Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for setting out the proposals for today's Order of Business. I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, that he has effectively banned the construction of new co-living developments. Co-living was a disaster that should never have happened. To be fair to the Minister, he stood on his record. He argued long and hard against co-living and I am glad to see that he walked his talk and has delivered. That is welcome. If we have learned anything from Covid-19 it is that people need their own private and personal living space. That is a right that everyone should have. We need to redouble our efforts now to focus on good quality public and affordable housing for everyone who needs it. A healthy personal space with good ventilation and access to open space is critical. In fairness to the previous Minister, we were not dealing with Covid-19 during his tenure. We have learned something from the pandemic and that must be acknowledged. I ask the Leader to organise a debate on housing. It is such a vast topic that I would suggest we would need a few hours to debate it properly. Housing is clearly exercising a lot of people here. It is raised every week in the House.

The other issue I want to raise is the reporton the front page of The Irish Times today,the headline for which reads: "Mentally ill prisoner found naked on floor of solitary confinement cell". The report makes for gruesome reading:

A European committee investigating conditions in Irish prisons found a severely mentally ill inmate lying naked on the floor of his cell, with faeces and urine on the floor and walls ... There were no blankets in the cell and the man's poncho was lying beside him covered in urine.

That is on the front of one of our national newspapers today. I had intended to come in here with a motion or proposal relating to the Order of Business but that is not necessarily the way to deal with this.It is not about grabbing headlines all of the time or about beating one another up.This is too serious a matter. I appeal to the Leader to make contact this week with the line Minister and arrange for her to come to the House at the earliest possible opportunity. We need statements on this matter. A European committee has found very serious shortcomings in our prison system in regard to people who are mentally unwell. It is a harrowing story. I acknowledge Conor Lally, The Irish Times correspondent, who broke and ran the story today. I appeal to the Leader to do something on that.

On the Order of Business today, only 60 minutes is provided for the Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2020, which is a bit tight. There are seven groups in Seanad Éireann and the suggested speaking time is seven minutes per Senator or Senators sharing, which leaves only 11 minutes for a Minister to respond. Sixty minutes for a debate on legislation is pretty tight. Perhaps the Leader would consider that going forward.