Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues. I will work backwards, if that is okay. Senator Carrigy and another Senator brought up the non-uniform nature of the rules around maternity services for couples in Ireland over the past couple of months. The Senators are right. The decision to allow partners go to the 20-week anomaly scan is welcome but, speaking from experience as someone who has done it a number of times, every visit is important. Mothers are anxious. Somebody who is very close to me has a relative who had a baby in the past couple of days. She came home within 24 hours because of the restriction of not being able to see or have her husband or partner with her. The same applies to extended family, waiting to see this new gorgeous bundle of joy that has arrived just before Christmas. It is not right or fair. I have asked the Minister to liaise with the service providers but I will write a letter and ask for a statement on the uniformity of services, but also on the advancement of the care and provision of services that should be available to all couples who are going through what should be a wonderful time of a pregnancy and birth. I will certainly do that today and send a copy of the letter to the Senator.

Senator Kyne raised the wage subsidy scheme and it is something that I have mentioned on a number of occasions in this House, during both Commencement matters and on the Order of Business. We have debated the unfair application of it by one particular blue-chip company, which is ongoing. We have some 2,300 applications from Aer Lingus employees looking to avail of the short-time working scheme because they were put on 50% and 30% work rosters during lockdown. Every one of them is being denied the application because of mismanagement of the wage subsidy scheme.

The Senator highlighted another anomaly. When we established the wage subsidy scheme, it was to maintain the employee relationship with the employers and to support those employers to keep the businesses ticking over during the periods of downtime so that they would be ready and able to come back up again. It would be a shocking shame if the recoupment of this money made sure that a business was not viable. Many of our businesses are vulnerable but we need to make sure that our continued support for them will ensure that they maintain their viability through the next number of months until we see the end of our engagement with the pandemic. I cannot assure the Senator that I will get access to the Minister between now and Christmas to get a response to the request for him to make a statement in this House, but I will certainly write him a letter today and ask him to address the anomalies with regard to the recoupment of moneys from the Revenue Commissioners for our struggling businesses up and down the country.

Senators McDowell and Fitzpatrick brought up BusConnects. They are right that today is the last day for submissions. There has been considerable engagement and I think it has been positive, particularly considering that it has happened during a pandemic. Members of this and the other House have made sure that their communities are represented. The Senators are right that the bus is not the answer to everybody's needs. One would sometimes be forgiven for thinking that it is the only answer to everybody's transport needs. It is important that we do not get trapped in that mindset. Engineers, while they are wonderful and we need them, would have one believe that a particular route will solve everybody's needs but it will not. It might actually solve some people's needs at the expense of others, in which case we will find ourselves back here in another cycle of conversations about lorries, trucks and their negative and positive impacts on cities and towns. The commuter is more important. Some commuters do not have the option to take a bus because of their obligations in the morning or evening time. We need to be careful that we do not fall into that mindset and I encourage anyone in this House or watching these proceedings at home who has not made an application or submission to BusConnects to do so before close of business today.

I do not have an answer for Senator Ahearn on the express route. I will today ask the Minister if he can get me a statement and I will come back to the Senator before close of business. It is unfair that, in a number of weeks, an express route on which even a relatively small amount of people rely on - which is not the case for this route, on which a large number of people rely - will close. It is unfair to those affected not to have any visibility of what is going to come in the future, if it will be a short-term suspension of services or services will come back sooner. I will get as much information as I can for the Senator today and will drop it to his office before close of business.

I do not have an answer Senator Gavan and I am sorry to say that I was not even aware of the issue he raised. It was horrendous to hear of such abuses of human rights by an incredibly wealthy country. I was not even aware that we flew the flag at half mast. It makes one question why we would have done that for someone who might have a dubious reputation. Why we would do it for one person and not others is probably something that we need to question. I will today request from the Department of Foreign Affairs a debate on human rights and this particular issue, but it will be the new year before it happens. I will come back to the Deputy straightaway on the matter.

