I asked a parliamentary question in June about the number of dentists accepting medical cards. The answer I received was that just one dentist in Laois is accepting cards. This is one public dentist for a county with a population of 90,000 people. In Kildare eight dentists have left the scheme over the past year with just 28 submitting claims in May. I am inundated with people looking for dentists. No list is available. People are blue in the face from ringing all over the county and often outside of Kildare. When …

Otto von Bismarck said that politics is the art of the possible. We saw what was suddenly possible during the pandemic when the rule book went out the window and hospitals were effectively nationalised. It was suddenly clear to the Government that it was not possible to exist on the basic rates of social welfare. While I welcome recent discussions around linking social welfare rates to previous income, we must ensure we do not leave part-time workers and the lower paid behind. Social welfare rates should be based o…

I see the Minister of State got the short straw again this evening. It seems to be a common thread. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is missing every time I talk about housing. The dogs in the street know the Government is presiding over a crisis in housing. Whether we call it an emergency, a crisis, a mess or a disaster, it all adds up to the same thing. In the words of President Higgins when he spoke in Kildare earlier this year, it is the greatest failure. I have met with the county councils in Kildare and …

We can see by the number of motions on energy prices and energy security in recent months that this is very much an issue affecting the vast majority of our constituents. This morning, we have yet another motion on energy prices. It highlights the cost that households are paying but also the lack of action by the Government as well as the market structure that links gas prices with the price of electricity, not to mention the profits being made by energy companies and the lack of windfall tax. For more than a year,…

I wish to speak briefly about Iran, which was addressed at the recent European Council meeting. I send my solidarity to the ordinary citizens of Iran, especially the women who are putting themselves at risk in challenging appalling human rights abuses. There needs to be a stronger response from the EU, not just on this issue, but on Iran's continuing support for Russia in the latter's brutal assault on Ukraine. The EU needs to go further to get the parties to that war around the table. There needs to be an agreed s…

Science Week takes place every November. This year, it started on Sunday, 13 November, and will end next Sunday, 20 November. It is run by Science Foundation Ireland and has been running since 1995. Science Week includes a wide variety of events involving industry, colleges, schools, libraries, teachers, researchers and students throughout the State. I say a big "Well done" to St. Patrick's Boys National School in Portarlington which today held an event to explore the world of biomedical science, including hands-on…

We in Sinn Féin support the objective of the Bill and want to be in a position to support it. My colleague, an Teachta Daly, has met with several relevant stakeholders, such as the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, ICCL, and has tabled a number of amendments to the Bill. Sinn Féin will work constructively with the Government, other Opposition parties and Independents to strengthen the legislation and improve it to ensure it strikes the right balance between protecting vulnerable groups and persons while also protec…

I too thank an Teachta Naughten and the Regional Group. I also thank the advocacy groups which have stood up for people with long Covid and made the world listen when many people were being told to cheer up and get over it. Those groups have organised an email campaign. I am sure many of the Teachtaí here have heard the harrowing stories of their local constituents. I wish to share the story of Louise O'Reilly, a nursing manager from Kilcullen, County Kildare, who was diagnosed with long Covid in July 2021. She has…

On page 92 of the programme for Government there is a commitment to ensure that Men's Sheds and Women's Sheds are properly resourced and that the network of teen sheds is established. Last week we saw an allocation of money to Men's Sheds which was vastly disproportionate to that given to Women's Sheds. While I understand there are more Men's Sheds, we need to invest more in the establishment of new Women's Sheds. What is the Government doing to encourage more Women's Sheds? Also, what progress is being made on tee…

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this Bill. It is a relatively short technical Bill that will amend the Credit Guarantee Act 2012. These amendments will support the needs of businesses to access additional finance in response to the economic difficulties resulting from the brutal war being waged by Putin against Ukraine. It will do this by creating a specific Ukraine guarantee scheme. Sinn Féin welcomes this Bill, which will provide a €1.2 billion State-backed scheme that will provide low-cost working capital …

