I, too, very much welcome the German ambassador, H.E. David Gill. As I was walking in, he was talking about St. Kilian. St. Kilian is very much associated with Mullagh, in County Cavan, and there have been trips by Cavan County Council to Germany and vice versa to celebrate the memory of St. Kilian. Today, I would like to talk about ALONE. I attended a presentation by ALONE in Buswells yesterday, as I am sure many of us did. It has a number of very important requests for this budget, which I know is probably alread…

Last Sunday, I took part in an event called Walk In Our Shoes. It is a one mile walk for the reform of Ireland's family law court system. There was a walk in each of the 26 counties. It was a peaceful walk and at the end, children's shoes were placed on the steps of a courthouse to symbolise that the real victims of the family law system are the children. I hear from mothers a lot of the time whose relationships have broken down, whether due to violence or coercive control, and access to the children has been grant…

I am a member of the Committee on Education and Youth, as are Senators Nelson Murray and Scahill. We have done a comprehensive bit of work on the hot school meals programme. We started approximately one year ago. Many witnesses have attended the committee. We have visited schools. Senator Scahill and I visited St. Ultan's integrated school in Ballyfermot. I have to say it is an excellent school all round. Additional supports have been brought in at the school to support not just the children but the parents. Senato…

I attended a protest outside the gates of Leinster House this morning at 11 o'clock by Every Child Matters, a campaign established in counties Cavan and Meath by parents of children with additional needs. It has now spread to most other counties in the State. Afterwards in the audiovisual room, six mothers attending that protest came in to speak to us about their experiences. Their contributions were extremely powerful but heartbreaking. It was shocking to hear about the lack of support for their children with disa…

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss the cost of fuel and the devastating effect it is having on people. It is having an effect on everybody across the board but certain sectors are affected more. As we head into the winter and as the weather gets colder, older people and disabled people will end up being forced to live in one room because that is all they can afford to heat or they will go to bed earlier and get up later or sit with several layers of clothing on t…

Excuse me, I am speaking.

Oh, for God's sake. Whisht up.

Yes.

Thank you, a Chathaoirligh. One hundred years ago, we had a Cumann na nGaedheal Government that had the foresight to invest in the hydroelectric station in Ardnacrusha and the roll-out of rural electrification. It cost a lot of money at the time. Why is there no foresight now by the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Government to do something similar and make our country's energy secure? We need proper plans around solar energy, wind energy and wave energy. The technology is there. We need to invest in the infrastructure n…

I missed that.

Maidin mhaith. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as an Ní i dTosach Suí seo a ghlacadh. I raise the cases of a number of people, where the same thing happened to them. There were two over the summer and one previous to that. There was a young woman who ended up hospitalised with quite a serious heart complaint. She was in receipt of jobseeker's allowance, and her payment was ceased because she was in hospital and therefore no longer in a position to seek work or make herself available for work, which is quite und…

I thank the Minister of State. I am saying that the time it takes to make an application for supplementary welfare and submit the information required can be weeks or months. In each of these cases, community welfare officers did not act very quickly. All of these people were left weeks, sometimes going into months, without income and were left borrowing money from family members. Okay, they got it back and were able to pay it back, but it put a lot of stress and worry on the people and left them owing people money…

I raise the case of a 78-year-old man who lives in my area. He contacted me approximately six months ago. He is the sole carer for his 45-year-old daughter, who has a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome. Three years previously, he applied for residential care for her because he felt that, as he is getting older, he will not be able to care for her and he wishes to see her settled in case anything happens to him. I contacted the HSE in February in this regard and received a response one month later. The HSE outlined that i…

Irish citizenship is something to be valued. It represents membership of our nation, it carries rights and responsibilities and it should reflect a genuine and lasting commitment to Ireland. Sinn Féin believes migration must be managed in the best interests of people across Ireland, while recognising our need for workers in key sectors, the pressures on housing and public services and our humanitarian obligations to those fleeing war and persecution. It is a priority to ensure that those who legally make Ireland th…

September is Sepsis Awareness Month so I want to raise sepsis awareness, which I have raised before here. It is a really important issue to raise regularly because it is the biggest killer in Ireland and in the world. More people die from it than from heart attacks, AIDS, lung cancer, breast cancer, Covid and car accidents combined. About 20% of people who contract sepsis die from it. About 20% of those are children, so it affects people of all ages. Even those who do not die experience long-term effects that can r…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. Childcare is extremely important. Early years and school-aged childcare are fundamental to a child's development, to family well-being and to the social and economic life of our society. It needs to be a service that is accessible, affordable, sustainable and of the highest quality. There are a number of different points that deal with different issues here. I will look at affordability first. There is a commitment in the programme for …

I too would like to be associated with the expressions of sympathy, particularly to my colleague Senator Gerard Craughwell on the sad passing of his wife, Helen. I want to raise the issue of the school bus transport system because, since the beginning of August, I have been inundated with communications from distressed parents over the fact that their children have not received school bus tickets for the return to school. Some children who had tickets for several years were suddenly left with no place on the bus. S…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad. I welcome the Bill. We will be fully supporting it. It makes sense. It will reduce barriers for women and make access to contraception easier, which is always going to be welcome. It will also ease pressure on primary care. It is a welcome step in the expansion of community pharmacy and women’s healthcare services. The free contraception scheme is still limited to women aged 17 to 35. The scheme should be reformed to cover all hormone therapy for all women and girls from…

A lot of us here are familiar with the cross-Border scheme or the Northern Ireland planned healthcare. It is an option for people who are on public waiting lists for health procedures to use a different jurisdiction to have that procedure carried out in a more timely fashion. I was recently contacted by the mother of a two-year-old boy who was in a lot of pain and required an operation. The waiting list here was years long so they opted to have the operation carried out in Belfast. She followed the HSE guidelines, …

The motion that we have put forward is very broad and covers many aspects that affect us in rural life. I too am astounded by the amendment tabled by the Government because it does not call for anything, which gives the impression that everything that is needed is there, yet many colleagues across the room here ask for more gardaí in their local area, increased childcare, more supports for roads and transport and so on. I am amazed by it. I live in rural Ireland and grew up in it, on a small farm, where my parents …