I raise the continued closure of Dunguaire Castle in Kinvara, south Galway. Dunguaire is one of the most recognisable castles in Ireland. It is an iconic landmark on the Wild Atlantic Way. It has enormous cultural and historical significance, as well as huge economic importance to Kinvara and south Galway, yet it has now been closed since 2023. What makes that situation particularly frustrating is that the tour buses still come. The tourists still fly over to Ireland to see Dunguaire Castle, but now they can only l…

I also express my condolences to Senator Craughwell on his sad loss and also to the family of former Senator Enda Bonner from Donegal. Another summer has gone by and Carrabane National School in east Galway is still in limbo when it comes to its new-build primary school. It is disappointing to be back here, with kids back at school for yet another school year, and still have that bit of uncertainty around the future of those students and where they are going to be located in the coming months and years. They litera…

I congratulate the Acting Leader in his role as Whip. I wish Galway the very best of luck in the All-Ireland hurling final. I know everyone in the room agrees it would be great to see Liam MacCarthy go west. Best of luck to Micheál Donoghue and the lads on Sunday. We will all be there shouting them on, if we can get a ticket. I do not understand, in this day and age, how the Department of education sees it as inessential to have mandatory special educational needs training for all teachers as part of their practice…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht teacht isteach inniu. I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House. Thousands of people living with type 2 diabetes remain unable to access continuous glucose monitoring, CGM, devices because Ireland has yet to undertake a health technology assessment, HTA, for its use in this patient cohort. Only recently, this House debated access to continuous glucose monitoring. In the Minister's response, it was confirmed that reimbursement cannot currently be extended bec…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I appreciate that. The issue we are trying to delve into is not the fact a HTA has not been carried out yet - we know the data does not exist in Ireland yet - but to get the timeline for carrying one out. The Government has rightly placed renewed emphasis on improving diabetes care through the recently launched diabetes policy and services review. Commissioning the evidence needed to assess innovative technologies for people with type 2 diabetes would be entirely consistent with…

I would also like to welcome former Senator Ned O'Sullivan who I see in the Gallery as well. He is very welcome. Tá fáilte roimhe. It is high time, in the next few months if at all possible; this side of Christmas in particular, to have a debate in the House with the Minister to urgently address the issue of extra time in exams for students with learning difficulties. In a very welcome move, the Minister gave an extra ten minutes across the board to every student with specified learning difficulties in this year's …

The Minister is welcome to the House.

I welcome guests of the Leas-Cathaoirleach, Senator Maria Byrne. We have Joy Neville, George Clancy and Eoghan Cross, who are all elite Irish international rugby referees. I do a bit of GAA refereeing, so I know the pain. They are all very welcome.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir.

Okay.

The Minister without interruption.

When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

When is it proposed to sit again?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht teacht isteach inniu don rud thar a bheith tábhachtach seo. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, RCSI, states that the HPAT has no validity and no predictive validity on future attainment in medical courses. The issue is the validity of the HPAT as an entrance exam to medical courses in Ireland. It is the only example we have of a State exam where young boys outperform young girls, the reason being it was a 1960s construct created by men for predominantly young private sch…

It is good news in one way that there is acknowledgement from the Department that there is an issue with the entrance exam system. I welcome that. The only bad news from the response is that the only thing worse than the HPAT is the leaving certificate. They are going to rebalance with more focus on the leaving certificate results than on the HPAT. There is a matrix called Cronbach's alpha - I discussed this with Dr. Muirne Spooner in the RCSI - that is used to test the validity of high-stakes exams that have stron…

We will resume this session at 6 p.m. I apologise to the Minister of State. We have to adjourn at 4 p.m. and move on to the next item.

Pursuant to Standing Order 165, it is reported to the Seanad that the Title has been amended.

When is it proposed to take the next Stage?