Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To respond to Senator Higgins, a number of requests for debates were made last week and this week and some have been carried over from before Christmas. I will put together a list and send it to the relevant Ministers to remind them of the requests that have been made. I will add requests for debates on Yemen but also on Afghanistan. It is important we have a debate on events there, not just because of the serious famine conditions the population is living under but also because of the damage being done before our eyes to the female population.

On Senator Blaney's point, it is important that we have a debate on the amnesty he mentioned, an issue other Senators have raised previously. I will make that request as a matter of priority, and I am happy to support the Cathaoirleach's call at the meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight, CPP, this evening that we would hold a minute's reflection tomorrow, on the 50th anniversary. It is appropriate that the Senator brought to our attention the events being held from Thursday to Sunday and asked people to support them, so I thank him for that.

Senators Cummins and Ahearn spoke about the absences from the review of the national development plan that was announced before Christmas. I made a request last week to the Minister for Transport to appear before the House for a debate on the plans. To be optimistic about it, perhaps the backloading of the money from that Minister's Department is a reason for the absence of the roads from the list that was published before Christmas. As soon as that debate has been scheduled, I will let both Senators know, although I am sure it is of interest to many other people throughout the country. Senator Carrigy's area also has an important road to talk about.

This is not the first time the issue raised by Senators Maria Byrne, Conway and Gavan today has been raised. I say this advisedly so as not to get myself or anybody else into trouble. It arises in the House almost every other week, and it is surprising nobody else is talking about the same issues in their local hospitals to the same extent as the three Senators. If it is not arising in Beaumont Hospital, the Mater hospital, Letterkenny University Hospital or wherever, there is a reason for that, although we do not know what that reason is. As Senators Gavan and Conway said, there have been announcements of spending commitments at the hospital in recent years. It is not that the State is not putting the money there but that it seems to be just gobbled up, and as soon as new beds are provided, they seem to be gobbled up too and the problem seems to return. Not only do I concur that a debate is needed but we need a wider examination of the exact problems. On behalf of the three Senators, I will write to the Minister for Health today, conveying their serious concerns on behalf of everyone in that part of the country and will revert to them. I wish to acknowledge the contribution on apprenticeships that was made by Senator Maria Byrne. For far too long in this country and somewhere after the 1980s, and maybe when the Celtic tiger came in the 1990s, we all got a little above ourselves thinking that we all had to be brain surgeons or stockbrokers. The traditional professions that had been the backstop of hardworking, decent people in this country were suddenly uncool and yet we find ourselves at the moment with not enough bricklayers, carpenters, electricians and mechanics because they all left or did not train. So it is certainly welcome that young people are looking at those professions again.

I saw an article the other day on how people pick their careers and research shows that people with a higher intelligence quotient, IQ, are usually employed by people with not as high an IQ. Moreover, we have far more entrepreneurs in the sectors that have been mentioned concerning apprenticeships than we have in any other part of Irish society. It is welcome that we have got back to our roots and basics.

Senator Dolan spoke about the welcome announcement by the Minister for Transport yesterday on active travel. Sometimes when these announcements are made, people say that we always talk about greenways or cycling but the bread and butter of yesterday's announcement is to fix the pathways in housing estates that are 20 and 30 years old, which are uneven because of trees growing. It is the real, normal bread and butter stuff that county councillors work on day in, and day out, and lots of us here were county councillors. It is not just about the wonderful advantages that we are going to have from a tourism perspective or even the exercise and health perspectives because of the greenways, walkways and blueways but is also just about the normal common or garden problems that we have in all of our villages and that are going to be solved by this money, which is great.

I wish to say to Senator Joe O'Reilly that I was struck by Fr. Murphy last week because of the hurt and the pain that young Eden's passing caused him. He really did reach out and not just to the family and the wider community. I refer to how touched Fr. Murphy was interacting with that young man and the devastation caused by the passing of Eden's life. The Senator is right, and Senator Keogan has mentioned it here before, that people are very quick to stand up and give out about religious staff and sometimes that is deserved but not always, and certainly not everybody. It is very few and seldom that we see people laud the work that they do in communities. I know for sure from my own parish, and the priests who were in our parishes but who have gone to different parishes, and Senator Keogan will probably know who I am talking about, they are wonderful men who support communities and they certainly do not get the praise they deserve. I thank Senator Joe O'Reilly for bringing up this matter.

