I was not expecting to be next. As a former teacher, I am delighted to speak on this issue. I was a teacher for nearly 30 years and most of that time was spent in Breifne College in Cavan town. I am proud of my teaching career, our education system and the good work teachers, SNAs and the whole school staff, including secretaries and caretakers, put into making our schools not only good places to learn the academic subjects, but also to develop young peoples' social skills, which is almost as important as the forme…

I received correspondence from Cavan County Council the week before last indicating its intention to temporarily pause private housing grant schemes. I refer to the housing adaptation grants for older people and disabled people, the mobility aid grants and housing aid for older people. The reason the council needs to pause the grants with immediate effect is that it has run out of funding. It has made a submission to the Department of housing seeking further funding. I support that submission today and call on the …

I will be sharing time with Senator Nicole Ryan. I join in acknowledging Sheila O'Byrne and Catherine Coffey O'Brien in the Gallery. I acknowledge the profound detrimental impact residential institutional abuse had on survivors, not only at the time but right up to the modern day. I also join Senator Curley in acknowledging Senator Boyhan on his passionate speech today and for all his advocacy work in this area, bringing it home to us what it really means to have been a survivor of something like this. I wish to qu…

I am happy to speak in support of the Dereliction and Building Regeneration Bill. We are living through a housing crisis at the moment so every opportunity must be used to ensure we bring buildings of all sorts back into use for housing. I noticed the levels of vacancy in our towns and villages when I was canvassing in 2020. We saw many vacant buildings, some of them derelict, on the main streets and along all the other streets in all the towns and villages throughout Cavan. I know it is no different from any other…

Tesco is taking over the lease of a SuperValu store in Virginia, County Cavan. I have been informed that all local suppliers have been told they must be prepared to give a 40% margin immediately on their goods. This is just going to hammer local suppliers. They were supplying SuperValu and, if they want to continue to supply Tesco, they have to slash their prices. They cannot afford to do that. They are already barely keeping their head above water. They have families to support, transport costs, production costs a…

Senator Collins is delayed at the moment but Senator Ryan wants to use the time.

Senator Collins may come in and take a couple of minutes of the time.

I commend my colleague, Senator Chris Andrews, on introducing the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025.. This Bill proposes to add a tenth ground of discrimination to the nine grounds that already exist. It is to prohibit discrimination on the basis of your address or your accent - your socioeconomic background. Every city or large town has areas that are associated with poverty and discrimination. There is often intergenerational poverty so it is very difficult for people to actually get out of that pover…

Is the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, going to take this matter?

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. This matter relates to paediatric diabetic services, specifically insulin pump services, in Cavan and Monaghan general hospital. I raised it with the previous Minister for Health, former Deputy Stephen Donnelly, in the Dáil on a number of occasions. Parents of children and young people have approached me to say that children with a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes were unable to access insulin pump therapy through Cavan General Hospital and had to be referred to Our Lady of Lourdes Ho…

Like other Senators, I wish to raise Israel's barbaric actions in Gaza. We have seen war crimes being committed daily for the past 19 months, with men, women and children being killed or horrifically injured. Hospitals are being bombed, medical personnel are being targeted and journalists are being killed. Tom Fletcher of the UN has said that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if vital aid supplies are not let into Gaza. There has been an 11-week blockade by Israel of essential supplies of food and medici…

We wish to share time.

As already mentioned, the waiting times for driver tests are totally unacceptable, with over 83,000 people now waiting. The number has ballooned since the beginning of the year. At the beginning of January, it stood at 72,000 and it is now over 83,000. In some centres, the number of people waiting has doubled or tripled in the last year. The RSA has stated the waiting time should be between ten and 12 weeks, so it is in breach of its own service level agreement. In 2019, the average wait time was six weeks. It is n…

Senator O'Loughlin has mentioned the murder of Clodagh Hawe and her three sons. Being from Cavan, I remember hearing about it on the day and it sent shock waves through the whole country. I commend Clodagh's sister, Jacqueline Connolly, on speaking out on a previous occasion and for writing a book about this. At the time, some of the media reports and others described the perpetrator as a pillar of society and how this was a tragic event. To me, a tragedy suggests something accidental or that could not be helped. T…

The Minister of State is welcome. She will be aware that I come from Cavan, which has had one of the highest rates of suicide in the past few years. It has twice the national average. It is distressing that so many, especially young men, are taking their own lives, but it extends to men and women of all ages, unfortunately. I commend the staff in mental health units in the community and hospitals as well as those who work in SOSAD, Pieta and many of our family resource centres, FRCs, which also provide counselling …

Okay. It has been identified as a problem in Cavan General Hospital. They do not know what they are supposed to do with children in that age bracket. It is a group that needs to be looked at.

I want to raise an issue that affects home care workers employed directly by the HSE. Up to recently, the practice was to submit claims for travel expenses on a paper form. However, the HSE has changed this and there is now an online system. One carer submitted a paper form and had it returned to her. She was told to use the online system. The online system requires the use of a tablet or laptop but not all carers have one. This is causing a lot of stress and worry because the carers do not know how they are going …

I second the amendment.

Many of our young people, who are skilled and highly qualified, are leaving our shores to work abroad. For those who do wish to return, we should make the transition back into society as easy as possible. I know a couple who spent two years in Australia, have returned home and are trying to switch their Australian driving licence back to an Irish driving licence. They have been told this will take three to five months. In the meantime, they cannot get insurance and cannot drive. Living in rural Ireland, they theref…

I welcome the Minister. I am delighted to have this opportunity to discuss a number of issues mentioned in this comprehensive motion, the first being apprenticeships. We know there is a huge need for apprenticeships, particularly in the construction sector. People tell me they cannot get a plumber for love nor money. Another woman told me her roof was damaged during Storm Éowyn and it was only two weeks ago she was able to get someone to come to repair it. We need to do everything we can to encourage as many people…