I thank the Minister of State for her reply. We have seen from attempts to deal with the Covid crisis, particularly in the context of nursing homes, that it really makes no difference whether people are being cared for in the HSE sector or in the private sector when it comes to certain responsibilities the State has to keep people safe. People who go into private nursing homes often do so under the fair deal scheme, which is a system set up to enable them to access their rights as citizens. In matters related to he…

It is time we had a debate about the problem of human trafficking and how we are dealing with it in this country in light of the latest Trafficking in Persons, TIP, report, which was published by the US Department of State recently. As colleagues will know, this report monitors international standards on combating human trafficking and is viewed as the most comprehensive analysis of trends in the area. The recent report includes some startling conclusions about Ireland. We are ranked as what the State Department ca…

Galway made a final back in 1998.

I was raising the 1998 final for the benefit of Senator Wall.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Will it be okay if I share time with Senator Victor Boyhan?

I welcome the Minister of State. I was walking down Grafton Street the other day and saw a man staring at me. As I walked by him he looked at me and said, "Deputy Robert Troy?" and I said, "No, Senator Rónán Mullen". He looked crestfallen, almost as crestfallen as the Minister of State looks on hearing that story. I welcome the Bill and thank the Minister of State for bringing it before the House.

It is all in the hair dye. I better put paid to that rumour.

The Bill is welcome. There has been a lot of talk about it for a long time, but it has been a long time coming. I understand that in 1998, the year Galway beat Kildare - there were probably ticket touts around then - Young Fine Gael proposed it. There have been many calls for and promises and proposals on this Bill. To paraphrase "Bleak House", the young person who was promised a new rocking horse has grown up, possessed himself or herself of a real horse and trotted away into the next world in the time it has take…

I am not responsible for the ordering of business in the House and I have frequently criticised it.

I will be grateful if I could have my usual time.

I listened to some of the debate on the way in and I have to say I found myself strangely in agreement with some of the most hostile adversaries of the Catholic Church's role in medicine, even while being astounded at the disingenuousness of some of their arguments. I say this because it is quite clear the Sisters of Charity have abandoned any desire to be in a position to influence the ethos of anything that goes on at the St. Vincent's Hospital campus in future. As I understand it, it has appointed a board, which…

If taxpayers want those services and there are taxpayers in the country who would want those services-----

-----then why should they, as taxpayers, not have a State that pays for some of those services some of the time?

I also thank the Cathaoirleach for all he has been doing over the last year. While we are engaging in a bogus debate about the non-existent future influence of the Religious Sisters of Charity and procedures at a future national maternity hospital, the negligence, and the heartlessness of the existing secular medical establishment has been very much on show but received practically no comment in these Houses. I am referring, of course, to the tragedy of the death of Christopher Kiely as a result of a misdiagnosis o…

Well said.

Vótáil.

Vótáil.

I support the progress of the Bill in solidarity with my Green Party colleagues because I believe it deserves more consideration on Committee Stage, but that is not to say that I do not have concerns about it. For example, surely there is a legitimate question over whether any substantial alterations to an existing structure should be exempted from planning permission. Why should any particular type of alteration be exempt? One might argue solar panels and the harnessing of solar power is something about which we s…

Does it grant absolution?

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. It is always nice to see him in this House. I want to say what I have been saying a number of times recently, in that I hope there will be no guillotining of this Bill on Committee Stage next week. It is a problem the guillotine is being overused, especially in this House. It is bringing our politics into disrepute. It is not consultative. It is not healthy and because the Government has a strong majority, we are seeing increasing recourse to the guillotining of legislation. I am concer…