I will use this time to address the issues caused by Brexit here and across the world. In June 2016, England and Wales voted to leave the European Union and this vote would change the landscape of the EU, the UK and Ireland for years to come. In effect, the North of Ireland and Scotland were forced out of the EU against the will of their people. Four years on, we are still talking about Brexit. The referendum took place long before I was elected to the House, yet here I am addressing the Dáil on the matter. It is m…

We all appreciate that Covid-19 has thrown up some unprecedented challenges for our health service and staff and it most certainly did so for our patients in vulnerable positions and their families. Covid-19 arriving on this island has seen great demands on our people, including behavioural and habitual changes to what we have long been accustomed. That should be recognised by this House. I will focus on the discontinuing of all visitors to our hospitals, including maternity hospitals, and nursing homes or care fac…

I appreciate the Minister of State's presence. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, needs to look into this matter personally. We need to end the blanket ban on visitors in our hospitals and other care facilities. We need more humanity, more leadership and more solutions. Warm winter gardens could be considered for nursing homes. We are social creatures after all, and we need our families and loved ones when we are at our most vulnerable.

I welcome this Bill and commend Teachta Kelly on its timely introduction. I am pleased to be able to speak on this Bill and offer my support to it. As has been previously mentioned and will be well known to many who have the experience, Ireland is an outlier in terms of sick pay within the European Union. There is little to no legal right to sick pay here. It is instead left to the discretion of the employer, which means many workers, particularly those in poorly paid and non-unionised roles, do not have access to …

We have been flagging transport issues in the House for months now. Transport was severely impacted by the difficulties of Covid-19, but people want to hear solutions and action. To date, we have seen bus routes cancelled or reduced in capacity, the total collapse of the aviation sector and serious issues exposed in our school transport scheme. Locally, in my constituency of Clare, I have been informed of a very concerning situation faced by people with disabilities who use the Dulick Enterprise Centre, in Ennis. I…

We are all aware that Covid-19 has thrown up some real challenges for our nation, especially in respect of health, but the massive strain on jobs and business too has been thrown to the fore. The ways in which people have engaged with their week's work has for some become better but for others worse. Workers have found themselves working from home, an idea their employers would have said was a non-runner just 12 months ago. On the opposite side of the scale, hundreds of thousands of people have been laid off, many …

I would like to take this opportunity to address the issues around our Defence Forces as a whole. We are here today with a Bill before the House that seems merely to address housekeeping issues around the Defence Forces and how they operate, specifically while overseas. While it may be internationally accepted that companies deployed overseas will fall under the command of the regional troops, I certainly hope that this is not an underhanded way of signing off on our neutrality down the line. I was a member of the …

I welcome the motion and strongly urge all parties to support it. On the pandemic's arrival in Ireland we were faced with some very tough decisions which had to be made. We closed the schools and cancelled sporting and cultural events. Possibly one of the hardest calls that had to be made was the cancellation of medical appointments, cancer screening services, general check-ups and non-urgent procedures. While a tough one to comprehend, it was a decision that had to be made, and I accept that. Here we are, however,…

I wish to share time with Deputies Martin Browne and Ruairí Ó Murchú.

I welcome any Bill to the House that offers support to gardaí that will help them in enforcing the law of the land, especially around Covid-19 and compliance with the guidelines. This Bill will give gardaí powers, should they need them, to close licensed premises that are not adhering to guidelines. However, I am deeply concerned about the use of these powers and how they can be effectively policed. Back in March of this year, publicans the length and breadth of Ireland closed their doors. Many did so before they w…

I would like to raise the issue of personal assistant hours for people with disabilities. I have been dealing with a gentleman, Liam Mulcahy, who lives in Ennis. Liam is classed as one of the lucky ones as he has independent living in a council house, but he requires full-time care and assistance to ensure that can continue. He has been assessed and told he needs more hours but he will have to wait until January before he receives them. I would like to know why he has to wait for six months. It is far too long and …

My party and I agree with some parts of this Bill. We also feel that some aspects do not go far enough to support the hard-working low and middle income workers and families across the State. While I strongly agree with any reduction in the higher rate of VAT, I question the omission of a reduction in the lower rate of VAT focused on the tourism and hospitality sector. My home county of Clare is all too aware of how this pandemic has affected the tourism industry. We have seen the almost total collapse of Shannon A…

I also commend my colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, on bringing this motion before the House. Let us be honest: it is one of the most pressing issues at present. Many parents have now faced over 137 days since the schools were closed and they have waited and waited for the Government's announcement on the reopening of schools. Being a mother of five children, I know from experience how difficult it can be to homeschool children while trying to keep some bit of normality in our day-to-day lives. I take this opportunity…

I commend the Government on bringing the Bill before the House to deal with a very important matter, the expansion of a scheme to include all children under 12 and provide them with free GP services, as well as the raising of income limits applying to people over 70. This is most welcome, especially for my constituents in Clare. As the House is aware, we in Sinn Féin promised two free GP visits to each person in the country as part of our 2020 general election manifesto, with the long-term aim to provide universal …

I thank my colleague, Deputy Funchion, for tabling this crucially important motion and for her extensive work on this issue in general. I wish to show my support for this motion and I strongly recommend that the other Members of this House also support it. The childcare industry has seen a serious lack of investment on the part of successive Governments. This has led to rising fees for parents while workers in the sector are paid some of the lowest wages among their peers. This is shameful, but it is the unfortunat…

I wish to raise the same issue. I was also contacted by Jennifer Hynes. She is only 42 years of age and is now stuck in a nursing home. She has had her local authority housing removed from her. Page 78 of the programme for Government states that the Government will "eliminate the practice of accommodating young people with serious disabilities in nursing homes". I ask the Tánaiste to ensure this is done urgently in my constituency of Clare. Jennifer is in a bad situation and cannot even engage in group activities b…

I commend my colleague, Deputy Kerrane, for tabling this important motion and urge all Members of the House to support it. These are worrying and peculiar times for all citizens but none more so than the mothers and fathers of newborn children. The restrictions we have lived through and precautions we have had to take have had an impact on the parents of newborn children. As a mother of five I can say that a new addition to a family is a joy, and a joy that we once could share immediately with family members and fr…

I join my party colleagues in welcoming this Bill to the floor of the House and I express my support for the amendments tabled by Deputy O'Reilly. I will take this opportunity to raise the issue of SMEs in my home county of Clare. Tourism is a large seasonal employer in County Clare, particularly in west Clare. Many of these businesses are small, family-run operations and operate mainly in the summer months when the industry is at its busiest. These businesses, along with many self-employed tradespersons, transport…

I am sharing time with Deputies Kerrane and Andrews, each of us taking five minutes. I send my condolences to the family and friends of our comrade, Bobby Storey, who will be laid to rest today. Bobby epitomised republicanism in Ireland and will be dearly missed. I have no doubt but that he would be happy in the knowledge of the strides our party has taken in recent years to get to where we are. Looking at these figures, I would like to ensure certainties for the small and medium-sized business sector in particular…

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