The Irish Cancer Society is asking for car parking fees to be waived for those receiving cancer treatment. I received notice from the Department of Health pointing out that the programme for Government contains a commitment in respect of introducing a cap on the maximum daily charge for patients and visitors at all public hospitals, where possible-----

I wish the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and her husband well. I am very pleased the Government has created a stopgap measure to provide her with the necessary maternity leave. I agree with previous speakers who stated that we need a solution that brings us up to date so that we can facilitate women in politics. It is 2021 but we are operating as if it was 1950 or even 1850. I wish her very well. Like Deputy Martin Kenny, I support the Bill and consider it necessary legislation. We found ourselves in a quandary given t…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. I thank Solidarity-People before Profit for tabling the motion. I think it is a fair ask. I agree with it in the sense that there needs to be a greater level of imagination and that we have to look on this as an opportunity to deliver for third level on the same basis that Donogh O'Malley delivered for second level education. It is fair to say that there is an obvious need to deal with the issues of fees, SUSI and, in particular, the income thresholds. I welcome the…

We have a vaccine supply problem in this country, across Europe and across the world. We heard earlier today on "Morning Ireland" about the possibility in certain parts of the world that the roll-out could take until 2023 or 2024. With the difficulty that exists in regard to the new strains and the economic damage that is happening, this is utterly unacceptable and could lead to a cost of trillions. What interaction has the Taoiseach and the European Commission had with companies with a view to using the capacity t…

Many speakers in previous days and today have spoken about the Land Development Agency and the fact that it is not fit for purpose. We know its job is to manage State lands. We talk about what has happened to date, with 60% of properties produced through the agency being unaffordable. This means we are not delivering for the people for whom we need to deliver. I do not see any solutions in the Bill. I see constraints in respect of freedom of information requests, which shows there is an element of hiding what is go…

That would barely deal with the cost that Louth County Council is facing. The other issue is that we are dealing with a maintenance budget that has been absolutely hammered. It is the case that no transfers, or very few, where people need them from a medical perspective, are happening in the likes of Louth County Council. Nothing is happening in relation to proper maintenance works. That is not down to Louth County Council and its employees. It is just that the finances are not there. What Louth County Council has …

I want to raise the situation of Abigail McQuillan from Blackrock in Dundalk. Her mum, Deborah, made contact with my office. Abigail is 16 and is getting ministerially approved cannabis from a London clinic through a pharmacy in Newry. She has Lennox–Gastaut syndrome, which is life-changing. She has been on the product for nearly six months. It is usually imported from the Netherlands for €5,000 but it is being obtained for €600 per month. Ms Deborah McQuillan has dealt with the HSE, including the primary care reim…

Yes, but this is about reimbursement. Could the Tánaiste deal with that?

As many Deputies have stated, there has been a significant difficulty with miscommunication. Even the Government has admitted that because it is beyond denial. The live-streaming of parliamentary party meetings is not a pretty sight. A person said to me earlier that parliamentary party meetings are like the making of sausages - far from pretty and nobody should know what happens inside them. It really is not helping people that they are getting multiple lines from multiple sources and they are not entirely sure whi…

I will not take very long on this issue. Members are aware of the distress that people are experiencing. It has been recognised many times in the House, particularly today. Members are aware that people are worried and disgruntled and wish to see a plan and a way through this. They do not believe a sufficient amount is being done with regard to the particular issue of hotel quarantining. Sinn Féin welcomes the fact that the Government has got to the point of discussing quarantining people coming in from 20 countrie…

I move: That, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, leave be given to withdraw the Organisation of Working Time (Workers Rights and Bogus Self-Employment) (Amendment) Bill 2019.

Once again, I would like to bring up the issue of the acceleration of the national broadband plan. I welcome the Government commitment in relation to this. I had a meeting with National Broadband Ireland, NBI. It dealt with a number of issues that it said were probably hampering the acceleration. One of the issues relates to Safe Pass. In fairness, I dealt with this on Thursday last here. It looks like that issue has been dealt with. That was impacting on contractors coming in. There is a different formation of pla…

I wish to bring up an issue I spoke about earlier. National Broadband Ireland, NBI, gave me a note on some issues it believes need to be sorted out around planning permits and such in terms of streamlining the roll-out of the national broadband plan. I have sent that note to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and expect him to come back with an answer. I have also sent it on to the Tánaiste's office for his information if he is going to engage with NBI. I want to raise an issue I brought up previously with the Tánais…

I do not think anyone is particularly shocked that there is a need to update and streamline the legislation on counterfeiting, given the multiple issues that have occurred recently. There have been cross-jurisdictional issues concerning material and the question of who is liable. Technology has changed in recent years. We must also ensure there are processes in place so that those involved in financial institutions can pass on information in cases where they believe there has been counterfeiting or white-collar cri…

I welcome the Covid-19 business aid scheme, CBAS, which the Tánaiste launched, to deal with people who may have fallen between two stools as regards the CRSS and other such supports, but a number of firms have contacted me who still fail to qualify as they do not rent a rateable business. I refer to where storage is carried out at home and a lot of contact is done over the telephone and the Internet, and also in cases where a business has rented premises but it is within a non-rateable building within a community c…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for taking this Topical Issue matter. On some level she got the cards no one would want. It is straightforward like that. I accept that the Minister is busy. However, I believe this is a particular issue and I have said to an official in the Minister's office that I expect the Minister to come back to me on this matter. There are several issues we need dealt with at Government level. We all welcome the initial roll-out of the national broadband plan. We see it in the li…

I will detail some of the issues that have been brought up and perhaps we could get them dealt with. NBI is going to use the infrastructure of Eir and the ESB. It believes at this stage that Eir and the ESB probably need to up their capacity to be able to follow on from NBI but the relationship with Eir and ESB, NBI tell me, is actually very good at the minute. However, we are talking about survey, design and build and we are hoping that, as I think the Tánaiste said, this could be reduced from seven years to four …

I add my voice to that of Deputy Daly. Sinn Féin supports the Bill proceeding to Committee Stage. Anything relating to the streamlining and speeding up of court operations must be welcomed, and that is also true of anything that allows for issues to be dealt with at pre-trial hearings. Deputy Daly mentioned technological advances, some of which are helpful, while others in the realm of cybercrime are not and create serious difficulties. There have also been legal innovations. If we can deal with some of these issue…

I reiterate what Deputy O'Rourke and other members of my party have said, that we support the Air Navigation and Transport Bill 2020 but will bring forward amendments on Committee Stage. We support the Bill on the basis that this is a streamlining of the regulatory system, that is, the Commission for Aviation Regulation being subsumed into the Irish Aviation Authority, and the Institute for Air Navigation Services, IANS, which is the for-profit section, dealing with air navigation services, being paid for through l…

I hope the Government answer to this motion is not just "Suck it up, we are doing enough". Many have stated already that at this point in time there are 475,364 people on the PUP. In my constituency of Louth this is 15,141, which is a huge number of people who are in a situation they had not anticipated. Many of these people had never been in this situation before. We have all heard the stories about fuel poverty over the years and it needs to be addressed. We need to act on this now. We are in the middle of a seri…