Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom cúpla focal a rá faoi uaigneas. I mo thuairim, tá an fhadhb seo níos measa anois ná riamh. Is fadhb é do dochtúirí agus an tseirbhís sláinte ar fad mar tá uaigneas olc ar shláinte daoine. Is brónach é seo, ach tá sé fíor. Tá an teicneolaíocht tábhachtach ach tá teagmháil phearsanta níos fearr.

Personal contact and interaction with others is much better for us than technology alone. Scientific, medical and, indeed, public policy research on the issue of loneliness all outline the devastating impact that loneliness can have. It is perhaps prophetic that today is the anniversary of the day in 1901 when the Italian physicist and radio pioneer Marconi sent the first radio transmission 2,000 miles across the Atlantic. Marconi transformed communication as we know it. Last week was the 25th anniversary of the first text message. Now, of course, we are awash with communication options - Facebook, FaceTime, Skype and Snapchat, to mention just a few - but, despite all these communication models, people are lonelier than ever. The human interaction is often missing, the knowledge that somebody cared enough to drop in to see that someone was doing okay. The one thing I have come to know is that loneliness never discriminates between young and old, rich and poor or urban and rural. It is now at epidemic levels. We all need to play a role in this battle. The Government has an important role to play also and it needs to immediately establish a loneliness task force or commission.

On a second issue, I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 15, the Courts Service (Amendment) Bill 2017, be taken before No. 1. It is a simple Bill that will bring an end to the farce whereby the Courts Service invests millions of euro in the tobacco industry.