Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Members who contributed to the Order of Business. Senator O'Loughlin raised the orphan drugs Bill that is being launched today by Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan. I pay tribute to former Deputy John Brassill, who initiated this Bill in the previous term. We are now bringing it back again. It is important that we deal with the issue of drugs that combat and treat rare diseases. I was heavily involved in the Spinraza campaign in the previous term. We were lucky to get that over the line after many years of campaigning but while people were waiting they were getting much sicker and their families were suffering. We need to find a better way of dealing with rare diseases because they often do not get the same level of research and so the drugs that are produced are very expensive. There is still an onus on the State to look after those citizens, the same as it would anybody else. I commend Senator O'Loughlin for bringing that issue to the floor.

She also raised the story in the Irish Examinerthis morning by Aoife Grace Moore about a young female solicitor who had to go to a consultation in a prison and was asked to remove her bra because, we gather, there was some sort of metal component in the garment that set off the alarms. She was made to enter that consultation having removed her underwear and was requested to do so by a number of male guards on site. It is an appalling story. I commend the young solicitor for speaking out about this. She said she hopes no other professional person would have to do that as they go about doing their job. I note that many colleagues have said they will be contacting the Minister for Justice to address that issue and I shall do the same.

Senator O'Loughlin also raised the issue of Horse Sport Ireland. It is disappointing that it has taken a decision not to enter two competitors in the Olympic dressage competition, given that they have qualified for the first time. I sincerely hope it will reconsider, as the issue has caused much public outrage. It is a huge honour to represent one's country in any sporting endeavour and I wish all our athletes well.

Senator Ward raised the bike-to-work scheme and suggested that we look to expand it. We want to get people out of their cars and onto bicycles or walking for many reasons, including health and environmental ones. I see no reason we should not explore either expanding that scheme or creating a new scheme that would provide access to more affordable bicycles for all members of society. In that vein, I have recently taken to using Dublin Bikes to get up and down from Leinster House to the Convention Centre Dublin. It is a fantastic service for a very reasonable cost for the year but it is not available outside of Dublin. We need to provide access to cycling for people all across the country.

The Senator also raised the issue of the Consumer Credit Act, which was amended in 2019 to stop companies curtailing the date on which a voucher expires. He noted that some companies appear to be circumventing that consumer protection legislation by adding a monthly charge once the voucher has passed a certain date. That goes against the spirit of the law that was enacted in 2019. I agree with the Senator that it should be addressed through amending legislation to remove a clear loophole that companies are unfortunately using.

Senator Craughwell once again raised a number of issues relating to the Defence Forces, something that is also close to my heart. He commended the Royal British Legion for raising £1,000 for the Organisation of National Ex-Servicemen. As Deputy Leader, on behalf of the House I extend my gratitude to that group for its fundraising efforts. It is much appreciated. I will make some inquiries about the post-1994 contractees who are still awaiting confirmation of whether they can serve beyond the age of 50. We will seek a response on that. I concur with the Senator's remarks. RACO recently appeared before the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence and was unimpressed with the level of attendance. It is important that members make an effort to attend these meetings with organisations that are representing their members to the best of their ability. RACO does a fantastic job in doing that for the commissioned officer ranks. I do not have an answer on the waiver for teachers who were also Defence Forces members. I will come back to the Senator on that.

I also note Senator Craughwell's objection to the Order of Business. I agree that it is not ideal to be guillotining debates. There is always a bit of a rush towards the end of term. I am not suggesting that is okay but to be fair to the Leader of the House there is pressure from the Government to get certain legislation passed for a variety of reasons. She is doing her very best to accommodate all requests in that regard but also trying to make sure the House has sufficient time to debate all issues. It is a difficult balancing act and she is doing her best to strike the right balance.

Senator Wall raised the PMAS health scheme. As the Senator will be aware, this issue came up at the Seanad committee on Brexit, where PDFORRA presented to us on that scheme. It is an excellent scheme. The organisations have been very inventive in how they set up the scheme to mirror the cross-border treatment directive to facilitate members of PDFORRA accessing health treatment in the North. Due to the nature of their work, they often pick up injuries that would not be normal in other workplaces and treatment can be very expensive.Unlike the cross-border treatment directive where one has to pay up-front and be reimbursed afterwards, PMAS pays for the cost of the treatment and then seeks the reimbursement on the person's behalf. It allows the member to access treatment without he or she having to go through the stress of getting that credit initially. It is a very good scheme. At the Brexit committee it was recommended to the Minister that the scheme be expanded so other citizens would have access to a similar facility.

