I congratulate my party colleague Senator Nicole Ryan and her partner on the birth of their daughter, Réidín. I wish them health and happiness into the future. The portal for the school transport scheme closed on Friday for applications, payments and medical card details. A few years ago, there was a review of the school transport scheme and it was indicated and recommended that the condition that you had to attend your nearest school in order to be eligible for school transport should be removed and that the dista…

This morning, I met staff of the National Ambulance Service who are on strike on the picket line in Cavan. The first thing they said to me was that they do not want to be there, they want to be out doing their jobs and it should never have got to this stage. They are looking for the recognition of the upskilling they have undertaken in the past 15 years. One woman who was there told me she has been working for the NAS for 30 years and when she began working there, her job was to transport a patient safely from one …

This issue has been discussed in the Chamber, the Dáil Chamber, the audiovisual room, the justice committee and many other committees. It is good that it is being discussed and different things are being highlighted. However, there is a deep frustration among many organisations like Safe Ireland and Women's Aid that we are still discussing this. There have been improvements - Acts introduced that have helped things and more refuge places - but there is still a lot more to be done. The fact that this is still contin…

I welcome the Minister of State. In recent years, we have seen a huge increase in after-school facilities. Many of these services are provided either on the school campus or in conjunction with a nearby crèche or preschool. It enables the children to go there after school, do their homework, engage in activities and maybe get a meal or whatever. It is good for all involved. It allows the parents to continue working until 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. However, a problem has emerged where children with additional needs face signi…

The AIM programme is excellent for the preschool children. Something like that would need to be extended into the after-school provision as well. In the case of the manager I met, there is a crèche and preschool facility on-site and she is familiar with AIM. She said that is the sort of support you need for the after-school service. She wants to include the twins to whom I referred, for example. I am sure there are many other children who would love to be included in after-school provision. It would be beneficial f…

I want to highlight the case of a woman who lives in County Cavan. She is a wheelchair user. She acquired a disability earlier in her life but has lived a very independent life, worked until retirement and never looked for assistance. She never needed it but now she does. She has a shoulder injury and is awaiting approval for surgery on it. She has been approved for home support care but is waiting months for home care assistance to be provided. She cannot get into or out of bed without assistance, which means she …

A 12-year-old boy's life was put at risk in Cavan General Hospital this week. At 2 p.m. on Monday, a 12-year-old boy, Aaron, was admitted to Cavan General Hospital in extreme pain. An ultrasound was carried out and appendicitis was diagnosed. His parents were told he would be kept overnight, keyhole surgery would be performed the next morning and he would be home in a few hours. On Monday night-Tuesday morning, at approximately 3 a.m., he was in extreme pain and the nurse repeatedly called for a doctor to come to s…

I also want to raise a housing issue, which is the social housing income thresholds. Currently, there are three bands. Band 1 is for city areas and commuter counties around Dublin and €40,000 is the threshold, band 2 is €35,000 for a number of other counties and band 3, which County Cavan is in, is only €30,000. I was contacted by a person yesterday. She is a single parent with four children who is working and she is above the social housing income threshold for Cavan. She has just received an eviction notice even …

Sinn Féin will not be opposing this motion but there is a serious need for safeguards to be established on how the relevant data is stored and used. The proposal involves the transfer of personal data, including names, addresses and vehicle details, from the national vehicle and driver file to British authorities so the Minister must, as the Minister for justice, assure the Oireachtas robust safeguards are in place to ensure this data is not misused, retained longer than necessary or shared with third parties. Give…

I was contacted by Paula, who lives in Cavan. Her son Tadhg was stillborn on Sunday, 5 June 2016 in Cavan General Hospital. She consented to an autopsy, which was carried out on 7 June and buried her little son on 9 June. Tadhg's parents received the post-mortem report on 17 November 2016, which was a period of five months later but this is not the main issue they have. A year after this, in November 2017, which was 17 months after she had buried Tadhg, she received a phone call asking what she wanted to do with he…

I thank the Minister of State. The reply outlined the important changes that have taken place since, and they were required. Unfortunately, though, there was such a gap from when the initial investigations and reports were undertaken, which were all in the early 2000s, until the Act was passed in 2024. Paula lost her son Tadhg in that period. Had action been taken quicker, perhaps that might not have happened to her and many other families. There is also the fact that it is this one pathologist. The question is why…

I also attended the briefing in the audiovisual room last week hosted by Senator Aubrey McCarthy that included presentations from Release and the Irish Penal Reform Trust. A very compelling case was made for community-based detention. The talk started with a reference to the high numbers and overcrowding situation in our prisons. At the end of last month, 5,909 prisoners were in our prisons. That is 125% of the capacity. The figure has dropped in the past few weeks. As of last Friday, there were 5,776 prisoners. Th…

It is Tully.

I welcome the Minister of State. The first thing I will raise is the Before We Die campaign. Like Senator Clonan, I think this is an issue of huge concern. This campaign was established by elderly parents who were caring for adult sons and daughters in their 20s, 30s, 40s or 50s and who were concerned about what was going to happen to those sons and daughters when the parents died. It is every person's right to have the option to live independently. If people do not quite know how to go about accessing housing, it …

I wish to clarify something here. The statement I made about nothing in the budget for disability related to the cost of disability. I was very clear about that. No double payments or energy credits were given. I did not say there was nothing in the budget for disability. I said there was nothing to address the cost of disability, which I recognise is not something in this Minister of State's Department.

I want to raise the issue of obtaining an ankle-foot orthosis, AFO, brace for a child with cerebral palsy in Cavan. I was contacted by the mother of a four-year-old child who has cerebral palsy. Children grow very fast and muscle grows faster than bone. These braces become too tight and non-workable as a child grows, so they have to be replaced on a regular basis. The mother realised that she was outgrowing the brace last November so she contacted her CDNT and informed them of this. They referred the child for new …

I thank the Minister of State. I will certainly share the details with the Minister. I presume the Minister of State is talking about the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. The little girl's mother did reach out to the Minister for Health on this issue and did not receive a response. She reached out to primary care and she reached out to the hospital. She contacted everybody and was, as I said, sent around from one person to the other, and nobody knew or would take responsibility for what had happened. S…

I was recently contacted by a parent who has twins. They are both autistic and will be starting school in September in the local primary school where they will be part of its autism class. The ratio in the class is one special education teacher to six children, with two special needs assistants, SNAs, in support. Both parents work and they requested that their children be included in the after-school facility nearby which takes children in from the school in question. The after-school facility is willing to take th…

Many people have referred to the numbers of homeless, which continually rise. There are over 17,000 at this stage, including nearly 5,500 children. Worryingly, more and more people over 65 are facing homelessness. The fact that older people, who have lived their lives and contributed so much to the State, can find themselves in emergency accommodation is a terrible indictment of this State. I commend Cavan County Council, which does huge work in trying to prevent people from going into homelessness. The council is …

I move: That Seanad Éireann: recognises: - youth work is defined in the Youth Work Act, 2001 as ‘a planned programme of education designed for the purpose of aiding and enhancing the personal and social development of young persons through their voluntary participation, and which is (a) complementary to their formal, academic or vocational education and training; and (b) provided primarily by voluntary youth work organisations’; - Ireland’s national policy objectives for all children and young people aged under 25 …