Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht a bheith i Seanad Éireann inniu chun infheistíocht i seirbhísí don aos óg a phlé liom. I raise the urgent need for additional investment in youth services in Dublin's south-west inner city, SWIC. Securing greater investment for this area is one of my key priorities. Over recent months, I have engaged with local community organisations, residents, schools, sports clubs and other stakeholders about their vision for the future of the south-west inner city. One issue comes up…

I appreciate the sentiment coming from the Department. The Minister of State mentioned the UBU-funded projects. It is difficult to reconcile because there is some data there that suggests the Solas Project is among the lowest funded services relative to its size. Based on 2024 figures, 21 projects received a higher level of funding when measured against service size, with differences ranging from €2,000 to €23,000 per staff. The Minister of State mentioned data. We have data. The Pobal deprivation index that I ment…

Does the Senator want some time? I will split time with Senator Brady.

Can he not?

That is very unfair.

Go raibh míle maith agat. I am not going to take up too much time. I did not think I had six minutes; I thought I had three. I welcome the motion. I thank the Minister of State for being here and thank him for hearing us out. I find it very surprising that any party would vote against this motion given that we are trying to help families and people all around the country. Every day I meet people in my constituency who are struggling with the cost of energy, whether that is trying to get to work, which Senator Linda…

I move: That, under Standing Order 87(1)(b), Seanad Éireann shall take note of the Report of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media entitled 'Report on Inclusion in Sport', and progress on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report, copies of which were laid before Seanad Éireann on 9th April, 2024.

I am sharing time with Senator Nelson Murray at 12 minutes and four minutes.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit, an Teachta McConalogue, as ucht a bheith anseo. We have an important report to discuss. This was from the previous iteration of the Dáil and Seanad. It is a 2024 report on inclusion in sport by the sport committee. There were 17 recommendations. I am sure colleagues will speak to many of the recommendations. I will speak to approximately five of them. Inclusion in sport has never been more important, whether we are talking about women, disability, the LGBTQI+ community and ethni…

I will not need five minutes. I do not think I have ever stood here before and said that I echo every single word that every Senator has said during the course of a debate, so I thank them all very much. I appreciate the effort everyone made to be here. Senator Harmon and I were clear that we did not want this report to sit on a shelf. We were not on the sport committee when this report was completed. I commend the previous committee on sport on the work it put into this because there was a lot of stakeholder engag…

I welcome the MEPs. It is great to have them here. I was going to use all my time to speak about the European Week of Sport, which begins today, I think. I had the opportunity last year to go to Brussels and speak at the European Parliament during European Week of Sport along with Nina Carberry, MEP. There was a great discussion about women in sport, inequality and all that. I will get to that because acknowledging European Week of Sport and what we can do both here and at EU level to encourage more people to get i…

Today, we had the funding announcement for the women in sport programme. A total of €4 million is going into it. While this is something that happens every year, it is important to acknowledge it when it comes around because the moment we stop acknowledging and calling for it is the moment it falls off the agenda and no longer becomes a fund that we get to announce every year. This programme was introduced in 2005. Since then, ring-fenced funding has amounted to €30 million. There are a few pillars in the programme…

I welcome the Minister of State to the Seanad for this very important legislation. It is a very short Bill but a very impactful one. The Postal and Telecommunications Services (Amendment) Bill 2026 amends the 1983 Act to provide a legal basis for increased State funding to support the nationwide post office network. We have spoken about this network quite a bit in the past 12 months in the Seanad. With the introduction of the extra funding, it authorises €75 million over a five-year period, which equates to €15 mil…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Chathaoirleach. I welcome my guests to the Gallery. We are talking about the safety of children, minors and juveniles but these women have been keeping my children and the children of Crumlin safe for decades. I hope they have a meal later on in the restaurant. I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber for this debate and congratulate Senator Mullen on his Bill, which is progressing nicely. I welcome the premise of the Bill. It aligns with the work of the joint Oireachtas committe…

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Seanadóir Ahearn. He said to me when I first came into the Seanad that he hoped his mam would be proud. I think it is fair to say she always was and definitely is. I congratulate him on his new role. It is great to have his family here to celebrate. I raise something that was brought to my attention on Saturday night - four nights after it actually happened, which in itself is shocking. There is a national school in Cherry Orchard called St. Ultans. It is an integrated care and educati…

Last January, we heard an awful lot of fairly shocking evidence at the Oireachtas joint committee on sport in both public and private sessions, in relation to Rowing Ireland and the practices of the high-performance programme over the past five years in Cork and around the country. Off the back of those hearings, both public and private, the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, announced that an independent inquiry would be launched into what transpired and how to prevent athletes from going through similar circumstances wh…

On 28 January, we at the Oireachtas joint committee on sport heard about safeguarding in sport. We heard from Sport Ireland, Rowing Ireland and the Federation of Irish Sport. There was one athlete manager in place, as we learned from the federation at the time. This one individual at the federation was the only person athletes could go to with concerns around training, balancing sport with commitments to education or anything else. It is a broad remit. The CEO of the federation, Mary O'Connor, told us that athlete …

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Tá sé iontach go bhfuil sé anseo chun an Bille seo a phlé. This Bill is an important step in ensuring Ireland continues to have a viable, dynamic and trusted media landscape. It gives legislative effect to the European Media Freedom Act and strengthens the protections that underpin media independence and public trust. The Bill introduces several key reforms. First, it transfers responsibility for overseeing media mergers from the Minister to Coimisiún na Meán, with new criteria to…

I want to speak today about football. We have an Irish team preparing for possibly one of the biggest nights in Irish football and possibly one of the biggest nights in global football. We have a potential shock on the cards - perhaps "shock" should be in inverted commas - for the Irish women's team in France tonight. It is an enormous game. It is at 7.30 p.m. I want everyone to watch the football at 7.30 p.m. Those women have put their lives into this campaign, this game and this sport. We are not talking about or…

I congratulate Senator Nicole Ryan on the birth of her baby. We are not sure of the name - it might be Réaltín - but we express our congratulations and hope she is enjoying the newborn bubble. I will raise something I have spoken about in this Chamber before related to safeguarding in sport. There was another story in the newspaper last weekend about athlete welfare and safeguarding. This time it was to do with ladies football and alleged racist abuse on the field of play. Unfortunately, it is just another example …