Seanad debates

Friday, 7 May 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Pauline O'ReillyPauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Ballots are being counted at the moment in the UK and I wish my colleagues in the Green Party in England, Scotland and Wales all the very best this week. There are 13 directly elected mayors in the UK so it is an exciting time and a good signal to us in Ireland that we need to step up when it comes to this issue. Much can be achieved by having a democratic process that gives people the ability to vote for mayors, rather than the almost politically orchestrated process we have in this country. To have decision-making at the lowest effective level is a matter the Green Party has led on for a very long time. I wish my colleagues in the UK all the best.

It is obviously exciting for me, and the planet, that we could see the Green Party in government in Scotland, which could also achieve independence. Quite apart from that, this week was the first time 16-year-olds in Wales got the opportunity to vote. Again, Green Party members have been calling for the implementation of this measure for a long time. If we want to engage people in politics, and we do and should, they need to be engaged as early as possible. It needs to go right through our education system, but in order for it to have meaning people must have a vote to express all the things they are feeling. There is no point in providing education for something that might happen in several years' time. The responsibility to vote needs to be imminent and in people's hands. It is an exciting week in Wales.

I echo what the leader of the Fianna Fáil Group, Senator Chambers, said in relation to partners.This is something I brought up last Friday and the Leader has brought up herself on a number of occasions. I am particularly frustrated at the postcode lottery, which I also raised last week, which is the fact that in Galway partners are allowed in for one hour a day when the baby is born. In the rest of the north west there is no visiting allowed yet in some of the hospitals in Dublin it is three hours a day. There is no real excuse for that other than the fact that we need to support the hospitals and the midwives in order to achieve that balance. There is nothing in the world of a difference between a woman, a baby and a partner in the west of Ireland and in Dublin. Why we cannot show quality on this issue is quite frankly beyond me. We need to step up now. I heard Paul Reid this morning saying that there is no reason not to allow partners in. Whatever the blockage is we need to fix it and ensure that babies get what they need as well from their parents.

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