Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry, I misunderstood that. Again, I genuinely do not believe that people know that the committee is meeting every single day. Most Oireachtas committees meet once a week and some meet only once a fortnight. It is a huge onus on all of us to make sure that everybody knows there is a huge volume of work being done. That is especially the case in a week when we see the reports spoken about by Senator Byrne that do not paint a very good picture, and particularly in a week when the Government had to acknowledge that it is only at 78% of the targets we had set for ourselves on climate action. We need to be telling people far more loudly what it is we are actually doing, what our ambitions are and where we are at. In the new year I will look to see if we can have a recurring theme around climate action on our weekly schedule.

Senator Bacik mentioned last night's debate. I thought it was a wonderful debate. I was not here but I watched it remotely. It was a very inclusive debate. It shows by example that when we in this House work together we work better. This is something that other Houses might take note of. There is some real thoughtfulness around some of the policies that start in this Chamber. Due to the fact that there is the space and time to tease through differences of opinion in a very relaxed and collegiate atmosphere, one gets much better policy and better legislation. I thank Senators for doing what they did last night and I am very happy to continue to facilitate that. I will bring it back in the new year.

Senators Keogan and Byrne started off today's Order of Business with the issue of environmental impacts. I am not sure that the EPA does have the full clout, be it through legislation or through the bodies it needs. We will not know until we ask. I will be writing letters for the rest of the day, but I will send another letter on that issue this afternoon. I will copy the Senators on that letter. We will make this a commitment that we will try to put a weekly part of the schedule on the Order of Business for climate actions.

I shall conclude with a matter that a number of my colleagues have raised, but not just in this House and not just today. The matter was raised in the Dáil last night. I have to say that even though I am a Government representative in this House I am very disappointed in the way Dáil Éireann voted on the issue last night, although I understand the reasons. I had a Commencement matter this week on the issue of student nurses' pay.

Rounds of applause are lovely, they really are, and they show that we genuinely appreciate the work of all our front-line staff. However, one shows appreciation by putting money into people's pockets. It is as simple as that. It is a basic, human function. We all need money to live. This is why people go out to work. We hear phrases such as "I am a teacher because I have a vocation" or "I am a nurse because I am really caring". There is this nonsense that taking a profession that one loves means that one is not really working is great, but we all go to work to get paid. The value we put on it and the appreciation we show to people is by putting money in their pockets. I am really disappointed because the Minister gave me a commitment here on Tuesday. Although we are going to look at the HSE contracts for next year, which is great and is deadly for the student nurses that start next year, we have 4,000 student nurses now. Most of them are women. Most of our teachers are also women. This, however, is another gender-based argument we can have on a different day. Stop with this nonsense of saying we are going to do something in the future. We are in the middle of a crisis, not just in Ireland but also in the world. It is a time for us to be generous and to recognise that people are pulling together and that we need to respond in kind. I will write again to the Taoiseach today to ask for the issue to be resolved now and not at some point in the future. I will do that in everyone's name if that is okay.