I thank the Minister of State for coming in. I welcome and support this motion. It is necessary and timely in light of the establishment of a statutory public inquiry into spina bifida and complex scoliosis services at Children's Health Ireland, CHI. The Minister of State spoke about the importance of lived experience. For these scoping exercises to proceed effectively, it is essential that the personal data can be processed lawfully. The legal basis for processing this is grounded in Article 6(1)(e) of the general…

Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I thank the Minister of State. Before we go on to the next Commencement matter, I welcome the guests of Deputy Ardagh, the children from School Eoin in Crumlin.

I thank the Minister of State for coming in today. I raise the issue of the need for her to set out clearly what is being done to improve Internet access across rural areas. It is a real and practical problem for people in rural areas. In my constituency, an area called Bohernabreena is severely affected. Many residents and farmers there continue to experience very poor and unreliable broadband. This is now creating serious day-to-day difficulties. One serious issue that has been brought to my attention is that of …

I thank the Minister of State. I am glad that progress is being made. I will be making use of the email address for representatives to follow up because what I witnessed on Friday was chaotic. It showed terrible shortcomings for a rural area. I stood in a room with approximately 20 farmers who were suffering with poor Internet connections, which is a barrier to accessing the agrifeed system. In what other industry would you have 20 business owners who cannot access a basic service to carry out their work? It was ve…

I want to speak about givinostat and the current status of efforts to have this medication made available to the boys in Ireland who are living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, DMD. I will outline the timeline and where the process now stands. On 11 June 2025, I stood alongside parents of families at a demonstration outside Leinster House and we held a briefing in the audiovisual room to raise awareness of DMD. What politicians learned that day is that DMD is the most common and one of the most severe genetic cond…

I begin by congratulating the organisers of the 2026 Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA, all-Ireland community and council awards on what was a truly fantastic event on Saturday night. It was a wonderful celebration of the people and projects that make such a difference in communities right across our country. For me, the night had very special significance because South Dublin County Council won not one, but two awards. It was recognised for the best enterprise and start-up hub for WorkIQ, but most import…

I thank the Minister of State for being here. Dyslexia affects an estimated 10% of the population with about 4% experiencing severe dyslexia. In every classroom in Ireland there are children with specific reading difficulties. For some, mainstream supports are sufficient but for others they are not. Reading classes in schools provide specialised, short-term interventions for children with these difficulties. These classes operate with small pupil-teacher ratios, specialist methodologies and structured literacy prog…

I have spoken to the children, who have a lived experience and are saying they need more reading schools. I am not happy with the answer, if I am being honest. This is about two years of children's lives and getting them on the right road so that things can be turned around. I am dealing with one child who is under the second percentile, cannot get a place in a reading school and is getting slagged in the mainstream school. It is not good enough. Everybody's situation is different and requires a different approach.…

I thank the Minister. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Health Information Bill. Fianna Fáil welcomes and supports this legislation. It provides, for the first time, a clear legal basis for digital health records in Ireland and it is a foundational reform for how care will be delivered into the future. At its core, this Bill is about patients. It will give people easier and more meaningful access to their own health information, enabling them to make informed decisions about their health and their care. It …

I thank the Minister of State for being here. I wanted to have this discussion today because, like many others, I am genuinely concerned about the growing use of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas. Tallaght Tidy Towns volunteers, in particular Nico Crowley, collected 305 nitrous oxide canisters in January alone from just five locations. Just think about that for a moment - in one part of a community, in one month. The reality is that that figure is almost certainly only a fraction of what is actually bei…

I thank the Minister of State for the response. I do not really like to use the word often but I think we are in an "emergency" situation with this. Not to be dismissive of anything that the Minister of State has said, a fact sheet is not going to cut it with a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old. We need to reach young people. Given that something so easily available can cause spinal cord damage, we need immediate action on this. We do not want a tragedy. I do not want to wake up and read on the front page of a paper tha…

I thank the Minister of State for being here and thank Senator Conway, who spoke brilliantly. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and about the shingles vaccination programme. Fianna Fáil welcomes the debate and we note that the Government is not opposing the motion. That reflects a shared understanding across this House of the seriousness of shingles and its impact, particularly on older people and those who are immunocompromised. It is not a minor condition. It is caused by the same virus, as was sa…

As we all know, today is world cancer day. Earlier on, I attended the launch of the cancer dashboard for Ireland prepared by the Swedish Institute for Health Economics. The report made some very good points and is a really interesting read. However, today, something unexpected happened to me. At the launch, I came face to face with my oncologist from 12 years ago, Professor John Kennedy, and I had not seen him in over ten years. Seeing him again today was genuinely emotional and it was so random that it was on worl…

Before I call the next speaker I want to welcome to the Public Gallery my dear friends, the lost boys, also known as the Dragon walking club. This group of people are very close friends of mine and they have raised tens of thousands of euro for numerous local and national charities. Alongside our good friends in Kerry, we do annual walks. I think everyone here has contributed at some point and has heard of this group. It is an honour to have them in here today and we will have a good night tonight. Senator Sarah O'…

I welcome this debate on genetic and genomic medicine and I commend the proposers for bringing forward a motion on an area of healthcare that is rapidly transforming how we prevent, diagnose and treat disease. I find it fascinating. Fianna Fáil welcomes this discussion and the Government's ongoing continued commitment to improving genetic and genomic medicine services in Ireland. Our vision is clear. We want a patient and family-centred genetics and genomics service aligned with the principles of Sláintecare, parti…

I commend Senator Boyhan who in his caring nature has been very clear with regard to this Bill and making sure that facilities are properly monitored. I commend the Minister of State because unannounced visits are very important. I have learned something in this discussion. I would have been right behind the idea of unannounced visits. When people do not know when they are going to be inspected, they work to a standard and we cannot let it slip. I did not think through the follow-up where they are working together.…

When Senator Ryan referenced a lack of funding for certain organisations, maybe they have not gone about getting the funding or applying for funding in the manner it is supposed to be applied for. Sometimes, I get queries from people saying that their organisations are not get any funding, and when I ask if they have applied for it, they might not have. I ask if they have a bank account, and they reply that they do not because theirs is only an informal group. If we were handing out money informally, we would be he…

It has to be done the right way. I liked the Senator's story about people going to sing, but maybe if they reached out to the Minister of State and the Departments, they could be talked through how to acquire funding. Unless they were refused funding, then we could look at why they were refused funding. I commend the amount of money being put into Jigsaw. Yesterday, Jigsaw appeared before us at the health committee. What an organisation. There are very short waiting times to get an appointment with Jigsaw. When I w…

It has been said that we have spent about 19 hours discussing this, and I think it was hours well spent. It was not a hardship for me, being honest. I have learned a lot about the other Senators in the room. I do not think we are too different. We want the best for people in Ireland because mental health is everybody's health. It is good to get to where we are today and we will be back in March. I cannot top Senator Boyhan. I do not think he omitted anyone from his acknowledgments and thanks, so I echo whom he has …