I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for having us here today to discuss this important report. I will begin by thanking my colleagues on the committee for their diligence around this issue. We had many hearings, with lots of contributions, ideas and suggestions. I want to thank them, and especially the secretariat of the committee who are sitting here quietly in the corner. Ms Laura Pathe and her team make it very possible and easy for us to do our job. I thank them. A Leas-Chathaoirligh, Leader of the Seanad and all S…

I thank Senators for their contributions. I want to especially thank Senator Casey, who had not intended to be here. I would have fully expected him to be here because I know how passionate he is about this sector, and as he said, he has given decades of service to it as a front-line member of staff and employer. We have to be very careful about making sweeping statements and about the language we might use around this topic. The Minister has pointed to it, the committee has said it and, for the sake of clarity, I …

My apologies. I have chaired that committee for the past two and a half years. They have been in time and again and I never got the impression that they undervalued their staff in any way. They said exactly what Senator Casey said here today; they do not just recognise, but know, that their staff are their greatest asset.

It is important that we speak properly and representatively of those organisations. I think any of my colleagues, including those in the Senator's party, will agree that those who have come before us do not discount, devalue or disregard their staff. They have all come in and said that they do not have a business without their staff. That has to be said and recognised. The Senator cannot just make sweeping comments that sully their reputation.

I will continue. I greatly appreciate the debate, which has been very useful, and it is great to have the Minister here. I am especially grateful to the stakeholders who have engaged with the committee in examining the topic. It is of huge benefit to our proceedings to have such frank discussions around the industry. I also thank the union groups and those in academia who have campaigned tirelessly to have workers’ voices heard. I commend organisations such as the IHF and RAI, which, along with others, campaigned d…

I am grateful to the Senators for listening and for their contributions. It is essential for us, as legislators, and especially for the Government to act to safeguard this vital industry that is key to our economy. The recommendations in this report are reasonable and call for greater engagement from other key Departments. I note from the reply to a parliamentary question posed by Deputy Louise O'Reilly in January that the Minister’s Department has written to the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and…

I welcome this morning's allocation by the Department of Transport for our local and regional roads. County Cavan is getting €17 million and County Monaghan is getting €16 million. The Minister for Community and Rural Development, Deputy Humphreys, recently announced the local improvement scheme, which is very welcome, especially in rural counties such as the one in which I live. The big-ticket item for Cavan County Council, however, will be the Virginia bypass. Cavan County Council is almost ready to present the f…

I raise the matter of women’s refuges in the Cavan-Monaghan area. Counties Cavan and Monaghan are among the nine counties not to have such a facility. I work very closely with Safe Ireland, which has done incredible work, particularly Mary McDermott, on this issue. It presented a blueprint document that all of our local authorities can work and strive towards on designing centres of domestic violence prevention and response. The blueprint gives us all a design we can follow. More importantly, I ask all the arms of …

I wish to begin by acknowledging this catastrophic report, which has been released. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on insisting that this happened, that the research was done and that we got a real drill-down to the detail of where the system is at. We have all known for years that there are difficulties and problems but there are some really stark and frightening outcomes in that report. As the Minister of State will be aware, I have on many occasions raised with her the issue of mental health, bo…

I raise the plight of personal assistants across our education and training board, ETB, sector, who have the same roles and responsibilities as our very hard-working special needs assistants, SNAs. The Minister has been instrumental in regularising their working terms and conditions but now we need to turn our attention to and focus on the same working terms and conditions, pay and holidays, for our PAs. I will tell an anecdotal story of a PA who is working in education and training board, ETB, who has been employe…

I will finish, if the Ceann Comhairle allows me. These workers are predominately women. It is important to say that there are many women who are coming up to retirement age and they will go off into the sunset with absolutely nothing. I am asking the Minister to please look at this and to review contracts of indefinite duration for them and also paid holidays, incremental pay rises and pension provisions to give them the same as SNAs. I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

I raise the staffing crisis at Cavan children's disability network team, CDNT. On 22 November, it wrote to parents to express the real challenge and difficulty the acting manager, Faye Reid, is faced with in delivering a service to almost 650 children who are on our waiting lists. I will read a snippet of the letter. It states: Cavan children's disability network team is currently undergoing a significant staffing crisis, which is impacting on the team's capacity to provide services to children and families. There …

This is a question about the Cavan disability network team. It is experiencing a significant staffing crisis, which is having a huge impact on the team's capacity to provide services for children and their families. There are approximately 650 children waiting for various therapies and interventions, and 12 posts are vacant. Is there anything we can do to address this vacancy crisis, which is having a huge impact? The bottom line is that a letter I have states that kids will be waiting over two years for that inter…

May I begin by saying how wonderful it is to see the Ceann Comhairle back in the Chair after his little break? We are all very glad to see him back and we wish him well in the weeks ahead as we approach the busy part of this term. Science Week is alive and well in County Cavan. It was launched in St. Mogue's College in Bawnboy, which hosted a family fun day last week with many attractions like a mad professor, a marine biologist, blood donors, the Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA…

I want to praise the staff of Irish Water, in particular those working in water services at local authority level. They are the people we see out at all hours of the night in wind and rain addressing local issues. I wish to discuss two areas. The first is Bailieborough, the town I live in, and the second is Virginia, County Cavan. Sadly, over recent months there have been a lot of water outages, which happened because the wastewater plant has gone way beyond the capacity it was designed to deliver. It needs a serio…

I thank the Minister of State for being with us tonight to address the very important issue of school transport. I want to talk specifically about the area of Kilnaleck in the heart of County Cavan. This is a beautiful, idyllic village in the heart of the county. There are 25 students currently having to use private transport to get to school in Cavan town. There are three big secondary schools in Cavan town and 25 students currently have to pay for a private bus service. This is not a new issue. It is an issue tha…

Yes.

As I said, I am speaking about a specific issue, which is Kilnaleck. I would like to take this opportunity to thank one parent who has had numerous meetings, sent numerous emails, made numerous phone calls and put hours and hours into this on behalf of the other parents and kids to try to come to a resolution. Using her words, to say this is a stressful situation is an understatement. On the broader picture, the system has to be flexible, particularly in the current circumstances we find ourselves in. To say, as I …

We sound like a broken record in the Dáil today speaking about school transport. Of course the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Government are to be complimented on the scheme itself but it has left many families who had been concessionary ticket holders without transport to school. I will give the Tánaiste one example of a family that have been loyal Bus Éireann users for the past 15 years, have always paid for their ticket and now they have no transport to school. The mum is a carer and the father is self-employed…

There has been much conversation in respect of the cost of living. I wish to raise the issue of school transport and, in particular, the plight of about 20 families who live in the small village of Kilnaleck in County Cavan. I have before me the petition of at least 20 families, all of which have at least two or three children attending schools in Cavan town. Cavan town is the families' second choice when it comes to school transport. The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, recently commissioned a body of work wi…