I ask the Minister about the implementation of Ireland's Diaspora Strategy 2026-2030. What actions have come out of it and previous strategies to make life better for the diaspora, especially in relation to reciprocal driving licences?

I thank the Minister. What actions came out of the previous strategies? There is a commitment to conclude the reciprocal driving licence exchange with the US states. I commend Safe Home Ireland and the Irish-US driver's licence exchange campaign on their work in this area. It is important that such arrangements are based on equivalent standards. The Minister will appreciate that aspects of our often nonsensical bureaucracy are a point of frustration for many members of the diaspora, for example those who drove for …

Earlier this year such an agreement did conclude, but it related to the commercial sector rather than the diaspora. I assume that if we can do it for the commercial sector, we should be able to do it for the diaspora too. I ask the Minister to push forward with this and try to get a means to an end with this. So many peoplewhot live in America really need to get their licences. I have people who have moved home from the States coming to my office all the time. They previously had a licence and just want to get it b…

I would like to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade her position regarding the continued illegal settlement construction by Israel on Palestinian territory; and the dialogue she has with EU counterparts regarding same.

The vicious, criminal, heinous crimes of Israeli settlers in recent days is no new departure. The Nakba is now a near eight-decade-long catastrophe of Israeli settlers stealing Palestinian homes and land with impunity. I welcome that the Government has prohibited the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. I am glad to see that the Minister is advocating and calling this out. It is shameful and a stain upon Ireland that the Government has sought to insulate criminal terrorists, Israeli settle…

I also hope that there is a shift. When Ireland fails to comply with our obligations under the EU treaties, infringement proceedings are launched against us. What is the appropriate course of action for an EU member state to take when the European Union itself is in breach of its obligations? The Minister's position would suggest that the EU treaties compel Ireland to continue to provide preferential trading arrangements to a state the Government believes to be involved in genocide and the annexation of different t…

I welcome the work the Passport Office does. I believe it is very efficient. I see many people getting their passports within a week of applying. I believe it is a fantastic service and does operate very well. I encourage people to apply online because it is the fastest process, whereas the paper process can be much slower. What I would like to say today concerns the checks. I brought this issue up when I met the Passport Office in the audiovisual room one day. The Passport Office seems to have a system where it ch…

It is horrible to see people who are sick endure financial hardship. It is right that we have mechanisms such as the medical card, discretionary emergency medical card and GP visitor card. However, a callous oversight by the Government has been a failure to increase related income thresholds for those under the age of 69 for more than two decades. For two decades, almost one in three people was covered. Today, the same number of people have medical cards as did at that stage, despite a population increase of more t…

What about the threshold? That has not increased. People cannot qualify for medical cards.

Look at your stats. Go back and look.

When it comes to transport this Government and the Minister seem to be entirely without any direction at all. The carbon tax, which is supposedly a behavioural tax, is intended to change people's behaviour. The Government's carbon tax is supposed to encourage people to switch to electric cars and public transport, never mind that some people cannot afford electric cars. It is not a viable option. In communities like mine in Cavan and Monaghan, public transport is not a viable option either. It is very sparse. Buses…

I wish to thank the pharmacists for everything they do. Pharmacists play a crucial role within our health services and our primary care system. Within communities, they provide a vital service, often as part of a first call if a person is feeling unwell. They often help in a failing health system where patients are subjected to huge waiting lists for primary and clinical care. The role pharmacists play and the services they offer have developed over the years, especially in more recent years as we have sought to ad…

Later on, we saw a similar situation in regard to the blister packs. Did the Minister consult the pharmacists? The free contraception scheme is another very positive scheme that our pharmacists are crucial in the delivery of. I have raised with the Minister on a number of occasions the need to significantly increase the upper age threshold for eligibility. Has the Minister increased that age? The scheme was first introduced in 2022 and limited to those aged 17 to 32. The increase to 35 in 2024 was woefully inadequa…

Over 3,500 new breast cancer cases arise in the State every year. It is absolutely shocking to say that 20% of the scheduled examinations did not take place last year. This should be seen as a red flag for Government and a huge concern for us all. The Minister needs to understand why this is happening and seek to address it immediately, whether through advertisements, education, more flexibility in the service in terms of missed appointments, and any other mechanism necessary. However, last year is not the full sto…

No, I have too.

As I have said before, we need to make BreastCheck more visible so people know to have their breast checks done. The HSE and BreastCheck are failing too many people, with patients on trolleys, years-long waiting lists, delayed diagnoses, overcrowding in hospitals and families just left in limbo right across the whole of the HSE, not just in BreastCheck. Just in my locality of Cavan and Monaghan this week, there has been a patient lying on the floor. I realise that it is not about BreastCheck but I thought I would b…

I have said in this House a number of times, before the people, that the Irish Government is not responsible for global events precipitating global energy price hikes. However, people look to their government to insulate them from the worst impacts and the Government continues to fail on that account. Why can it not help struggling families to heat their homes? People are crying out for help and the Government has the power. Why is it waiting? There is a behavioural tax on homes right across the country and in my o…

There are 17,000 people homeless.

There are many issues with this Bill. What I wish to focus on is if it is successful in its content as assessment of need is often only the first step in a long and arduous journey towards seeing these needs met. As Teachtaí McGuinness and Ward stated, this Bill will not provide a single additional speech and language or occupational therapist. It will not provide additional special education places in our schools. It will not address the failures in workforce planning that allow vacancies to persist for far too lo…

As we deal with a largely technical Bill related to various areas of Road Traffic Acts, websites, databases and day-to-day administration relating to driving, I want to touch on something else that is viewed by many as a glaring omission in the delivery of policy and that I would say is an error in policy. For many years, members of the diaspora have been pointing out the administrative burden associated with returning home to Ireland. Given that we are crying out for healthcare professionals and that the Departmen…