I welcome the Ceann Comhairle back and wish him well. Undoubtedly, the Minister of State is aware there is a crisis in home care provision. More than 40,000 home care hours are not being delivered weekly and more than 6,000 people approved for funding are still on the waiting list for care. The crisis is the recruitment and retention of staff. The root cause of this issue is sectorial employment standards. During the summer, I met with several groups representing the care sector and they all spoke with one voice in…

The Tánaiste may be aware of significant delays with applications for charitable status to the Charities Regulator. A number of entities in Kildare are awaiting a decision, including Newbridge Community Development CLG, which started the process in February 2021. There is also the issue of Ó Modhrain Hall and those awaiting funds through the cy-près scheme. I tried to ask a parliamentary question but it seems there is no accountability to the Dáil. Will the Tánaiste make inquiries and provide the resources needed t…

I have had many emails and phone calls from survivors of mother and baby homes over recent weeks. The survivors are understandably angry about some of the provisions of this Bill. While we in Sinn Féin support the introduction of a redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby and county homes, it must be one that it is inclusive and based on human rights and equality standards. There are serious concerns in regard to the exclusion of children who were resident in these homes for less than six months. People feel…

The situation in which we find ourselves in regard to our energy security is as a result of the failure of successive Governments to deliver the generation capacity, through power stations, renewables, gas storage facilities and batteries, to meet the very significant increase in demand. The Government is quick to blame the war in Ukraine but, in reality, the increased demand from industry and data centres was already creating a huge strain on our infrastructure. Ireland is the worst-prepared country in Europe for …

I thank People Before Profit for tabling this motion. It is timely we are having this conversation because on Monday my colleague, Councillor Noel Connolly, brought a motion to Kildare County Council seeking the establishment of a dereliction task force. The meeting was told the council is in the process of setting up a town regeneration team, which it is hoped will make some effort to address the blight of dereliction that is rampant in south Kildare and the Portarlington area of Laois and Offaly. It needs an urge…

It is one and a half years since the Minister ended the Covid-19 eviction ban. Since then, homelessness levels have increased almost every single month. We all take having a roof over our heads for granted, but imagine waking up tomorrow to find out that you were going to be made homeless? That has been the reality for 78 families so far this year in Kildare who are tenants in receipt of HAP. I have spoken to many of them. They come into the office in shock wondering how they can keep their family home, keep their …

This is emergency legislation to fast-track the delivery of 450 MW of emergency back-up electricity generation. The Bill seeks to bypass some of the usual elements of the planning system, in particular parts of the environmental impact assessment. While Sinn Féin recognises the need to act to prevent blackouts and brownouts we have been vocal in criticising the rushed nature of this legislation. It should have gone through pre-legislative scrutiny. It is not acceptable to ignore environmental concerns when it suits…

Progress in bringing this Bill forward has been slow. The updated version was published on 28 July 2022, a year and a day after the publication of the general scheme of the Bill. It comes four years after the publication of the Central Bank's report on the behaviour and culture of the Irish retail banks, which first set out the general outline of the new individual accountability framework. While the details of the proposed framework have been refined since the publication of the report, its four main elements rema…

This is a short and technical Bill to provide a statutory basis for allowing the Minister and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to increase the funding that can be made to Fáilte Ireland. A previous amendment, the National Tourism Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2016, increased this amount to €300 million. This legislation will increase it further to €500 million. We in Sinn Féin will support this increased investment in tourism and its promotion. Fáilte Ireland’s role is to support enterprises …

The Government continues to fail people with different abilities. The recent budget is the latest step along that road. The lack of respect shown for people seeking to access services or any kind of supports is very poor. I often say in this Chamber that some Deputies must have nobody belonging to them seeking to access services or get help for loved ones with different abilities because if they did, the system would have been fixed years ago. Instead, we have a regime of red tape and silly rules to make things mor…