Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Cathaoirleach can certainly see that there is no shortage of work, and willingness to work, by the Members of this House. I will answer in the round for today. All of the requests for debates, and all of them very much needed, will be addressed as soon as we possibly can. I will liaise with regard to forthcoming legislation and we anticipate anything between six and eight Bills being sent to the House in the next number of weeks. If there is capacity to put some of those debates in the schedule, we will certainly work to do that in the next couple of weeks. If not, again cognisant of what was said last week, we have a tremendous number of new Ministers, to give them an opportunity to read into their briefs and become more proficient, and as suggested by one Senator, we might leave the debates until September. If I can facilitate any of the debates in the next couple of weeks, I will be happy to do so.

I will take up Senator Burke's suggestion that we seek Commencement matters to be received in writing. Again, we all appreciate that we have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks but that does not mean we do not have queries that need to be answered through whatever mechanism I can find. I will talk to Ms Orla Murray about the rule of only having four questions or debates a day as that probably would not be sufficient for us all over the next couple of weeks. Let me investigate the matter and I will come back to it on Thursday.Two specific issues were repeatedly raised today. With the permission of the House what I would like to do is write to the Minister with responsibility for sport with regard to our sporting organisations throughout the country to ask for an extension not only of their fundraising licences but also their pitch licences. We are all aware they have all been closed and their fundraising activities are not the same even though communities have definitely rallied and come together. With the permission of the House, on its behalf I will write to the Minister with responsibility for sport requesting this extension.

Far more importantly, with the unanimous support of the House, I will write to the Taoiseach today suggesting we overwhelmingly support the 12-week extension of maternity leave. We are all aware there are two Ministers involved with regard to the payments, namely, the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection. They need to work together. We could not pass legislation before the new Government was formed, which was last week, but we can certainly pass it now. With the permission of the House, I will write to the Taoiseach saying we overwhelmingly support the 12-week extension and that we will certainly be willing and ready to pass any legislation required to give that extension to the new mammies of Ireland and their husbands.

I very much welcome the Taoiseach's announcement this afternoon to have a public inquiry into the passing of a local constituent of mine, Ultan Meehan. Mary Bartley Meehan has gone on the public record in recent days expressing how concerned, upset and devastated she is at the passing of her husband, only some weeks after the passing of her eldest son, in a nursing home in Meath. There are a lot of questions to be asked and I very much welcome the announcement of the inquiry by An Taoiseach.

Some Members have mentioned the following today. If we could not have loved Tony Holohan more than we did last week, to hear the announcement of the actual personal sacrifice he has made for his State over recent months I have to say he is so highly regarded in our views and in our esteem. I absolutely know and hope he will feel the public will and the value and strength of all of our prayers as his wife goes through the battle she is going through, supported by him. Again, on behalf of the House, I would like to write to him to commend him and thank him for such gracious patriotism in recent months and, indeed, years. He has only become known to most of us in recent months. I will do this on behalf of the House.

With regard to the North-South Ministerial Council, in my four years at the Cabinet table I never attended one of them because there were not Ministers to meet other Ministers. I am very glad that there are now, with the new Government in situfor the past week in Ireland and the Stormont Parliament sitting in Northern Ireland. I will very much welcome the first meeting very soon.