Nobody is discrediting the work the Minister of State has done and all of that kind of stuff she has been talking about, but the reality on the ground is not what she is saying. It is not. People are dying every single day. I will go back to that dual diagnosis point. I gave the Minister of State three definitions of dual diagnosis and what exactly I mean. The World Health Organization defines dual diagnosis as "the co-occurrence in the same individual of a psychoactive substance use disorder and another psychiatri…

That is not what they ever are talking about. They are always talking about substance misuse. I have three different definitions from three different sources, including the HSE itself. We cannot sit here and ask what dual diagnosis means. Everybody knows exactly what it means in this context. If there is a dual diagnosis strategy in all the services the Minister of State is putting in place, why is it so hard to put it into this? I do not understand why it is so hard to name it because if we do not name it in the M…

That is the case every single day.

Every single day. It may not be the case in Dublin city, but outside of that, it is the case. Every single day people are getting turned away.

I will share time with Senator Collins. I welcome the Minister and thank her for being here. What is happening in the mid-west is not a stand-alone issue. It is a symptom of a health system that is stretched to its limits and a government that has failed to match population growth with the necessary investment in critical infrastructure. For years now, the mid-west has had one of the most overcrowded emergency departments in the entire country. UHL has broken trolley records time and again. Staff are exhausted, pat…

I welcome the Minister back to the House. I welcome the opportunity to speak on these motions before the House. They relate to the proposed series of opt-ins under Protocol 21. Specifically, we are being asked to approve opt-ins for three major EU regulations: a regulation establishing a Union support for asylum, migration and integration for the period 2028 to 2034, and regulations establishing Union support for internal security and justice programmes for the same period. We are also being asked to consider a sep…

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

At its core, this Bill increases the number of judges across the District Court, the Circuit Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Having 21 additional judges is a step in the right direction. I acknowledge the Minister's work on that. We cannot keep pretending that increasing judicial numbers alone will solve the deep and systematic delays that exist in our courts today. Our justice system is slow because it is starved of staff and of resources. We know from the Law Society and from lived experience of vi…

I want to raise an ongoing issue causing confusion and frustration in communities across Ireland in relation to the IPAS system. I want to highlight specifically the issue in Macroom. Over the past couple of months, residents in Macroom have been left in a state of uncertainty regarding a proposed development of 20 apartment-style units for IPAS accommodation. The application was granted permission. Objections were raised, yet when I sought clarity the Department told me it is not currently considering any properti…

The Minister of State is most welcome.

We now move on to the group spokespersons. Since we have no Senators from Fianna Fáil, we will move on to the Independent Group and Senator Aubrey McCarthy.

This Private Members' business debate gives us an opportunity to speak on migration and the international protection system, one that has been pushed into chaos for years by Government mismanagement. The reality is that there has been no coherent, planned or capacity-based approach to migration. There is no serious attempt to match arrivals with the realities of our housing system, public services or the capacity of our communities. Instead, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have allowed the international protection system…

The Reach fund was established with a clear purpose to assist ETBs and community education providers in supporting educationally disadvantaged learners, particularly those at NFQ levels 1 to 3, and to help to bridge the digital divide that many rural learners face. It was designed to tackle inequality, promote access and give everyone, regardless of their background, the chance to learn, participate and connect. The reality on the ground, however, is that this year's drastic reduction in funding is having the oppos…

I am not asking for the Minister to get involved in the day-to-day decisions. In my constituency, Ballyhoura Development CLG, touches only as far as Charleville. IRD Duhallow will touch the rest. What I am talking about are the small FET centres that are not getting this kind of funding and have to cut their services in rural parts, not the huge ones. They cannot compete with the huge ones such as Cork ETB in the city. Small ones like Millstreet, potentially, Macroom and others in small rural towns provide an amazi…

I thank both Ministers of State for being here. They are most welcome. It is great to hear that suicide rates have started to come down, but not all suicides are recorded as suicides. Some are recorded as misadventure. We can only go on the statistics that we have, but sometimes that does not reflect the truth of what people are encountering on the ground. For every statistic, there is a family that is shattered, a neighbour lost or a community that is grieving. Machinery, livestock and slurry tanks can be unpredic…

I strongly support the domestic violence Bill 2025, which is compassionate, practical and deeply necessary legislation that will make real and measurable differences in people's lives. At the heart of this Bill, it is about dignity, as Senator Stephenson said. It is about recognising that when a person, most often a woman, makes the decision to flee a violent home, that decision comes with enormous personal, emotional and financial cost. It is about understanding that the journey to safety should not be one more ba…

I thank the Minister of State for being here today. This matter concerns the lack of Leap card access for journeys starting from Banteer and Millstreet to Cork city, and the absence of an early train from Banteer, which is an issue that forces students to make impossible choices every week. A woman in my constituency reached out to let me know that her daughter travels to college in Cork every day. She works part time and studies full time. Like so many others, she is doing her best to make it work. Because Leap ca…

I would have to conduct a survey because I do not know how many students are affected. It was just one constituent and one mother who came to me about the matter. Banteer has no bus service at all. The earliest train from Banteer to Cork Kent Station on a Monday morning is at 8.25 a.m., which means that students cannot make their 9 a.m. class because the train only arrives at Cork Kent Station just after 9 o'clock. On the ministerial response, I know the rail service is not entirely the brief of the Minister of Sta…

Is that agreed? Agreed.