Senator Wall also spoke passionately about the need to ban gambling advertisements. I concur with everything he said. Senator Joe O'Reilly also spoke on that issue. The President's comments on this matter were a significant intervention and I welcome them. There is no doubt that the companies are becoming even more clever at targeting younger and vulnerable people and keeping people hooked on what is a very addictive pastime, if I can call it that. There is a need to do more. The consistent advertising during sporting events encourages people to bet while they are watching an event. No good can come from that. The only benefits I can see in that are the benefits for the company making money from those individuals. There are no benefits to society and I believe action is needed.

Senator Pauline O'Reilly raised the issues of climate change, climate justice and the need for a just transition in Ireland. She spoke about the impact climate change is having on millions of people globally and gave the harrowing statistic that 200 million people are now living on land that will be below the tide line by the end of the century. That is quite stark. She referred to parts of Dublin that are below the tide line, an issue we do not hear discussed very much. I welcome her comments and the amendment proposed by the Green Party Senators to the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 whereby the just transition was embedded in that legislation. As we make significant changes in our fight against climate change, and we will make those changes, and as we all play our part in that, it is important that nobody is left behind and that we recognise that those in lower-income households can be more adversely affected if we do not take the right mitigating actions in that regard.

Senator Gavan raised the upcoming review of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. I listened to the discussion on the Senator's Commencement matter this morning and I agree with everything he said. We need more detail on how this review will be completed. I share his concern that it looked as if it was going to be an internal review, which was not the original commitment. I welcome the Minister of State's comment that there will be an independent chairperson, but we need a timeline for that. It is important that we have an open, honest and respectful debate when that legislation comes forward and when that review takes place. I concur with the Senator's remarks about safe access zones. The previous Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, promised that this would happen. It is terrible that at Limerick maternity unit, and it is happening elsewhere as well, women who are accessing a legal service for whatever personal reason, and it is their choice to make, are confronted by those activists outside the doors. If one is unhappy with a Government policy or with legislation, the place to protest is outside Leinster House where the policy makers and legislators work. That is where the changes are made. Do not intimidate or take action against ordinary citizens who are just going about their daily life and doing what they are perfectly entitled to do.

I also commend the Senator on his comments on Colombia. I do not know what to say about the young lady who went through that experience. It is just horrific and I am sad to hear what happened to her afterwards. It is right that we, as a First World, democratic country, always condemn any human rights abuses wherever they occur. The hypocrisy, which was highlighted by Senator Mullen, is that we are very quick to condemn human rights abuses in some parts of the world, but not so quick to condemn them in other parts of the world. There should be consistency in the standards and values we espouse.

Senator Flynn raised the important issue of the school in Ballyfermot, where three schools are amalgamating into one state-of-the-art facility. I concur with what the Senator raised. She was also strongly supported by Senator Ardagh. It makes no sense to build a new school that has no PE facilities or canteen. That is clearly unacceptable. It would be a good idea, perhaps, for the Senator to table a Commencement matter on the issue next week because that is probably the quickest way to get a detailed response directly from the Department. I strongly urge the Minister and the Department to engage with the local community, the school community and parents to rectify the situation. We have an increasing problem with childhood obesity and health issues in the early years that persist into adult years so there must be canteen facilities in which good, healthy food is served, as well as PE facilities so children can get exercise throughout the day. It is very important. These are not luxuries or an add-on, but an essential component of any school facility. That we would build a school without those facilities in this day and age does not make sense. That must be addressed and I support the Senator's call for that engagement and for rectifying those plans, which are clearly not what they should be.

Senator Joe O'Reilly joined the calls for a ban on gambling advertisements. He also raised the issue of leaving certificate examination reform. I note his comment that he is broadly supportive of the current leaving certificate system, but wants the inclusion of sport, music, drama, social issues and environmental activism in terms of assessment. That is a wise proposal. A wider debate is needed on reform of the leaving certificate. There is no doubt that the current system suits some students, but not all students. It is difficult to find a system that suits everybody, but we can do things better. There are many ways in which students can show their ability and intelligence rather than just regurgitating something they have learned by heart onto a page. Rote learning seems to be what we train students to do, rather than teaching them to be good, active citizens.

In response to Senator Dooley, I agree that one of the positives from this pandemic is the ability to have more flexible working arrangements. They were probably coming anyway, but this has certainly accelerated the pace of change. It is welcome for many workers and particularly for people in rural areas who might have greater employment opportunities. However, with all change there can be downsides. It is right to have a debate on working structures post Covid. I note what the Senator said with regard to the potential for some of the multinationals to hire from outside the State because people can work wherever they wish to work now and can connect with their employers. That is an important point. I do not believe it would be in the interests of the Irish people and of the State for the State to fund jobs that are not in the State. That is a reasonable point to make.

