This morning, there were 97 patients in the University Hospital Limerick, UHL, on trolleys. This is the highest number of patients without a bed recorded in any Irish hospital ever. I cannot tell you how many times I have raised this issue over the past six years and yet things continue to go from bad to worse. Indeed, in November, I predicted that hospital would hit 100 patients on trolleys this winter and this morning it was just three away from that. I joined with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO…

Well said.

I will raise two issues, if I may. The first is one about which the Leader has raised concerns, namely, what we are going to do about this year's leaving certificate. I welcome the very significant comments by the Ombudsman for Children who said very clearly that the leaving certificate should not proceed in the traditional format this year. Dr. Niall Muldoon said that current small adaptations to the traditional format were insufficient for children who had experienced two years of disrupted education due to the C…

I actually cannot believe I just heard that.

I welcome the Minister of State and commend my colleagues in the Labour Party for putting together this excellent Bill, which Sinn Féin fully supports. This is a workers' rights issue. I listened to Senator Hoey's recounting of the testimonies, including women having to get up at 5 a.m. in order to get IVF treatment and then go to their workplace. I cannot help but feel that, if this were an issue men had to experience, it would have been resolved decades ago. It is welcome that we are tackling it with this Bill. I…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. As he knows, there is an ongoing housing emergency throughout the State. I want to focus in particular on Limerick city and county. I will set the scene with a few factual statistics. We currently have 2,342 approved applications for housing. In addition, we have 335 transfer applications, 2,479 people on housing assistance payments and 735 on the rental assistance scheme. That gives us a total of 5,891 people on the housing list as of last September, a truly s…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Again, I have to be direct with him. I did not receive a clear answer from him. I am very concerned because what he has shared with us tells me that over eight years Limerick City and County Council returned 505 properties to use. This is just over 60 properties a year. In the midst of the worst housing crisis in the history of the State, with shocking figures of almost 6,000 people waiting for public housing and 246 people homeless, how is this anywhere near good eno…

I wish a happy Christmas to the Cathaoirleach and the staff, in particular Mr. Groves and Ms Doody, for looking after us superbly during a challenging year. Their patience and generosity are appreciated. It is good that we finished on a good point yesterday with the debate on Senator Higgins's TRIPS waiver motion. Credit is deserved across the Chamber for all of the contributions that were made. I hope the Government acts on the motion. Seeing action and a change in direction is the most important element. I hope t…

The Minister of State is very welcome. As we know, this is an essential piece of financial housekeeping legislation and, of course, we will be supporting it. I will make a couple of brief points if I may. Neither of us is very comfortable whenever this happens, but I agree with Senator McDowell regarding the point he made on oversight.

It is the reason Sinn Féin opposed the Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021 earlier this week. We made it very clear that we support the public health measures. There is a yawning gap in the context of oversight, however. We are all held responsible when the relevant statutory instruments come into being, and yet we have no effective say in respect of them. Senator McDowell's suggestion of re-establishing the relevant committee has real merit. It would not be a threat to anyone and i…

That would not be like you.

I like you too.

It is.

It could all be done next year.

It is 8 miles.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following: “Definition 1. In this Act, “relevant statutory instrument” means any regulation made under: (a) the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020; (b) the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020; (c) the Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Act 2020; (d) the Health (Amendment) Act 2020; (e) the Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2021; and (f) the Healt…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 5, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following: "Parliamentary oversight of Covid-19 regulations 1. (1) Every relevant statutory instrument made by the Minister shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas not less than 48 hours before they come into effect and— (a) where, before the date on which paragraph (b) would have effect, a resolution annulling the instrument is passed by either such House, the instrument shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the vali…

I was getting away carried there for a second. "Dream on", says you.

I appreciate the Minister of State’s answers and her constructive comments about commitments the Minister has made. I will try to make my point in a non-adversarial way. There have been real concerns about communications from the Department in recent times. Our concerns about that are why we need some more oversight. If we have particular concerns about particular statutory instruments that are introduced suddenly, as they often are, we should have a means of holding the Government to account. Again, our key emphas…

If may make a brief comment, again I appreciate the comments the Minister of State made. Another point I would make is that as we all know, there is a shrill and poisonous minority out there who have given people a hard time about public health measures, about vaccines and so on. We have all come across them. They represent the far right in an insidious and nasty way. My point is that building in more parliamentary oversight is important to try to negate some of the arguments, invalid as they are, that this group m…