I welcome Councillor Paul Ward and his guests to the Visitors Gallery. I call Senator Collins or Senator Tully. Who wishes to go first?

Absolutely, with the agreement of the House? Agreed.

Absolutely, that is fine. Not a problem.

I apologise to everybody in the House for the noise of my phone. I welcome the guests of Senator McCarthy in the Visitors Gallery: Gerard and Virginia Lane from the Philippines, former Irish honorary consul to Indonesia; and Stephanie Woolard from Melbourne, Australia. Also most welcome are the following visitors in the Public Gallery, whom I did not introduce properly earlier: from All Together in Dignity Ireland, Tara Doherty, Craig Byas and Nessan Vaughan; from the European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland, Paul Gin…

Before we move on, I welcome the Front Line Defenders award winners who are in the Public Gallery and are guests of Senator Stephenson. They are very welcome.

I raise an issue that has been the subject of discussion in the Lower House, namely the Grace report. Two days have been afforded in the Lower House to discuss that report. It falls upon us in the Seanad to also discuss the Grace report and the wider context of safeguarding for our vulnerable adults. We owe it to those who have no voice. We owe it to Grace to recognise that a 2,000-page document was produced that found for nothing. We are not judges in this room, but we should have the opportunity to discuss it fro…

The Minister is very welcome. I am delighted he was here to hear the entire debate. I am delighted to speak in support of the Bill and to commend Senator Fitzpatrick, who has introduced it today. The conversation so far has been very open and engaging. It also widened my perspective as to other pieces that may be within the Minister's grasp to include within the cusp of the Bill. In rural Ireland, as my colleague from Roscommon said, the local shop is where our children get their first job. The local SuperValu or G…

I thank the Minister of State for being here and I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this. I thank Senator Flynn for her personal contribution and for sharing her lived experience with us. It is important for us all to acknowledge that lived experience. I was doing research in advance of coming in here and I agree with Senator Gallagher; the Minister of State's opening statement was very welcome. Like many colleagues, I was not aware of the Greentown project. It is based on pillars, facts and evidence. My ques…

The Minister of State is very welcome. His visit gives me the opportunity to wish him well and show the hand of friendship to work with him. Where I come from in Portumna, on the banks of the Shannon with the bridge, flooding is a huge issue and has a huge impact on our lives. I have no doubt my colleague in Fine Gael, Senator Murphy, will be talking about the south Galway floods when he speaks and, therefore, I will focus solely on the gate in Portumna under the CFRAM. A gate was designed in line with the CFRAM pr…

This is autism awareness month. Notwithstanding that the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities will be before us this evening to take statements on disability and that there will only be one week left in the month when we come back in the week of 29 April, it would be fantastic if we could have a session on autism. In the previous Seanad, a committee led by the Leader's good colleague Deputy Carrigy, then a Senator, produced some fantastic reports on it. One of the reports has 109 recommendations. …

The Minister of State is very welcome. I wish her all the best in her role. The current programme for Government is no different from the previous one. It commits to working tirelessly, alongside stakeholders, advocates, families and departmental officials, to ensure the commitments made under the programme are not just words on paper but actions with impact. As my colleague Senator Murphy O'Mahony noted, when the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, instructed that responsibility for disability services be moved from the De…

I thank the Minister of State for her time. When is it proposed to sit again?

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Commencement matter. While I know it is not his brief, I appreciate the time he has taken to come to the House to take it this morning. In my Commencement matter, I asked that the Minister of State with responsibility for public health, well-being and the national drugs strategy, Deputy Murnane O'Connor, come before the Seanad to provide a detailed breakdown of the budget and the supports contained within it. I have before me the Healthy Ireland Framework report, which …

I thank the Minister of State for going off script and acknowledging his deep understanding of my ask. I am no different from anybody else. My kids have moved on and are in their 20s now, but I was a parent who did not have information. I have no doubt that if I was a parent of teenagers at the moment, be it boys or girls, having seen the programme that was released last week I would accept there is a huge awareness and information gap. Parents are willing to come together and work as collective communities. We hav…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That Seanad Éireann:" and substitute the following: "notes that: - a child’s right to education is enshrined in the Constitution and, under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, must be accessible on an equal basis with others in the community in which they live; and - the Government is committed to ensuring that each child with a special educational need has an appropriate school place, in line with their constitutional right an…

Yet again, I stand here and ask whether the Leader could work with us to bring in the Minister with responsibility for children's cyber safety. We are sleepwalking through one of the biggest epidemics ever known here and the hugely negative impact social media is having on the youth and society. It is past time that Ireland recognised the damage caused every second of every day to children and teens who are allowed unmonitored access to these devices and the harmful apps associated with them. How many more young li…

I ask the Deputy Leader to call the Minister for sport to the Chamber. I wish to discuss the outcomes of the sports capital grant which has been allocated for the past five years, with an emphasis on whether the Department has audited the outcomes of the huge investment of nearly €500 million. This investment was made under the pillars of what the sports capital funding was set up for, which were inclusion, diversity, women in sport, the environment and impacts on the community. The reason I am asking for this to b…

If I may interrupt the Senator for just a moment, there is a vote in the Dáil. Does the Minister of State need to attend?

As the Senator has just started and there is three minutes to go until the vote, the Minister of State is permitted to leave if she would like to and we can then start again. Is that okay?