Senator Lombard, and this was supported by Senator O'Donovan, raised the lack of infrastructure and funding in rural parts of the country, rural municipal districts and rural local authorities. I concur with what he said. It is an important point. We know the cost of materials has gone through the roof. It has become more expensive to do things such as road maintenance, maintenance of piers and harbours and all the different basic services that people expect from their local authorities. As somebody from a rural county, County Mayo, I can say that it is very difficult for municipal districts that have a coastline, for example, the areas of Belmullet, Achill Island and Westport. They have similar levels of funding to other municipal districts, but they have islands to take care of. The cost of repairing a road on an island is about three times the cost of repairing a road on the mainland. We need to readjust our budgets for local authorities to take into account the diverse nature of some local authorities and municipal districts where the cost of repairing the basic infrastructure that people expect to be repaired and maintained is much higher. The budgets for those areas often tend not to meet that difference.

Senator Mullen eloquently raised the important issue of the TIP report on human trafficking. He was supported by Senator Buttimer. I strongly concur with what the Senator raised. It is unacceptable that Ireland would be ranked so low for the second year running in tackling this issue. The Senator made a chilling comment when he referred to the religious sister who said there is not a town in Ireland that does not have somebody being exploited through human trafficking and working right under our noses. We are failing victims of human trafficking and turning a blind eye to the criminality that is happening in every community across the board. We have to improve our statistics. I am very glad that an independent, objective analysis of how we are doing on this issue is being conducted elsewhere. The Department of Justice must respond to that. It must respond not just with lip service and an acknowledgement of what a poor job it is doing in this area, but with concrete and better actions so that the next time we read this report we will see Ireland improving in how it is dealing with the issue.

Senator Ardagh concurred with Senator Flynn's comments about the school in Ballyfermot. She also raised the issue of the Oliver Bond flats, as she has often done. It is appalling that over 80% of residents are living with damp in their homes, 40% feel their home is not compliant with fire safety and 30% are living with rat infestations. This is a modern, progressive, First World, wealthy country. No citizen should be living in those conditions.This has been talked to death. It has been going on for years and years. Dublin City Council must step up on this issue. Any suggestion it would take a further 15 years to resolve this is not acceptable. Nobody should be living in those conditions and improvements can be made much more quickly than that. I therefore urge Dublin City Council to go back to the drawing board and accelerate its plans without any further delay.

Senator Buttimer raised the issue of championship games. I concur with him that the pilot schemes for having spectators at these games have been a huge success and I commend all involved on making that happen. We have learned over the past year and a half how important sport is to all of us. It is important to every community in every part of this country, to our young people and to everybody who wants to participate in sport either as a spectator as a player on the field. We have taken quite a strict approach with attendance but if a stadium has a capacity, as the Senator said, of 27,000 to 28,000 and we are only letting 500 people in then we could probably look at a degree of flexibility on that, especially given that if that number takes in family and club members then there really is not a whole lot left over. I agree with the Senator that if anything can be done to increase the capacity and allow more people to attend the game, even by just a little bit, it would be broadly welcomed by everybody.

Senator Sherlock raised the OECD report into fair tax competition. This has been an ongoing debate. I note and take on board what the Senator is saying although I caution that the Government and the Ministers for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform, as well as the Department of Finance, are doing their very best to represent the interests of Ireland to ensure we protect the jobs of those who work in many of the large multinational companies. We have benefited from significant foreign direct investment, FDI, over the years and many people are employed directly and indirectly by those companies. I do not suggest they are all here because of the tax regime but I it plays a part. I note what the Senator said about what is classed as a small country and what is not, if I can put it that way, and that we exceed, in terms of our GDP, what is considered to be a small country. However, it would not take a huge amount to tip that in a different direction. I have not been involved in these negotiations or in any of the preparatory work but I trust the Department and our Ministers are protecting Ireland's interests. I do not have a huge difficulty with there being a degree of caution in how we go about this. We have been very competitive with our tax regime to try to attract foreign direct investment and we have been very successful in doing that to the benefit of many citizens across the country. I take on board what the Senator said about the effective tax rate. Our headline tax rate and our effective one are actually very similar; there is very little difference there. The same cannot be said for all countries across the globe. Some member states in the EU can be quite inventive in the sense that their headline rate can look quite high but when all the concessions they give to some of these businesses are taken into account it brings their effective rate right down, sometimes to below where ours is. Ireland can often be painted in a very bad light with respect to our tax regime but the headline tax rate is generally what people pay. We have a good system that has served the people very well. Change is coming and we accept that but I am in favour of a cautious approach to ensure we do not damage Ireland's interests, although we have a role to play in the global community in getting this right as well. I thank the Senator for raising the issue. It would be a welcome debate to have, with either of the finance Ministers, in the new term to have an opportunity to tease that out. It is something that will have a significant impact on Ireland in the decades to come.

