I will put a number of questions to the Minister. If time does not allow for a response now, perhaps he will get back to me in writing. I have been approached by a number of people who are currently undertaking apprenticeships and are concerned about the college aspect of their courses. One young man in particular told me he was due to start the college part in September 2020 but has been told he will not be able to enrol until 2022. That is two years later than planned. Obviously, the course was closed for a time,…

For far too long, SNAs have been treated as the poor relation within education. They deserve respect, and where they undertake training, it must be properly accredited and recognised. The Minister of State encouraged SNAs to take part in the first national training programme for SNAs at UCD. However, no clarity has been provided on the accreditation of this course. SNAs are going around in circles trying to get this clarity. While SNAs are spending a huge amount of time studying and putting the work in for this cou…

Like the two previous speakers, I am somewhat disappointed with the Minister of State's reply. SNAs are professionals and they want to do their job as well as possible. They are willing to undertake this training to improve their abilities. Without SNAs, many students would be excluded from education. Their work is imperative to ensure inclusion. I ask the Minister of State to go back and revisit this matter. There must be an incentive for SNAs to improve the work they do through this training programme. Members of…

"The pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems which are in turn amplifying the impacts of the pandemic". That quote is taken from the UN policy brief published last April. While everybody might be susceptible to the virus, those who suffer poverty and inequality are much more likely to fall ill with the virus, and while there are many at-risk categories in the world, women are the largest category. Women are at the front line in this pandemi…

I begin by welcoming the phased reopening of schools. I echo the call of many speakers that it be done in a safe way, with adherence to public health advice to ensure the safety of the whole school community, including pupils, staff, parents and other family members. Given that schooling is an essential service, will the Minister advocate priority vaccination for school staff? There is, naturally, some anxiety among pupils and staff returning to school when case numbers are still high. A robust testing and tracing …

Due to the suspension of primary medical certificate assessments in the second half of last year and their reinstatement just last month, approximately 1,500 people are now on the waiting list for an assessment. Alleviating this backlog could be achieved by increasing on a temporary basis the number of medical officers in the HSE to assess applications. However, I believe that current medical officers are now engaged in the vaccine roll-out and are not performing assessments, which will lead to further delays. Many…

One of the sectors hardest hit throughout this pandemic has been that of those involved in the entertainment business. People involved in entertainment pay their taxes and contribute to society, not only financially. Since March, most people in the entertainment business have been unable to work due to venues being closed, weddings being practically cancelled or at least whittled down where they are not allowed to have entertainment either in the church or at the celebration afterwards, and functions or dinner danc…

I commend my colleague, Deputy Doherty, on bringing forward this very important Bill on the overcharging, on a systematic basis, by insurance companies. While there may be claims to the contrary, it is without doubt that the vast majority of insurance companies operating in Ireland use dual pricing or differential pricing. The loyal customers who do not shop around for better prices see their premiums increase year on year at renewal time, despite having no claims for the previous year. While everybody is encourage…

I raise an issue that my colleague, Deputy Ward, raised with me. It is in relation to the €700,000 the State has spent defending court cases taken in the last two years by parents of children whose assessment of need did not comply with the timeframe within the Disability Act. How can the Government defend spending that amount of taxpayers' money on court cases when it is supposed to ensure that assessments of need for children who have or are suspected to have a disability or learning need be carried out in a time…

I spoke with a woman last week who told me she dreads the really cold weather because she must sleep on a mattress on the floor in her sitting room with her children on mattresses also or on the sofa because she cannot afford to heat the house. She lights the fire in the sitting room and spends the really cold nights there. Another mother told me that her children are constantly getting colds and chest infections, and therefore missing time from school, because the house is so cold. People are being forced to choos…

As my colleagues have stated, Sinn Féin will support this Bill, which transposes EU directives that will help in the fight against fraud and will be in the financial interests of the EU and, by extension, Ireland. It is welcome that this Bill tackles further aspects of white-collar crime, corruption and fraud of public money. The EU sources of income, however, include contributions from member countries and it is right we try to ensure that every single euro of the EU budget is spent for its intended purposes. It i…

I had been given a different time slot. I noticed that things were moving slightly faster as the Leas-Cheann Comhairle said so maybe some of the Deputies are just not aware that their slots have come up.

The long-awaited report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes is, unfortunately, not what many expected. Survivors have waited for five years for this report and so many are disappointed that, after all that time, they just feel let down. One survivor contacted me on Monday to thank my party for all the work that it has done to support survivors. She told me that it took her almost a week to contact me as the publication of the report meant she relived the horrors of everything that had been…

The lack of forethought shown by the Minister and her Department over whether schools needed to close was very disappointing. There should always have been a plan B in place if schools needed to close. The Minister had nine months to organise this. Instead, we had half-baked plans cobbled together over the course of 24 hours, which collapsed just as quickly. In such a context, a letter sent to parents yesterday in which the Minister played the blame game for schools not reopening was an inappropriate use of communi…

The Covid-19 vaccine allocation strategy was launched last week but to the extreme disappointment of many, people with disabilities were not mentioned once in the plan. People with disabilities were and still are more negatively impacted by the pandemic than those without disabilities. Many were forced to isolate or cocoon at home which has had a very serious emotional, physical and financial impact on them and their families. Many are not in a position to participate in the so-called new normal involving social di…

A number of towns and cities, or parts thereof, have been designated as smokeless zones. This seemed to be working well initially. However, there has been a recent significant deterioration in air quality, as evidenced by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, monitoring stations. Those stations confirmed that there was widespread pollution between 16 and 30 November from the burning of non-smokeless fuels or smoky coal. One coal merchant told me that he is doing everything right. He is paying his taxes, includi…

I will speak briefly to amendment No. 8 proposed by my colleague, Deputy Kerrane. The amendment asks to look at the income disregards for those applying for the carer's allowance. It has not been updated in almost 13 years and the cost of living has certainly changed in that time. I acknowledge that the number of hours a carer is allowed to work outside of his or her caring role was increased from 15 to 18.5 last year and that was welcome. However, in many cases, carers who work the additional hours end up losing o…

I fully support the Bill tabled by my colleagues, Deputies O'Reilly and McDonald. It proposes to allow for ten days of domestic violence leave. It is badly needed as the mental, physical and sexual abuse endured by women in particular cannot be overstated and is truly shocking. Conservative estimates indicate that at least one in four women in Ireland will encounter violence at some stage in her life from a current or former partner. Domestic violence and coercive control are global problems. The unprecedented leve…

I ask the Minister of State to outline the position in respect of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, more commonly referred to as the EPSEN Act. It has never been fully commenced despite it being a central strand of the national disability strategy. Children with disabilities and learning needs cannot access assessments with a right of appeal or individual education plans on a statutory basis. Do the Minister of State and the Department have any plans to fully commence that Act?

As the Minister of State mentioned, some aspects of the Act were commenced, such as that providing for the establishment of the NCSE. I understand the NCSE prepared an implementation report back in 2006 that set out the sequence in which the remaining provisions of the Act should be commenced and estimated a level of investment, at that time, for their implementation. It was planned to implement the remaining provisions by 2010 but a decision was taken in 2008 to suspend that implementation. I am not sure exactly w…