Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for contributing to the Order of Business this morning. Senator Mullen has raised a very important issue. I am not a medical doctor. I recall that the issue came up at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. There were differing scientific views expressed by medical professionals. I have no difficulty in the issue being re-examined. I certainly have sympathy for and am persuaded by the cautionary principle in relation to same.

On the Senator's points about social media, I fully agree that it is not the best forum to express what sometimes are very complex views. Unfortunately, we have come to a situation in politics where Government policy or Opposition policy is being announced for the first time on Twitter. It is certainly not something that I support and I would like to go back to doing things the old way, and I would not often say that about many things. I believe that progress in that regard has not been positive.

Senator Hoey raised the issue of the Labour Party vaccine pledge. I believe that the majority of Members, as leaders in their communities, will do their best to encourage people to take up the vaccine. I will be rolling up my sleeve. I am far down the pecking order for getting the vaccine, but as soon as I can get it I will be taking it. I fully support the Government's published plan for the hierarchy of the people who will receive the vaccine first, prioritising those in nursing home, front-line workers, and then based on risk and age. It seems like a fair and sensible way to do this. Ultimately, the quicker we can roll out the vaccine the better. Recent opinion polls showing certain levels of support among different political groupings for the vaccine will put it back on political parties to do their best to speak to their supporters and their base to make sure we reach that 70% and higher vaccine uptake, which is what we need to get this country back up and running.

Senator Hoey also raise the issue of student nurses and student midwives and their pay. Obviously, there has been much debate on the issue in recent days. I made my views on the issue very clear in this House last week. The Government is examining an increase in the allowances for student nurses. I agree with Senator Hoey in that I do not believe remunerating nurses and midwives would result in the degree programme no longer being viable. That does not make sense to me and we do not need to go down that route. We need to address the issue in a real and meaningful way. We will do this by working with the student nurses, the student midwives and with the INMO, to find a solution that is acceptable to its members.

Senator Garvey raised the issue of rural cycling and walkways. I welcome the €50 million investment by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in rural communities for walkways and cycleways. We need to move to a place where people can leave the car at home and can walk and cycle between communities. If a person lives in a rural area within 10 km of the local town or village, then he or she should have the option to walk or cycle there. People would use the walkways or cycleways if they were there.

Senator Warfield spoke on the issue of co-living. I reiterate the Minister, Darragh O'Brien's very clear position that co-living has been banned. If there are certain processes in place with regard to planning, that is a matter for the Minister to take up with An Bord Pleanála and the local authorities. The position from Government is that co-living has been banned.

With regard to the rental properties being advertised that are well below standard, Senator Moynihan raised a similar issue about properties that are being rented out that are clearly not fit to be lived in by anybody. I agree with Senator Warfield that we need to look at ways of preventing those properties from being advertised. That can pose a difficulty, however, as it is very difficult for Government to regulate all advertisements. There need to be better supports and laws in place for local authorities to come down hard on these landlords.

Senator Flynn raised the issue of the task force and the Inner City Helping Homeless #DontForgetMe campaign. It has highlighted the 56 lives that were lost to homelessness in our capital city in 2019. Senator Fitzpatrick raised the same issue last week. The Minister has responded that they are working on the issue. A task force has been set up. It is an issue the Government wants to see addressed. I do not have an answer for the Senator on how many lives we have lost in the capital in 2020. We do need to know those figures. It is important that they are highlighted and that it is known across both Houses and among the public.

Senators McGreehan and Keogan raised the matter of the county development plan. It is a real concern. This is not a new issue. This came up in the last development plan also. I was a local authority member on Mayo County Council at that time. We had a huge difficulty with the Department in trying to make amendments to our county development plan to facilitate once-off rural housing. I come from a rural village. It is difficult to get planning permission, but we do not want to make it absolutely impossible for people from an area to live in that area. That is certainly being pushed from certain quarters. It is not something I support. We need to support people to live in their communities. Why are we investing in rural schools and rural infrastructure if people are not going to live there? There is definitely that friction between the Department and some local authorities. Our councillors across all counties are doing their damnedest to make sure the views of the public in their local community are reflected in their county development plan. It is in their remit to pass those plans.

Senator Kyne raised the issue of insurance and the personal injuries guidelines. I welcome the announcement yesterday by the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Fleming, of the reforms that will come into effect in the area of insurance and personal injuries, and around the guidelines for awards that can be made. I am aware there is also a particular issue the Government is working on whereby we want to see a cap on personal injuries claims, especially for the smaller claims such as whiplash where we know that people are taking claims that are quite frivolous but difficult to disprove. Awards for whiplash in Ireland are two and three times those in the UK. This is not acceptable and it cannot be justified.

