Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as teacht isteach. I thank him profoundly for all his work done since last July on many issues on inequality in different guises. This Bill is very welcome. I know the Minister is only getting started and is not going to nail everything in one Bill, which would be impossible. The programme for Government committed to legislating for the requirement of the publication of the gender pay gap in large companies and this Bill fulfils that commitment, so I thank him for that. We can tick it …

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach. Is deas é a fheiceáil. I welcome the Bill. It is really important. I will focus on three major points in the Bill that it is important to clarify and speak to. For me, it is massive that public consultants are now going to be paid to only be public consultants. As a person who has only had access to public healthcare, I have felt the wrath of consultants trying to bi-locate, for want of a better word, having been left waiting on trolleys in corridors as consultan…

I have an interesting observation to make. It is funny because Senator Gavan accused us of having a very clear definition of what affordability is and straight afterwards Senator Boyhan stated there is no definition of affordability. Is one of them wrong or are they both wrong? If they can figure it out between the two of them they can let us know.

Does Senator Boyhan want to tell me what to do?

Yes, I am speaking through the Chair.

I have the right to speak. I am just asking the question. Senator Boyhan is saying there is no definition and Senator Gavan is saying there is a clear definition. I do not know what is happening.

Through the Chair-----

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I do not see how anyone could have an issue with this motion. It simply enshrines the right to housing in the Constitution. As the motion states, it is a basic human right. It acknowledges far too many people are homeless and asks that the following is put into our Constitution: "the State has responsibility to protect citizens right to a home". The motion includes some very strong constitutional amendments such as: 'The State recognises, and shall vindicate, the right …

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht teacht isteach arís. Tá sé an-ghnóthach an tseachtain seo. We will have to make the Minister of State an honorary member of the Seanad. He is great for coming in. To more serious matters, we all heard about Kilkee last week. It is a very famous beach and the reason is that it is a beautiful and safe bay. Unfortunately, Kilkee has had major issues for years. This is the third year in a row the beach has been closed. I have said before that we have a water emergency, and th…

I am glad to hear that better funding than ever before is being given to Irish Water for capital funding. That is very positive news. I do not accept that the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, can say that he has no direct role in this matter. This keeps happening: we set up some sort of semi-State agency and we then say it is all their fault. People blame Irish Water all the time but what of the State? Even I as a legislator feel slightly responsible for what is happening in Kilkee. The Minister cannot just say it…

I wish to raise a serious matter that occurred at the weekend. There were probably similar issues at other popular beaches around the country. First, I thank Ben Bennett, Mike Paige, Aaron McGettigan, Ollie O'Flaherty and Richard Brangwyn. They put their lives at risk to save over 40 people yesterday at a beach in Lahinch. There were zero lifeguards on duty. We knew last weekend was going to be sunny and that thousands would flock to the beaches. This is our second summer in lockdown so we should have figured this …

Is oth liom a rá go bhfuil mé ar ais anseo arís ag caint faoin scéal mar gheall ar uisce. It saddens me to have to come back up here to the Seanad again today to raise the issue of water for possibly the tenth time. My first speech was about water as well. I should not laugh because it is such a serious issue. We are in a water emergency. I know we are in a pandemic and we talk about a housing emergency, but if we do not look at water and the issues around water as an emergency in this country then we are going now…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, for her time. This is a departmental matter and as both the Minister of State and the senior Minister, Deputy Foley, are new in their roles, I will not put the entire responsibility for this on them but work needs to be done in the Department of Education if we are serious about getting our buildings right for the children who spend 183 days of the year in them. Can the Minister of State confirm how many new buildings have completed design stage with the planning and b…

I am afraid I got nothing new from the Minister of State's response, given that I have heard it previously from the Department. I was not asking about the quantity of schools but rather quality, which is why I raised the issue. I know there are many new school buildings and that is brilliant, but we have to get them right. As the Minister of State noted, we will research whatever is viable but we already know what is viable. The research has been going on for 20 years. We are retrofitting schools at the moment with…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I welcome this important Bill. It is important that people know about it and what it means to them. It will mean we can extend the loan scheme to small businesses, farmers and fishers. It extends the loan guarantee period to at least 2022. It is being rushed through because of the advice from the Attorney General that we need to complete this before the end of June in order that businesses can access it. It is focused on helping those who have been dealing with Brexi…

Fáiltím roimh an Aire Stáit. Is deas é a fheiceáil sa Teach seo inniu agus tá an-áthas orm go bhfuil sé i gceannas ar an bpost nua seo. I support this Bill and it is very important that it is happening. The Minister of State has done the following work since assuming this position in July: increased the national parks and wildlife funding by 80%; he has recruited 50 additional National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, conservation rangers; launched the new all-Ireland pollinator plan; enabled the contribution of €…

I remind Senator Mullen that he is a man and 40%-----

Women's choice was sorted three years ago. Can we park it, please, and move on and accept the reality of where we are? I want to speak on the fact it is national biodiversity week. Perhaps we have too much variety sometimes if we look at people in the House. Every individual in the country has a part to play in the importance of biodiversity. It is a term that has been thrown around quite a lot. Not everybody gets the concept because in some ways it is very simple. It has to do with variety being important and the …

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome this Bill and thank the Department for its work on it. I wish to draw attention to a number of important issues, the first of which is the need to put the credit unions front and centre in the context of this scheme. We must give people choices other than the big banks. Credit unions are really connected with communities and small businesses and in some cases, they would know them better than a lot of the bigger banks. Credit unions have played a huge par…

I thank the Minister for attending. He is a busy man with a lot going on. I have worked with young people for approximately 25 years and I have a 22-year-old son. What I keep coming across is young people's passion for everything and anything. I am struck by the diversity of young people and all the different things they bring to the table. I started visiting a couple of schools recently. Sometimes they are so refreshing compared to the adults because they have a can-do attitude. They do not see the obstacles. They…