Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in welcoming the family of Senator Lawless to the Gallery. While we have visitors from America here, I commend the US women's soccer team on their victory and progress to the final of the World Cup. It is brilliant to see women's football being televised and achieving such enormous audiences and success. We look forward to the final. I join colleagues also in welcoming the appointments of women to two of the four top EU posts last night. I hope that whatever appointments have been made, there will be continued solidarity with Ireland as we face the prospect of Brexit, including the awful prospect of a no-deal Brexit, in the autumn.

I ask the Leader for a debate on undocumented children in Ireland. We had a powerful briefing this morning from the Migrant Rights Centre and the Children's Rights Alliance to present the results of a survey which shows just how urgently we need to secure legal pathways to residency for the many children growing up and attending school in Ireland who are undocumented and have no legal status. Currently, they have no pathway to residency. Colleagues may recall that in the autumn, we tabled a Labour Party Private Members' Bill which would provide pathways to residency for such children. The Bill was supported by the Migrant Rights Centre and we will certainly move to make progress on it over the coming months. I hope we will see some movement in that regard over the summer and would like the House to debate the issue in due course. I commend the Migrant Rights Centre and the Children's Rights Alliance on their continued emphasis on and highlighting of this issue and on the presentations they hosted this morning.

Another briefing took place today, which I was glad to attend along with the Cathaoirleach. This was the pre-budget submission of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. It was a powerful, personal and very brave presentation from people living with dementia. They spoke about the lack of nationally rolled-out supports for those with dementia and sought to ensure funding for that in the budget. While we will have debates in the run-up to the budget, I hope we can all reflect in the meantime on the need for supports for those with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.