I thank the Minister of State for his answer. He hit the nail on the head regarding the necessity of putting things on a contractual basis and ensuring there is follow-through. We need to make sure that happens. I have a final question. There is a plan in place for this particular roll-out but there will be huge areas for which it will be three, four or five years before they have proper broadband provision. I hope we have the detail by the end of the year on the complete accelerated plan and timelines. Mobile tele…

We will have sufficient time. We will probably get to Question No. 14 as well, will we not?

In Question No. 12, I have brought up the case of early childcare services and accessing the national childcare scheme, NCS. There are a number of these services in danger. We are talking about the referrals from Tusla. I am aware that there are ongoing conversations and while Tusla will deal with the House – Coxs Demesne Youth and Community Project because it has a service level agreement, others do not. There is a possibility of using the Meitheal early intervention services by Tusla but beyond that we need to lo…

The Minister said that mandatory hotel quarantining has been a vital tool in providing us with protection. We had the dreadful experience in December and January when, if anyone had not heard it before, the new horror term "variant" emerged. We are now aware of the Kent variant, which has had a huge impact in Britain and throughout Ireland. Beyond that, we have the ongoing horror for people in India. That is why we need to maintain all the tools required in order to protect ourselves. There is an acceptance that it…

It has been said by many in the House that the public and front-line care workers have done a huge amount of work to subdue case numbers. It is not very long ago that the situation was different. We all remember the dreadful figures and statistics. We dreaded watching the news, particularly in December and January. However, we have got the situation under control. We also faced difficulties in this State and throughout the EU in the context of vaccine supplies. A great deal of work has been done and a significant n…

The recent slaughter in Palestine is only a continuation of what Palestinians have been dealing with. Beyond that, we need to recognise as a House that what has been going on since 1967 is a modern-day colonisation, plantation and land grab. We have had de facto annexation. We need to accept that in here and use it as a weapon to apply pressure on an international basis, because there has been an abject failure by the international community across the board. I welcome the action that has been taken in regard to Be…

I concur with Deputy O'Rourke. We are glad to see this legislation. The nursing home support scheme, or fair deal scheme, needs significant tweaking. More widely, we need not only to support people in nursing homes but ensure we are not impacting on the sustainability of small businesses and small family farms. That is something that has to be dealt with. The pandemic period has made us look at how we deal with elder care. There have been a number of reports in the last while, including those from the expert panel …

I wish to add my thoughts on our dealings with Mr. Ciarán Ó hÓbáin at the committee meeting earlier. We certainly did not get the answers we were looking for. We obviously accept a criminal entity has made a dreadful attack on this State but a question is being asked about capacity in the NCSC. I want to deal with this, in particular. We welcome the review. We need it as soon as possible. We are talking about the NCSC ensuring compliance. It is about a bit more than just relying on the capacity within the HSE, the …

This is a straightforward ask. The Irish Mixed Martial Arts Association, IMMAA, which was established in 2017, needs a roadmap in order to get recognition as a national governing body. It has engaged with the Executive in the North, including the former Minister, Ms Carál Ní Chuilín, and the Minister for Communities, Ms Deirdre Hargey. Its engagement in the North has been successful but it wants recognition on an all-Ireland basis. We had the tragic death of João Carvalho. The coroner's report was issued and the re…

We all accept that safety is paramount. We accept what the Minister of State has said with regard to the working group, the process and the engagement to date. However, the IMMAA believes that it is caught and that there are obstacles in its way. The Minister of State spoke about the Global Association of International Sports Federations, GAISF, requirement. This association believes that the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, IMMAF, will get authorisation as a global organisation but 50% of the organisat…

I bring up the issue of the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. We need to accept the disparity between a huge military power like Israel and the Palestinian people. We have also had the de facto annexation and stealing of Palestinian land. We can only consider this a continuity of a plan for Israeli expansion. What will the Government propose in relation to our seat on the UN Security Council and in relation to the EU, which took action on the Crimea? How will we use our relationship with Joe Biden? We need a chang…

Táim an-bhuíoch don Cheann Comhairle as an gcúpla focal sin. There is a general acceptance that there is a fairness in this legislation as regards leaving certificate students being given choice. We accept that students, parents and teachers across the board had an incredibly difficult time during the pandemic. I hope we have learned lessons from the difficulties we had with algorithms. Fairness is essential. We heard earlier that we almost need an audit of the entire leaving certificate process. While it has chang…

We support the Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill 2020. I acknowledge that it is a technical Bill but there are anomalies in it that need to be addressed in the context of the particular situation in which we find ourselves with the Covid pandemic. I am sure that every Deputy in the Chamber and outside it has encountered multiple people who find themselves in the type of situation this Bill seeks to address. There are people still dealing with the outworkings of the financial crash. There are people who are strug…

I commend Deputy Ó Laoghaire who pointed out in 2018 that there was insufficient or no regulation of some private security firms. He brought that to the attention of the Minister for Justice and, along with Deputy Martin Kenny, he later introduced legislation on the matter. In fairness, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, did not oppose it. We can see that in this room and beyond, there is absolute agreement on the necessity for this legislation. The two events …

Ní fadhb ar bith é. Sinn Féin supports this legislation. Everybody accepts the absolute need for SMEs to have ease of access to necessary moneys. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy English, will consider Deputy O'Reilly's proposal on further engagement with businesses and all the relevant stakeholders. We need to offer schemes that are fit for purpose. In this context, that means appropriate interest rate levels and ease of access. It needs to be doable. I have had a number of engagements with the Minister of Sta…

We dealt earlier with how we finally have an element of justice for those who were killed in Ballymurphy in 1971. We feared the possibility of unilateral action from the British Government in respect of an amnesty for killings involving state forces. We believed we were in a bad situation in respect of relationships and what have you. Obviously, Brexit has been absolutely destabilising and has destabilised unionism but we need to ensure that, for the want of a better term, we can put the show on the road and that t…

Europe has a history of civilisation, invention and innovation, but also a history of vicious colonial powers, wars and a balance of power that was maintained through threat of war and mass armaments. The EU project itself was born out of the end of a genocidal world war. The EU has played its part in changing the nature of relationships across Europe. It has played a vital role in the development of our own peace process. I must commend the solidarity shown to Ireland throughout the entirety of the Brexit negotiat…

We have a housing policy that has failed. We have heard many times over the years of the consistent and constant failure to build council houses, affordable cost rental homes and houses that can be bought at affordable rates. We have heard all the stories in recent days: of people who are paying extortionate rates of rent; of those who are lucky enough to avail of HAP and who still have to pay top-ups; and of the huge amount of money we spend on HAP as a State. In 2020 we spent in or around €464.6 million on HAP. T…

There was a recent scare of Covid-positive cases in Dealgan House Nursing Home. All necessary protocols kicked in and the worries were allayed. I commend everyone involved. However, I want to again bring up the issue of Dealgan nursing home and the tragic outbreak last year that resulted in the loss of the lives of 22 residents. The Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, met some of the affected families. The Minister has accepted that the families require a mechanism by which they can be delivered answ…

I accept that. I have a couple of questions for the Minister and the Minister of State about information that is required from the HSE. I accept that, in the near future, they will have to go back to the families on the issue of the mechanism that will provide the affected families with the answers that are required.