Senator Carey brought up a matter. Senators are probably sick of me because we regularly bring up equality of opportunity for women in Ireland during these debates but it is really quite startling that not one female has been appointed to a board in the past number of months.We are all busy and concentrating on other important matters, but equality of opportunity across every State service is important. The highlights of the inequality have been raised a number of times. The first of our Seanad panel debates will take place the first week we return. It will relate to the gender pay gap. While that is not quite what the Senator raised, it is the start of a series of debates in which we will thoroughly investigate inequality of opportunity, not just for women, but for minorities and other disadvantaged groups as well.

We need to be clear on what "equality" means for everyone who does not experience it. While driving yesterday evening, I listened to the father of a child with special needs on the news. I was struck by something he said about the inequality that some children with special needs experienced in accessing services in school and the health services. This is not to denigrate anyone delivering those services. They are wonderful people, which I know first hand, but there are not enough of them. The father stated that, if the inequality was based on a child's race or sex, there would be blue murder in the country and that it is on the basis of children having needs over and above some other children that their inequality is not getting mainstream attention. It should. The question of equality in how we deliver our services is important.

Senators McGreehan and Currie discussed not just the worrying Covid-19 numbers in Northern Ireland over recent weeks, but also how our two communities interacted. It is a signal to us that, but for the grace of God, we could have been in the same position in a number of weeks. The UK, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany are making pre-emptive strikes for fear of what is to come. We are all aware that our actions determine how the virus reacts and we are all probably sick to our back teeth of being told what we have to do, but we need reminding because people can grow relaxed over the festive season and believe that the situation is fine. We cannot relax. We need to be very cautious. I will ask the Minister to make a clear statement on how the Republic intends to offer its services to our neighbours to ensure that we are in this together and the citizens of the island of Ireland get looked after by all of its service providers.

Given how confined our business is this week, I am not in a position to offer Senator Boylan a debate on the joint report arising from the Kerins case in the Supreme Court. I will clarify something lest there be any ambiguity. The Senator stated that there was no memorandum in the offices this morning as if this was Government business. It is not Government business and, therefore, we did not prepare the memorandum. Rather, this is the Oireachtas reacting to how the Houses conduct their business. I am a member of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, CPP, which has had lengthy and numerous meetings in recent weeks going through each recommendation that has been put to us by the Oireachtas arising from the Kerins judgment and the requisite changes to the Standing Orders and practices of our Oireachtas committees. Oireachtas officials have been good and gracious to us in explaining a number of difficult points. I am aware that equivalent debates have been held by the Dáil's Committee on Procedure. The two procedural committee members have been asked to agree the suggested changes, having debated them at meetings. However, I take the Senator's point that Members have not had an opportunity to debate them in this House or the Dáil. We need to agree this motion on laying the report before the House, but I will arrange for a debate after Christmas so that the matter can be teased out fully, albeit after the fact. I wanted to put on the record of the House that this was not Government business. Rather, the CPP asked me on behalf of the Cathaoirleach to draft this motion and table it for the House's agreement so that we could lay the report before the Oireachtas.

Senator Byrne discussed the Data Protection Commission's, DPC's, fine. Significantly, this is the first time that the DPC has levied a considerable fine against one of our platform companies that is headquartered in Ireland. I agree that there was some surprise yesterday that the fine seemed so small compared to the organisation's scale and reach. It will be interesting to see the reaction from other EU member states and how they view the lead taken by the DPC. European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, for whom I have great admiration, is a gutsy lady and international politician. Yesterday, she launched the digital markets act and the digital services act, which I hope will have a profound effect on these large giants in how they treat mere mortals like ourselves who use them for social and recreational purposes. In some cases, major digital services companies have manipulated their majority status in recent years to ensure that they got preferential treatment in international trade over competing actors. I look forward to the two acts going through the EU and coming to us to be scrutinised. There needs to be a debate on this matter and it must be held in public. This leads into the debate we will have on Friday regarding Coco's Law, which I will address in a few minutes.

