It is important that this Dáil and our elected representatives have the opportunity to push hard at the people who are behind the decisions and who are making them. There is no doubt in my mind that many decisions have emanated from NPHET which we have not been able to challenge. I have asked journalists to attend press conferences and ask questions of NPHET so we could get a better understanding of what is happening in this country. I ask the Minister to think about that. An elected representative asking a journal…

It is the scrutiny element of the amendment that I am speaking to now. I will come to a close now but I have a question similar to the one that was asked earlier. The Covid pass currently allows people with Covid to circulate in hospitality and stops people who may not have Covid from doing so. If the Government's logic is to be followed, it will have to change it to cover only people who have had boosters. That is the same logic we are using now. The Tánaiste said people may have to have four vaccinations. Does th…

This is a very important debate. I will be supporting Deputy Connolly's amendments, both in terms of providing the House with the statistics on prosecutions but also with regard to the protection of smuggled persons from prosecutions from the act of being smuggled. The Bill is silent on the rights of smuggled persons - victims - and that is wrong. I have no doubt that fear of prosecution or deportation is deterring victims from coming forward to report those who smuggled or trafficked them. Statistics released to A…

Today, we in Aontú launched a Bill seeking a commission of investigation into the management of nursing homes during the Covid crisis. The majority of people in the State who have died during the pandemic caught Covid in a hospital or a nursing home. Indeed, more than 2,000 people died after contracting Covid in a nursing home. Many of their families are deeply distressed and want to know the truth of what happened to them. Nursing homes were kept open to visitors longer than nursing homes wanted. There was a surge…

In the nursing homes.

No. Terms of reference are needed for an investigation.

All investigations have terms of reference.

We cannot have an investigation without terms of reference.

An in-depth TILDA - The Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing - report published recently showed there is currently a crisis among older people in the State. Physical activity by older people during Covid is at 22% lower than it should be. Loneliness is a significant issue as well and the figures indicate there is double the level of loneliness that existed before the crisis. Loneliness is a threat to physical and mental health and, for example, 21% of older adults say they are currently suffering from depression, a f…

The USA is not sending officials to the winter Olympics due to China's human rights abuses. Ms Emma Reilly was recently sacked by the UN, reportedly because she blew the whistle on a practice whereby the UN provides to Chinese diplomats the names of Uighur human rights campaigners. She said she has the documents to prove it. In 2013 Emma received an email from Chinese diplomats asking her to confirm the names of Uighurs who were due to speak at a UN event in Geneva. She was told by her superiors in the UN that she …

There is a crisis of confidence in policing in many nationalist and republican areas in the North of Ireland. That is not a wild claim. It is a real issue. A PSNI report on policing in south Armagh stated that little progress had been achieved on policing in south Armagh since the Good Friday Agreement. South Armagh is not alone. I have spoken to nationalists from Tyrone and Derry who have told me that PSNI policing is heavy-handed and militaristic. This has created a significant divide in these communities. In 201…

This is in a document from the PSNI.

It is like the chicken and egg. If we do not reform the PSNI, we will not get people to join it.

Will the Taoiseach meet the PSNI Chief Constable?

I read the annual report of National Cancer Registry Ireland, NCRI, during the week. I am sure the Minister has also read it. It stated that there would be a shortfall of between 10% and 14% in the number of cancer diagnoses for 2020. As somebody who had cancer during the first wave of the Covid pandemic, I am deeply worried that there is a significant problem with people not getting a diagnosis and treatment and, as a result, having more advanced cancers when they approach the health service in the future. What is…

Today, 480 people will be diagnosed with cancer and 24 people will die of cancer. It is one of the biggest threats to human life in this State. Timely diagnosis can and will make all the difference for many people. The Irish Cancer Society says that it is worried that many people have cancer and do not know it. This will impact on their outcomes. The Marie Keating Foundation anticipates a tsunami of cancer diagnoses. Perhaps the figures the Minister has just given show that those delayed cancer diagnoses are starti…

I understand this is a difficult situation for the Government. Nobody expects it to be able to deal with the issue 100%. We talk about capacity ad nauseum in this Chamber but there is a difference of 260 between the number of ICU beds there should be and the number there are. There are 112 to 117 people in ICU beds with Covid at the moment. The lack of capacity is a bigger threat to ICU capacity than those patients. There is a difference of 8,000 between the number of beds there should be in the hospital sector and…

Where are the hospital beds the Minister referred to?

I wonder whether the Minister got lost on his way to this debate or did not have it in his diary. Is it not the case that Opposition parties like mine should be listened to by the senior Minister on debates as important as this one? In most debates in the House, the Minister is typically gone by the time the Regional Group gets to speak. That is a pity, as we can all learn from one another. Ireland is in the midst of one of the worst housing crises in the history of the State, one that has spanned more than a decad…

He wants to control RTÉ now.