Maidin mhaith. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as an Ní i dTosach Suí seo a ghlacadh. I raise the cases of a number of people, where the same thing happened to them. There were two over the summer and one previous to that. There was a young woman who ended up hospitalised with quite a serious heart complaint. She was in receipt of jobseeker's allowance, and her payment was ceased because she was in hospital and therefore no longer in a position to seek work or make herself available for work, which is quite und…

I thank the Minister of State. I am saying that the time it takes to make an application for supplementary welfare and submit the information required can be weeks or months. In each of these cases, community welfare officers did not act very quickly. All of these people were left weeks, sometimes going into months, without income and were left borrowing money from family members. Okay, they got it back and were able to pay it back, but it put a lot of stress and worry on the people and left them owing people money…

I raise the case of a 78-year-old man who lives in my area. He contacted me approximately six months ago. He is the sole carer for his 45-year-old daughter, who has a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome. Three years previously, he applied for residential care for her because he felt that, as he is getting older, he will not be able to care for her and he wishes to see her settled in case anything happens to him. I contacted the HSE in February in this regard and received a response one month later. The HSE outlined that i…

Irish citizenship is something to be valued. It represents membership of our nation, it carries rights and responsibilities and it should reflect a genuine and lasting commitment to Ireland. Sinn Féin believes migration must be managed in the best interests of people across Ireland, while recognising our need for workers in key sectors, the pressures on housing and public services and our humanitarian obligations to those fleeing war and persecution. It is a priority to ensure that those who legally make Ireland th…

September is Sepsis Awareness Month so I want to raise sepsis awareness, which I have raised before here. It is a really important issue to raise regularly because it is the biggest killer in Ireland and in the world. More people die from it than from heart attacks, AIDS, lung cancer, breast cancer, Covid and car accidents combined. About 20% of people who contract sepsis die from it. About 20% of those are children, so it affects people of all ages. Even those who do not die experience long-term effects that can r…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. Childcare is extremely important. Early years and school-aged childcare are fundamental to a child's development, to family well-being and to the social and economic life of our society. It needs to be a service that is accessible, affordable, sustainable and of the highest quality. There are a number of different points that deal with different issues here. I will look at affordability first. There is a commitment in the programme for …

I too would like to be associated with the expressions of sympathy, particularly to my colleague Senator Gerard Craughwell on the sad passing of his wife, Helen. I want to raise the issue of the school bus transport system because, since the beginning of August, I have been inundated with communications from distressed parents over the fact that their children have not received school bus tickets for the return to school. Some children who had tickets for several years were suddenly left with no place on the bus. S…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad. I welcome the Bill. We will be fully supporting it. It makes sense. It will reduce barriers for women and make access to contraception easier, which is always going to be welcome. It will also ease pressure on primary care. It is a welcome step in the expansion of community pharmacy and women’s healthcare services. The free contraception scheme is still limited to women aged 17 to 35. The scheme should be reformed to cover all hormone therapy for all women and girls from…

A lot of us here are familiar with the cross-Border scheme or the Northern Ireland planned healthcare. It is an option for people who are on public waiting lists for health procedures to use a different jurisdiction to have that procedure carried out in a more timely fashion. I was recently contacted by the mother of a two-year-old boy who was in a lot of pain and required an operation. The waiting list here was years long so they opted to have the operation carried out in Belfast. She followed the HSE guidelines, …

The motion that we have put forward is very broad and covers many aspects that affect us in rural life. I too am astounded by the amendment tabled by the Government because it does not call for anything, which gives the impression that everything that is needed is there, yet many colleagues across the room here ask for more gardaí in their local area, increased childcare, more supports for roads and transport and so on. I am amazed by it. I live in rural Ireland and grew up in it, on a small farm, where my parents …

I too would like to extend a fáilte romhat to our dignitaries from France and wish them a happy Bastille Day. I want to raise an issue regarding social welfare payments. People on jobseeker's allowance or on farm assist may sometimes have to come off those payments if they receive some work. They may be working on a part-time basis, so they notify the Department of Social Protection and the payment is ceased. Sometimes the work, especially if it is seasonal, finishes up and when the person reapplies for the payment…

I want to raise the case of an 18-year-old woman living in Cavan. She was admitted to Cavan General Hospital in September 2025. She was 17 at the time and spent four weeks there with symptoms of vomiting, constant headaches and light sensitivity. One doctor thought it was chronic meningitis and talked about doing a lumbar puncture but other doctors disagreed. No procedure was carried out and no determination was made as to what was actually wrong. She was given antibiotics and sent home. She ended up back in hospit…

There has been a lot of discussion recently about how best to protect our young people, especially our under-18s, from certain social media sites and pornography. The statistics from Rape Crisis Ireland are very concerning when they talk about the rise of online misogyny and what they are calling the "manosphere". It is an international network of influencers promoting male supremacy and anti-feminist ideologies. That is connected closely to multinational corporations, which are only interested in making profit, ha…

Lucy is on work experience. I wish to raise the issue of cuts to allowances for Reserve Defence Force members. Cuts were introduced in 2011 as part of austerity measures after the economic crash. The public sector was badly hit by quite severe cuts at the time. The Reserve Defence Force allowance was cut by 25% and it was taxed for the first time after that as well. This was severely felt by the members of the Reserve Defence Force. Many of the cuts implemented at that time have been reversed but the cut to the Res…

Ireland has a good reputation for the production of high-quality food, achieved primarily on our family farms where there is traceability from farm to fork, but this is dependent on the continuation of the family farm. That is in danger because of the age profile of our farmers. I attended a briefing by Macra last week and some stark statistics were provided. Over one third of Irish farmers are over 65 years of age. Forty per cent have no identified successor, with 20% having no successor at all. Only 4.3% of our f…

Sinn Féin will engage constructively with the Bill. We support the orderly winding down of NAMA, the completion of the IBRC process and the transfer of the remaining activities to the NTMA. However, let me clear that we will continue to demand accountability for the failures of the banking collapse and for the deeply damaging and flawed political choices that followed. Those choices cost people their homes, their livelihoods and their futures. Accountability cannot be brushed aside simply because an agency is being…

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment.

I want to speak in support of amendment No. 26 and any of the amendments that call for an outright ban on the use of counselling notes in cases of sexual violence and rape. If any of us knows a person who has been raped or sexually assaulted, they will know the life-changing and devastating impact it has. They will also know how vital counselling is in the context of trying to address the trauma, process what happened and put a devastated life back together. If these amendments are rejected, this legislation risks …

I was contacted recently by a person I have known for a long time but had not spoken to in some time. She was telling me how her husband has been diagnosed with dementia. It is progressing quite rapidly to the stage where she has realised she needs additional help to care for him. In the midst of this, her GP advised her to apply for the long-term illness card, which she did. However, she was refused because dementia is not included on the long-term illness scheme. It really should be. It is a life-long lasting con…