Senator Carrigy talked about the warmer homes scheme and the fact that we need to examine measures to speed them up. I will write a little note to the Minister this afternoon to ask him to come back to us with the plans for the short and medium term. I take on board the use of language that he raised here this morning. The language that we use is very important but it is something that has become accepted now but it should not be and should be challenged. I thank the Senator for bringing the issue up this morning.

Senator Gallagher and others talked about the leaving certificate today. I nearly feel sick listening to myself talk about it but that is probably because I have a young man at home who is studying and he will not let me forget about it. My son constantly quotes to me what Deputy Barry says every single day because he is so impressed by him.

It is wonderful that 17 and 18-year-olds in the last couple of weeks have become politically attuned to what it is that we do because they are interested in the decisions that we are going to make, as they have a direct impact on them. We read, periodically, how political parties are going to engage young people. When one talks about what is important to them then they get engaged and that has really been shown in the last couple of weeks. What is crucial this week is that we show that we have listened to young people and have heard what they have had to say. I hope that the Minister and, indeed, the steering group really do understand the effects that stress due to Covid has had on them in the last number of years. While we all welcome the fact that today we are going back to whatever the new normal is, their normal has not been anywhere near normal for the past 24 months and we need to take that into account.

Senator McGreehan sought a debate on the future of SNAs. At the moment the unions have a campaign on respect for SNAs. We have spoken about this issue here before and it is something in which we should engage. The 18,000 people who look after the care needs of children in school, and do it so well, should be applauded and supported, so I would agree with that.

Senators Lombard and Hoey spoke about the Russian interactions and intentions over the next couple of weeks. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, is obviously far more diplomatic than I would be when he described these things as unwelcome and unwarranted. I think that there is something incredibly sinister and menacing about the actions. We all know that this is far more than training with live missiles off the coast of a neutral country that does not have the monitoring capabilities.Whether it is from a sonar perspective, as Senator Higgins has spoken about, from an ecological perspective or to pick up the tab for the damage it will potentially do, we all know something sinister is going on. It is far from innocuous training that was going on. I will leave it the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and his far better diplomatic skills to deal with it and to ensure we have the support of the European Union. To that end, this morning I asked for a debate, because it is timely, and I have no doubt that they will not pull out between now and next week. As soon as I have a date for that I will organise it in the schedule for next week.

Senator Horkan asked for a debate on remote working. There will be one because the heads of the Bill that were passed by Cabinet this morning will go to the committee for pre-legislative scrutiny but it is probably important that we have a debate here to highlight all the good measures we have seen over the last two years and to weed out some of the harsh practices employers sometimes use. We should make sure we see them coming before they sneak up. I will organise that in the coming weeks.

Senator Currie has been speaking about remote working for years, long before it became cool during Covid. It has accelerated people’s acceptance of it and their appreciation of the fact that the two hours most people spend commuting every day do not need to be so spent. The appreciation of being able to spend more time with our families is lovely. One thing that was nice about the last two years was that participation in the workforce by women, or returnees as we call them, has increased by 3%. That is massive and it is to be welcomed and worked upon.

Senator Fitzpatrick talked about O'Devaney Gardens and the welcome news that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage got the go-ahead from Cabinet this morning to proceed with those 1,000 plus homes that are so badly needed in that area.

I am sorry to say this to Senator Craughwell and I hope he understands but I cannot accept his amendment to the Order of Business only because I cannot get anybody today. In the time since he raised the issue – and Senator Keogan first proposed it - I have secured a debate for next Wednesday on the search and rescue tender. I have also instructed that without having the business case in our hands before the debate then the debate is fruitless. To that end, I have also extended the time for the navigation Bill in order to get the Minister here for the afternoon. I ask the Senator to accept that I will have that debate next Wednesday but not without the business case, which has been altered on the basis of the announcement that was made for the Cabinet this morning. We all need to see it and I am surprised that the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications has not received it yet, given that it had requested it. I hope that suffices and that we will have the debate next week.