We are looking for clarity on the opening up. There has been a change with the vaccine roll-out. We have the worries about the Delta variant and such. What plans are in place for the necessary due diligence to ensure we have the opening that students deserve following the difficulties they have had?

A number of students have contacted me about that. We all accept the difficulties that everybody has been through. To put it mildly, this period has been a surreal experience for anybody in third level education. I welcome that we will probably be looking at clarity regarding this situation on 19 July. I also welcome the work being done to roll out antigen testing and the pilot project. Can the Minister outline any detail regarding the timeline for that pilot, the numbers involved and how the project stands now? I …

I will add my voice to what Deputy Kenny has said. The problem is that in many of these cases the gardaí become the only agency people contact when they are dealing with somebody who is having a psychotic break. Gardaí generally lift the person and if the case is serious enough, they bring him or her to a local psychiatric unit. The person is left there and released, and then dealt with in a couple of days' time. We need a full multiagency audit of the entire system because we are dealing with multiple issues. We a…

I raise the issue of housing adaptation grants for older people and those with disabilities. Louth County Council has a lack of funding in this regard, and I imagine it is an issue for all local authorities. My office is dealing with many people who fall into the priority 1 category, which covers those who are terminally ill and fully in need of care, to facilitate release from hospital or to avoid future hospitalisation. That is what is necessary from a societal point of view and from the point of view of savings.…

First and foremost, we need the money. It is not going to cut the mustard otherwise.

I reiterate much of what has already been said, particularly by my colleagues, Deputy Martin Kenny and Patricia Ryan. It has also been said by Deputy Nash. That is hands across the constituency but it might not continue. It is very difficult to speak against a consumer protection Bill. In fairness, most people have dealt with the dangers of personal contract plans. These are something that, no pun intended, have absolutely ballooned since 2014 when records were kept. We are now speaking about credit of approximatel…

I add my voice to what Deputy Ward has put very eloquently. What he said is from the heart. He is talking about the community he comes from, which has been absolutely ravaged by the organised criminal gangs that prey on really good people. This is all about natural justice. We do not for a second believe that this one small item of legislation or one very small solution is going to deal with the wider pandemic of drugs we are all constantly and consistently dealing with. However, this is about natural justice in th…

I thank everyone who contributed. Everyone is generally in agreement on the necessity of this legislation or type of solution. We all get the natural justice aspect of those people who have done harm to the communities, in that the money is taken and put back into those communities to add extra funding to necessary projects that make life better. I will not reiterate my whole point but while this will be insufficient to deal with all that needs to be done in terms of the drugs pandemic, it is a good start and part …

We, like a lot of people have said, would welcome anything that improves engagement between schools and parents and students. I am fairly sure my parents would have liked a lot less interaction with the school and I possibly have that sense with my own young fella. That is generally related to us rather than the school being the difficulty. I recognise there may be a need for this to be widened out to include other stakeholders such as staff. It would be remiss of me not to deal with our amendments on the voluntary…

I have dealt with the Minister previously in respect of the national childcare scheme, NCS, and I welcome the interaction we have had in that regard. Much as we might welcome the national childcare scheme as a job activation scheme, the problem relates to funding for groups that deal with disadvantaged kids. The Minister has already answered questions relating to some of the review processes but, obviously, there is still a need to look at Tusla in the context of sponsorship and expanding sponsorship. I will deal w…

I very much welcome the review process and the fact that the Minister wants it to look specifically at disadvantage. The problem is that the facility at Moneymore in Drogheda now has 12 children but capacity for 26. The number in The House in Cox's Demesne is 24, down from 32, while in Lios na nÓg it is 45 although the facility had capacity for 72. In Toberona, it is 14, down from 22, and in Muirhevnamor it is 17, down from 26. Those services are interacting with Tusla. The House in Cox's Demesne might have a bit m…

I welcome the Minister's remarks. As regards Tusla, there are certain families that are incredibly frightened when they hear Tusla mentioned, which can create its own difficulties. However, there are specific issues which I will discuss later with the Minister relating to the interactions with some of these groups. We do not necessarily have it across the line in the context of meitheal or how exactly the process will work for some of these groups. One of their asks will be to expand the sponsorship, particularly i…

The Minister of State and the Minister met these families. The Minister said that a mechanism was needed for these families to be able to get to the truth. I reiterate what Deputy O'Dowd has said. We need to lay out what these families have done through their freedom of information requests, the parliamentary questions we have tabled and through a great deal of interaction, negotiation and questioning of all the bodies from the HSE, CHO 8 and the RCSI Hospital Group. A huge amount of information is in the public do…

A public inquiry is the only thing that will give an answer to these families who deserve it. I think everyone accepts that. We need that timeline and then to look at mechanisms. The onus is on the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to go back to those families and give them that mechanism. We cannot continue as we are. If there are logistical reasons it cannot happen now, and I cannot see that it cannot, we need to give the families a timeline. That is fair. There are questions to be answered by …

Most people are saying it is great to be back here. The only advantage I have in the convention centre is nobody notices when I walk about. I am not good at staying in one place. We are dealing with an incredibly serious issue. I would be happier if it was questions and answers. I accept the situation we are in and recognise the tragedy the Covid pandemic has been for many families. We have heard the shocking figure of 5,000 this week. My heart goes out to all those families. We believed we were in a slightly bette…

An awful lot of what I am going to say has already been said. We all accept the absolute necessity of the Workplace Relations Commission and the vital work it does. We all know that this is the outworking of the Zalewski case in the Supreme Court. I have obviously mispronounced that name and I apologise for that. We need to make sure we do not impact on the operational ability of the WRC to carry out the work that needs to be done. It was mentioned in the House earlier that, during this period, we need these sort o…

We all welcome the legislation to establish the small company administrative rescue process. We acknowledge the need for the system to be streamlined. As Deputy O'Reilly said, the big issues are speed and cost. The Bill provides for examinership-lite to give viable micro and small businesses whatever is needed to ensure they survive. That is why in recent times the State has provided business supports such as the EWSS, the TWSS before that and the CRSS. Particular issues arose when businesses fell between two stool…

We have supported the Government stepping in when it needed to, to ensure that businesses were given adequate supports to survive in the last period. We supported this absolute necessity, whether through the pandemic wage subsidy scheme, replaced by the employment wage subsidy scheme, and the pandemic unemployment payment. We need to ensure that we have these protections. As much as we thought in recent weeks that we were moving to a better place, which we might still be overall, it has stalled. As we have had the …

I reiterate some of what has been said on the need for global solidarity. We all see that the Delta variant involves an element of chickens coming home to roost in the failure to have a global solution to the vaccination problem. We need to put that in place as soon as possible. I add my voice in support of the need for a TRIPS waiver. We are told by others at a European level that there is no need for this and that it is a misnomer. If that is the case, can they offer us a solution for the developing world? Deputy…

I would have called for this legislation at an earlier stage, particularly in relation to Louth County Council which is a considerable way through the process of completing its development plan at this point in time. Sinn Féin councillors and other councillors in Louth have done spectacular work through a large number of online meetings. I accept, as others said, that it is far from ideal to be trying to carry out consultation by way of a hybrid mix of online meetings and meetings in the open. I believe the latter …