This relates to CDNT 7 in Tuam. At the moment, parents are protesting outside the office because services are not being provided and the people are not in place. I have received an enormous amount of emails from distressed parents because the services are just not there. There was a fanfare of opening the new building but it is empty. What will be done by the Government to get this rectified?

While I accept the Minister of State’s figures, the reality on the ground is that if someone was to ring the dietician today to seek an appointment, which I did the other day, one would be told that the dietician is on maternity leave - as they are entitled - and will not be back until October 2024 and to contact the disability team. There is no dietician in place. The forum for parents met recently. I think this is what escalated their concerns because they were given figures including a 54% gap when it comes to s…

I will come back to the basic point. I understand about panels opening up. Parents on the ground do not. The children are not getting the services they require. In some cases they have been getting nothing for years. We all talk about early intervention as the secret to getting on top of disabilities, so to speak. It is not happening. The parents will tell you that. I am not blaming the Minister of State but I am blaming the system we have. Even on the day of the official opening, one of the HSE's people mentioned …

We discussed this before, but with the advances in the science of DNA testing, can we now allow for family members outside of the sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters to have their DNA sampled to try to identify their families within the mother and baby home in Tuam?

I appreciate the Minister’s response. I understand he did amend and tried to be as flexible as possible within the advice given. However, there may have been further advances in science since the legislation was enacted and some people have been on to me and the Minister about having an opportunity to have their DNA and that of their cousins tested and used. I have met the director on site a few times and he is a very good appointee. If that possibility is there, could that opportunity be left open for people who a…

I will pass on the information I have. I believe it is important that where families want to try to get an identification of a family member they believe might be there, it is important we facilitate that as best we can. Can cousins give their DNA sample to the director? He can then use those samples if he feels the science is there or if there are unidentified bodies that maybe could be identified, even with a smaller chance. We could perhaps consider that during the course of the excavation and what is going on t…

With regard to the redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes, the legislation that was passed excluded those who were not in a mother and baby home for six months or more. Has the Minister considered reviewing that legislation? A significant number of people are very upset at their exclusion. It is not so much about compensation; it is more about recognition that they spent time in the mother and baby home. These people seem to have been cast adrift.

What survivors are saying to me is that there is no clinical or medical reason somebody who spent six months or less in a mother and baby home would have been treated differently from somebody who spent more than six months there. They fail to see what the criteria are. I know there is an interdepartmental group, but they are saying that they spent time in these mother and baby homes. They suffered and had trauma and they are carrying that with them. There is no medical or any other scientific threshold by which th…

The biggest gripe or the biggest regret these people have is that although there has been legislation, and it is all very good, a divide has been created. People are being treated differently because of a six-month timeframe. I believe that is wrong, and the people who are affected by this are genuinely upset about it. They cannot understand or get their heads around the fact that they are being treated differently for being in one of these institutions for up to six months from a person who was in for six months a…

I, too, welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I commend my Independent Group colleagues on bringing it forward. I would caution people about getting rid of fossil fuel as if we have all the alternatives in place. As the fella says, "bí cúramach" in what we are saying and doing. We need to make sure we have things right to take over from fossil fuels. In that context, I have in my constituency a huge problem with wind farms that are being proposed. If all of the wind farms being proposed in my constituenc…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. One might ask what interest is a directly elected mayor for Limerick to me and what consequences it has for Galway and Galway East. I requested time to speak on this because while it sounds great to have a directly elected mayor, the functions of that mayor and the additional functions he or she will have compared to a Cathaoirleach of a local authority is relevant. Giving somebody authority and functionality is fine but will he or she have control over budgets? Ther…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I begin by informing the House that I am a landlord and have an interest in this subject. The problem facing us at the moment is the supply of houses. The local authorities have been commissioned to deliver social housing and we now see them being commissioned to deliver affordable houses and other types of homes. That will help people. I acknowledge Galway County Council's efforts in recent years to build social housing estates. I welcome that social housing is agai…

I want to raise the fodder scheme that has been announced for the Shannon Callows by the Minister, Deputy McConalogue. While the scheme is welcome, there are a number of issues arising, including the fact that some farmers' land was flooded that may not be visible from satellite pictures but was saturated to such an extent that the grass could not be harvested. These farmers may be excluded from the scheme. Likewise, there are some farmers whose lands flooded along the River Suck, just up from that, and again they …

My sincere opinion is that having a vote of confidence in any Minister at this stage is wrong for the simple reason that what we are doing is giving a status to the people who wreaked havoc on our streets and our city. It is unthinkable that they would get one up on democracy by having a Minister lose her job over this. We have to focus on gardaí and how we can help them. I think about the young gardaí coming out of Templemore this week and next week to join the force over the Christmas period. Many of them will ha…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on what will probably be the most important legislation to come through this House regarding the future of this country and houses, homes and where we are going. There are a number of issues about which I want to talk. I start off by saying that the pre-planning process has to be given the importance it needs. I see it in my own county in Galway where a pre-planning process was abandoned for a while. We ended up with planning applications going in without having the benefit of a p…

Many additional processes have come into planning but we have not resourced the local authorities with ecologists, hydrologists and all those people who are needed to deal with the information in the reports that are coming in. At the same time, we expect the client to deliver all of these reports but the local authority may not even know how to read them, understand them, or get time to read them. This is a huge problem. We can bring in twice as many more pages of new legislation but if we do not recoil it all bac…

I compliment Deputy Shanahan for his foresight and vision in bringing forward this very simple, clear-cut and clearly worded Bill. I believe the Government is not going to oppose this Bill, and I welcome that. The important thing is we see this as something that actually brings back accountability for our public finances, and that we report on them. When I was in college, when we were teaching students, we had outcomes from the programmes we delivered. We need to know what the outcomes are going to be if this Bill …

Given that the events of last Thursday came upon us with such venom, we did not think this night a week ago that we would be having this debate this evening. I wish a speedy recovery to those brutally injured in the school attack. That issue and the bravery of people who stepped in have been well documented and referred to eloquently this evening. In its own right, the incident would have been a trauma in our city, but what followed was unbelievable. We have to agree there has been an increase in antisocial behavio…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very emotive subject. We have seen, over the last month, the murder of innocent children, men, women and families in Palestine. We have also seen the same thing happening in Israel. I condemn both Israel and Hamas for the actions they have taken in using children, men, women and families as a shield for some objective or some righteousness that they think they have on either side. We have to call this out on both sides for what it is. It is totally wrong. We can put whatev…

I want to raise the important issue of flooding and flood relief schemes. We have witnessed in recent months the damage and devastation that heavy rain can cause to people, property and the environment. When I was Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, we initiated a number of flood relief schemes, including in Cork city, Galway city, Ballinasloe, south Galway Gort lowlands, the Shannon Callows and Lough Funshinagh, which is held up with legislation so I do not know where it is. These projects are not m…