The vicious attack on three young children and their care worker last Thursday night was horrific. It was beyond every parent's worst nightmare and our thoughts are with the children, the woman who was attacked and their families. As Minister for Health, I thank our health workers for what they did to care for the victims of Thursday's attack. Even for those who are used to treating very serious injuries in our hospitals, such as those I met in the emergency departments and intensive care units in the Temple Street…

Suing journalists, shouting down the Members of Parliament.

Welcome to the Sinn Féin world.

Suing journalists.

Sue him Matt. You sue all the journalists for saying that.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I am delighted to be here. I am extremely pleased to introduce this legislation. This Bill contains several different measures, but it is important for two main reasons. First, it will introduce in our country for the first time an opt-out system for organ donation. Under this measure, it will be taken that every one of us has opted to be an organ donor unless we register to opt out of this. Our sincere hope is that this will increase the number of organs available for transplant. A…

I thank colleagues for the support. The Bill was supported in the Dáil and is now being supported in the Upper House. That sends out a very important message to the country that this is something new and important we are doing, and both Houses are united in us moving and shifting our thinking to us all being organ donors. I thank colleagues throughout the Houses for their support. I again acknowledge the work of the advocacy groups. I referred earlier to the Irish Kidney Association and am delighted to see its repr…

What about the brickie in Northern Ireland?

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all the words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that: — the Government has allocated €22.5 billion to the health budget for 2024; — the Department of Health's additional allocation in Budget 2024 is nearly €2 billion; — this includes an increase of €808 million in core current funding, €1,032 million in non-core current funding and an additional €120 million in capital funding; — as of September 2023, there were 143,075 staff working in our health service, a…

How has that worked out for patients in Northern Ireland under Sinn Féin? Hospital waiting lists in the South used to be longer than they were in Northern Ireland but not anymore. In fact, the lists in the South are now half what they are in Northern Ireland. For people waiting in the South for over a year, the list is ten times shorter than it is in the North. That is what throwing in the towel means. It means walking away from the people of Northern Ireland when they needed leadership on the economy and public se…

Next year, we plan on increasing the workforce by several thousand more. There will be more nurses to roll out safe staffing, more clinicians to open more hospital beds, more intensive care beds and community beds, and more professional staff to speed up the pace at which we can build new beds, primary care centres and hospitals. There will be more digital professionals to help us roll out digital health services to patients. In fact, the HSE has been hiring at such a pace that it reached its full hiring targets ea…

The motion decries the mismanagement of the health budget and then goes on to demand that the same HSE hires staff into a bunch of posts that it is not funded for. The Deputies cannot have it both ways. Which is it going to be?

Do they want proper financial management or do they want the HSE to just hire into thousands of posts for which it is not funded?

When I speak with health ministers around the world, many of them tell me that their biggest challenge is an inability to hire doctors and nurses.

In Ireland, by contrast, we are hiring at record levels and we have exceeded the already ambitious targets for this year. Where I agree with the Deputies is that there is absolutely no question but that many of the jobs in our healthcare service are very intense. They are tough, difficult jobs - working in emergency departments, intensive care wards and in complex surgery, to name but a few. There is also no question but that we must all strive every day to do better and better for patients and better and better fo…

We are very fortunate in Ireland to have such high-quality healthcare training and education. We are also very fortunate that so many internationally trained healthcare professionals choose to work in Ireland. They have been doing that for many years and they will continue to do that next year while we expand the healthcare workforce again by several thousand. This Government will continue grow our healthcare workforce. We will continue to invest in our healthcare workforce and we will continue to support in every …

I thank Deputy Bríd Smith for tabling the amendments. We had a good discussion about this on Committee Stage and we will discuss it again now. I acknowledge Deputy Bacik's long-standing advocacy. Many of us were involved in that referendum, but in fairness to Deputy Bacik, she has significant standing and history of advocacy and work over many years. The first amendment seeks to give An Garda Síochána the ability, other than in writing, to record warnings, that is, digitally and so forth. The advice I was given is …

I respect all views on this issue. My view is very clear. I believe these services need to be available legally and safely for women. Ireland has a very dark history when it comes to women's healthcare, particularly regarding women's reproductive rights. This Bill is one modest step that we are taking in the right direction. I wholeheartedly agree with the right to protest and the freedom to do so. I say that as someone who has been the subject of several protests outside my own house. I fully respect the right. Th…

I thank the Deputies for tabling the various amendments. Building on what Deputy Bacik said, and again in response to Deputy Collins, I respect everybody's views on this. I knocked on many doors, as I know many of us did. I listened to many people with many deeply held views, not just on either end of this, but right across the board. As I also said, our country has a dark history when it comes to women's reproductive healthcare. One of the things that happened under the previous Government was the repeal of the ei…

I thank the Deputies. Deputy Shortall's ask about the specific part of the Bill will be included in the broader review. Then it is just a question of 12 months or 18 months. There is no mathematically correct answer to any of this. To respond to Deputy Bacik's point, this will be a much simpler review. I anticipate there will be very few incidents to review because of the impact of the Act. Therefore, the advice I have is to let it run longer. I want to point out that the wording we have is that it will be done aft…