Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and her husband Paul on their lovely news. It is a really exciting time for them as a young couple but it highlights the disenfranchisement of a lot of women in this country in terms of the access to the equality so many women and men take for granted. It is definitely an issue we need to address not just because a female Minister happens to be expecting her first baby and making history but because it should have been done a long time ago. We need to stop talking about women looking for equality in this country and start to do something about it. With the agreement of Members, I will send the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and her husband Paul a letter on our behalf.

Various colleagues have raised two distinct emotional issues today, one of which is the vaccine and is a really positive emotion in terms of its first ever provision this morning to an Irish lady. I hope there will be a lengthy queue of members of this society, north and south, east and west and in all other countries to get the vaccine as soon as possible. It is beholden on all of us to show leadership. I acknowledge that there are people who have concerns and that some people have fears. It is our job as leaders to allay those fears and to make sure that everybody is aware of the positivities of the science and the medicine in terms of getting our lives back on track. We need to put this year behind us from a health perspective and move on to a quality of life.

At the same time, we are charged potentially with the adverse impact of a no-deal Brexit. I agree with colleagues that this week is crucial. It is crucial that we continue to see leadership from the EU perspective and also the British perspective so that we can get to the end of this week with a positive outcome. One colleague said this morning that people may be sick and tired of talking about it. I agree that we are all massively fatigued by the discussion on it for the last couple of years but we will be talking about it for generations to come if the right thing is not done between now and Friday. The impact, not only on us but also on our children, grandchildren and particular industries, will be catastrophic not only on this island but also across the British Isles. We need to be cognisant of that.

The funding for swimming pools announced this morning is welcome. It is interesting that the Senators who have welcomed it here this morning are Senators in whose areas there are swimming pools. The rest of us do not have swimming pools in our areas. We should have a debate on the positivities of swimming as a sport not alone in the sea but also in swimming pools. Swimming pools should be accessible to every town, village and city in this country but they are not. We have moved in the last 15 years from providing public swimming pools to not doing so. That is real pity. While there are many towns and cities that have private pools attached to gyms it does not provide the same dividend and public access to lessons as we would have enjoyed in our youth. It is an issue we should seek to debate in the new year.

Different colleagues raised the issue of music and entertainment in our churches and streets, at weddings or in other venues.It is a very large cohort and it is one of the industries that has been last to be able to be turned back on when reopening society. I am very aware that we cannot turn back on everything because it would soon mean that we would have to turn back off everything. I recognise that Members are entitled to bring representations here and I will bring them on to the Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Catherine Martin. She has received a request not only to come and talk to us about the arts sector but also to talk to us about the universal income pilot scheme that she has proposed. That invitation is outstanding.

Two different colleagues mentioned two different sets of parents this morning. It never ceases to amaze me that parents who have suffered huge adversity in their lives, particularly the loss of their children, go on to provide enormous help and succour to people who find themselves in the same situation. It is an absolute credit to them. It is definitely something that needs to be respected and celebrated, on behalf of the State, by the service that they provide in place of the State. "Coco's law" is what we will call the legislation as it is its proper name. The reason it is so prevalent is not just because Deputy Howlin has championed it for so long, for which he deserves credit, but Jackie Fox never stopped talking about her daughter Coco from the day she suffered the unspeakable tragedy of losing her daughter. The very least that we can do is respect the will and wishes not just of her as a mammy but, indeed, of the tens of thousands of other people who support her in having this Bill called Coco's law when we enact the legislation, please God next week. I know it is unorthodox, is not the done thing and officials do not like us changing from the standard practice that we have always employed but we should start. I contacted the relevant Minister from a personal perspective over the weekend, having spoken to Deputy Howlin last week. I will contact her but it would be more powerful if we all contacted her individually. I do not say just on this one occasion because there will probably be other occasions. It is time that we started to respect the enormous contributions of people who have lost so massively in their lives yet provide succour, help and, in this case, legislation to protect all of our children. I ask all Senators to contact the Minister's office, if they do not mind.

