A number of us in this House were lucky enough to attend a Literary and Historical Society debate in UCD. I will not talk about the result because I was robbed, but that is for somebody else to make a determination on. As I was leaving, a PhD student came up to Deputy Ó Ríordáin and I and spoke about the pressure they were under from a financial point of view. They said that the stipend they get does not cut the mustard and that they believe it is an issue that needs to be highlighted, so this is my attempt to do t…

Well, I am not the best computer programmer, and we can all agree on that. I would like to mention that transition year students in St. Louis Secondary School in Dundalk, alongside the transition year students in the Dominican College in Drumcondra, are involved in putting on “Science Week Live!”. It is on today, Monday, Wednesday and Friday and they are doing this alongside Dr. Niamh Shaw. Many people would know who Dr. Niamh Shaw is. She is a communicator, a scientist, an engineer and a writer and, hopefully, she…

I will take the positives from what the Minister said. There was acceptance that the model for retained firefighters is not working and that the issues with pay, conditions, rostering and the fact the job is not attractive must be dealt with. That is why the firefighters are watching proceedings from the Gallery at the moment. It is the reason a huge number of them made the journey to Dublin. We all realise we are talking about local authorities across this State that are under severe pressure when it comes to bein…

The Aire spoke about the electricity credits. In this regard, I would like to bring up an issue. Would it be possible to consider a bespoke solution for communal heating systems? Constituents of mine in Carlinn Hall have a gas-fed communal heating system that presents a particular anomaly. In the long term, the only solution is to change the source, but in the short term we need to mitigate the pressure people are under. If possible, could the temporary business energy support scheme payment be made to the companie…

What options are open to the parents and community in and around Bellurgan National School in north Louth? These parents have been campaigning for a considerable time for traffic calming measures. There has been back and forth with many elected representatives, including myself, and, in particular, Councillor Antóin Watters, with the local authority and others. We have not been able to deliver a solution that is necessary. Whatever can be done needs to be done.

There is an element of frustration in me raising this issue. The parents have been out campaigning before school starts and alongside elected representatives and others, to a degree, stopping traffic and more generally making a point of highlighting the dangers that are there. In fairness, the Minister has set out a number of options. I believe the local authority needs to be more proactive on this issue. There will be a need for me and others to deal with the community. We will have to look at reviewing the speed …

I hope the Department conducts that review thoroughly. I accept that the Minister is aware of the stretch of road in question. Perhaps we must look at the modalities and protocols by which we deal with wide stretches of roads with a considerable volume of traffic because of an increased number of people living nearby. Schools in the area are thriving and we must ensure they are safe places for parents, children and all others. I know that Councillor Watters attended a recent meeting in respect of the Bush Post Prim…

Many National Learning Network students have received letters stating they will not get the €500 disability support due to be paid on Monday, 14 November. That is people in receipt of disability allowance, invalidity pension, blind pension and carer's grant. When a National Learning Network student enters training, their disability allowance changes to a training allowance for the duration of the course and on that basis some will not receive the grant. This is unjust. Many will have made plans in relation to this.…

Although I believe it would be an excellent end to any evening to have me speak for 20 minutes, I will not subject anyone to that. We have had a considerable amount of conversation on this Bill. We all realise the issues we have in society with regard to hate. I, like many of my Sinn Féin colleagues, welcome this legislation in principle but there are question marks over it. Many Deputies raised the issue of speed and haste. We need to make sure we carry out the due diligence that is necessary. We have here the ide…

I thank the Regional Group for bringing forward this welcome motion. We need supports for those who are suffering from long Covid. Some of them got Covid doing work society deemed necessary. I received a letter from Mary on behalf of her sister, Liz. It was also sent to me by other people, including friends of Liz. I will read out some of it: My sister, Liz, is a 56-year-old primary school Special Education teacher who contracted Covid-19 in a school in December 2021. She is now suffering from severe Long Covid sym…

I refer to the Acting Chair's own interaction with the Ceann Comhairle earlier in the debate. Hopefully, all Ministers responsible heard that it can be incredibly difficult to get decent communications from Irish Water. We have all said that we need to set a date for a referendum to enshrine public ownership of the water system in the Constitution. Beyond that, we want to make sure that workers’ conditions are dealt with properly and fairly. We know that some of that has to be left to the workers, employers and uni…

Without doubt, Creeslough was visited by a tsunami of pain, grief and tragedy. We all watched and waited and, unfortunately, our worst fears were realised as the truth came out about the people who died and the families who were impacted. I do not think any of us will forget that. I was involved in many community activities in County Louth the following day and all people wanted to talk about was this. It was county final season and not only did the GAA recognise what happened at Creeslough with a moment's silence …

We are in a better place in the context of hitting targets. The Minister of State has said it is a seven-year project. There are still people who are several years away from getting broadband. We know part of the real solution lies with Eir, in that its make-ready product needs to be provided to NBI. The other thing is the possibility of the self-install product that NBI is looking to get off Eir. I understand there may be legal issues that need to be dealt with. The Minister of State said he was looking at the pos…

ComReg or the mobile phone and broadband task force could do this.

We all know that this State has a very long history. We had a society that was built around not giving adequate powers or protections to women and, beyond that, actually oppressing them. I accept that a significant number of legacy issues have fallen into the Minister's in-tray. I assume that others did not want to deal with them. We are at the point of redress and we all accept and support the need for a redress scheme, particularly for those who spent time in mother and baby homes. It is fair to say we are dealin…

I might have to agree with Deputy Carey. We may be dealing with this issue of energy security for quite a time to come. This is another one of these multiple overlapping crises. Obviously, we have energy security issues across Europe with supply, particularly gas, a situation that has been absolutely beyond exacerbated – I am not sure there is a term I could choose that would adequately explain it – by what Vladimir Putin has done by invading Ukraine. This is one of the weapons he has introduced to this particular …

The State and all of us internationally are dealing with supply chain issues, inflation, the energy crisis and the cost-of-living crisis. Our dealings with the European Union are more important than ever as are bilateral relations, particularly with the United States, while they are absolutely necessary in respect of our nearest neighbour. Has the Taoiseach spoken with or has he plans to speak with Rishi Sunak? We have the issue of the Irish protocol, we all want the Executive up and running and we know we are look…

Has the Taoiseach spoken to Rishi Sunak?

As I said in the House yesterday, we can all accept that the war on drugs has been lost. We are going to need a citizens' assembly on drugs as soon as possible. We obviously need a more novel approach because what we are doing at the minute is not working. That is not to say we do not need criminal sanction and resources to deal with dangerous criminals. Drug debt intimidation is one of the serious issues that comes across my desk too often. I have spoken to the Minister and the Minister of State previously about f…

I wish to ask about the advancement of the duty-of-care legislation. We obviously have a huge issue regarding public liability insurance, given the impact on business, community groups and community centres.