I thank the Minister of State. My question was why only one MRI scanner was working. I presume, therefore, that the second scanner, which the Minister of State indicated was available, was broken on the day. The response did not answer that question but that is not the Minister of State's fault as he did not write it. He stated that one MRI scanner is owned by the UL Hospitals group and the second one is operated by Alliance Medical. Is that part of the insurance company? Does that mean it is a privately-owned scan…

I will make two short points. It is always good to acknowledge good news because everybody needs good news. The good news today is that the Minister is waiving all fees for outdoor furniture. When we have good news, we should celebrate. This is on top of the fact that during Covid, I brought to the parliamentary party the suggestion that we should do better to support small businesses. The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, heard the call and funded businesses to the tune of €4,000 per business, if they needed awni…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. He has an interesting brief – public health, well-being and the drugs task force. If you look at the Irish word for well-being, folláin, it is about being whole. As a nation I wonder how many people are getting that wholesomeness in their daily lives. Therefore, today we call for a commission on loneliness. As the Minister of State with the responsibility for well-being, I think the Minister of State might be able to do the interdepartmental thing. Nobody else …

Comhghairdeas leis an Aire Stáit in her new role. I am delighted to have her in the House as a Minister of State. It is a big honour. I am glad to be able to speak to her for the first time in her new role. I welcome the Bill. It is great. It was a long time coming. Some of it is to rectify Acts that date back to 1977. We are all overly familiar with the sad cases of the Clerys and Debenhams workers, so it is great that we are here today improving things and learning from the mistakes of the past. I thank the staff…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire go dtí an Teach. I commend her on all the work she has done to date on this. I commend the Fine Gael party on bringing forward this motion. It is a very serious matter of mental health and social health. The phone has taken over many people's lives. Many parents are not even sure how to manoeuvre them and control what appears on the phone, not to mention what appears on their children's phone. That is probably one of the biggest issues in some ways because giving a smartphone as a confir…

I welcome the Minister and congratulate him on his promotion. It is great to have him on board the enterprise, trade and employment challenge. I worked with his predecessors. I will focus on a few matters as the Green Party's spokesperson on that portfolio and also its rural development spokesperson. Both of these briefs tie in nicely with the importance of small businesses. Not only are small businesses important in cities but they are all we have in a lot of towns and villages. Towns are becoming homogenised, and…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach. I thank the Minister of State for the work done on this Bill. Ours is a small country but it has always been a country of innovators and original thinkers. We always come out on top. The Government has done so much in the context of investing in digital hubs. I meet small business owners and inventors. This Bill is about protecting inventors in order that they can get patents that will not cost them an arm and a leg. Up to now, the cost of acquiring a patent ha…

Tá an Ghaeilge fós ag méadú i gContae an Chláir, buíochas le Dia. Ar an chéad dul síos, fáiltím roimh an Aire, an Teachta Martin. Caithfidh mé comhghairdeas a ghabháil léi as an tacaíocht ar fad a thug sí ó thaobh "Cúla4" de. Is stáisiún teilifíse nua é atá go hiomlán as Gaeilge i gcomhair páistí. Is iad na páistí todhchaí na teanga. The future lies in the Irish kids’ hands. Má tá cainéal iomlán Gaeilge acu, tá sé sin iontach cabhrach chun an Ghaeilge a choinneáil beo in aigní agus croíthe na ndaoine óga. Gabhaim c…

It would have been great to have the Minister for housing in, but I am sure he is very busy. This relates to upstairs living. What has been done to achieve the programme for Government commitment to ensure underused building stock in small and large urban centres is brought into use? Specifically, what progress has been made under the town centre first policy commitments to bring about the living above the shop measures? When we were forming this Government, I was involved in the programme for Government negotiatio…

While it is not the fault of the Minister of State, the lines from the Department do not answer the question. They are telling me things I already know. It is an insult to somebody who is passionate about this and fought for it in the programme for Government to have a civil servant tell me stuff I already know. I know about the Croí Cónaithe scheme and the CPO grant, which resulted in two houses being bought in County Clare. The reply is not good enough in a housing crisis. I specifically asked what was being done…

Yet again I raise the issue of trolley numbers in UHL. It is not the first time for me, Senator Dooley and many other colleagues to raise this issue. I do not know if it is because we are so far from Dublin or what is going on, but we have the worst trolley numbers in the country by far. It is an old news story yet it is making the news again today. The hospital can take no more patients, with more than 140 of them on trolleys. I have been on those trolleys a couple of times for nights on end. People are losing the…

I will keep it short. In May 2018, the Irish people voted by 66.4% to remove the eighth amendment, choosing to replace it with the following text as part of the 36th amendment, “Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.” It does not state this should include harassment, shouting and insults as one accesses this free legal service. We are here today because the treatment of people outside certain places is absolutely disgusting. It is hard enough for a woman to make the choice to g…

I thank, in particular, Senator Black because I suppose the first time I heard about Palestine was approximately 20 years ago thanks to her work. Most people know the Senator for her songs but I knew her for her work on Palestine. I got involved in a Palestinian support group to fundraise many years ago, thanks to the Senator. This did not start on 7 October. Far from it, it has been going on for decades. This is an important motion. It is great to see the whole House supporting it; it is good that we are unified o…

I thank the Minister of State for attending. We spoke about this amendment previously and he has done a great deal of work on the matter, for which I thank him. Our amendment is an important one, but I will not need to press it if we can get clarity on Report Stage. This is very serious. It is very important. I have seen who will be on the board and they are all very good people but one cannot be an expert on everything. We need representation from a statutory body, if not the Climate Change Advisory Council, perha…

I will not press the amendment. I will not move it.

I thank the Minister for her time. It is good to see her in the House. I thank her for all the work she has done already on domestic violence and other issues through her portfolio. I will keep this contribution short. Under the convention, protection for victims-----

I second the motion. I will keep this very simple. There were 54,000 call-outs to Garda stations last year for domestic violence. There were 10,000 barring orders, restricting movement, obtained in domestic violence cases, 5,000 of which were breached, and only 500 convictions were secured. We have a huge issue. The Minister is probably well aware of this, so I will not preach to the converted. This legislation will do three things. I will quote the great woman we had in today from Women's Aid, Sarah Benson. She sa…

I thank the Minister of State for his time today. I welcome the Digital Services Bill. It is a pity Senator Keogan has left. Each provision in the Bill is necessary for Ireland to fulfil the mandatory requirements on member states under the EU regulations. I do not know what the big debate about it is. It just has to be done. We are in the EU and these are EU regulations we have to stick to. The EU digital services regulation establishes clear and proportionate rules to protect consumers and their fundamental right…

Comhghairdeas, a Aire Stáit. This Bill is really good and represents real progress for local democracy. I congratulate the Minister of State and Senator Maria Byrne on getting us this far. This Bill excites me as it is a chance for real local democracy and regional balance, and I have long witnessed regional imbalance coming from County Clare. I also think that this new office of mayor is a lot more than being a mayor of a city or county, potentially, and another gold medal around another person's neck, and usually…

It is a pure honour to be in Senator Norris's company. It did not happen half as much as I would have liked it to have happened. I remember the day I was called up to the Seanad, the first person I thought of was him. I thought he was an inspiring person and that I might actually get to meet him and be in the same room as him. I was completely starstruck. I remember being a very young teenager the day he was elected. He was like a breath of fresh air in politics. I was a complete cynic. I heard a lot of the same vo…