Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues for the range of topics raised today. First of all, I join with colleagues and offer, on all our behalf, our condolences to our colleague, Senator Jerry Buttimer, whose daddy passed away last Wednesday and was buried on Friday. He was a remarkable man. It is not surprising when one sees the fine people Jerry, John, William and Mary are. They did not lick it from the stones. He was an incredible gentleman. I hope he rests in peace, please God.

I join with others in talking about the remarkable achievements of Leona Maguire. What is most remarkable is that we are only talking about her now. Obviously, what she achieved in the past couple of days, on top of the Solheim Cup, is wonderful and absolutely newsworthy. She was an amateur golfer for 104 weeks and I never knew about it, and I can assume that many other people did not either. This fact perhaps shows how we reflect on the difference between male sports and female sports in this country. Perhaps we should be championing females a hell of a lot more than we do. I recognise her enormous contribution and achievement.

I agree with Senator Murphy in that the most incredible thing about her that comes across is how genuinely humble and grounded she is. It is so lovely to see hard work paying off and what is being achieved. I wanted to acknowledge those two things today.

I recognise Senators McDowell, Currie and Gavan talked about the report issued today by Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Marie Anderson. I was lucky enough to be out for a walk and I listened to her on the radio at lunchtime. She is another remarkable lady. As Senator Gavan said, I think she is only warming up. This is not the first and last report in which she will reflect upon the activities in Northern Ireland.

I would genuinely say that how we reflect and respond to each other and how we speak about each other certainly shows the measure of what the true will of the Irish people is. While we all say we want to share the island and live in harmony and respect, sometimes the actions and activities of some people do not necessarily reflect that. Senator McDowell talked about the small number of haters. It is a real tragedy that the trustees of Glasnevin Cemetery have to give in to the thugs who have continuously wrecked that beautiful memorial. It is incredibly poignant and it reflects that there is no hierarchy of victims or the pain victims' families have felt over the years. It certainly is not shared by a small number of people, who I believe we are giving in to. It is a shame. I commend Mr. Joe Duffy on his vocal contributions in the past couple of days.

It would be good if there was any way that we could resolve that issue on behalf of the State and on behalf of all of the Irish people who want to live on a shared island and respect each other, without every glorifying anything that has happened in the past. We should be able to find a way to be able to memorialise and just remember what has happened on this island without, as I said, ever glorifying anything that either side did or continues to do to each other.

Senator Conway looked for a debate on the fishing industry. The Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 will be in the Seanad tomorrow afternoon. That would be an opportunity for him to raise with the Minister all of the concerns he just raised.

Senator Carrigy spoke about the fact it is Safer Internet Day today. We were due to take the Bill with the Minister this afternoon but, unfortunately, the schedule changed and I could not do anything about it. I apologise for that inconvenience.

I reflected on a statement that was made in the past number of days about how we teach our children, who now at younger and younger ages have access to the Internet, because of peer pressure and mammys giving in to 12- and 13-year-olds, perhaps when we should not. The reality is that our children are learning far more from the Internet today than ever before. An awful lot of the time, it is not a positive experience. When we talk about teaching our children the three Rs in primary school, perhaps we should add another critical pillar to children's educational experience and teach them how to interact in a safe matter so that way we could alleviate some of the issues Senator Keogan spoke about so eloquently. I will reschedule that debate as quickly as I can and let Senator Carrigy know as soon as I can. Senator Maria Byrne spoke about the study by the University of Limerick in regard to carers, particularly younger carers, and how much pressure they are under. The fine work they do and the adult roles they step into for their families and loved ones is to be commended.

Senator Murphy asked me not to give away what I was told this morning in regard to the sports grants. I can tell him that it will happen relatively soon. He also touched, as did others, on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on domestic violence which aired last night. Senators McGreehan and O'Loughlin also spoke about it. It was an absolutely shocking programme. Sometimes, it takes a programme like RTÉ "Prime Time" to bring it into everybody's home.

