This is for 17 days.

Has the Taoiseach had engagements with the schools? Will the parents be able to access financial supports?

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill because it provides important measures to ensure age and health status do not lead to price discrimination. However, it would be a real dereliction of my duty as a TD if I did not take the opportunity to outline the current state of healthcare provision in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath. I think all parties in the House have at some point given a commitment to working towards a universal public system where people are treated on the basis of need and not on abi…

First, I commend my colleague, Deputy Paul Donnelly, on bringing forward this motion. It is a privilege to speak on it. The Minister mentioned a number of fire stations, namely, those in Ballybay, Ennis and Swords. I take this opportunity to remind him that the country is not a doughnut. There is a centre to it, which, I believe, is commonly referred to as the midlands. We also have fire stations.

Long before the media brought us the visual impacts of tragedies on our screens, it was understood that firefighters are a cut above. I am struck by a memory of when I was very small in school. We visited a fire station and were told that the most important thing you could do in a fire was to get out and stay out. The people of whom we are speaking here this evening actually run into burning buildings. Their job is to protect us and to rescue us. We rely on them when we are at our most vulnerable. Dublin firefighte…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this Bill. Sinn Féin has submitted a number of amendments. I will focus on one for the moment, which reads: "Require regulations made under the Acts to require the approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas or, where urgent, the Joint Committee on Health, with approval of the Houses following as soon as possible." What member of a democratically elected Government would have a problem with that? Accountability and oversight are compatible with good government and good govern…

In light of the restrictions to the pandemic unemployment payment announced earlier, I ask the Minister to urgently publish details of payments to those involved in the arts and entertainment sectors, including people working front of house and in supporting roles, and those who will be affected by the introduction of 50% capacity at indoor events. This will be a major hammer blow financially for families in the run-up to Christmas. Any security the Minister can offer them between now and then should be done as a m…

At its core, the Bill will give workers the right to fresh air and require employers to ensure proper ventilation is in place to enforceable standards to help in the ongoing fight against Covid. We have known for more than a year that Covid is an airborne virus and that clean air is crucial in preventing its spread, making measures such as ventilation and air filtration critical. This is of extreme importance currently in school communities but the response of the Minister, Deputy Foley, and her Department to venti…

In the programme for Government, the Government speaks of fairer and affordable care and extending medical cards to those with a terminal illness, but there is little to no evidence of that for a constituent of mine, Ms Madden, who has a very modest income with the Department of Education. Despite having breast cancer, which has spread, and having undergone aggressive, life-saving treatment, this lady has been refused a medical card. Her essential injections are €1,000 each and she needs a minimum of six. Bed costs…

Absolutely.

It is not in place, though. That is the issue.

Before I begin, I want to assure colleagues that I do not have Covid. I have something that predates Covid, which I believe is called the common cold. Various measures have now, rightly, been enacted to increase the pay of public service workers. They followed on from the cuts that were made in the wake of the previous financial crisis. Many public service workers remember only too well the impact of those harsh cuts, imposed by way of the FEMPI legislation. Those cuts have now been undone and the new public servic…

The truth hurts, but it is true.

Will the Minister support these amendments or does he want to be the Scrooge at Christmas for these staff?

Does the Minister want to be the Grinch that helps to steal Christmas? There is never a wrong time to do the right thing. The time to do the right thing is now.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on my colleague Deputy Kerrane's motion to protect local employment services and the not-for-profit and community-based ethos of existing local employment services. The proposed model set out in the Government's recent tender process is not the person-centred approach that was successfully fostered by the local employment services and job clubs. The proposed changes will result only in a process of commercialisation which will leave those who most need the services behind. The Gov…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, introduced by Deputy Gannon, which seeks to modernise the teaching of relationships and sex education for students in accordance with best practice in health and science and to standardise relationships and sex education across all schools which receive State funding. One can only hope that this sounds the death knell for the previous methods of sex education, which focused on a fear-based approach highlighting danger, disease and unplanned pregnancy. All those have …

I want to raise two specific issues this evening, the first of which is testing. In my constituency of Longford-Westmeath, there are no slots available today for PCR tests. People want to get tested. This delay and the inability to avail of a test during the current surge of Covid are unjustifiable. One of my staff members needed to get tested. She was fortunate to be able to get a slot, but that required a 128 km round trip from Athlone because there is no testing centre in the area. Anyone who goes to the website…

We all recognise the urgent need to reduce emissions but our children and future generations will not thank us for what is emerging, namely, this negotiating and lobbying battleground that sees urban and rural dwellers pitted against each other. They will also not thank us for the urban-rural dweller narrative that is being created by the refusal of the Government to see the disproportionate impact that its view of climate action will have. Rural dwellers, with their solid fuel fires and diesel cars, are being pitt…

Countless men and women living in my area have a history intertwined with the Castlepollard institution. I do not have the time to fully express to the Minister the hurt, frustration and disbelief they have expressed to me. I want to place on the record of the Dáil some quotes from an open letter written by the survivors of the Castlepollard institution earlier this year. It begins: The sad fact is that losing a baby to forced adoption is a traumatic event in a mother's life causing a form of post traumatic stress …