I move amendment No. 2: In page 13, after line 32, to insert the following: "Amendment of Act of 2014 28. The Act of 2014 is amended by the insertion of the following sections after section 621: "Power of the Court to return assets which have been improperly transferred 621A. (1) The court has the following power where, on the application of the Minister or the liquidator and/or employee representative and employees’ recognised trade union in respect of a situation in which collective redundancies have arisen in ci…

I endorse everything my colleague Senator Sherlock said. Given that we have waited so long for the Bill, this is a missed opportunity. It has been years in the making. There is a lack of ambition or perhaps an ideological objection. Ultimately, this comes down to whether the Government believes trade unions are good and should be valued and whether collective agreements should be valued. Sinn Féin is very clear on this in that it believes trade unions make a very positive contribution to society. Statistics show th…

Well said.

As the Cathaoirleach knows, I have spoken many times here about the housing crisis in Limerick but today I want to raise the housing crisis in Cork. On my many visits to Cork in recent weeks, I was genuinely shocked by the number of vacant houses, particularly in Cork city. There are over 500 right now in areas like Mayfield, Farranree, the Glen, Togher, and Carrigaline. Many of the people I spoke to, along with my colleague, Deputy Gould, told me these houses have been vacant for months and, in some cases, years. …

I give a warm welcome to Senator O’Hara and his parents. What a fantastic start and a brilliant speech. It will be great to work with him and I look forward to it. I wish former Taoiseach Deputy Leo Varadkar well for the future. I commend him on his public support for a united Ireland, his aspiration to see a united Ireland in his lifetime, his encouragement of those in his party actively involved in the constitutional debate, his attendance at Ireland’s Future event at 3Arena, at which he spoke, and his comment in…

Well said.

The Minister of State is very welcome, it is good to see him. As he knows, the return scheme was launched with much fanfare at the beginning of February. It is a scheme that was long overdue and was very much welcome. According to the return websites, the aims of the new recycling scheme are to achieve EU recycling targets, protect our environment, reduce litter and waste and play a key role as a circular economy initiative. This is all very laudable. However, one additional result of this scheme, as currently conf…

I know that the Minister of State is in the invidious position of reading out a statement and that this is not his direct responsibility but that statement is honestly appalling. The fact of the matter is that no one in a wheelchair can access these machines. That is a gaping chasm as a result of a failure to consult people with disabilities. The line the Minister of State has been given, that Re-turn will work directly with the local retail community to find a solution, is nonsense. That is just not happening. The…

That should have happened years before the scheme was introduced but I thank the Minister of State for his response.

You are fine. I raise our health services. From people across the Chamber, we have had requests for the Minister of Health to come into the Seanad and so far he has not agreed to come. Having heard Senator Clonan this morning, the urgency is there for all to see. The issue I want to raise does not relate to University Hospital Limerick on this occasion. I want to extend my range and talk about what is happening at University Hospital Kerry, where elective surgeries continue to be delayed. The situation there has be…

Well said.

As always, the Minister of State is very welcome. The purpose of the Unified Patent Court is to fundamentally reform the patent system in Europe and Ireland, and to provide a legal framework. A single court ruling will be directly applicable in the member states that have ratified the Unified Patent Court agreement. This will enable patent holders to enforce their rights and defend patents in one single ruling, providing a cost-effective remedy and protections. Ireland reguires the successful passing of a constitut…

I raise an issue affecting small businesses, particularly in the centres of Limerick, Cork, Ennis and Tralee, where we have seen a series of business closures. In Limerick, it was the closure of Debenhams that caused a real downfall for local businesses. We lost four British shops within one month at the tail end of last year. In Cork, a number of high-profile restaurants have closed recently. The pressure on the hospitality sector from the cost of doing business is particularly significant right now. We have seen …

Well said.

You are not.

The Minister is welcome. I also warmly welcome Poushali Kundu from the National Women's Council, who has taken the time to be here for this debate. I commend Senators McGreehan and Clonan for speaking so powerfully on this matter. It is hard to add to that. I will briefly speak to the amendment. As someone who spent most of his life protesting as a trade unionist and socialist, there is nothing here that threatens protest. We are calling for a 100 m cordon. The reason we are calling for it has been set out extremel…

To begin, I second Senator Boylan’s proposal to change the Order of Business. Two days ago, in a Belfast court, the coroner was forced to halt the inquest into the murder by the LVF, a loyalist murder gang, of Bellaghy man Sean Brown, a family man and leading figure in the local GAA. Sean Brown was abducted and murdered by the anti-agreement loyalist group on 12 May 1997. The coroner did so because the British Government’s intelligence agency, namely, MI5, has refused for over a year to supply the coroner with vita…

Hear, hear.

Well said.

The Minister of State is very welcome. We have a housing crisis. It is worth saying that, because it is very clear from the speeches made by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil representatives here that they do not believe it. That is absolutely shocking. When Fine Gael came into power, 3,500 people were homeless and now, 13 years later, the figure has gone up to 13,500. That is its record of shame. Yet, unbelievably, Senator Cummins has come in here today to give us a lecture on housing policy. There have been 13 years…