Turning to Senator Garvey, I have asked for a debate on water. There is a standing invitation. Shockingly, the quarterly reports do not show any improvement at 37 sites around our lovely country. In fact, there has been disimprovement. We must scratch our heads and wonder what in God's name we are doing with all of our talk and the awareness that is out there if we are not seeing improvements in water quality.

Following the matter being raised last week or the week before, we have decided to have a rolling schedule as part of our weekly business after Christmas, please God. There will be a rolling section on climate issues every week. I intend to ask every Minister to attend on a schedule to give the House a departmental update on Ireland's climate action controls, measures and plans. This will not necessarily start the first week after Christmas, but I hope to see it happening thereafter.

Senator Warfield mentioned yesterday's reports on homelessness. While the numbers are disappointing, I have scheduled a debate on housing and homelessness for the beginning of the new year. Although that is not finalised, I hope to provide the details to colleagues over Christmas and let them know our plans for the couple of weeks after we return in January. There is a long-standing invitation to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, but I appreciate that he has been busy in recent months with the Planning and Development Bill and the provision of his new service plan for housing delivery. I will revert to the Senator once I have an exact date.

Senator Moynihan has raised her issue on a nearly weekly basis. It is testament to her passion and commitment on the subject. I assumed that, when the announcement was made, it was relatively clear. Maybe I am naive, but I understood that anything that was in the throes of the planning application process could not be stopped because it had started and would be allowed to complete and that anything new was to be a no-no, but that is clearly not what is happening in practice. On behalf of the House, I will have to see what was meant exactly. I will ask for clarification and a statement. When I get it, I will ensure that Senators get copies. We are all aware - actually, not everyone will agree with me - that there was a brief time for this particular type of provision. We have moved well past that now and the Senator is right, in that people are probably chancing their arms because there is misinformation. There should not be misinformation, though, and I will try to get clarification.

I do not want to take issue with the way Senator Mullen raised his objections, not least because he was entitled to do so, but also because he may not know that he was incorrect. We have a majority in the House, but that is not the way I would like to do my business and it is not the way I have been doing it. Senator Warfield raised the issue on behalf of Sinn Féin. The objection is to the schedule for this week. Senator Mullen stated that it showed "profound disrespect" for the Parliament and that it was "insulting" and "pathetic", but we have a meeting every Wednesday and the order is agreed by consensus. If there is not consensus, we change the order until we get consensus. The order before the House today is what was agreed last Wednesday with the exception of a change that I requested yesterday to take Committee and Report Stages of the Social Welfare Bill together today.It was done by consent and not to be disrespectful. I have no intention of throwing around my weight. I do not really think I have any weight. The collegiate nature of this House should be, wherever possible, to do our business by consent. That will not always be possible because there will be times when we disagree with one another. However, it is not the way I do my business and it is certainly not the way I want to do my business. I am sorry the Senator feels disrespected but at the meeting last week, his group representative agreed to the schedule. We always have, apparently, dealt with the Appropriation Bill in all Stages. It is not unique to this Seanad or this year. Apparently, it is a Bill that mostly has appreciation and acceptance and does not create any discord. It probably goes through without a vote.

Regarding the other Bill, the reason for the arrangement and the acceptance of it by all Members is that we want to get it passed. As it is not finishing in the Dáil until Thursday, the earliest I could get it was Friday. We all want to get it passed and that is because of the determination of Jackie Fox over the last number of years, as well as Labour Party colleagues and all colleagues, including the Minister for Justice. It will have a profound impact on making the world and Ireland a safer place for our daughters and sons. That is why it was acceptable to put it all together on Friday: because we all want the same thing. That will not stifle debate and there will probably be people who put forward amendments that will be accepted or rejected but, at the end of the day, we want the same thing and that is why the unusual step of taking all Stages of this Bill on Friday is being taken. We want to get it passed before Christmas, we want to give Jackie the legacy her daughter Coco richly deserves. It is within our gift to do that before Christmas and that is why we agreed, unusually, to take all Stages of the Bill. We did agree that we would not do that before, which is why the Stages of all other Bills have been separated in the first instance.