What we see in this proposed redress scheme is the presence of too many experts but not enough expertise. In the context of what the State did to mothers and babies, it is unthinkable that this Government would task anybody with formulating this scheme without applying the necessary expertise on the effects of abandonment, separation and removal. The work of psychologist, John Bowlby, on attachment would be a good place to start, not to mention Nancy Verrier's writings on adoption and the separation in The Primal W…

Why is there a six-month cut-off point?

When it comes to the new Covid measures, parents in north Kildare and I are still very worried about primary schools. The Minister for Education, Deputy Norma Foley, knows that I have been asking about air quality in classrooms for a long time now. Her most recent reply came back yesterday. I had asked when high-efficiency particulate absorbing, HEPA, filters would be installed in each classroom, given the growing international medical and environmental evidence that is building and the consensus that Covid-19 is a…

My biggest concern with the climate action plan is the place within it for the just transition and what I considered to be a lukewarm commitment to it. The transition to carbon neutrality must be achievable and affordable across the whole of society and not just for the select few. As I state consistently at the climate committee, it would be damaging to social cohesion and democracy itself if we were to have a two-speed State where the privileged inhabit a world of heat pumps, solar panels and EVs while the less w…

I hear and appreciate what the Minister of State has said. Sinn Féin appreciates that she is not contesting the motion. We have to remember that our ambulance service is a critical service that everybody wants but hopes they will not need. I will never forget meeting a fireman who was on duty the night of the Stardust fire. He recalled that it was a very quiet night before all hell broke loose. He said to me that the emergency services are like an insurance policy; we hope for the best when we are at our worst. The…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. Sinn Féin will table amendments to certain aspects of it. When it comes to the dangerous and antisocial use of scramblers and quads it is good to see the Government is taking Sinn Féin's lead and making provision for something that is a scourge on many communities. On this side of the House we have been told for a long time it could not be done but here we are and it is welcome. It has been a Damascene conversion but welcome all the same. What has been proposed is ver…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Parental Leave Acts 1998 and 2006 to make provision for an entitlement to bereavement leave to an employee who is a bereaved parent of a child who has died and to provide for related matters. I will share time with Deputy Louise O'Reilly. It is rare for Deputies to get to present a Bill to the Dáil. I hope and wish that nobody will ever need the Parental Bereavement Leave (Amendment) Bill we are laying before the Dáil today. The Bill all…

As has already been stated, Sinn Féin will support this motion. As Deputies will know, we rejected the Act after our proposals on housing, for example, were rejected and it was decided the capital injection could be used for banking, the most over-injected, overindulged, perennially pampered sector in the State and one that still pays no tax. Given that we are dealing with a full-blown and unprecedented public health emergency, we need to ensure our hospitals and other public services are as well funded as possible…

I too welcome this Bill and Sinn Féin will support it. It is fair to say there is widespread and growing unease at the use of animal furs in clothing and the reduction of an animal to a pelt, a fashion accessory or a symbol of wealth and status. Growing up, I remember the protests about fur on the catwalks and the banners that read "It takes...[50] dumb animals to make [this]...coat. But only one to wear it". It was stark but effective. As a society, we no longer have to rely on animal skins for warmth or protectio…

Since I raised in the House recently the impact on women and children of assessments under section 47 of the Family Law Act 1995, I have had a flood of contacts from yet more mothers and accredited practitioners in the psychological services outlining disturbing experiences of women and their children assessed under this process. One eminent practitioner is very anxious about mothers engaging in the process at all, such is the concern about how it operates. I have put down a series of questions to the Minister for …

I was not interfering in the separation of powers.

To whom are these assessors accountable?

I did not mention any cases.

It would be ridiculous to stand up here and not cite the growing number of new cases and hospital and ICU admissions. Reframing the challenge of Covid-19 is difficult in the context of our current figures. Our children are of particular concern in the context of Covid itself, long Covid and the wider impacts on their physical, mental and emotional health. It is hard to believe that while the Government is committed to retrofitting our schools under the EU energy performance of buildings directive, to include ventil…

I wish to reinforce what my comrade, Teachta Ó Laoghaire, talked about yesterday when we were discussing this Bill and the importance of the home liaison programme and the school completion programme. The home school liaison officers often save futures and sometimes even save lives. They can be the lifeline not just for a child but for whole families and the younger siblings coming up behind the child. They can iron out even the difficult wrinkles and help the child and the school discover what both need. In certai…

I apologise. I thought I had five minutes.

Yes, we were told five.

It has changed from yesterday. Okay. I apologise.

The citizens' assembly makes excellent observations and recommendations on gender equality and women. I thank Dr. Catherine Day and the other citizens who took park. I would like to put the assembly's recommendations in context. If one were to pick up and smell poverty, homelessness, inequality, the climate and biodiversity crises, and the abduction, rape and murder of girls and women, it would all have the same stink, and that stink is given off by an entitled, privileged and patriarchal elite. As politicians, we …

I know from contacts I have daily with constituents in Naas, Celbridge and across north Kildare that there is a direct link between the rental crisis and the mental health crisis. I have no doubt that if the rental crisis in north Kildare and across this State was addressed many people would no longer need to be treated for anxiety, which so often triggers an episode of depression. I say that not to downplay that important "dis-ease" but to highlight the anxiety that a perfectly normal human will have when faced wi…