog trackway. It is the ideal location to centre this proposed project. I spoke with 12-year-old Michael yesterday. He is a very enthusiastic young lad with a great vision for our area and for what the boglands can be turned into. I was a member of Longford County Council which has been promoting the Mid Shannon Wilder…

I welcome the significant funding recently announced for transport and roads projects in County Longford. I also welcome the progress on the N4 project from Mullingar to Rooskey through Longford, which was taken off the capital plan in 2010 after a preferred route had been identified. It is a critical piece of infrastructure for not just Longford and the midlands but the entire north west. There is much concern, however, that the process has to go back to start again with 12 alternative routes put out for public co…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. We have seen the severe impact that Covid has had on our hospitality sector, on which more than 200,000 jobs are dependent. More than 75% of the spend comes from the 11 million tourists who visit our country. I support the comments that we need to introduce antigen testing at our airports to start reopening our tourism sector for the coming summer. We do not want to see a situation where it is introduced in Northern Ireland and then it has tens of thousands if not hundr…

I want to raise several issues. The first concerns the duration of planning permissions. I am looking for an extension to existing planning permissions for the length of time for which the construction industry has been closed. I know a number of one-off sites and developments that are coming close to their existing five-year permission, or ten-year permission where there was an extension. Construction has been closed for almost five months and many people are going to run into difficulties in the context of gettin…

First of all, I commend the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach on the statement he made to the House a number of weeks ago. I commended him on it personally but I want to put it on the record. The Minister is very welcome. The report highlights an abject failure of care by the State. It is important to thank the hundreds of brave women for telling their stories, which are so important to them, and for shining a light on their lives, histories and experience. Our response, as a State, must be supportive. We must support these …

I support Senator Hoey's motion to recognise the contribution of student nurses and midwives, who have been at the coalface over the last 12 months. It is important to note it is a key priority of Government to protect and support the continued education of all students, including student nurses and midwives. A key part of that education, in order to meet the standards and requirements of the regulator, is the completion of the supernumerary placements which place them on the front line in a learning capacity for u…