I thank both Senator Joe O'Reilly and the Acting Chair for their welcome. This is the fourth or fifth time I have been back in the Seanad in recent weeks, but it is always a pleasure and I hope to be here many more times to engage with Senator Joe O'Reilly and the Acting Chair, and Senator Gavan, who is awaiting the next Commencement matter. We all soldiered here together for a good four years. Unfortunately, the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence is unable to be here today. He has asked me to take this Commencement…

I assure the Senator that he will have those figures as soon as is humanly possible, but that does not take away from the overall response. There are two other areas to underline our agreed position on this. A high-level action plan setting out the Government's response to the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces was approved and a high-level steering board, chaired by the Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach, has been established to oversee its implementation. An independently chaired imp…

I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister. I genuinely thank the Deputy for raising this matter. At the outset, I will take the opportunity to set out the context for what is an extremely important issue which many people have become familiar with over recent days and weeks. The disabled persons maintenance allowance constituted a weekly allowance paid by health boards to persons who were unable to work by reason of a disability. The scheme was first introduced under the Health Act 1953 and remained under t…

I go back to the Deputy's initial contribution. It is important to note, as the Attorney General points out in his report, that it is sometimes tempting to resort to generic stereotypes about the State being in some way unfair to its citizens when they are deprived of a benefit and bring legal proceedings challenging this deprivation, and that the logic behind such a perspective suggests that the State has unlimited resources, must concede every court case that is brought against it and must fund every claim for co…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am responding on behalf of his party colleague and my constituency colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin. I was very touched by the Deputy's contribution and I am very well aware that this is a personal passion of his as well as something he is bringing forward on behalf of his constituents. The Deputy notes the local authorities and counties that came together in order to commission this report together …

I am taken by some of the Deputy's comments. It is important to assure the House that the Government is committed to youth arts, particularly in the context of Creative Youth, which is one of five pillars of the Creative Ireland programme. Creative Youth is being implemented by, and is focused through, the Department of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. She is the Minister putting her name to it. However, the Deputy will appreciate that this is being done through partnerships. Be it in the formal education set…

I am grateful to the Senator for bringing this matter to the floor of the Seanad. I agree with her that it is very welcome €50 is being refunded into many people's electricity bills this month. However, I am under no illusion about this being a tiny amount compared with the substantial rise in costs that individuals and businesses of all sizes have been faced with when it comes to energy prices, largely due to Russia's brutal war in Ukraine and the knock-on effect that is having on the Continent. It is important to…

It would be very easy to try to put the reply in a simplistic manner of "Yes" or "No". The Senator has been around politics in this House and beyond far too long not to know this is an extremely complex matter that involves a number of strategies. It is important to put to the House the fact that the Department has a keen interest in energy prices, not only for businesses and the implications for their competitiveness but also for individual users. The Department engages with the CRU frequently. The CRU has not ind…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter and giving me an opportunity to address it. Like the Deputy, I was extremely disappointed to learn the news of this closure and my first concern goes to those workers and their families, as well as the wider population of Carrick-on-Suir straddling the Waterford and Tipperary border that so many of us know so well and have enjoyed visiting so many times. The Department learned of the impending closure of the plant last week. Unfortunately, as the Deputy knows, Co…

I assure Deputy McGrath that hope is most certainly not lost in regard to this site and the people who have worked in this plant for so many years. We must put the redundancies that are happening in context. It is nothing to do with the efficiency of the plant itself. It is certainly nothing to do with the 31 workers who have put their blood, sweat and tears into it. Unfortunately, it is due to the decision of the parent company. Deputy McGrath might acknowledge that this is happening at a time when the economy is …

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh Gníomhach. I hope I receive that sort of welcome every time I come back to the House going forward, be it for Commencement matters or legislative debates. It is certainly an aspiration of mine in this new role to spend considerable time engaging with Senators on key issues, one of which is work permits, which falls within my remit in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I am grateful to Senator McGahon not only for raising this issue but also for his clear illustr…

It is interesting to note two other statistics. Last year, we saw 80,000 Irish emigrants return to Ireland and we have net inward migration in this State. This fairy tale that some people want to tell, that people are fleeing Ireland and it is a failed state, is complete nonsense. People want to come here and they want to come home and they are welcome. We all recognise and acknowledge the societal challenges in bringing people back in and that there are difficulties in certain policies. When it comes to work permi…

I am very grateful to Senator Sherlock for raising this extremely important issue. I will deal specifically with the adequate minimum wage directive as per her remarks. It is important to give a bit of background and context to what the Department is doing on the directive and its transposition. As the Senator is aware, the directive was published on 19 October last year and it must be transposed by 15 November 2024. I welcome the directive, as I did when it was published, as someone who, like the Senator, was once…

I reiterate it is important to wait for the holding of these transposition workshops by the European Commission so we can look at best practice in other member states as well as how we can lead the discussion in that area, taking on board the points raised by Senator Sherlock. The Minister has stated he is very keen to involve the social partners in discussions on the transposition of the directive in due course. That will feed, quite clearly, into the aspiration and genuine determination to achieve that living wag…

Yesterday, we saw a new statistic released which showed exports from Northern Ireland to Great Britain have gone up by 13% in the last year, exports to this jurisdiction have gone up by 23% and exports to the rest of the European Union have gone up by 18%, which would give the impression that the protocol is working quite well. In this regard, I ask the Tánaiste what efforts are being made and will continue to be made in the new year to secure a deal between the European Union and Great Britain for the speedy, effe…

I was contacted this week by approximately a dozen businesses in my constituency. Their energy bills have landed and in many cases they are five times the amount they were this time last year. We welcome the new temporary business energy support scheme. What will the Government do to maximise not only awareness of this scheme but also participation in it to ensure those businesses can keep their doors open after Christmas?

I am grateful that the Minister of State has come to the House to take all these matters this morning. It is great credit to her own work ethic and commitment. I raise a somewhat niche issue in that it only affects a small number of women in the country but it is serious. Hyperemesis is severe nausea, or morning sickness, during pregnancy. It affects 1% to 2% of pregnancies. In budget 2023, the Minister for Health announced that Cariban, which treats hyperemesis, will be reimbursed. This is welcome and long sought-…

To get it reimbursed.

But they have to pay for it.

Just to clarify, it is an ever-changing issue. Unfortunately, there are situations like this with drugs and many different treatments all the time. The Minister of State deals with these issues on a daily basis, as does the Minister for Health. The situation, in this case, is that because of the nature of the drug and the regulatory environment with the European Medicines Agency, there is a requirement for patients to get a prescription from their GP, but they need to have a consultation with a consultant first. I …