I am not sure about the level of interest in this motion in the editorial rooms of the corporate media. I do know that in many hard-pressed working-class communities across the State this will be seen as an important issue being debated. For example, in my constituency, Cork North-Central, thousands of people's lives have been improved by the quiet and painstaking work of local employment services and job club workers down through the years. It is not an exaggeration to say there are many people out there in our co…

Will the Minister for Justice consider permitting the regularisation of fishers in the atypical scheme for non-EEA workers on stamp 4 equivalent status, given the fact that those who are undocumented in the sector may be able to avail of a stamp 4 status through a scheme to regularise undocumented status? Will she make a statement on the matter?

There are thousands of undocumented workers who have been on the edge of their seats all year since the scheme was flagged, hoping there was a path that might improve their situation. The fact that the Department did not announce the details as promised in September, and has still not announced the details, has only added to the anxiety. My question focuses on a likely unfair anomaly in the proposed scheme that will impact on non-EEA fishers but it may well have similar impact in other sectors. It has been worked o…

Given that the publication of the scheme is a bit down the road yet, let us make sure that the anomalies are dealt with. Anomaly number two is the patent unfairness of a situation whereby an undocumented fisher potentially has a clear path to avail of the scheme and obtain the visa stamp 4 that comes with it, freeing that person to work for any employer in any sector, a crew mate who is currently enrolled in the atypical scheme and who may well have been enrolled in the scheme for four years or more, will be denied…

Let us start by hearing the voices of some school students and I will give a number of quotes to Members. The first one reads: I vividly remember the teacher referring to contraception as the “C” word and saying that she did not like to use it in the classroom as it was against the ethos of the school. The rest of the module I do not remember as clearly although I know there was no discussion relating to consent or sexuality. The second reads: First of all, it only focused on heterosexual relationships. They mentio…

It is true that this an extreme example of what can be taught in relationships and sexuality education, RSE. When the INTO reports that just 18% of LGBTQ+ teachers have declared their orientation in their workplace, one gets some idea of the extent to which religious ethos is distorting sex education in our schools. Young people need factual-quality RSE in all of the schools. For this reason I will be supporting this Bill. It is a progressive step forward. On First Stage, Deputy Gannon made reference to the stumbli…

Yesterday, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities outlined new rules for data centres that want to connect to the electricity grid. I do not believe these changes would have come through if the issue had not been highlighted and campaigned on by climate campaigners. However, I also do not believe that the commission has gone nearly far enough. One condition is that centres must provide their own emergency power supplies. Will the Taoiseach tell us when that condition will kick in? Will there be any stipulation …

The Tánaiste has now raised the possibility that the Government decision on antigen testing might be delayed until the Cabinet meeting next Tuesday. Does the Taoiseach think this is an acceptable delay? It is 20 months into the pandemic, with more than 5,000 cases on some days, yet there is no action from the Government on this issue. Can the Taoiseach argue with my contention that the more antigen testing is done, the better it is from a public health point of view, and that more testing is likely to happen in the…

The Taoiseach did not answer my question with regard to the announcement on the elective hospitals.

This Bill arises from a case taken against Ireland by the EU Commission arising from an incontestable observation that the system for investigating marine accidents in Irish waters was flagrantly lacking in independence and grossly under-resourced. Ireland lost the case in July of last year. The heads of this Bill were presented late last year and discussed at the Oireachtas transport committee at the start of 2021. What was presented then is what we have now, which is a minimal piece of housekeeping. I do not deny…

It is the data centres.

I will focus my comments on the situation in schools. We have 600 teachers who tested positive for Covid in the first two weeks of November and 10,000 primary students absent from school for Covid-related reasons. In fact, one school in Cork has 100 students who have contracted Covid since mid-term out of a school population of just 765. Why? It is clear that the Government moved to reopen society too quickly and bowed again to business interests on that front. I do not have time to drill down into that. I will foc…

It is getting cold out there. Why is this country almost always near the top of the European league table for excess winter deaths? That number is consistently more than 1,000, sometimes as high as 1,500 and can go as high as 2,000. Can the Taoiseach explain why countries like Denmark or Norway consistently have a lower excess winter death per head of population figure than Ireland? Excess winter deaths are not just about the cold; they are also about poverty. Fuel poverty is a major issue for our society and it pa…

This Thursday has been designated by the United Nations as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Of course, violence against women is very much on the rise. We have had the pandemic and we have had the shadow pandemic of gender-based violence. Does the Taoiseach feel any degree of shame at the fact that in the city and county of Cork there are currently a mere nine permanent refuge units available for the victims of gender-based violence? Does he feel any degree of shame at the fact t…

A game of divide and conquer is being played here and I believe it is entirely deliberate. There are 58,000 survivors of mother and baby homes in this State. The redress scheme will provide financial compensation for 34,000 of them. Thousands will receive no compensation whatsoever. These include the children who were boarded out and all those who left the homes before attaining the age of six months. Divide and conquer is being played out here. The survivors to whom I have spoken believe so and I have spoken to ma…

The leaving certificate is the most stressful exam for young adults anywhere in Europe. It is a complete outlier. Nowhere else are young adults forced to jump through hoops such as this. Yet, the Minister is asking 60,000 young people to do this exam next summer, despite the fact these students have missed months of classroom teaching time at the start of this year. Some students and teachers are missing school now with Covid and students, to boot, are sitting in freezing classrooms. I ask the Minister to comment.

The adjustments are minimal and would barely be noticed. I asked the question in the context of students having missed months of direct classroom teaching time at the start of the year. Many students and teachers are missing school with Covid and students are sitting in freezing classrooms. It is wrong to ask students to do a traditional leaving certificate next summer. There needs to be an alternative. I would support an open access policy with investment and guaranteed places in third level. What is the Minister …

Mr. Paul Crone, director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, said today that many secondary schools are struggling to find enough teachers to provide cover. Schools will, of course, prioritise to provide the maximum cover for leaving certificate students, but teacher shortages can impact all students, leaving certificate students included. I am aware the Minister brought in a package of emergency measures to provide cover earlier. However, will she continue to maintain visits to schools…

A protest took place last week outside the Glanmire Community College in Cork. As I understand it, the protest was organised by students who felt that racist attitudes were not being taken sufficiently seriously by the school authorities. I also understand that the protest took place following the suspension of two students who had vocalised this point of view. The protest was, I understand, both sizeable and multiracial. This episode raises important issues for the education system as a whole. Our school populatio…

I and every Member of this House received email correspondence regarding this Bill from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. Many points were made in that email but there are two points to which they asked us to pay particular attention. The first is that a victim support-advocacy voice should be specifically named in the legislation, and we support that. Second, they emphasised the view that the arrangements will not work unless adequately resourced, which is a key point. We have domestic violence centres in this State …