How many?

I will speak briefly to amendment No. 76. This is a real missed opportunity for the Government. This amendment deals with the holistic assessment of an individual. I recognise that the Minister of State said she thinks there is something in this proposal and will consider putting it into secondary legislation. If she thinks there is something in this, it should be inserted in the primary legislation. It has been so long since the Mental Health Act has been updated to any great degree that to have this sit in second…

I find the Minister of State's position slightly confusing, as she wanted direct input into what a care plan was in the Bill's original iteration. I know the Government has rowed back on the layout of a care plan somewhat. However, for the Minister of State to say she wants to define what the layout of a care plan is, but not what a psychosocial assessment is, just does not add up.

I move amendment No. 81: In page 34, line 4, to delete “24 hours” and substitute “72 hours”.

What can be seen in these amendments is that the Minister of State has listened to the stakeholders who have come forward. When I spoke with them, I was really struck that the concerns that they were raising were coming from a place where they wanted the best possible treatment for the patients, particularly in respect of that gap that was emerging between the involuntary admission versus the treatment. That gap needed to be addressed. I welcome that move in those areas. There are still significant concerns when it…

I was going to start by saying there is nothing more insulting to families languishing on the housing list than the sight of an empty house. The Minister of State found a new insult when he stood up and said his policies are working. I tip my hat to him for having more faces than Clerys clock when it comes to the housing crisis. Every single one of those boarded-up houses is a constant reminder of the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on housing. If they cared about families and children growing up in bed and br…

Ireland is being used to finance genocide via the Central Bank. We are the only EU member granting permission to the State of Israel for the sale of genocide bonds, bonds that Israel itself openly advertises as funding its so-called war effort. Let us be clear. What is happening in Palestine is not a war; it is a campaign of starvation, destruction and ethnic cleansing. Palestinian men, women and children are being exterminated as the world watches on. It is sickening and it exposes the colonialist underbelly of so…

As well as being a TD, I am the mother of four amazing children, two of whom have autism. The assessment of need road is very familiar to me. I cannot say I have walked it, because you do not walk this road but endure it. You climb, you fall and you pick yourself up repeatedly. The Government's ongoing inability to uphold the legal requirement to complete AONs within six months is unjustifiable. This is not just a missed deadline; it is a breach of legal duty. More important, it is a betrayal of vulnerable children…

My constituency of Longford-Westmeath is no different from every other one mentioned this evening when it comes to the challenges in the early years sector. Parents are facing high prices and an eternal struggle to find places, while educators constantly have to fight for better pay, terms and conditions. The Government's amendment will ring very hollow for one area of my constituency. Further developments and investments mean nothing to parents in Kinnegad, where the Montessori is due to close at the end of June. …

Parents across the country have been telling me of the difficulties they are experiencing in the context of their children accessing appropriate mental health care. They talk to me about hurdle after hurdle and being handed off from one service to another service, with no actual proper service being provided for their children. One parent told me how their child had been refused support, despite expressing suicidal ideation. Another father told me that their child had been admitted to accident and emergency six tim…

With the greatest of respect to the Minister of State, a suicidal child meets the criteria.

We all want to ensure that, as we transition to the new children's hospital, it provides the best quality care with the highest standards of governance, management, ethics, open disclosure and communication between families and medics. However, we simply cannot say that was provided to the children and families failed by the scandal of unnecessary hip surgeries at CHI. A scandal that goes back a decade or more and that happened under the watch of several Ministers for Health demands an extensive investigation. It a…

I echo what has been said regarding the response of the emergency services and those on the front line. I include in that another group, namely, the people who went out of their way who make sure their neighbours were safe. They are very rarely recognised. I know of one instance where an elderly man had been without contact with any other human for three days before his neighbours went out with chainsaws to take away the trees that were on the road and enable him to get out of his property. We should recognise peop…

For the past decade, with the exception of the period when Covid measures were in place, the number of people accessing emergency accommodation has been rising. There are 46 properties to rent in the entirety of my constituency, which is two counties, namely Longford and Westmeath. A very basic two-bedroom property is now well over €1,000 per month and an actual shed is €270 per week. The Department's homeless report showed that from January 2024 to January 2025 there has been a 17% increase in adults accessing eme…

Statements and conversations on mental health are always welcome, no matter where they take place. However, we must be very clear and cut through the soundbites coming from Government not only since the election, but since 2020. There are many words that the parents of children who are not only not on a CAMHS waiting list, but who cannot even get in the door of CAMHS to be put on a waiting list, would use to describe this Government and previous Governments. This can be compared to Sinn Féin's commitment. Our posit…

Is a copy of the speech made by the Minister of State, Deputy Murnane O'Connor, available?

I am asking if a copy is available.

Every child has a right to an appropriate education. Year after year, we can set our watches by parents coming onto local radio stations, on the phone and through email to say that their child with additional needs cannot find a school place, only now it is the principals too who are on the local radio stations. Producers on those shows are ringing local TDs because they are so profoundly affected by the parents who apply to 20, 22, 23 or 25 schools and get 25 rejection letters. Everybody knows that if you have a c…

The Minister is correct when he speaks about complacency on the progress we have made. It is a significant problem. Every fatality and every life lost on our roads is one too many, and so are the life-changing injuries, where in a blink of an eye somebody's life has changed so profoundly, oftentimes because of a split-second decision that is made on our roads. I draw the House's attention to a piece of research that was carried out last year by University College Cork. It stated that three-lane roads with climbing …

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