That work is ongoing and he should be allowed to continue his work. Ireland’s foreign policy and our credibility internationally as a principled and consistent voice has long been based on our adherence to and respect for international law, including international humanitarian law. We take the rules-based international order and the multilateral bodies created by the international community seriously at all times. Making a referral to the ICC prosecutor that we do not believe adds anything to legal or practical ter…

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this important matter. As the Senator has alluded to, I am standing in on behalf of the Minister, and the information I have has been supplied by the Department of Health. Before I go into the details of the script, the two particular points the Senator made are the exact points of detail I will ask the Department to come back to her directly on in the event they are not adequately covered in the script.

A top Government priority is to protect and support the education of all students. Regarding student nurses and midwives, an important consideration for this group is the specific requirement to undertake mandatory clinical placement, which comprises 50% of the overall nursing and midwife education programme requirements. Mandatory supernumerary practice placements occur for 45 weeks from year 1 of the programme right through to the first semester of year 4, where it is 50%. These students are not employees and are…

Over the past three years, the number of undergraduate training places for nurses and midwives has increased by 400. That is an increase of approximately 25%. This year, there are more than 250 additional places in higher education institutions across the Republic of Ireland. Also this year, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland and our Department of Health have agreed to - and want to operate and support - an all-island approach to increasing the number of training places for student nurses and midwives. As…

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. I will be providing an answer on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. This issue is becoming well known, and there is not a pharmacy, region or family with many prescriptions that has not encountered it. The HSE has statutory responsibility for pricing and reimbursement decisions under the community drug schemes, in accordance with the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013. Under that Act, the company that holds the mar…

I thank the Senator. As I have already mentioned, under the Act, a company that holds a marketing authorisation must apply to the HSE to add its medicine to the reimbursement list. I will follow this up with the Department to ensure there is no undue delay for companies that have applied to have something on the reimbursement list being approved in the meantime. The introduction of the medicine substitution protocol would allow pharmacists to supply a specified medical product without the need to seek authorisation…

I thank the Senator for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, who sends her apologies that she cannot be here. We all know the valuable role community centres play in many towns, villages and urban areas. It is very important to recognise that. With this in mind, the Minister put in place an integrated programme of supports for the establishment and development of community centres across schemes such as CLÁR, LEADER, the community support fund, the town and village ren…

I thank the Senator. Again, this new community centre investment fund, which was launched by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in March of this year, is so important. It gives communities an opportunity to develop brand new facilities that can offer a wide range of services to members of the community for decades to come be it for adult education, news service, book clubs, meeting rooms, sporting facilities, remote working facilities or community centres, and we did not mention the odd social events at night-time tha…

I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath. The Department of Finance and Revenue have for some time been aware of issues arising from contractual arrangements with the GP community whereby some GPs treat income under the GMS contract as income of a practice in which they are a partner or an employee, rather than income of that individual GP. Revenue issued guidance, a tax note, to tax practitioners through the tax administration liaison committee in July cla…

As I outlined, the Minister for Finance intends to bring forward an amendment on Report Stage of the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023 to provide that where an individual GP enters into a contract with the HSE to provide certain medical professional services and provide those services in the conduct of a partnership profession with other individual GPs, the income from those professional services can be treated for income tax purposes to be that of the partnership. I think that is the substance of what Deputy Burke is refe…

On behalf of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, I thank the Deputy for her contribution on Teagasc’s role in the Dublin Declaration of scientists on the societal role of livestock. Teagasc was established under the Agriculture (Research, Training and Advice) Act 1988, as the national agency with responsibility for the provision of research, training and advisory services to the agriculture and food industry. Teagasc seeks to be professional, independent and scientifically excelle…

I reiterate that Teagasc has advised that it did not host the Dublin Declaration of scientists on the societal role of livestock. The conclusions of the summit and evidence reviewed in the summit featured in a peer-reviewed edition of the scientific journal Animal Frontiers in early 2023. Summit attendees with academic and scientific credentials were invited to endorse the evidence. As I said, no companies were involved in that. It is up to those people who wanted to put their name to it to do so after the summit b…

I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Richmond. I thank the Deputies for raising this matter. The employment permits system enables Ireland to supplement domestic skills and labour supply by allowing the recruitment of nationals from outside Ireland and the European Economic Area, EEA, where particular skills or expertise cannot be sourced from within the European Economic Area and where such recruitment may bene…

I appreciate the points being made by the Deputies and those points are well known. I thank them for raising them. As I previously indicated, to add or remove an occupation from the list, evidence is sought demonstrating that recruitment difficulties are solely due to genuine shortages within Ireland and across the EEA and not due to other factors such as salary or employment conditions. It is a shortage of the particular skill that is relevant and not about the pay that is available here or the adequacy or inadequ…

I thank Senators for their very thoughtful and detailed contributions. I welcome the Seanad's close engagement with matters relating to Northern Ireland, which is a key priority for all of us in both Houses. The Government welcomes the various opportunities for discussion in this House initiated by Senators this year to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and to discuss the impact of the UK’s legacy Act and current political issues in Northern Ireland. The broad cross-party agreement on a number …

I thank Senators for their attention and valuable contributions today. I echo the horror expressed by all Members at the tragedy unfolding in Israel and Gaza as we speak. I think I can say that the level of brutality and bloodshed we have witnessed over the past few days has left us all shaken. I restate that I unequivocally condemn the attacks by Hamas on Israel and the systematic targeting of civilians, including young children and the elderly. Unfortunately, as Senators will all be aware, a young Irish woman was…

I thank the Deputies for their valuable contributions to this debate over the past several hours. I first wish to echo the horror they have all expressed at the tragedy unfolding in Israel and Gaza as we speak. The scenes we have witnessed over the last few days have left us all fundamentally shaken. There can be no excuse for this level of brutality and bloodshed. I am appalled by the strike on the hospital in Gaza and the deaths of hundreds of patients, staff and civilians taking shelter. The full facts must be e…

Stop shouting.

Stop shouting.

Stop shouting.