Senator Gallagher is not here but I wish to refer to the wonderful organisation that was established by that couple. A tribute to their legacy would be for us to fix the gap in the legislation to allow people get their death certificates when they die abroad with the ease that they can get any other certification. I thank the Cathaoirleach for acknowledging the huge contribution made by the couple, which we should do more often.

I say to Senator Gavan that I cannot believe that someone who volunteered on a Friday, and not get any money for volunteering, and gave a dig-out to his or her employer so a company could open last week would suffer and not get a bonus next week. I will write to the Minister today. To my mind, and I was around when the provision was established, one would have had to have been paid for the work in order to be able to sign off. If one went in and volunteered, no more than if one volunteered anywhere, it is not paid work. They were still in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, and they should not have closed their claim until the day they actually went back to work, which would have been one of the days last week. I do not know if the Senator has the name of a specific person that he could give me that I could use as an example but I will certainly make contact with the Minister's office today because that is bang out of order and is not right.

Senator Joe O'Reilly asked for a debate on mental health services. There is one scheduled for early January. Before we have that debate I will seek views on the proposal made by Deputy Neale Richmond and Counsellor Kenneth Egan to ring-fence the assets derived from drug crime in this country, as to whether that can be specifically used to provide rehabilitation services and funding to be ring-fenced for people who have been unfortunate enough to suffer with addictions.

Senator Wall asked for a debate on home ownership. We will try to do that as early as we can after Christmas. I am baffled that the banks in this country would ignore what is as obvious as the nose on everybody's face. There are people who are going to be in severe distress already today but definitely next year when their jobs really do not re-open. We can see that as clearly as we saw it in 2011 and 2012.There was a real delay back in those days for us to get our act together as legislators. I absolutely do not think we should allow history to repeat itself. These people will not have an income and, therefore, will not be able to pay their normal outlays. That is something which bank lenders need to be cognisant of because we certainly cannot revisit the situation we had ten years ago. I will ask not only for that debate to be facilitated, but also for a response on the matter if I can get one beforehand.

Senator Boyhan raised the issue of local government. As Senators, we all come from activist backgrounds, whether we went through the local government system, came straight into the Seanad or the Dáil or took various routes back and forth. I genuinely believe all Senators know what it is like to care about something in society and our communities. That is why we became activists in the first place. Councillors do Trojan work. The fact that only some 200 of them are ladies and the fact that so many other parts of Ireland lack representation on councils show that we have an awfully long way to go. Senator Keogan and I come from a background on Meath County Council, which probably had one of the highest representations of women of all councils. I do not think it did things differently from any other council. It is worth considering this issue to see whether there is something we are missing. We definitely need to take positive and affirmative action not just to increase the representation of women on local authorities, but also that of every other section of society that is not represented because if we do not all sit around the table together, then we do not make inclusive laws. That is very much where we should start.

I will finish by addressing a matter that has not been raised today. We have had several conversations in this Chamber in recent months regarding the inequality that exists not just in Irish society but in the wider world with regard to women versus men. I know that some people may get tired of us as we seem to be bleating on about it. I think the really disappointing treatment of lady footballers this weekend by a massively funded, State-sponsored organisation goes to show that we need to keep bleating on about it week in, week out. What were more disappointing and compounded the issue were the explanations that were somehow trotted out yesterday as to why and whose fault it was that the women were disrespected so badly at the weekend. I think we need to take positive action and say that it is not acceptable for a State-sponsored body or any other organisation, particularly one that has been given millions of euro, to act in that way. At the same time, the organisation gives us such great grá, as we recognised only a couple of weeks ago when we spoke about the tonic our footballers were giving us. These women need to be able to give us the same lift and tonic. I believe they were shown significant disrespect at the weekend and we need to ensure that never happens again.