I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate all the information outlined in his response. The ideal outcome is that the school gets the hot meals programme reinstated as a matter of urgency because its withdrawal has caused considerable distress for the pupils and staff. The situation arising in the first instance indicates that there is a wider picture issue here around the amalgamation supports the school is receiving from the Department. I believe that Ennistymon Community School should qualify for full DEIS sta…

The objective for all of us in this House should be to stand up against the brutality and injustice that has been unfolding in front of our eyes. Yesterday I stated that the public are outraged by the scenes of inhumanity and that they could care less for the differences in this House, especially when it comes to atrocities on a scale such as that we have seen. I acknowledge the emails my office has received from concerned citizens, the total number of which rose above 10,000 this morning. I want those people to kn…

I want to begin by acknowledging the good work of the Electoral Commission. I am delighted to speak on the Bill. Along with other Members, I also support the reduction of the voting age to 16. It is a progressive, inclusive and absolutely necessary step that could have been taken long before now. Nonetheless, it is a positive move that I welcome. I welcome that my constituency of Clare did not have its boundaries breached in the constituency review. With the exception of those that have passed on or who Government …

I will begin, as I always do in these important and serious contributions, by condemning unreservedly the actions of Hamas and the war crimes and genocide being perpetrated by Israel. Since I last spoke on this matter in the House, the power to the Al-Shifa Hospital and all hospitals in northern Gaza has been cut. Babies are being taken out of incubators, wrapped in foil and placed next to hot water in a desperate attempt to keep them alive. Not only is this yet another breach of international law in the form of Ar…

I also want to raise the issue of the delivery of beds, having regard to University Hospital Limerick. As the Minister knows, the hospital’s accident and emergency department has broken its overcrowding records twice this year already, despite our not being in the thick of the winter yet. I am wondering whether the Minister can confirm whether we are on track to deliver the first 96-bed block. I attended a briefing with officials from UL Hospitals Group recently and they explained the position on the second 96-bed …

I raised this point during the week, but I wish to do so again to see if I can get a commitment from the Minister. It concerns the vacancy requirement for this scheme. It is set at two years currently. Recently, my colleagues on Clare County Council passed a resolution in an effort to seek a reduction in this time from two years to six months. I support the councillors in this request. I also understand that a review is to begin in the middle of next year. I would be grateful if consideration could be given to brin…

I will try my best. I raise the issue of the imminent closure of a GP surgery in Kilrush in west Clare. For the past number of years, the HSE has provided temporary locums but that solution has been completely inconsistent and not ideal, as the Minister can imagine. I am looking for the Government, but, in particular, the Minister for Health, to give this GP practice their attention. As I have said previously in the House, County Clare is 25% below the national average in respect of GP services. Kilrush is the most…

I commend the Labour Party on bringing forward this terrific motion and I am happy to support it. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has committed to delivering 22 million hours of home care support next year and that she has lauded that this will be the most ever delivered. The question is: will it be delivered? Will the fundamental issues around payment, social welfare payments as well, and also the treatment of these home care staff, be delivered. I meet with older people and their families throughout County …

While I welcome that the Taoiseach condemned the actions of Hamas, as do I, he spoke yet again about how the Israeli response needs to be proportionate. That ship has truly sailed. Cutting off electricity and leaving babies in a neonatal intensive care unit to die before they can even get a chance to live is not proportionate. Genocide is not proportionate. Breaking international human rights law is not proportionate. The images of the absolute brutality and inhumanity the innocent children in particular are facing…

I commend this motion. In the very short time available to me, I am compelled to focus on emergency accommodation and the lack of capacity in County Clare. The most recent statistics show there were 296 presentations to the homeless action team in Clare in September while there are only 92 places in emergency accommodation in total. We are in the reality of waiting lists for emergency accommodation. That is deplorable. I have three points to make. We need to increase the scale of emergency accommodation in Clare. W…

Will the Minister comment on his Department's review of the equality Acts? I would be grateful if he were to make a statement on the matter.

I appreciate that information. We need this ground to be included in any revision of the equality Acts. Recent budgets have further divided society. Recent research on deprivation, carried out by Pobal, highlighted that County Clare is marginally above average in terms of deprivation, with Kilrush being extremely disadvantaged and having a lone parent rate of almost 50%. Slightly fewer than 10% of my constituents finished their education at the end of primary school, according to Clare FM. There has been a lot of t…

I appreciate the Minister's remarks and note he mentioned his passion on this issue. The main point raised at the event I attended last night was that many of the challenges experienced by individuals enduring disadvantage, exclusion or poverty are beyond their capacity to address. Last year, Deputy Andrews and I brought forward a Bill to add a tenth discrimination ground on the basis of socioeconomic status and accent. As the Minister is aware, the Add the 10th Alliance is a fantastic umbrella group that is spearh…

How will the Department cope with the reduction in its budgetary allocation announced in budget 2024?

The budget leads me to think a lot about the recession of 2008 and how this country got back on its feet. Farmers were instrumental in that. Since then, a lot has happened - Brexit, Covid and the cost-of-living crisis. We are not spending the corporation tax. I know the budget delivers an allocation that is reduced by 10% for agriculture. It is disgraceful that at a time when all the Government parties want to talk about its surplus and its success, it would slash the budget of the Department that represents the ba…

I appreciate the information the Minister has provided but I also want to talk about late payments. Basic income support for sustainability, BISS, payments were a week late and areas of natural constraint, ANC, payments were a month late. The latter were advertised as advance payments but, in fact, came later in the year than their predecessor payments. Farmers are financially drained. An awful lot of farmers in the county will be getting a lot less money than they normally would at this time of year according to M…

Road safety is an issue of acute concern for every Member of this House. As we head into the bank holiday weekend, we are all thinking of the 155 lives lost on Irish roads since the start of this year, an increase of 36 on this time last year. My thoughts are with all of those families today. In the context of fatalities, I want to mention a section of the N67 in Clare. This road sees a high volume of traffic every day, including commuters travelling between Clare and Galway and tourists travelling to areas like th…

I am delighted to speak on this motion, and I want to thank the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters for its report on aligning disability services with the UNCRPD. First, I want to commend the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte for her comments in her statement this evening, specifically on the call for holding Ministers to account but, more importantly, how that process allows the Minister to hold officials to account. That is a significant role of the Opposition, finding gaps and inefficiencies and p…

I apologise. I will quickly move on to my last point. Although there were 70,000 actual hours allocated last year in respect of PA services, that is after 80,000 hours were lost in 2021 with an increase of 46,000 in 2022. In real numbers, the increase in 2023, after the restoration of previously cut hours, is only around 36,000 additional hours secured. I am hopeful this will be increased in 2024. I have faith that the Minister of State will do so.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this issue. Too often when the topic of crime and justice is discussed, the focus is on the perpetrator and the crime and the pain and trauma of victims and their families is an afterthought. The European Parliament sought to remedy this imbalance by adopting the victims' rights directive in 2012, which laid out a set of rights and entitlements for victims of crime in EU member states. They include the right to information, the right to support and the right to particip…