I welcome the Minister to the House. I will start by saying that I tuned in to "Prime Time" last night and heard the Minister give an extensive and comprehensive interview. He touched on many of the issues Members are asking about today. I want to acknowledge public broadcasting and the media and the role they too have to play in this. It occurred to me while listening to the Minister last night that I had entered two places of hospitality in which I was not asked for a certificate or ID and I turned around and lef…

I move amendment No. 1: To insert the following paragraph under "calls on the Government to:" "- collaborate with An Garda Síochána, the NTA and public transport stakeholders to establish a dedicated Transport Policing Unit on the public transport network;".

First, I welcome the Minister of State. It is timely that she is here. I thank Fine Gael for using Private Members' time to put forward a motion on transport. It is really important. I had actually tabled a Commencement matter in respect of this issue last week. Suddenly, this motion came up and I saw it as an opportunity. With Commencement matters, a Minister will come in and say something and it is finished whereas with a motion such as this, we will actually be required to make a decision today, hopefully. The M…

That would help the Senator lose a bit of weight.

I second the amendment.

I do not know about that, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. I want to speak in favour of Senator Conway's remarks on extra support for disabilities. I made some inquiries, and it was my understanding from the Houses of the Oireachtas that there was additional funding, resources and staff for people with a disability, and rightly so. I speak as someone with a lot of knowledge of local councils. I have been a director of Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind for many years and have advocated really strongly for it. Many of the service …

I appreciate that. The advantage of being last is that one is first to get a response.

I warmly welcome Mr. Barry Andrews, Mr. Ciarán Cuffe, Ms Clare Daly and Ms Frances Fitzgerald. I also welcome a former MEP, Senator Lynn Boylan, who is sitting on my right. She has a wealth of experience in Europe and I want to acknowledge that. The four MEPs present are diverse and a good choice for Dublin. Everyone who is an MEP representing the constituency of Dublin is exceptionally experienced, as previous speakers have said. That is worth acknowledging. It is nice to be here, but let us not fool ourselves. We…

I thank the Leader for setting out the Order of Business. I wish to share my concern about it now. Earlier I had a discussion with some of my colleagues regarding an amendment to the Order of Business. On reflection and to be fair to all concerned, Ministers need time to come to this House and need to prepare to come to this House so I will not proceed with moving an amendment to the Order of Business today. It is my intention to do so tomorrow if we do not have a favourable response. It relates to the scoliosis si…

Well said.

Animal welfare.

I am always here to assist.

I will be brief. I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for introducing the motion. It is important to have collaboration and co-operation, as Senator Ward said. It is important if we are serious about tackling crime and the money from criminal activity. We need to know that knowledge is power. I thank the Minister of State for making his statement to the House and allowing this debate. It is essential. Engagement is important so we will know what is happening. I fully support the motion.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, and welcome him back to the Seanad. This issue relates to the Scoliosis Advocacy Network. I am not sure if the Minister of State has been briefed on this issue, but its representative appeared last week on "Today with Claire Byrne" on RTÉ. One of the reasons I am following up on this is that the Scoliosis Advocacy Network has been in touch with me, as it has been in touch with many other Members. The network's concern is what it describes as children languishing on wai…

I am very disappointed. I do not know who prepared the Minister of State's response. This matter was specifically about scoliosis. This was not about the National Treatment Purchase Fund or waiting lists generally. This was a very focused Commencement matter about 170 children with scoliosis. It was as a result of an episode of "Today with Claire Byrne" on RTÉ last week and correspondence that had been sent to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Health and the leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Kelly. The…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. The next matter is from Senator O'Loughlin and relates to the water supply issues at the Ballymore Eustace plan in the great County Kildare. She is welcome.

I welcome the Minister of State. In preparing for today, I took a look at the Sláintecare progress report for the period January to June 2021. The byline is "Right Care. Right Place. Right Time." Would it not be great if that were actually the case? I take on board that there were three major issues that the Minister rightly identified in his contribution. These are the kernel of the problem. The Sláintecare document states that they are significant challenges. They are highlighted using a green, amber and red colo…

I welcome the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, and I acknowledge the enormous amount of work that the OPW does in this area. I also welcome the Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett, who has huge responsibility around land use and this goes over a core aspect of her work and other related issues. Senator Pauline O'Reilly spoke about nature-based solutions, which is a very important sentence. I thank Senator Garvey and the Green Party for putting forward this very important motion. It is not new…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this important matter and I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke. I know this is a busy week for him in the context of the budget and his other ministerial commitments. I will preface my remarks by saying that this matter relates to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. I engaged in the council's county development public consultation process as a citizen. While I am here today as a politician talking about legislation and potential anomalies in the legislation,…

I am aware of all of that. I was asking about the position of a member of the public who submits a building for the record of protected structures. It is a reserved function of the elected members and not for the executive as the Minister of State well knows. A number of these were submitted and I submitted one. The elected members are being told in writing, and I have the report on my desk, that they will not be able to bring it forward. I understand they will be bringing it forward, despite all the manager's lega…