I thank the Minister of State for that advice. The medical scientists’ group engaged with the Labour Court in good faith. Out of that engagement, the Devine report was commissioned. It categorically and unequivocally stated that in the overwhelming majority of work in both professions, there existed no evidence of a material distinction between the grades’ roles and responsibilities. The report went further and suggested that the salary scale of staff in senior grade positions from both professions be adjusted to r…

I would like to raise an issue that the Taoiseach spoke about at the recent progress report update for Housing for All. It is something I have an interest in as a person who bought a house in the last few years, namely, the difficulties that people have when they go through the process itself. The Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, have spoken about the establishment of an expert group to examine the processes around purchasing a home with a view to cutting down on bureaucracy and stress involved for peopl…

Deputy Healy-Rae, the time is up.

Deputy Healy-Rae, sit down please. Resume your seat.

Deputy, you are eating into the time of the next speaker now.

I thank Deputy Healy-Rae. Now, can we go back to the consultative forum? I call Deputy Pringle of the Independent Group.

Deputy Healy-Rae-----

Deputy Pringle, I will give you your full time but I am asking Deputy Healy-Rae to stop, please. You went over a minute and a half over your time. You are now eating into other people's time.

Can you please just stop and allow other people speak? We will go back to Deputy Pringle.

Seanad Éireann has passed the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill 2023, without amendment.

Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed. We might pause for a moment to see if the Deputies who tabled amendment No. 1 arrive.

Last week, I raised with the Taoiseach the issue of the appointment of a HSE rare disease liaison officer. To be fair, he said he would come back to me on the matter. It has only been a week since then and I do not expect a response from him at the moment. I submitted a question to the Department of Health at approximately the same time, however, and received a response this morning. The response referred to the establishment of a rare disease office and policy unit, the announcement of a new rare disease plan, the…

The impacts of climate change are there for most of us in this Chamber to see and to acknowledge. The change was evidenced recently in the magnitude of the flooding events in Cork and nationwide. We had our various ministerial visits over that month but the most important one for me was the visit of the OPW. At the time genuine conversations were had with locals about interim measures that could be taken outside of the flood prevention scheme that already has works under way. There was a hope that certain in-stream…

I wish to raise the issue of rare diseases. I have a number of questions and would appreciate it if the Taoiseach's office could come back to me on them. The first concerns the current rare disease liaison officer. Could the Taoiseach clarify whether he or she is on leave from the Department of Health and is likely to be replaced? Has there been an appointment or even an interim arrangement or other arrangement? Could the Taoiseach please clarify that by way of a supplementary response? Could he provide the contact…

Over two weeks ago we had a major flooding incident in Cork as well, around the city and in east Cork. I am lucky in that my home town of Glanmire has a flood relief scheme that just started. That did not mitigate the worst impacts of what happened but at least we have a scheme under way. Unfortunately, many other areas in Cork do not. The contractor on site in Glanmire is due to do works between July and September next year to coincide with certain fishing seasons and so on. The contractor is indicating that it wo…

I join the Taoiseach in acknowledging the progress that has been made under Housing for All. That is lost in here sometimes. We are making progress and we are likely to exceed our targets again this year, which is to be welcomed. However, I want to raise the issue of wastewater. It really irks me, at a time so many other variables are beyond our control and the control of builders, such as escalating costs and so on, that the prioritising by Irish Water of wastewater treatment units in certain areas leaves a lot to…

I want to reiterate what the two previous speakers have said in regard to the response. People have appreciated it on the ground. I would like to support what Deputy O'Connor said by mentioning that we have done a tour with our local engineers of bridges that have collapsed and sinkholes that have appeared and are likely to reappear in the future given the nature of the landscape of east Cork and the wider area. I had the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, down at Glenmore Bridge on the edge of the Glanmire-Glount…

I am taking this on behalf of Deputy O’Dea. This is on reforms in capital investment in flooding projects associated with flood risk assessment being provided in Budget 2023.

It is said that a picture paints a thousand words and that is very true with the flooding that Deputy Mattie McGrath just mentioned across the southern part of the country and in particular in Cork and west Waterford in recent days. I will not elaborate on the damage there, which has been well documented across news and social media. I welcome that the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, the Tánaiste and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, have visited various affected areas. I welcome the humanit…

I raise an issue I came across in a small village called Watergrasshill, north of Cork city. It concerns the provision of a school-age childcare service. The long and the short of it is that the provider of this service has English as her second language. She went in good faith to apply on the Pobal website for funding for the provision of her service. In error, she put in the tabulation that she had one child attending her service rather than 24. This was an error because she thought the question concerned how man…