At 7 a.m. on Friday morning, I was awakened by the news of the €8.9 million lotto win in Duleek, my town. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, the chatter was all about who had won the money and the rumours of the winners swarmed around the town with great excitement. However, about 4 p.m. or 5 p.m., it went quiet as reports came in about Creeslough. No more talk of the lotto winners. Our hearts and tongues stood still, awaiting the news of the tragedy. Hour by hour, we were briefed on the rescue, the battle…

I am happy to support this motion. I do not believe that there will be much debate on it, given that we are on the side of Senator Chambers and her Fianna Fáil colleagues. We are here because of how young girls and women are treated in Iran and the deaths of Mahsa Amini, Sarina Esmailzadeh, who was 16 years of age, and all the others whose names we do not know. Some of the names were mentioned, but there are so many different reports coming out about how many people have died that we do not know the actual figure. …

This year, Ireland's population will increase by about 90,000 people, the fourth highest annual increase since the Famine. Some 27,700 of that figure will be due to natural change. More than 61,000 of the figure is net migration. This figure, massively inflated from our yearly average, is obviously due to the intake of Ukrainians fleeing the war. According to figures released by the Government this week, 79% of these people have notified the Government that they will require accommodation. It is right and honourabl…

I would like a debate with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, wherein he can outline to us the future of housing in this country under this Government, as well as his considered thoughts on what it will be under the next government and future governments based on what we are seeing and emerging trends. The mortgage tracker scandal involved 81 regulatory breaches leading to the loss of 25 family homes. What good is a fine to those families? We have more than 500 housing …

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I am disappointed not to see the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, this afternoon. At this stage, no one needs the background to this debacle which has been ongoing since the start of the year and has been raised multiple times in both Houses. I spoke on it on the Order of Business in June and again in September, when we realised that the HSE's corporate pharmaceutical unit had held no meetings with Vertex Pharmaceuticals over the summer recess, with the last meeting…

Somebody is telling lies here. I understand that Vertex has agreed a price with the Department since the original pricing was given in 2019, yet the Department is saying otherwise. That is why I submitted a freedom of information, FOI, request on this. I wanted to see the correspondence. Vertex has told me it has tried to negotiate with the Department on this. It has given many pricing options and it reverted to the original agreement that was made. The Minister of State's prepared reply is nothing; it is rubbish. …

I said "somebody" was telling lies-----

I said "somebody" was telling lies. I have been-----

Absolutely, but somebody is telling lies here. This reply is not correct according to the information I have been receiving from Vertex, the pharmaceutical company.

I thank the Minister of State and appreciate him taking the matter.

Amid last week's budget business, I found myself some time to think and I thought about how important labels are, not on food or fragile boxes, but on people. I remember a brief time around eight years ago when western society's attitude towards labels was that they were not for people, that the fullness of human expression and complexity could not be placed into neat boxes and that swathes of people could not be tarred with the same brush. That lasted up until 2016, when the one-two punch of Brexit and the electio…

I suppose it is "happy budget day" to all. The amount of €11 billion is nothing to be sniffed at and there are certainly provisions in the budget that are welcome and overdue. I will say once again that the drip-feeding of budget information in the weeks leading up to the date is unhelpful in the extreme. It makes a farce of the system and the procedures we have in place for having budgets decided upon and finalised, with members of the Cabinet bouncing prospective measures off public opinion and the media farming …

Hear, hear.

I want to raise the issue of the ongoing shortage of pharmacists in Ireland. This was raised in both Houses last May. The situation certainly has not resolved itself. In fact just last month the Irish Pharmacy Union conducted a survey that showed the shortage is reaching crisis levels. These shortages will lead to some pharmacies reducing their hours and services and in some case temporary closures may be necessary. More than half of the pharmacies surveyed had at least one open vacancy for a pharmacist in the past…

I was elected as a Senator, but as the Leas-Chathaoirleach addressed me as "Councillor", that is fine. I echo the welcome to the Maltese delegation. I visited Malta this summer. It is the most beautiful country. If Senators have not been there, please go. I raise an issue regarding the Covid-19 inquiry. At the end of August, both the UK and Northern Ireland established independent Covid-19 inquiries examining the response to the pandemic by Boris Johnson's Cabinet and the Northern Ireland Executive, respectively. I…

Will the Senator clarify the number of children who are without a school bus place? Is it 78,000?

Seven to eight thousand. That is fine. We heard 78,000.

I thank the Minister for her very comprehensive report on school transport. The free school transport initiative was announced with great bells and whistles. We expected great things. Whenever anything is announced as a free service, I suppose the Minister has got to prepare for that and what it brings. I am wondering what action the Minister took. Did she acquire more buses for it? Did she acquire more drivers? The Minister knew that more people would be applying for the service, particularly in rural areas. It se…

She will.

I spoke about this matter on the Order of Business on 13 July before the summer recess. It is now being raised as a Commencement matter at a time when I feel we are about to have a much wider discussion on the need for an increased Garda presence in our communities. The widely shared horrific scenes of gangs of joyriding thugs in a housing estate in Cherry Orchard have shocked many, but for many others, it is an all-too-familiar sight and shock has long since given way to resignation. Ordinary law-abiding citizens …