University Hospital Limerick, UHL, consistently has the highest number of people on trolleys. Yesterday, for example, 42 people were accommodated on trolleys in the hospital. That represents dire, abysmal and abject service provision in 21st century Ireland. We also know that this week 17 registrars and special registrars drafted a letter highlighting a series of concerns, including that the acute medical assessment unit is not fit for purpose as the only model for hospitals serving almost 500,000 people. This unde…

Sinn Féin is against a property tax, generally, and would dispose of it in favour of a wealth tax when in government. However, the fact that the Act is being amended at this time deserves some scrutiny. The local property tax was designed to pay off austerity-era banking debt and has no place in our society. It has never taken the ability to pay into account and it does not represent the type of taxation we should be considering and aiming for, which is to take money from those who will not suffer from its loss. We…

I welcome the opportunity to comment on this motion, which offers inroads to diversifying the range of services provided through post offices, including renewals of motor tax, offline services for people who struggle to process their paperwork online and personal banking services, among others. I support all these suggestions. The post office network has shown its adaptability and versatility as things have become more digitised. Social welfare payments are now successfully channelled through post offices and the f…

I ask the Taoiseach to engage with the Department of Education, the Minister for Education and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, as the issues and dire circumstances experienced by the only Educate Together school in my constituency in Clare require urgent and interdepartmental attention. In the programme for Government there is a commitment to ensuring plurality and delivering choice in education. The Educate Together school is one of two multidenominational schools in Ennis, but it has been consistently and …

This Bill essentially seeks to address the unused legislative powers under section 28 of the Education Act 1998 that gives the Minister powers to intervene and have more of an active role in resolving disputes and complaints that are lodged by parents in respect of schools and their operations. It stipulates that the Minister will engage with stakeholders and prescribe procedures for dealing with such complaints. The Bill is also welcome as it details and provides for the construction of a charter between parents a…

This Bill seeks to extend the operation of the CervicalCheck tribunal until January 2022 and to provide for an additional extension to July 2022, available at the discretion of the Minister for Health. Of course I support this Bill. It makes sense for the period of time in which a compensation claim can be lodged to be extended significantly if we consider the fact that, up to two months after its establishment, the tribunal had not received any claim whatsoever. This clearly demonstrates the job of work to be done…

I ask the Minister of State for her views on the development and implementation of a national autism strategy.

I appreciate the Minister of State's response. I have posed the question as a public representative and also as a parent of a child with special needs and a diagnosis of autism. Therefore, it is a matter that I will be following very closely. It is most important that there is an urgent commitment to undertake the development needed to recognise the diverse needs that people with autism have and attempt to level the playing field of access to services for those with autism. There are major gaps in the current conti…

I wonder whether there is an opportunity for parents to join the working group to which the Minister of State referred. Perhaps she will consider that. I highlight as a cause of concern the lack of opportunities to collate CSO data on the number of people with autism in the population. Let us be realistic, however. The lack of disaggregated data is not what is preventing a more concerted effort to provide equal access to services. There is a legal onus on the Irish Government to compile comprehensive disaggregated …

I will comment on several issues relating to the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out. In Clare, over the course of the last few months, I have been inundated with emails from constituents who were not given appointments in due course as per the stated timeline of cohorts, despite the fact they had underlying conditions and, as such, were told they would be prioritised. I am talking about our extremely vulnerable people who believed they would be prioritised. I will raise one specific example. I have been in regular contact w…

Yesterday, a meeting involving the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and representatives from the Mayo and Donegal mica pyrite groups was held. It is most welcome. However, I would like to know why a representative from the Clare pyrite group was not invited and included. This is completely unacceptable, disheartening and, quite simply, not good enough. It has taken 12 years to get to this point for those affected in Mayo and Donegal. I know, as does the Tánaiste, that people in County Clare will …

I am glad to be able to make a statement on the Bill, essential legislation that will amend and extend the protections and rights of retired workers and certain representative associations in industrial relation matters. There are approximately 500,000 pensioners in the country and they are understandably very eager to see the legislation pass. This is not just about their rights, however, it is also about future generations, given that every worker will inevitably make the transition from current to former at some…

The Indecon report on the cost of disability was commissioned in 2019 with the aim of better informing relevant budgetary allocations for 2020. Two years later, it is unacceptable that the report is still not published in time for the 2022 budget. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, stated in the Chamber last November that the disability capacity review was completed and would be published in due course. That was eight months ago and there is still no sign of it. This delay is unnecessary, unethical and unwarra…

The maternity sector in this country has been critically and consistently understaffed for many years. We have one of the lowest levels of consultant obstetricians and gynaecologists in the OECD, which is shameful. Maternity services have been pockmarked by multiple investigations and inquiries into care, standards and practices. Sadly, the development of a new and improved national maternity hospital has been in the pipeline since the 1990s. Since 2013, it has been in each programme for Government which in and of …

We are discussing relevant and potential legislation. The housing crisis is an area of particular concern for Sinn Féin and so we are happy to see motions and Bills proposing solutions before this Chamber. The average rent across this country is €1,256 per month. Rent in Dublin is, on average, €1,745 per month, but in many parts of Dublin rents are more than €2,000 per month. Across the country rents have risen by 2.7% over the past year. In the commuter belt, there has been an increase of 5%. In my constituency of…

The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, outlined previous funding announcements in her statement that were very much welcome at the time but I am here to tell her that it is not enough for Shannon Airport. I take no pleasure in commenting on the sorry state of aviation recovery this afternoon but I know that the people of Clare are absolutely exhausted and frustrated by the lack of direct action and ambition from the Department of Transport in the threatened status of our regional airports and, specifically, Shanno…

The main discourse around the CAP negotiations is pitting the small against the big farmer. It highlights how 100% convergence would see a big shift of money from the south and east to the north and west. The main narrative missing in this discourse is a vital player in this game, one who potentially stands to lose the most, namely, the farmer with a medium-size farm. Having spoken with farmers of this scale in my constituency of Clare, they have genuine concerns about the future viability of their farms. Medium-si…

As the Taoiseach will know, the weekend announcement from Lufthansa regarding the review of the Lufthansa Technik base in Shannon affecting up to 500 jobs has sent shock waves through County Clare and the mid-west region. Today, we heard that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced yet another task force; here we go again. This follows numerous task forces and reviews, which have amounted to nothing. This is an urgent issue that requires urgent action. I call on the Taoiseach to intervene and engag…

I welcome the opportunity to advocate for this Bill put forward by my party on what can only be described as a horrid situation for any homeowner to suffer. Locally, the Clare Pyrite-Mica Action Group gathered and protested in Ennis yesterday. I attended that protest and spoke to some of the people who have been affected by defective blocks. They have literally watched their homes and sense of future, security and shelter crumble before their eyes over the past few years because of light-touch regulations during th…

I want to raise the issue of Shannon Airport again. It has become increasingly clear that the separation of Shannon Airport from the DAA in 2012 has not delivered on the long-term benefits that were initially claimed, promoted and predicted. Shannon Airport is also in double jeopardy because even now, as we reopen airports and flights are on the horizon, its status as an international airport is being mismanaged and its functions delimited to those of a regional airport. In the programme for Government in 2021, the…