Senator Murphy began with some good news which is always nice in the morning. He welcomed that St. Teresa's Special School, Ballinasloe, has now secured a permanent site. I wish the principal, Ms Anita O'Reilly, and all the staff and students the very best of luck. It is great to see a school progressing to that stage and it will serve the community well into the future.

Senator Murphy has often raised the issue of the horticultural industry. He was being modest when he said he had some knowledge of the industry because he has a lot of knowledge of the industry and has been a good advocate and representative for the horticultural sector. I agree with his remarks that emergency legislation would be merited and could be explored to allow for minimal peat extraction, just to keep the industry afloat while we find other solutions. We should not cut off our nose to spite our face and it seems we are putting undue pressure on a sector that could do with a little bit of help just to tide it over until we find a more permanent solution.

Senator Maria Byrne raised the issue of Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh, which is going to go to tender for a new school. Again, it is some welcome and really good news. The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, is doing a fantastic job across the education sector in delivering for local schools like this. I gather Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh has been waiting some time to get the go-ahead on this so it is good news for Limerick. I join with the Senator in wishing all the Olympians, not just those from Limerick but across the board, the very best as they embark on their journey to Tokyo to represent Ireland. She mentioned in particular Ms Naomi Carroll who has had double good news in that she is heading to Tokyo but is also part of the school community which is getting a new school. It is a great day for her and her family.

The Senator finally raised the issue of the PwC report, that is, the pre-budget submission on behalf of the hospitality sector. It called to extend the employee wage subsidy scheme to June 2022 and to maintain the 9% VAT rate into 2023. I agree with the Senator that it would be worthwhile to explore these things. The hospitality sector has been through a lot and is still going through a lot. We do not know when and if it will recover. I concur also with the Senator's remarks around the suggestion the sector will not open until August. I agree with her that if the sector is left without any real summer season, many businesses will be in serious trouble and I would be worried some would not reopen. I therefore urge the Government to ensure the hospitality sector reopens as soon as possible. I believe plans are afoot for 19 July. We hope that date proceeds with some good news for the hospitality sector.

Senator O'Donovan concurred with Senator Lombard on the infrastructure resourcing issue in rural areas but also raised a very important issue in relation to the fishing sector and fishing community. He raised in particular the issue of Kilbeg Pier and the need for a feasibility study costing around €200,000. I suggest that another place we could look for funding for that project is perhaps the Brexit adjustment reserve fund. We have got significant funds from Europe to assist with mitigating against the damage of Brexit. There has been a commitment from Government that much of that funding will go towards the fishing community, which really paid a very high price to get a Brexit deal over the line. It is only right and proper that we give back to that community and that sector. It would be a very worthwhile project which could come out of that funding stream. The Senator might want to explore that with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine who in turn can make inquiries as to how that fund might be accessed.

Senator Martin raised the issue of judicial review in the planning process. I take on board what the Senator is saying. He made a very good point that access to the courts is a fundamental cornerstone of our democracy and our justice system. I agree with him that we should not make it financially impossible for somebody to take a judicial review where he or she has a good and genuine case to bring forward. I note what the Senator said on the ability to seek leave at the outset and how, if there is a frivolous or vexatious application being made, the judge has the ability to dismiss the application. He then made the point that people looking to take these cases are being vigilant on behalf of their communities. That is the key. The feedback I am getting from councillors right across the country who are dealing with these issues is that they have people who not part of the local community objecting to planning applications, that is, people who are not living in the area and have no connection to it. That is the crux of the problem we are trying to deal with. We have serial objectors. It has been suggested these serial objectors may be benefiting in certain ways. We do not know exactly how but there have been suggestions made that there may be a personal benefit to some of these serial objectors. I believe it is really important there be a local connection and we should focus on that. The Senator made the point himself that if a person is being vigilant on behalf of their community he or she should of course have access to the courts to advocate on behalf of his or her community and I agree. However, we need to deal with people who are making objections for the sake of it, objections which could be to the detriment of the community which might in fact be in support of the application. That is the problem I would like us to address.

Senator McGreehan mentioned the Guerin report and the ongoing social issues in Drogheda with drugs and criminality. It is really unfortunate, especially for the people living in the area who want to see Drogheda do well. I completely concur with the Senator's observations that Drogheda has great history and culture, as well as the finest of people. It absolutely does. It is a fantastic and beautiful town. It is unfortunate a small number of people are causing so many problems. We have seen this in other parts of the country such as Limerick, for example, which had social issues going back quite a while. A specific task force was set up, key recommendations were funded and followed through on and the city has been transformed because of it. Thus where there is the will, and funding behind it, these areas can be transformed.That criminality and antisocial behaviour can be stamped out. I concur with the Senator in her call for the recommendations of that report to be properly funded and followed up on.

That concludes all of the issues raised at the Order of Business.