Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I could not add anything to the very eloquent contribution made by Senator Currie and the demand that she correctly made. The island belongs to all of us and all of our identities should be respected.

I thank Senator McGreehan for the information she provided on the Sickle Cell Society Ireland and the sickle cell disease. I have learned something this morning. While I do not wish to speaking on others' behalf, people must deal with many things that most of us are not even aware of. I thank the Senator for raising the issue.

There is a need for a debate on the unseen ill effects of Covid and I will try my level best to make time for one before the end of July. It is one of the issues that we will talk about for many years to come.

Well-being is incredibly important to all of our people. We talk about mental health and its ill effects but we should talk more about people's well-being. Every Department, not just the Department of Health, should be responsible for ensuring the well-being of citizens is at the core of what it does. I will try to organise a debate in the weeks ahead.

I am very happy to accept the amendment to the Order of Business. I wish Senators Pauline O'Reilly and Martin good luck with their Bill.Senator Martin raised two absolute tragedies, one of which occurred recently, that of a gorgeous young girl, who was a very talented sports person. On behalf of this House, I send our condolences to her family. I will do my level best to come back to the Senator with an update on Shane O'Farrell in the next day or so, if I can. I will come back personally to Senator Martin's office.

Senator Fitzpatrick spoke about the Department's Safe Routes to School programme, as did Senator Aisling Dolan. It is a wonderful initiative. The response of 900 schools to the initiative shows how seriously schools and teaching staff take the safety of our children coming to and from school, and that they want them to walk, cycle or scoot to school. The increase in funding is something which we should all support. Senator Fitzpatrick also spoke about taxi drivers. The most appropriate place for her to raise those issues is during the climate Bill debate this week. She is absolutely right to demand special exceptions for the people who provide those services for us.

I found myself nodding in agreement with Senator Gavan. I thought "Hurrah" for that ESRI report. It galls me - it is probably because I spent three years in the Department - that some people speak about our unemployed people as if they are some foreign species. It further galled me last year when that narrative was extended to people on the PUP as if these people chose to be at home when in fact the only reason the PUP was created, and maintained for so long, was because we stopped those people from going to work. I get narked about this, and I do not mean to. Everyone who is on the PUP had a job before we closed this country down on 12 March last year and people should remember that. These are the people who we want to go back to work. If there are issues and people's anxieties are stopping them from going back, let us address those issues as opposed to castigating them and creating another new set of people to have a black mark against. I commend the Senator on bringing that up this morning.

Senator Carrigy spoke about licensing laws, as did other colleagues, such as Senator Gallagher. The real concern we have is that while the Minister said this morning that gardaí will used their discretion, we have put our gardaí in an invidious position throughout the last 12 to 18 months. It is not fair to continue to ask them to use their discretion, because a garda in Kildare might be very different from a garda in Lusk and I do not think that is fair. A far more serious issue is that we are asking licensed premises to break the law knowingly on the basis that a wink and a nod from An Garda Síochána will see them right. I do not think their insurance will allow them to break the law knowingly and continue to enjoy the insurance cover that they need to maintain the responsibilities they have towards their patrons. This conversation needs to get much more real than it has been in recent days and we need a proper response.

Senator Ardagh spoke about the growing use of knives in criminality in this country. We are aware of the tragedy which occurred last night in Dublin, and, indeed, it happens too often. The State must be far more strict in its response and I know Senator Ardagh said that we need a holistic approach. We must get to the root cause of why these crimes are happening, in particular, involving younger men. However, if we do not have significant deterrents as well as the holistic approach, which is on the way in, it will defeat the purpose. Senator Wall also brought up insurance cover.

Senator Byrne spoke about the Presentation College Carlow. It was welcome to see a near-real-time reaction, within a relatively short period of time, since the horrendous treatment of both teachers and pupils in that college in Carlow a number of months ago on social media. Today, people believe what they read on social media, and it is important people in leadership roles are careful about what they say and the medium in which they say it. I am glad those teachers have had their reputation restored by the Ombudsman at the weekend.

Senator Ahearn spoke about Paul Reid and the maternity restrictions, as did Senators Bacik and Chambers. Three of our 19 hospitals are still refusing to let partners, who are not complementary to the procedures going on in our maternity hospitals but who are absolutely essential, from attending. It is not good enough that week in, week out we are having to raise this issue on the Order of Business. As colleagues know, I communicate with the chief executive officer of the HSE, Paul Reid, and he gets back to me with the directions that have been given. However, the discretion still exists and this just is not good enough. We must start calling out the hospitals to ensure they answer for themselves, so that Paul Reid does not have to come back to us every week to say he and the Minister for Health have given the directions but they are not being complied with.The individual hospitals that appear on our news feeds every single weekend, because they keep the gentlemen outside the front doors in times of great need, need to made responsible and to answer for their own actions so that is probably the next step for us to take.