We have been talking about this issue particularly in the past couple of years because of lockdown as it has accentuated the difficulties in which many women and men live on a daily basis. In the ten years that I have been working in this campus we have been talking about domestic violence but nothing seems to have changed. I put store in the ambition and aspiration of the current Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, to make a change once and for all. As a first step, we need to stop talking about it as a single sex issue, which it is not. It is apparent that many men never tell anybody about it because they do not want to be seen to be victims of what is historically seen as a gender-based violence. There are many men who are mistreated in their own homes. Equally, thousands of women are likewise mistreated in their homes. We know from recent Garda reports that there was a 60% increase in reporting in the past two years, which is shocking. It shows the extent of the problem.

For years, nine counties have had no refuge places and there are currently only 140 such facilities in the country. That is a reflection on nobody but ourselves. It does not make me proud to say that. The time for talking is over. The time for doing is now. As I said, I put store in the fact that the current Minister for Justice has made it her issue. Hopefully, we will see a real reaction when the report on the strategy is published in the next couple of weeks. As soon as that report is issue, I will arrange a debate on it.

Senator Cummins spoke about capital grants and Senator Keogan spoke about mental health. I will double down on efforts to try to secure a debate on mental health. Senator Keogan is correct in what she had to say. Senator O'Loughlin mentioned a young lady she taught in junior infants. We have a real crisis in this country. We continually say that but, again, it seems like nobody is listening. There are tens of thousands of families who Senators know as well as I do are struggling on a daily and weekly basis to keep their children alive and afloat. With the exception of some exceptional charities, we do not have a service that we can say is value for money for the €1.2 billion that we spend on mental health in this country. We should have a service that we are able to say we are proud of and delivers that community response on an emergency or exceptional needs basis that currently is so sadly lacking. We have an issue with regard to how when people of any age present to our accident and emergency services they are not being dealt with appropriately. I acknowledge the Senators' contributions. I will try to arrange that debate as quickly as I can.

Senator Ahearn spoke about the under 40s. He made a very valid call to NIAC to allow the timeframe in respect of getting the booster to be reduced to 28 days, which I will follow up on. Senators McGreehan, Wall and Boylan spoke about the rising cost of living and the Government responses. In framing the budget last year, the Government was acutely aware that there was an increase in the cost of living and appropriately responded by not only providing a tax package of €550 million to allow people to retain more money in their pockets and to account for the inflation, but also a social welfare budget of which I was envious because it was over €550 million, which is nowhere close to what I had secured for the previous number of years. That was a reflection of increasing costs and an awareness of an increasing cost base in Ireland. Unfortunately, when that budget was framed the anticipated increase in the cost of living was 2% to 2.5%. As we all know, it is now closer to 5%. That is why Government is at this time reflecting on how it can help hard-pressed families, of whom there are tens of thousands. We will see reaction from the Government this week.

Senator Garvey spoke about the retrofit scheme. A great idea has many mothers but nobody wants to take the blame when something bad happens. Senator Garvey is correct that this scheme is genuinely very worthwhile. I acknowledge Senator Keogan's point that we are short in terms of the workforce that we need.That is why when the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, introduced extra places for apprenticeships in these particular industries a number of years ago it was with the foresight that we would need those people to ensure we could carry out the works that will be needed by every household in the country, no matter what type it is.

Senator Mullen spoke about how people in the court of public of opinion, as opposed to the actual courts, reflect on some of the events of the past couple of months. It is probably fair to say, genuinely, that the courts system is as robust in most cases as it was in the case last week. I commend everybody involved. What is also obvious is that the court of public opinion can be incredibly reactive and buoyed up by whatever way some of the media outlets report on events. There was certainly a frenzy of upset and bad feeling around the events that occurred in the summer of 2020. I wish the people at the centre of this case well and hope they can get back to their careers and day jobs without further ado.

Senator Mullen also referred to the need for the Minister for Finance to address the refusal of payment by cash. I was not aware that was occurring but I will certainly bring it to the Minister's attention today and come back with a response.

Senator Dolan spoke about the energy costs crisis and the increases in childcare costs and our shopping bills. People up and down the country are well aware of the issues she raised because they are all experiencing them. They will all be addressed by the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and investment which is meeting this week. I hope we will have a response from the Government as setting out exactly what it will do to ensure we address this issue for people.

Senator O'Loughlin spoke about Internet safety and the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on domestic violence. I am sure we will have a debate on the report in question as soon as it comes out.