The international symbol for civil defence is a blue triangle on an orange background. It is worn by all members to show they are part of a worldwide network of committed people who are prepared to serve in their own country or overseas as part of practical disaster relief assistance. Meath Civil Defence is a brilliant example of what volunteering and community spirt can achieve. There are more than 170 active members, and it works under the administration of Meath County Council. These are people who give their ti…

I am delighted to see my colleague Senator Brady as Acting Leader. Well done to him. On behalf of myself and my Fine Gael colleagues, I pass on our condolences to the usher Seamus Carroll and to all the staff who were friends with him. We are very sorry for their loss. For the past two weeks, I have been a mammy going around secondary schools on opening nights and trying to figure out the best place for my daughter. I have two girls. They are "Irish twins", so there are decisions to be made for both of them because…

I thank the Minister for coming here to discuss the hot school meals programme. I thank him and his team, particularly Mr. Craig Dwyer in his Department, for being so proactive and engaging. It really makes a big difference to us as Senators to be able to get a call back from a Department within minutes or an hour. I imagine we will be changing the name from the "hot school meals programme" to the "school meals programme" with all the changes that the Department is going to make. Similar to Senator Rabbitte and oth…

I raise the matter of the judicial council (amendment) Bill 2026. In particular, I urge the Minister to move this legislation forward as quickly as possible. The general scheme was published in January 2026, and it was welcomed as an important step in the Government’s insurance reform agenda. It has a clear objective to make the process around personal injury guidelines more transparent, evidence-based and predictable. I wish to find out when we will see the legislation come through. Businesses across the country h…

I welcome this motion and thank my Seanad colleagues, especially Mark Duffy, for working on this. Energy and fuel are not luxuries; they are actually essentials. When we talk about energy affordability, I want us to remember the people behind the figures. The two things I want to talk about are older people and those people going to work. Only last week, ALONE published its latest cost-of-living survey and the findings were really concerning. Three quarters of older people surveyed said they had been affected by th…

I am nearly finished, sorry. To date, this Government has delivered one of the largest support packages in the EU per capita . This is a really good thing. I think that most of us here in this room recognise how important that is and the urgency of doing more.

I thank the Minister of State for being here. I love the saying that perfection is the enemy of the good. Nothing could be clearer when it comes to the hot school meals. The Minister of State and I both know that we are feeding 550,000 children across 3,200 schools and the amount of money we spend on it is €300 million. The allocation in the budget to make sure that every child gets a chance of a hot school meal is absolutely crucial. It comes under criticism and it does need to change. However, this week we have m…

I thank the Minister of State. This reply has said how great the programme is and has said absolutely nothing about what is going to happen in the budget and if there is going to be any money allocated for next year. I appreciate we are not going to hear what will happen in the budget. We will obviously get to learn that in October. However, I would have liked some reference to the fact that we will hopefully see this programme expand next year or see it in the budget for next year. I also note that it refers to th…

I am jealous of Senator Byrne talking about extra trains to commute to Dublin. I will talk about commuting but we do not even have one train. I would appreciate a debate with the Minister for Transport on people from commuter counties coming into Dublin. For people travelling from Navan to Dublin the NX bus route is a vital service but for far too many commuters, getting to work or college can feel like a lottery every day. People are dealing with overcrowding at peak times, cancelled services, buses arriving late …

I second the motion.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to discuss this today. I want to talk about something very simple with regard to inclusion in sport. Sometimes we talk about inclusion in terms of strategies, policies, targets and funding programmes. Inclusion is also something as basic as being able to go to the toilet. The joint committee's report on inclusion in sport, published in 2024, made it very clear that facilities are a fundamental part of inclusion. The evidence in the report is quite stark. The FAI…

I would also very much like to pass on my condolences to Senator Craughwell. I spoke to him during the summer just before his wife passed away. It must be hard, but I am delighted to see him back here. Today, I welcome the very positive changes announced yesterday to the hot school meals programme. These changes show what can happen when Government listens to parents, principals, teachers, children and those delivering the programme on the ground. A few months ago, I ran a survey and received over 8,000 responses. …

The Irish Cancer Society is in the news today. We met its representatives last week and had a very good engagement over in Buswells Hotel where they were giving us some numbers. I wanted to home in on bowel cancer. There are 2,500 people diagnosed with bowel cancer each year in Ireland. The target for the Irish Cancer Society is that not one patient should wait more than 28 days. Last year, in Our Lady's Hospital Navan, over the whole year 400 people waited more than 28 days. However, in quarter 1 of this year, not…

Now.

Now.

It was about a year ago that we had a very emotive debate in the House when Senator Nicole Ryan brought suggestions for a Bill on miscarriage leave. I was on this side of the House. It was very hard to actually be debating it when I think everybody in this House wanted to see something like that happen. However, the advice was that it was under the wrong Act - it was under the working time Act - and we had a promise from the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, that this would be worked on over the year, and that we would…

Through our offices, we all have the lovely honour of helping and supporting older people in our communities, particularly when it comes to filling out forms, which is a bit part of what they have to do. At present, people over 65 years of age repeatedly have to ask their GPs to certify similar information for things such as medical cards, housing adaption grants, mobility or travel schemes, respite care applications, living alone allowance, household benefit packages and other disability or care supports. There ar…

A lot of my colleagues have spoken about their wonderful villages and towns and how gorgeous they are. Unfortunately, when I was scrolling on the social media page for my local authority, Meath County Council, yesterday, I was saddened to see the numerous new reports of graffiti all around Navan, including on the Circular Road, Convent Lane and the brand new pedestrian and cycle bridge. It is soul destroying to see that. Navan town has been part of the Project 2030 plan and the town is looking beautiful, so it is s…

I echo my colleague's comments. The Minister of State was not here when I spoke on this a couple of weeks ago. It is on days like this that you are incredibly proud to have been elected a Senator and to be here to help pass amazing legislation that means that people who have been diagnosed with cancer but whose treatment ended more than five years ago can get financial services, including mortgage protection. I spoke to a lady last week, Edel, who was buying a house for her family with her partner. She had been quo…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this important Commencement matter and welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, to the House. I have a simple request that will help thousands of people. Will the Minister or the Department consider introducing an opt-in text message and email reminder service to notify passport holders when their passports are about to expire? The issue of passports going out of date has a very real impact on thousands of people every year. We have all heard stories from constituent…