We must also take into account the person who has a very serious accident. The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, gave an account on radio yesterday of the child who may have suffered a catastrophic injury when very young and who will need long-term care for the rest of his or her life. Really, there should not be a prohibitive cap on those types of cases. It is about trying to strike the right balance. I am confident that the plan announced yesterday will bring about meaningful reform and change in the insurance industry. I compliment Mr. Peter Boland and his team from the Alliance for Insurance Reform who have done a lot of work on this in recent years to bring about those changes for businesses and for citizens.

I take on board Senator Keogan's quote, which she read into the record of the House. It was very important to bring that issue to public attention and to put it on the record of the House.

Senator Fitzpatrick raised the issue of the Rotunda Hospital. I am aware it is not the Senator's first time to raise the matter of the not-fit-for-purpose standard of the Rotunda Hospital building. This hospital delivers one in six of the babies born in Ireland. One in four of babies born in Ireland who end up in a neonatal unit come through the Rotunda Hospital. It is one of the busiest maternity hospitals in the country.

The Senator also highlighted the very important issue of women's health and the waiting lists for gynaecological appointments. This is a huge issue and often it is not talked about very much. Women tend not to receive a diagnosis as quickly as they should on many issues, and endometriosis certainly comes to mind. We have a lot of work to do in Ireland to put in place a proper care pathway to care for women, one in ten of whom suffer from endometriosis at different levels of severity. We have a lot of work to do on that. The figure of 3,500 on a waiting list for gynaecological appointments at the Rotunda Hospital is a shocking and disgraceful figure that needs to be addressed urgently.

Senator Dolan once again has raised the issue of Ballinasloe, always keeping her home community on the agenda and on the map. I commend the Senator on her fine work representing her community. I thank the Senator for extending an invitation to all Members of the House to attend the meeting tonight of Ballinasloe Says No. It is very important that communities get to have their say on issues affecting their community.

I concur with the comments of Senator Dolan on Brexit and the impact on the agrifood sector. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, we are looking at some €1.7 billion worth of tariffs on our exports, the majority of which, up towards €1.5 billion, will be on the agrifood sector. The impact of a no-deal Brexit on top of a pandemic really does not bear thinking about. I sincerely hope a deal is reached. While the progress yesterday on the withdrawal agreement was welcome, it was probably slightly overstated because that was the agreement we thought we had reached a year ago, so really we had only got back to where we were a year ago. The free trade agreement is quite separate to the withdrawal agreement. There are still considerable differences on fishing, governance and the level playing field provisions. We are not there yet. We certainly wish Commission President Ursula von der Leyen well in her conversations today with the British Prime Minister. We hope that sense and logic will prevail.

I reassure citizens who may be watching that the Government is making every effort to get that deal over the line. We are making very real preparations in the event of no deal. Plans are being put in place even in relation to vaccines. We are ensuring a direct access from mainland Europe to Ireland, without having to use the land bridge, to get the vaccines here. We are making the necessary preparations in the event that a deal is not done by the 1 January, all the while hoping we do get there.

Senator Moynihan raised the issue of the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on overcrowding in rental accommodation. I watched the programme and I believe it is disgraceful. We need to listen to the local authorities when they say they do not have the proper legislative basis to tackle these landlords, many of whom are criminals in my view. They are forcing people to live in absolute squalor, and putting their health, safety and well-being at risk. We need to make an example of these individuals and come down hard on them. I believe they should be getting significant custodial sentences for making people live in those conditions. Until we take the issue seriously and until people pay the price for what they do to good decent people who are just looking for a home, we will not see meaningful reform in this area.We need to enact legislation that empowers local authorities to bring these people to court. The full rigour of the law must be brought to bear on the individuals who are responsible for these living conditions. I would not call them homes or places to live because they are neither of those things. I say to the people affected by these living conditions that we are listening, we will work on this and we hope to get a resolution to the matter very soon.

I thank Senator Moynihan for also raising the issue of the Iveagh Markets and heritage. I was not aware of the issue, but protecting our heritage and all such sites is really important not just for those of us enjoying them today but also for generations to come. We should look after what is the heart of our communities.

Senator Byrne raised the issue of rural housing, which I think I have dealt with.

I was not aware of this but I welcome the fact that Facebook and Twitter will work with the Government to try to get a positive vaccine message out there. We have a job of work to do on this. The anti-vax campaign is already up and running, spreading misinformation and scaring people. We have to acknowledge that some people are asking genuine questions and are really worried. They ask whether the vaccine is safe because it has been brought about so quickly, which is a reasonable question to ask. I am confident it is safe but I am not a scientific expert. As I said, I will be very happy to take the vaccine when I am allowed to get it. If we can come out and answer people's questions in a very honest and transparent way, we will be able to deal with this. I understand that the HSE, the CMO and the Minister for Health, when they have approval from the EMA and are ready to roll, will be ready to start a campaign promoting the vaccine in a positive way. I trust that will come about in a very effective manner.

