I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The post office network is exceptionally important. It is important for many reasons, but one is because of the indelible link that people have with their post office. People remember going to post letters as children and the green box and all of that. That has evolved. Sadly, there are not too many young people now posting Christmas cards, letters or anything like that, but they are getting parcels. They are booking online and the postman is bringing the parcels, so to…

I, too, congratulate the President-elect, former Deputy Catherine Connolly. It is a great achievement for her. She is a lady I have got to know around the Houses. I usually meet her early in the morning, particularly while she was Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I have no doubt she will bring her enormous energy and vision to Áras an Uachtaráin and we wish her well. It is with deep sadness but a celebration of life that I acknowledge what Sr. Stan has achieved in this country. I got to know her well, particularly when I was…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank the Minister, Deputy Foley, for her comprehensive open statement. I welcome the launch and publication of this five-year strategy. We have had strategies before but I genuinely believe that this strategy is comprehensive and meaningful. I also believe the resources are there. The mood music over the last two or three years has been positive in the sense that there is a political determination and willingness now to create a level playing pitch for people with d…

Will the Leader use his good offices to write to the Minister for Transport to ask him if he could ensure the long-awaited funding for the N85 realignment project between Ennis and Inagh in County Clare is included in the 2026 funding programme? This stretch of road has been on the agenda for a long time - many years. Clare County Council recently passed a motion calling for this funding to be made available, bearing in mind that thousands of cars use the road every day. It is the main access point to the Cliffs of…

I call on the Leader to organise a debate on people with disabilities being active, particularly in sport. We have a very proud tradition in this country and a very proud Special Olympics team which does fantastic work in representing us abroad. Equally, our Paralympians do fantastic work representing us abroad and have had many achievements for which I commend them. There are thousands of people with disabilities who do not fall into either category, however. They deserve support to be active. I commend the variou…

I thank the Minister. I can call him Minister now. The last time he was in this Chamber, I referred to him as Minister even though he was Chair of a committee. He might remember it because I did not recognise him. I always knew he would be a Minister, so I congratulate him. As he knows, I advocate a lot for people with disabilities. As somebody with a disability I benefited enormously from the opportunity to go to college in a time when you had to really work hard because very few with disabilities, and certainly v…

I had him in here one time. He is a great guy.

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. I know he fully understands the benefits of rail travel. I also wish to be associated with the comments regarding Jim Meade. I used meet Jim regularly enough travelling the early morning trains from Ennis to Dublin. He is a good Clare man. I also wish Ms Mary Considine, the incoming CEO of Irish Rail, the very best of luck. She is another Clare woman. The future of our rail service is in good hands. I have three issues. First, I 100% support the Minister of State,…

If the Minister of State can deal with it, I wish to raise the issue of flooding.

Let us get the ring road done first.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Acting Cathaoirleach. Of course I will. I commend my colleague Senator Kennelly on espousing the virtues of Kerry. Indeed he is right. Clare, across the Shannon, has equally as much to offer. The Minster is very welcome to the House. I am delighted that tourism has been added to his brief. When we look back to 2010 to 2012, when we were on our knees as a country, the first industry that bounced back was tourism because we approached it strategically. We created product that was attractive i…

I also warmly welcome our colleague Senator Andrews back. I commend him on what was a truly heroic effort on his part to shine a light on the issue. In due course, I am sure we will hear some of the haunting stories. I join my two colleagues in wishing him well in the upcoming days. I wish him and his family well with his transition back to Irish life. I would like a debate on the property owned by the State, specifically agencies like the OPW and local authorities. In my county there are a lot of vacant properties…

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I realise that budgets are a balancing act. You have to try to take all sorts of competing interests, scenarios and situations, some of which are complex and some of which are not so complex, and some of which have consequences and some of which have unintended consequences. You have to look at what the major issues of the day are. The number one issue is housing. The next most pressing issues, in my view, are healthcare and the cost of living. Regarding housing, we hav…

I thank Senator Craughwell for putting down this motion. As the fella says, when you talk with personal experience, you talk with passion and power. I have spoken to Senator Craughwell many times and I welcome Rebecca here today. I have spoken to him many times over the years about the challenges his family and Rebecca have faced in dealing with this issue. As somebody with a lived experience of a disability, I know what it is like to talk because you are talking with the knowledge, experience, heartache and hope. …

I too welcome the budget and the overall debates that will take place this afternoon and tomorrow. Like others, I call for a sector-by-sector debate on the different areas to give us an opportunity to drill down into specific areas. There are many good measures that we will not have the opportunity to discuss in the overall budget statements, particularly in the area of disability. I reiterate my call for a debate on disability, particularly the plan announced recently, but specifically on the provisions in the bud…

I too want to be associated with the votes of sympathy for Dr. Martin Mansergh, and to Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee on the death of her mother. I stand here regarding the HIQA report. I am doing this against the backdrop of there having been 147 people from the mid-west region on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, at one stage over the past couple of days, which is completely and totally unacceptable. Back in 2024, I think it was late April or early May, the Minister announced a short, sharp review of …

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. It is my first time speaking here since his appointment. I warmly congratulate him. His expertise in his area was well recognised in the previous Oireachtas. I have no doubt he is going to make a significant impact in the coming months and I wish him the best of luck. I stand with Senator Dee Ryan on the issue that has dominated politics and healthcare in my region of Clare and the entire mid-west area for the last number of years. In spite of the tens of millions…

I thank the Minister of State. He is just delivering the message and we appreciate that, but it has taken a year and a half and we still have not had this HIQA report published. Were it to recommend an additional ED in the mid-west, between site purchase, planning, design, QS work, construction and fit-out it would be 2035 before we see another emergency department. That is not good enough for the people of Clare, Limerick and Tipperary who find themselves in a difficult situation on a trolley in an ED for days, li…

I thank the Minister of State.

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. In the first instance, I acknowledge the significant input she and her staff have had in preparing this extremely important, and groundbreaking in many ways, legislation. I urge her to consider amendments and sensible proposals made from the Seanad because that is what leads to better legislation. The whole concept of the debates and engagement on Committee Stage is to improve legislation. We have been waiting to improve and reform mental health legislation for a …