The Irish Dental Association stated within the past fortnight that 260 dentists had removed themselves from the scheme. It has already been said that the PPE issue was the straw that broke the camel's back. The DTSS is not working. A large number of medical card holders will not be able to avail of proper dental care. A review of the dental care system is required. I raised this matter with the Tánaiste previously. Will he update us? It needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

I wish the Ministers well in this necessary Department, which all of us want to see do very well. A number of Members have already spoken about the fact that we have some staffing issues in third level. A number of people would be on precarious contracts. That must be brought to a head from the point of view of sustainability and ensuring that people can put in all the effort and time they want to deliver education for our people. That is something we need to deal with and take off the table. I would like to talk s…

I have said a number of times here that Covid has been absolutely dreadful. In addition, it has shown up certain weaknesses in society, particularly in the areas of healthcare and housing. It has put a strain on a system that was already strained. I thank Deputy McNamara, the secretariat of the committee and all the members, including some of my Sinn Féin colleagues. The committee dealt with work during a particularly rough period in our history. It dealt with what none of us would have anticipated when we were ele…

I have already spoken to the Minister of State about supports for community centres. Obviously, I welcome the stabilisation fund for those that received a significant amount of funding from Pobal but we need to look at many of these facilities from the point of view of the money that will be lost in the context of the social economy. I know that work-arounds and solutions have been sought through the likes of the Louth Local Community Development Committee but we need to ensure that all these things happen. We are …

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this matter. I welcome the earlier contributions of the two Ministers. All the right terminology was used, reflecting the requirement for a multi-agency response. They talked about the necessity for family supports. A synergy between all the stakeholders involved in community development and the justice system is needed. I welcome the discussion on an expansion of the youth justice system. That probably needs to be redesigned. We need a system that is able to deal with the f…

In Dundalk and elsewhere in County Louth I have dealt with countless constituents, as have many other Members in their areas, who are worried about the issue of scramblers and quad bikes racing through streets and community green spaces at all hours of the day and night. I refer to estates in Dundalk, council land, parks, private land and even farmland on the edge of town where crops were destroyed by scramblers. Yearly, we are told by An Garda and the Road Safety Authority of the serious safety hazard of these pow…

The Minister of State will agree this is a highly technical Bill which is pitched towards one industry with its own needs and interests. He will also agree that those needs and interests are not shared by the majority of our constituents who would benefit much more from solutions to the coming wave of mortgage arrears and increased capacity in our hospitals, rather than arcane legislation that will delight private equity asset managers. Much has been said in recent days about how time is prioritised in these Houses…

Like everyone else, I commend Deputies Ó Laoghaire and Kenny for bringing this legislation forward. Everyone accepts that it is absolutely necessary. I also welcome that the Minister of State has said the Government will not be opposing it. He spoke about this as a sign of an ability or willingness to work across the House. Hopefully we will see that happen. Whether we pass this legislation or other Government legislation that deals with this issue and possibly some other matters, the timeline is what matters. This…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, for stepping up and taking this matter. Obviously, it would make more sense if someone from the Department of Health could have been present. If he does not have the answers, I ask the Minister of State to ensure that we get them directly from the Minister for Health. Hopefully, the Minister of State has them. We all understand that, due to the Covid pandemic, a determination was made to ensure that we would have sufficient supplies of the flu vaccine, particularly for p…

I agree that it is somewhat worrying that we might not be able to source a greater level of flu vaccine, particularly if that leads to a situation in which we cannot ensure all those at risk can actually get the vaccine. We need to ensure, once again, that doctors and pharmacies are operating to the guidelines of giving it only to those at risk. We also need to do anything possible to ensure we can get any stocks that do become available. We welcome the fact that a task force on the Covid-19 vaccine has been set up…

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. It has been stated by many people here that we are still dealing with Brexit and with a failure of British politics and in Ireland we feel that pain. We have no clarity. We still have nothing resolved as to fisheries or level playing field governance. We have one deadline after another that has not been seen or met. In fairness, this week a number of a bright shoots have appeared. We have the possibility that we may have vaccines that could provide us with some solution…

We have had the promise of a vaccine with 90% effectiveness. We need people to be careful and we need to maintain public health guidelines, but the European Commission is to sign a contract with Pfizer and BioNTech tomorrow. I think this is the fourth vaccine contract, and we know that a number of phase 3 vaccine trials are ongoing. Could the Taoiseach explain how the State will have access to these vaccines? Has there been any discussion on an all-Ireland response on vaccination and then ensuring we have the capac…

I raise the issue of the dental treatment services scheme. We have heard from the Irish Dental Association this week that 260 dentists, that is, private practitioners, have disengaged from the service where people with medical cards can get dental care. It seems that it is now the case that 200,000 medical card holders will have difficulties or will not be able to receive timely care. My fear is that this will put additional pressure on the HSE's own services. We need a short-term solution as quickly as possible. I…

The glorious thing about coming in at the end is that all the good points have been made and I can steal one or two of them. I commend Deputy Ó Ríordáin. This is simple legislation. It has been said by almost all speakers that we are talking about equality. This is a small move. It is a step in the right direction and we could easily do it. It was said by some of my colleagues earlier that we could simply let this go from Second Stage to Committee Stage and then deal with any issues. At that stage all stakeholders …

These are not normal circumstances and this is not a normal budget. We thought we would be dealing with Brexit and we are dealing with this pandemic instead. The only way I can put it is to say we need to provide people with the supports required. We need to do all we can and to be seen to do so. It is straightforward. It has been noted by many people here that, unfortunately, the carbon tax proposals in the Bill are regressive. They will impact on those who do not have resources, who have less money and are not we…

I welcome protections for renters. It is a straightforward matter to support any such measures. At this point in time, we are dealing with a pandemic and we are in a period of severe restrictions. We need to ensure we achieve the community buy-in that was there at earlier stages of the crisis but which has dissipated to some degree. We can only do that if we can tell people that we have their back. I welcome the Bill but I would like to see its provisions extended for six months. We need a connection between this t…

I add my voice to what Deputy O'Rourke has said. It is straightforward. We need to make decisions about vital matters and provide support. I think we all accept, even based on what has been said today, that An Post is a necessity. We have postmasters talking about negotiations on subvention and its possible end. They are worried about whether they will continue to be personally viable. As with many of these situations, we could lose too many of these post offices. With regard to An Post management and the Irish Pos…

We have had much discussion on capacity as regards testing, tracing and isolating. We have a particular problem with regard to tracing at this point. Regardless of what happened in the past, this needs to be remedied. I have particular questions about rapid testing. Approximately two weeks ago, the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, spoke here about a number of pilots that were being carried out in parallel with polymerase chain reaction, PCR, testing for antigen. What is the set-up with that? We also know about…

I have asked two of the questions in this grouping. We have talked about contingency planning and I welcome the fact there is a shared island unit. As part of contingency planning, its terms of reference might need to be changed in the future, depending on what happens in regard to Brexit, but we will leave that for another day. The present pandemic has highlighted some of the difficulties of partition. Certain parties in the Executive in the North look towards Britain, whereas we cannot necessarily stand over what…

The Minister of State will be fed up, having seen me a number of times in the past while. That the RAIU should be able to investigate for all rail types is a necessity. That is a given. This is an anomaly Bill and clean-up Bill and it needs to be passed. We could not possibly operate without decent rail safety infrastructure. I am reminded of a book I once read, Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed, which refers to new thinking on aviation. The idea was that after a near miss or near accident, there would be a two-we…