I welcome the welcome wishes of Senators Malcolm Byrne and Buttimer and all other colleagues for Pride month and week. Again, it is probably something we take for granted - that it is something we have done and that we have given equality and recognised that love is love and everybody should just get on with it - but some of the actions of people who do not quite feel the love we feel have been evident over the past week. We saw the flag burning twice in Dungarvan. I commend Damien Geoghegan on the speed of his response. The graffiti and the jibes this community has to put up with on a daily basis are not things the rest of us even understand or appreciate so it is incumbent on all of us to remember that we need to fly the flag with pride and say we are a community and country that recognises that love is love and we will not tolerate any bigotry in any element so I thank colleagues for raising that issue today. I do not know how they came up with the name of Wexbury Spirits but it is wonderful and I look forward to going to Wexford on my holidays this year.

Senator Keogan spoke about Women's Aid. I am surprised this has not got more attention in our media along with the 999 responses and how An Garda Síochána has not lived up to its part of the contract with regard to looking after and policing us by consent in the past 12 months. Perhaps if it was not doing all of the other things it was doing, some of these things would not have been let slide. Domestic violence, however, is something we have really shone a light on in the past 14 months - far more so than any of us would have done in debates here previously. I think it probably would have been seen as a niche problem that did not reach into many family homes. Now we know just how prevalent domestic violence is because the restrictions on movement in the past 14 months have allowed people to see just how much of an issue it is. An Garda Síochána needs to explain why it failed so dismally in this response and in the response to our children ringing 999 lines because it is not something that can be tolerated and we need to make sure we redouble our efforts in the domestic violence programme and in respect of domestic violence services on behalf of the State to make sure we look after the women and men who suffer from domestic violence.

Senator Dolan brought up the Safe Routes to School programme, while Senator Gallagher raised the issue of outdoor dining, which we need come back to. Senator Ó Donnghaile spoke about a welcome move this week. We now know that the cultural identity legislation and the forums associated with it will be dealt with in the North at some stage this year, although I am sure we all would have picked any other way to have that resolved than the one that happened this week. I recognise that it is a difficult time in Northern Ireland and we need to support all our colleagues as much as possible.

Senator Pauline O'Reilly spoke about the report by Professor John Bradley, as did Senator Chambers. I am not sure whether a full debate would be warranted in this House but I would encourage both Senators to put down a Commencement Matter on this matter and to try to get responses about the variance regarding what was originally said about the expense that would have been set out on behalf of the State and the reality. We have seen how on numerous occasions, State agencies have told us that something will cost hundreds of millions of euro and we know that it is not quite truthful so I would encourage both Senators to try to get to the bottom of this and I wish them well.

Senator Bacik and other colleagues spoke about the new national maternity hospital. I have just secured a debate, which I think will be on Friday week, on the ownership of the hospital and will come back to the Senators. It will be a short debate so it will probably only be group spokespersons or involve the sharing of time because our programme over the next couple of weeks is so full. I think I have secured 60 minutes on Friday week but I will let the Senators know the actual date. I thank them for raising this issue.

I know that not everybody agreed when the changes were made regarding strategic housing developments, SHDs, over the past number of years but I think the anticipation and justification at the time were that we needed things built and we needed them built fast. It aimed to cut some of the red tape, which is not my term because I think our councils, planning departments and councillors do a wonderful job in looking after what is built. Most of them are doing their county development plans. However, the justification for SHDs was that they would speed things up and that the houses the country badly needs would be built much faster but it has been a unmitigated disaster. It has not worked out at all and I think Senator Boyhan laid out this morning how many judicial reviews have taken place, how much it has cost and how many judicial reviews An Bord Pleanála has lost, which means the system was flawed. It will probably come to its natural end. I do not have an answer for the Senator but I will make inquiries today and come back to him. The Senator is right. We need a debate on local government.Colleagues have asked for it before it but it has not been possible in the schedule. If I do not get to it between now and July, however, we should certainly look at it in the very beginning of September. I thank the Senator for bringing up that issue.

Senator Buttimer spoke about LGBT Pride Month. I alluded to how we should all own that very special space we have in Ireland on a daily and weekly basis. Senator Chambers began today by raising the issues of the national maternity services still excluding partners and the ownership of the National Maternity Hospital. As I said, I will come back as soon as I can with that data. I am happy to accept that amendment to the Order of Business, however.