According to the 2022 census, 32% of people in Ireland, including 15,300 people in Donegal, work from home for at least some part of their week. When considering business support packages, it is important that we also consider supporting businesses to offer the option of remote working and support the transition to remote working. There are companies with jobs that exist only online and these need to be targeted. Remote working has the ability to improve access to work for those who face obstacles in taking up empl…

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to this motion regarding dentistry services and thank the Social Democrats for bringing the motion forward. I fully support this motion and its calls for the Government to expand the capacity of public dental services for children and special care patients, reform the dental treatment service scheme, publish the dentists Bill and address the funding and capacity issues in dental education provision. There is an ever-lengthening waiting list for vital dental treatments, as …

Before I start, will the Palestinian flag be flown at Leinster House next Tuesday?

Thank you. The fishing industry in Ireland has been in serious and rapid decline since the introduction of the Common Fisheries Policy. Due to this, fish factory workers, who once worked ten months of the year, are now lucky to get six weeks' work in factories. This decline has meant that it is no longer possible for workers to work up enough stamps. They are forced to apply for jobseeker's allowance rather than jobseeker's benefit, which impacts on their income. Although scarce, the work carried out by factory wor…

Like many other Deputies and many members of the public, I was shocked to see the Israeli ambassador at the Famine commemoration at the weekend. This was a political decision on the part of the Government. Having the Israeli ambassador commemorating the Famine as Israel is busy committing genocide in the occupied territories was pure hypocrisy. We need to have a debate on this matter. We may be about to recognise the state of Palestine tomorrow but we need to go a lot further than that. We need to call out Israel o…

It has been two and a half years since Housing for All was published and what has the Minister to show for it? The answer is record-breaking homelessness, crumbling houses, defective dwellings and tents of asylum seekers. One thing is certain: the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, has not provided housing for all. Far from it. The housing situation in this country has never been so dire. Secure and stable housing has become completely inaccessible to many. This speaks to a complete failure of Government policy. On the othe…

On 28 November 2022, Judge Geoffrey Shannon informed survivors of child sexual abuse that he had submitted his report to the board of St. John Ambulance Ireland. In February, I raised the fact that it had been nearly a year since the publication of the damning report but that survivors were still waiting on St. John Ambulance to implement the recommendations. Today, survivors are still waiting for these recommendations to be implemented. It is completely unacceptable that this has been allowed to continue. Survivor…

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Bill. Although I completely disagree with the overall model of care for nursing homes and residential homes for people with disabilities in Ireland, I recognise that this legislation is important in the context of the current model that we have in place. The recent significant increase in the number of nursing homes in private ownership is a worrying trend. We are seeing more private beds and fewer publicly funded ones every year. In addition, there has been a move …

I an grateful for the opportunity to speak on this motion and to the Labour Party for bringing it forward. This year has been devastating for road fatalities. My heart goes out to all the families and loved ones affected by road deaths and road accidents. There have been 67 fatal collisions with 72 people killed on Irish roads so far this year. This is the highest we have seen in a number of years and it is very worrying. The European Commission’s country-by-country analysis comparing road deaths showed that Irelan…

I have been contacted by a number of residents of The Forest, Ballymacool, Letterkenny, County Donegal. They originally qualified for the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme and were waiting for their home to be purchased by the Housing Agency, but then received an abrupt email from the Housing Agency stating it would not proceed with the purchase, with no explanation. Understandably, the residents are very upset by this situation and worried about being made homeless. In Letterkenny, as with everywhere else in the c…

The healthcare system in this country is on its knees and needs a complete overhaul if we are serious about delivering universal healthcare. Waiting lists are constantly breaking record highs and access to sufficient healthcare is becoming increasingly difficult. Last month, Letterkenny hospital broke another record: the longest ever waiting list for beds. Some 594 patients were admitted to the hospital without a bed, the highest number ever recorded at the hospital for the month of April. The health service in Cou…

I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to speak on this motion on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. I would like to welcome the survivors, relatives and the Justice for the Forgotten campaigners to the House today. I fully support this motion which calls on the Government to urgently address the matter of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings directly with the British Government in order to actively pursue the implementation of the 2008, 2011 and 2016 all-party motions to seek out information regarding these tragic e…

I understand the sale of alcohol Bill to reform the alcohol licensing system and extend licensing hours for bars and restaurants has been in the works for a while now. The Government initially indicated the Bill would be introduced before the summer recess. However, the Taoiseach recently expressed scepticism about meeting the summer deadline, citing the need for careful consideration and to avoid unintended consequences. During pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill at the Joint Committee on Justice, it was advised …

I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate on special educational needs provision for vulnerable children. I welcome the Minister of State and wish her the best of luck in her new job. It is important that this issue is debated, although when we read the Minister of State's comments, we would have been forgiven for wondering why it should be discussed in the House when everything seems to be going so well. When she outlined all of the bodies and people she has consulted, there was no mention of the Omb…

I thank Deputy Harkin and her staff for bringing forward this very important motion on the challenges facing the childcare and nursing home sectors. I support this motion and its calls on the Government to put in place specific policies to ensure that, in the childcare and nursing home sectors, there is an equitable local and regional spread of affordable quality services. I am going to concentrate on childcare in my contribution but it is across the board, as the Minister of State said earlier. Unfortunately, I ha…

On 9 May 1950 the foundation of the European Union was set out in a declaration based on two core principles, namely, peace and solidarity. This is what the European Union was set up to achieve but as each year passes the EU distances itself further and further from these core principles. Peace and solidarity are no longer at the heart of European policy, and selfishness and greed have dominated and have left the EU rotten to its core. The EU can no longer even pretend to live by these principles of peace and solid…

The state of housing in this country is an absolute disgrace. We have been in crisis mode with a severe lack of affordable housing for years now and despite this, the Government still fails to act and take the drastic action that is so desperately needed. I have been contacted by many constituents in Donegal who are facing dire situations. These are people who are having to choose between paying the rent or paying the bills; people who are being evicted from their homes at short notice with nowhere to go and no alt…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024. I condemn the way this Government has treated legislation and the legislative process throughout its time in Government. At the Business Committee last week I highlighted that neither the Bill nor pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill were published despite the fact it was due for debate this week. The Bill was not published until last Thursday afternoon and the pre-legislative scrutiny was published after that on Friday. …

I express my solidarity with the Minister and her family. It is an appalling situation and should not continue anywhere. Although I am against the introduction of the European migration and asylum pact, it is not for the reasons the Rural Independent Group outlined in the motion, so I will not support that motion. The Government will probably bring forward an amendment, which I will be happy not to support because I do not expect it to go anywhere near satisfying the concerns I have. I am disappointed at some of th…

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on the Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024. The State has repeatedly let down survivors of residential institutional abuse and this legislation is yet another example. It is interesting that this legislation is being put forward by the Department of Education. We had the Department of children previously. It shows that this is a whole-of-government approach to actually perpetrating the wrongs that have gone on and compounding them rather tha…