Seanad debates

Monday, 8 March 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Lisa ChambersLisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join the Leader in congratulating the artist, Sinead Guckian, on the beautiful piece of art she has gifted to the Oireachtas. It is a proud day to be in the Chamber to see the unveiling of such a beautiful piece of art. It is incredible to think that someone like Nurse O'Farrell was effectively airbrushed out of our history. As stated by the Cathaoirleach, the painting goes a small way towards rectifying that action.

I also join the Leader in wishing everyone a happy International Women's Day. I thank the Cathaoirleach for facilitating a number of Commencement matters this morning on issues pertinent to female members of our society. It was good to have such strong debate in the Seanad this morning.

The first issue I wish to raise is that of women's healthcare in this country. We have touched upon certain aspects of it over the course of the past two weeks in particular and, this morning, Senator McGreehan again raised the issue of endometriosis. There are many areas of women's healthcare that are far behind where they need to be, including maternity care, incontinence services, menopause, endometriosis and many other areas of women's healthcare that need additional support and direct funding.Those areas need additional support and direct funding and, in that line, I ask the Leader to facilitate a debate with the Minister for Health specifically around the area of the new women's health task force. We should hear from the Minister what he and the task force plan to do to address the clear deficiencies in the provision of women's healthcare in this country. We have a long way to go in that regard.

I will raise another matter on which a debate would be pertinent. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications today announced a consultation with EirGrid on the future of Ireland's electricity system. That exciting public consultation will take place over a 14-week period. I particularly like the idea that we might look to rebalance things across the regions and that, for example, data centres would be asked or encouraged by the Government to locate in areas where the grid is not under pressure. That would mean such centres not locating in the east of the country, as they have been doing, but coming to, for example, the west of Ireland. My county of Mayo would be happy to welcome new investment in energy. There is plenty of space and that would be a welcome initiative in rebalancing investment and growth across the regions. It would be interesting to hear directly from the Minister about that consultation process and what plans he has for the future of our country's electricity system as we aim to achieve 70% renewable electricity by 2030. It is an ambitious, high but achievable target. The House would welcome a debate on the matter.

I listened to one of Ireland's favourite professors, Luke O'Neill, on "The Pat Kenny Show"this morning, discussing the roll-out of vaccines. There have been challenges, difficulties and delays in the roll-out. The people of the country appreciate that our difficulty is supply. We have, in some respects, little control when companies do not meet the levels of delivery they said they would. The professor suggested that we should be exploring the Sputnik V vaccine, towards which there was a little snobbery initially. The findings have been good in over 30 countries that have administered that vaccine. I know that the European Medicines Agency, EMA, is looking at it. We, as a country, should be open to all vaccines that are effective, working well and safe to use. The priority for the Government must be to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

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