Several weeks ago, my colleagues in the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party and I met the eminent Dr. Harry Barry who, as an expert on mental health, gave us a detailed presentation on the anxiety and emotional distress faced by young people at this time in our country. This has been exacerbated because of Covid-19. It was frightening to hear him speak, in particular about the rise of emotional distress among young people in our country, the challenges they face and the realisation that much more needs to be done. The …

I support the Minister of State in her comments on what is being debated here, which is the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (Amendment) Bill. I do not think we should confuse this or the work done on progressing the Bill. As the Minister of State alluded to, a significant amount of work is being done in the Department on the Age Friendly Ireland programme. Measures are being taken separately to support people in their own homes. I thank the Minister of State for being in Navan this week to launch the programme. It wil…

I commend the Minister of State on having the Bill passed this evening. She has been committed to this issue for years. When we were in opposition, she advocated for a long time for the need for these changes, recognising their importance to families. It is to her great credit and that of her officials that she has come here, a year into office, and successfully completed that work. As I said earlier, it is only one aspect of a series of reforms she seeks to address. I mentioned our meeting in Navan this week and h…

The next person listed to speak is Senator Boylan.

We have other speakers listed.

The delivery of the rail line to Navan has been debated for more than 20 years. Since the opening of phase 1 in 2010 by the then Minister for Transport, Mr. Noel Dempsey, the completion of the line from Dunboyne to Navan has fallen off the agenda, including the national development plan, NDP. However, there is reason to have great optimism at this very moment because we have the coming together of the review of the NDP and, critically, the review by the National Transport Authority, NTA, of the transport strategy f…

I find it hugely disappointing and disrespectful that the speech provided to the Minister to read out is a word-for-word, copy-and-paste job of a parliamentary question from earlier this year. It is disrespectful to me, this House, the issue and the people of Meath. I was specific in my Commencement matter. It related to something that is happening this week. The Minister of State said that no doubt I contributed to the public consultation. I did and I am blue in the face contributing to public consultations. I hav…

I have it here in front of me-----

I want to pick up on this issue of the online racial abuse suffered by English football players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka because they missed penalties and which is being targeted at them because of the colour of their skin. This is an issue and a problem for society. There are no borders when it comes to social media, and in particular platforms like Twitter and Facebook, as we saw in February of this year when a teenager in County Kerry racially abused former England star Ian Wright. He was ve…

Last Thursday, the Mental Health Commission published its annual report. The main findings from that report made for some troubling reading. Its CEO, John Farrelly, noted the review carried out by Dr. Susan Finnerty. With regard to the number of people detained against their will at inpatient centres in 2020, there were 1,919 admissions or involuntary detentions. Some 32% of those were applications by An Garda Síochána, which is the largest such figure in the history of the State and quite worrying, given that it w…

I let the Senator away with an extension of time and a mention for Andrew Neil's television company, so he got great latitude.

That is agreed.

Senator Currie has three and a half minutes. If Senator Joe O'Reilly arrives, she might share time with him.

I pay tribute to Senator Pauline O'Reilly and her colleagues on bringing forward the Bill.

When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

When is it proposed to sit again?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

The community monuments fund was announced last week, with funding of €4 million for 139 projects throughout the country. I was delighted a number of the projects are in my county, in particular in my town of Navan where the town walls project received funding and a project to carry out work on Babe’s Bridge, which is the oldest arched bridge in Ireland dating back to 1216. However, a project of major national significance in the town that needs immediate assistance is the former St. Patrick’s classical school, whi…

There has been extensive debate this afternoon-----