Senator Byrne also raised the reopening of theatres. I know that the Senator has been a strong advocate for the arts since setting foot in this Chamber. He has always advocated for protection of the arts and trying to get the arts sector back on its feet. It has been one of the most impacted sectors in the country, aside from retail and hospitality. The arts has really suffered, with no real end in sight in the coming months because we just cannot see packed venues being a reality for the next while. There are questions to be asked here, particularly for not-for-profits that are not accessing supports that they may need. We need to facilitate these organisations in staying alive and viable so they can reopen when we are able to reopen them. I thank Senator Byrne for consistently raising the issue of the arts and the people working in that sector.

Senator Burke raised the issue of energy. It would be a really interesting debate, which we will try to facilitate in the coming term with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. As to how households might be able to generate their own electricity, there is definitely scope to facilitate microgeneration and getting people onto the grid. As an island nation, we have so much wind energy and wave energy opportunity. That is where things are going. It would be helpful and interesting to the House to have that engagement with the Minister. We will certainly seek it in the new year.

I do not have the details of the case Senator Crowe raised but I sympathise with the individual in question. To be employed for 36 years and then be told that one is no longer required when one is so close to retirement must be devastating for the individual and the family involved. Shame on the company in question for doing that to somebody. It is wrong and immoral. Regardless of whether the person in question was no longer needed in that role, a decent company would have found an alternative space for the individual, who should be a valued member of the company's team, having served the company for that long. I take on board the Senator's comments on the Unfair Dismissals Act. Perhaps we can explore ways to try to protect workers who have given that length of service and who require an additional support. Two years' salary does not really cut the mustard for 36 years' service. I agree with the Senator on that.

Senator Carrigy raised the issue of insurance and a very important issue surrounding the MIBI restrictions. The Senator may wish to table a Commencement matter on that issue and have the Minister respond because it is quite specific.

Senator Murphy raised the issue of maternity leave for elected representatives. I concur with the Senator's remarks and commend my colleagues, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and Deputy Niamh Smyth, who in the previous Dáil tabled legislation to put leave for elected representatives - Deputies, Senators and councillors - on a statutory footing. We need to do this but we also need to have a wider debate. It is not simply the maternity leave aspect. This is a difficult profession in which to have a family. For the information of the public, it is not that Deputies and Senators are marched back into the office within days of giving birth, but there is often a very personal feeling that one needs to get back to work because of the competitive nature of multi-seat constituencies and the nature of the job. There is a wider discussion to be had on how we make this a more family-friendly working environment and put in place better supports. I refer to such things as a family room in the Houses of the Oireachtas, which I have personally requested of the Ceann Comhairle and Oireachtas staff since the previous term. When mums are with their young children while in either House, there should be a space to go to that is not just one's office but a more family-friendly space. We could make changes within these Houses very quickly that would make a difference to women in such situations.

I concur with Senator Murphy's comments on the Central Mental Hospital and that we need additional capacity there. I will pass that on to the Minister for Justice.

Senator Currie raised the issue of gastropubs and wet pubs and those that perhaps fall between two stools. The difficulty there is where one draws the line. There have been challenges across the board in trying to find the right balance in opening up, and a lot of wet pubs - and I really dislike that term, as I think most people do - are finding it difficult that they are not able to reopen this Christmas. At the end of the day, these are people, families, businesses, livelihoods and communities, and the impact is quite severe. My only hope is that we can just get past this, get into the new year and get things back open across the board.

Senator Boylan raised the Oxfam report. I agree with everything she said. I am not sure how we as a State, a Government or an Oireachtas can tackle the issue of big corporates such as Amazon that clearly have a far greater impact on climate change than the Senator or me as individuals or our families. I do not know how we go about doing that, but clearly there is a gap and it is widening. The vast majority of us do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. A lot of corporations are making moves to have better corporate social responsibility and to play their part. I see AIB making steps to become carbon-neutral by 2030. SSE Airtricity is doing good work. There are corporates that are taking this seriously but others are not. There is an element of personal responsibility as well if one is shopping on Amazon to think twice, to look to green companies and Irish indigenous companies, and to support the ones that are supporting communities. Perhaps that is the kind of campaign in which we as Oireachtas Members can have an impact. This is a global issue. Perhaps even at an EU level we need to start tackling it and we need to all work together.