I welcome the MEPs and thank them for being with us. Many parents across Europe are concerned about the problems caused by their children having excessive, and excessively early, exposure to screen time, particularly the challenge posed by young people's access to social media. Many countries are taking their own initiative on this matter. Energy has been focused on the specific issue of whether tech companies should be prevented from opening social media accounts for young people. There is widespread misunderstand…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Dillon. Cé go bhfuil stádas iomlán mar theanga oifigiúil is oibre ag an nGaeilge san Aontas Eorpach ó thús na bliana 2022 de bhun rialacháin, ta cinneadh déanta ag Parlaimint na hEorpa amháin gan foireann iomlán aistritheoirí Gaeilge a fhostú le plé leis an bhfocal scríofa agus gan post buan ar bith a chruthú d’ateangairí Gaeilge sa Pharlaimint chun plé leis an nGaeilge labhartha. Fágann sé sin nach bhfuil an deis ag Feisirí an Ghaeilge a úsáid in obair choistí na Parla…

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. If we cannot solve this during the Irish Presidency of the European Union, when can it be solved? I was in Luxembourg and Brussels last week. In Brussels, I was taking part in an interparliamentary conference with MEPs and representatives from different parliaments. On the note on translation, we were told there would be translation and interpretation available in all of the European languages except Gaelic - it was pronounced like the Americans sometimes pronounce Gaeli…

By a strong majority, in the Dáil last night, the Social Democrats Bill to remove the three-day waiting period for abortion was solidly defeated. That is something worth noting in this House. It is a very welcome development. It was the journalist, Brenda Power, who pointed out that in 2024, 2,000 women who had an initial consultation for an abortion did not go ahead with it. Brenda Power pointed out that even if one allows that 1,000 of those were cases where pregnancies sadly ended in miscarriage, the fact remain…

First, Senator Keogan wished to congratulate, as do I, our colleague, Senator Nicole Ryan, and we wish baby Réidín Lydia a long, happy, healthy and productive life, inside or outside of Seanad Éireann. I want to mention this morning the report the Oireachtas joint committee on communications, culture and media - on which I sit - has produced regarding online safety. I want to be fair here and acknowledge the good work done by committee colleagues and I welcome their recommendations, particularly the recommendation …

I thank the Cathaoirleach for that. Action will be taken.

We might say it was energetic.

Hear, hear.

I wish to support what Senator Murphy had to say about the rights of turf-cutting families and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is a topic I will return to myself but I will say that wherever there is any ambiguity in the law, there is a time-honoured principle that it has to be resolved in favour of the person who would be affected by it. I was at a very interesting conference yesterday on the subject of the role of the EU and its member states in supporting global accountability mechanisms, including u…

The Acting Leader is doing great.

Does she do funding as well?

It is a great project.

I wish to raise our need to ensure we have enough doctors into the future. A Parliamentary Budget Office report in 2024 on the cost of non-consultant hospital doctors and consultants in a consultant-delivered health service stated we would need more than 9,000 additional hospital doctors within 20 years to meet the demands of our growing and ageing population. Having that number of extra staff in place by 2042 would cost the Exchequer approximately €2.2 billion more per year. To that we can add an additional 1,000 …

I welcome the fact that the British Government has now committed to introducing social media restrictions for under-16s. It is going to consult on whether to introduce an outright ban, but what is guaranteed is that some form of age or functionality restriction will be brought in. The first point I would like to make is that this has come about as a result from pressure from the House of Lords, which on four occasions voted for amendments to the UK Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill that were brought forward by …

Is there a name and shame policy?

I currently serve on the Irish parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe along with Senator Stephenson. I have great respect for her and for her concerns. I also serve on the committee on the appointment of judges to the European Court of Human Rights. I have taken a great interest in what has happened with Ireland's position in joining the Danish initiative with 25 other countries to ask in effect for a fresh conversation and rebalancing of the interpretation of the convention by the European Court of Huma…

----whereby the council held out a certain state of affairs as being an obligation that schools had to use pronouns and suggested that they might be on the wrong side of the law when, in fact, the law is in no way settled on those issues at all. We had an NGO receiving money, I think from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, towards the preparation of this document that misrepresented the law for political purposes. I offer this as an example to show that human rights advocates and human rights academics…

I do not make this point to be controversial, although I know one of my colleagues finds it controversial.

I regret that fact because we transacted very happily yesterday.

I am happy to allow.