Is the Minister prepared to put in place a mechanism in Garda stations whereby victims of violent crimes are notified of the release of the perpetrator from prison three months in advance?

I thank the Minister. It was at a recent joint policing committee, JPC, meeting in Cavan that I became aware that this service actually exists and that the prison service will liaise with a victim or with his or her family. I understand that the Minister has said that one has to request that information. There are many people who are not aware that they need or have to request that service. If something can be done to make people more aware of the existence of that service, that would be very worthwhile. While peop…

I thank the Acting Chairman.

I am conscious that gardaí who investigate the crime often stay in touch with the family and keep them apprised of issues. Gardaí can move on for different reasons because of promotion or retirement and I do not expect them to remember every individual case they deal with. Could there be some sort of electronic or technological reminder in the Garda station to contact the family, the victim or survivor? I am particularly concerned in cases of domestic violence also because there is often the likelihood of a repeat …

For the last few years I have requested Cavan County Council to light the courthouse in pink for the month of October to highlight breast cancer awareness. The council has always obliged and I am thankful it for that. It was not my initiative but that of a woman with stage-four breast cancer. She is an excellent advocate for breast cancer awareness and is very focused on making women aware of the signs of breast cancer and of the importance of checking their breasts regularly. She has spent years undergoing treatme…

I have been in discussion with fuel merchants in my constituency and beyond who are being adversely affected by fuel smuggling from the North. The fuel merchants I have spoken to employ people. They pay PRSI and their taxes, including carbon tax and VAT. They also enforce the smokeless fuel laws. However, they cannot compete with the selling of smoky fuel from the North, mainly due to the continually rising carbon taxes. The fuel merchants I have spoken to broadly welcome the recent announcement by the Minister for…

I am not talking about somebody who gets into their car, drives across the Border and buys a few bags of coal. Nobody is concerned about that. That cross-Border trade has happened over the years. We are talking about advertisements, mainly on social media, inviting people to ring a number, pay online and get even tonnes of fuel delivered to their door on a pallet. No carbon tax or VAT is paid on this. The prices being charged indicate it could not be because they greatly undercut those the merchants here have to ch…

I support this legislation and I commend the Regional Group on bringing it forward. It is important that we see the development and implementation of a cross-departmental and multi-agency autism spectrum disorder strategy. I support this motion in its entirety, but perhaps some of the language used may be outdated. It may not reflect where we are now in respect of understanding autism and not speak to the rights-based agenda contained in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCR…

About half the population of County Cavan, more than 35,000 people, live in and around Cavan town and its environs. The area has a deprivation index of disadvantage. Within that, however, are areas that are designated as being very disadvantaged with a high lone parent ratio, age dependency, very high unemployment and very low levels of educational attainment. There is an urgent need to address disadvantage and deprivation in Cavan town, in particular, through youth services. We talked about the youth justice strat…

I welcome this report and its recommendations. Many of the recommendations reflect what we in Sinn Féin have been calling for on a range of issues. First, I welcome the decision to delete Article 41 and to replace it with non-gender specific references to care. It is estimated today that family carers in Ireland number in excess of 500,000 people. Our carers do incredible work looking after family members who are elderly, ill or who have a disability. It is estimated that they save the State €20 billion every year …

There has been a systemic culture of discrimination against disabled people in the State. We all have responsibilities and obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, and this is the case for the Government in particular, to ensure disabled people are not discriminated against in their lives and that sufficient resources are made available to ensure this happens. As the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is present, I will ask when disability will be moved from the Department of …

Many students from my constituency study at Institute of Technology Sligo. They were contacted and encouraged to book accommodation prior to the start of the first semester this year. At the time, the students did not have their timetables and, due to this encouragement and the scaling-back of restrictions, assumed most of their classes would be held on campus. When their timetables were released, they learned that the vast majority of their classes would still be online and not on campus. They are quite angry and …

I welcome the Youth Justice Strategy 2021–2027. It is a very good document and I do not believe there is anything in it that I or anybody else could disagree with or argue against. None of this will work, however, unless adequate resources are put into the various organisations and clubs that are mentioned in the document, and that we ensure there is cross-departmental and agency co-operation when working together. It is very important. When I think about or discuss crime, whether it is youth crime or crime in gene…

First, I commend my colleague, Deputy Funchion, on bringing forward this important motion. She and Sinn Féin have consistently called for immediate investment in the childcare sector in Ireland in order to ensure its viability, reduce the burden on parents, acknowledge and properly pay professionals within the childcare sector and to keep facilities open, as many are finding it hard to so do. Childcare fees in Ireland are the highest in Europe and they continue to rise. While there was a commitment in the programme…

A constituent of mine, Eileen, is a 76-year-old woman with chronic rheumatoid arthritis. She requires two carers at a time to operate a hoist so that she can be cared for properly. There have been numerous occasions when she has been left with no care; once for a whole weekend. Carers on holidays or sick leave are not replaced or sometimes only one turns up when two are needed to operate the hoist. She has ended up with bed sores as a result of inadequate care. I am afraid she is not the only one and that many othe…

There are many issues that I could raise in regard to housing and housing needs, for example, the cost of rent, the cost of purchase, availability and so on. However, I wish to raise the issue of the lack of housing suitable for disabled people and the lack of will to meet the needs of disabled people who seek social housing. I have been contacted by many families where there are aged parents, perhaps in their 70s or 80s, and they have a disabled son or daughter living with them. The disabled person could be in the…

Afghanistan has a long and turbulent history of domination by foreign nations. It won its full independence from Britain in the same period as the Twenty-six Counties of the Irish Free State gained independence from the same colonial power. Since that civil war, the occupation by the Soviet Union in 1979 and by the US in 2001 has seen that country in conflict for most of that time and certainly for the past 40 years. According to Brown University, approximately 241,000 people have been killed in the Afghanistan and…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to make provision for ease of access to a housing adaptation grant for people with a disability for those applicants qualifying for same; and to provide for related matters. The purpose of the Bill is to ensure local authorities administering the housing adaptation grant for people with a disability shall, as far as is practicable, process applications for a grant within a period of not more than four weeks from the date of receipt of the application…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I read with interest the A Better Normal report by the Office of the Ombudsman for Children. There are several points I wish to make regarding the report and what it highlights. It is shameful that there is need for such a report. We are supposed to be a civilised society. Although I am not sure that we can ever eradicate poverty entirely, it is frightening that the report indicates that child poverty rates could increase to 19%. That would be almost one fifth of children living below the poverty line. That has lon…