I welcome my intern, Sophia Mulvany, the inestimable Sophia. She will be with me until Christmas. I am delighted to welcome her to the Chamber. It is my first time to speak on the Order of Business since we resumed the Houses and I want to express my sincere sympathies and condolences to Senator Craughwell. Gerard is a big man with a big heart and, at the end of the day, all we have are our relationships with each other. Having lost his wife after 49 years of marriage it is very hard to see Gerard heartbroken and I…

Fáilte abhaile ar ais chuig an Teach seo. I thank our guests for their exceptional public service. That commute over and back to Strasbourg and Brussels is very hard on families and individuals and it should not be taken lightly. It is a huge sacrifice, especially at particular times in people's lives. We are exceptionally well-represented in Europe. I recall that MEP Andrews recently appeared before the Joint Committee on Defence and National Security to talk about defence, security and priorities we ought to have…

I thank the Minister of State for coming along today. He can see from my Commencement matter that these are very grave matters, and they revolve around several issues. First and foremost is the potential rape and sexual assault of children in HSE West and North-West, that is, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Donegal. I have raised these issues in the health committee, on the floor of this House during the Order of Business and in previous Commencement matters, and no meaningful action has been taken. This issue refers…

I thank the Minister of State for reading out the statement on behalf of the Minister, Deputy MacNeill. None of these remarks are directed personally at the Minister of State, but to be honest, ChatGPT could have written that response. In it, the Minister, Deputy MacNeill says she and the HSE cannot comment on individual cases. Then on the second page, she refers at length to this individual case, so they do and do not do so when it suits them. That is a rhetorical device to insulate themselves from responsibility.…

Up the Dubs.

With the Cathaoirleach's leave I would like to propose an amendment to the Order of Business today to take No. 20 on the Order Paper before No. 1 in order that I can introduce my Adult Safeguarding Strategy Bill. I need to get a seconder.

I thank the Senator. The Adult Safeguarding Strategy Bill that I hope to introduce fills the gap that exists in Irish legislation around adult safeguarding for our elderly citizens and for all of us who at some point in life will need care. This Bill is consistent with what the Government has set out in the programme for Government. I thank all my colleagues from Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, Aontú, the Green Party and the Civic Engagement Group and from my colleagues in the Seanad Independent Group for co-sponsorin…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to require the Minister for Health to prepare periodic strategic plans for the purpose of protecting certain persons who are at risk of harm, to make certain provisions in relation to the implementation and review of such strategic plans and to provide for related matters.

Next Tuesday.

The Minister of State is welcome, and I am glad that the Minister is still here.

Sure. I simply wished to congratulate the Minister on the statements that she has made and the leadership she has given in our explicit condemnations of Israel's actions. To be clear, the Israel Defense Forces is a multi-confessional organisation. It has Jewish, Druze, Sunni Muslim, Christian and Shia Muslim members. It is a multi-confessional force, so to criticise its illegal actions and its acts of genocide is not a statement of antisemitism, as Senator McDowell said. The charges that have been made against memb…

I want to raise the case of Ruby Daly, a six-year-old girl in Galway who is non-verbal and in a wheelchair. In this fine weather we are all enjoying and that we hope to enjoy for the next couple of weeks, we would all like to go down to the water's edge. Being able to go to the beach or the seafront is something everyone in Ireland takes for granted. If you are a wheelchair user, however, that is not possible. I am told that Galway County Council bought €9,000 worth of beach mats in 2021 that are lying in storage a…

Dobro jutro, Dobar Dan ; good morning to the ambassador. He is very welcome. From Ljubljana to Maribor and beautiful places like Portorož, Slovenia is a beautiful country. I was in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of the war in 1996. We travelled from Prijedor through Banja Luka up to the border with Slovenia. I remember that Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were in complete darkness. When we crossed the border into Slovenia, it was lit up. All the lights were on. It was beautiful. Slovenia enjoys that peace, as…

I thank the Minister of State for coming here today. I very much appreciate that the line Minister of State is here to answer my Commencement matter. I am here to talk about the national service model for the mental health of intellectual disability. I might explain that. Tens of thousands of people throughout the Republic suffer from intellectual disabilities. Many of these people live at home with elderly parents. There are 55,000 disabled adults over the age of 25 living at home with parents who are over the age…

I thank the Minister of State for her response. There is nothing personal in what I am about to say. Over the past number of years, I have got to know her a little bit and she is a person of the highest integrity. She mentioned an increase from 220 to 285 funded teams throughout the State. At the same time, she says 30 teams of various sizes have been stood up. There is quite a discrepancy in those figures. Maybe that is something we can clarify subsequently. I might write to her about that. For adults with intelle…

I thank the Minister for being here today. I echo the support that my colleagues have expressed regarding this legislation. I also welcome our guests here today. Unfortunately, having grown up in Finglas, I am sadly acquainted with the horror of murder within the family unit and the profound violation it is of all that we hold to be the social and ethical contract between people, especially its impact on children, who are the most vulnerable. Given the issues we have on this island with violence against women, gend…

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an gCeannaire. I am delighted to see Laura, his beautiful family and his dad here. While we differ on a lot of things, we have one small thing in common. His late mum and my late father both served the people of Cahir in different ways, my dad as a member of An Garda Síochána. I know his mum is proud of him and I ask him to go easy on me for the next couple of years. I raise the increasing levels of misinformation and, I am sorry to say, disinformation about the triple lock. As legislatio…

The Minister of State and his officials are very welcome. I think the amendment has been ruled out of order in error, because when we spoke about this last week, there was ambiguity. Basically, the Bill says that providers with fewer than four clients do not have to be amenable to regulation, but they can continue to work and be paid. As I pointed out last week, the HSE acts in an idiosyncratic and capricious way when it comes to funding for carer and personal assistance support hours. I know this from my lived exp…

I thank the Minister of State.

I thank the Minister of State for coming here. I appreciate that the line Minister is here. I express my appreciation for the Minister of State coming to hear me out. I travelled to Loughrea and met the parents of children with Down's syndrome. They are listening in now as we speak and watching this. There is a formula of words in Circular 0024/2025 under "Criteria for Enrolment" in paragraphs (1)(b) and 2(a). As criteria for acceptance in these special classes, they must have a delayed language disorder or a speec…