Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for their comments. Senators McGahon and Dolan spoke about the home energy scheme announced this week and it really is a momentous amount of money being reinvested. It is taxpayers' money and it belongs to all citizens but it is about reinvestment in citizens' lives and making their homes much warmer, cosier and a less costly place in which to live. I am old enough to remember when we went from back boilers in the 1970s to central heating, and it took years for all the houses to make that change. This is really another generational change and I hope it does not take too long, particularly with respect to the houses most in need. We all know older couples in particular who are absolutely perished with the cold in their houses. These are the houses we should start with, as opposed to places that may be less in need. I look forward to the day all of us can get our houses retrofitted. Senator McGahon made a valid point about protected structures and I will contact the Minister to ensure the relevant bodies speak to each other about that.

Senators O'Loughlin, O'Donovan and Wall mentioned the Defence Forces report published yesterday. I have already requested a debate time from the Minister and I have no doubt I will get told that we should wait until the Minister and his departmental officials have the opportunity to consider the report and respond. I genuinely believe very valid points must be made by Members in this House to feed into the Minister's response so I will keep pushing to get that debate on the report.

Senator Ward spoke about the very serious impact that hyperemesis has had on women. It is welcome we are talking about this a bit more. The Senator raised the matter this morning and other colleagues have mentioned it in the past number of weeks, probably as a result of the campaign to ensure it can be included in the medical scheme of drugs acceptable to be paid for. This might seem like a fool's errand because the women who are lucky enough to be able to afford this treatment pay for it and it is very costly. Far fewer women can probably afford it than we might think, and the cost to the State from women who end up in hospital as a result of this condition is probably far in excess of what it would cost to provide the medicine to try to keep the women safe, well and out of hospital in the first place. I support the campaign and thank the Senator for raising the matter.

Senator Lombard mentioned Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the very frustrating multiple-stage processes we have to get any very large infrastructural project done in this country. He spoke about Bandon and the bypass that is only on its second stage, despite the project being years old. We all know such projects. In my constituency we have been talking about metro north for 20 years and we will still be talking about it for another ten or 15 years. It makes no sense that we will spend two and a half years getting planning permission before waiting another two and a half years before we start procuring the products we need. Does anybody really think we are not going to get planning permission for something we have been talking about for 20 years? We must look at these processes. One of the debates we have under Seanad reform is to engage with interested bodies and this might one to look at. Perhaps we will bring it up in the Committee on Procedure and Privileges. It is definitely something to be looked at.

Senator Eugene Murphy spoke this morning about crimes against older people. I do not know if it is just me but since Christmas, all I seem to be reading in the newspapers are stories about violent crimes against young women and really violent crimes against our older generation. I do not know if they have just massively increased in the past number of months or whether my awareness of these incidents has been heightened. I am not really sure. There is a 73-year-old pensioner fighting for his life in hospital and the Senator spoke about a couple this morning. I cannot imagine how frightened that lady must have been to lock herself in her own house with her husband being taken on by three thugs and gurriers in the back garden. We really have a problem where people do not feel safe in their homes or castles. It is not acceptable. Perhaps we need to have another debate or conversation around that. I will get back to the Senator and let him know.

Senator Currie mentioned the new age practice of organising fights so we can get them on video and put them on social media. I do not know what is going on in the world, to be honest. We must reflect on a couple of points. The culture we are living in is changing and perhaps it is because the deterrents are not keeping up with crimes as they move.

On a much nicer note, Senator Carrigy relayed a really lovely suggestion of having quiet spots along the route of the St. Patrick's Day parade. I know we are all welcoming back parades this year because we have not had them for the past number of years. It is a lovely idea to have a quiet spot where families of children with special and extra needs can enjoy what most of us take for granted in a special way. Perhaps we could write to local authorities before they start planning for these parades and make them aware of this idea. I had never heard of it before the Senator mentioned it this morning. It is a lovely idea. We might take it on ourselves, with the Senator's permission, to write to local authority chief executive officers and make them aware that we want to be inclusive and allow everybody to enjoy what is our national holiday. I thank the Senator for bringing this matter up.

Senator Seery Kearney spoke about a young man, Mr. Craig Kelly, who sounds remarkable. He spoke at this morning's meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. I am aware from my days in the Department of Social Protection that there are grants and forms of encouragement for companies to take people of all abilities into the workforce. It does not quite work out as well as it might on paper and this is certainly something we should return to.

Senator Maria Byrne spoke about the independent review into University Hospital Limerick, which is very welcome not just by the Limerick Members in this House but by all the people in the surrounding areas who rely so heavily on University Hospital Limerick. I absolutely agree with the Senator that the report must be issued and published so we can discuss it. It must be acted upon and HIQA must make unannounced visits. We know there is a systemic problem in University Hospital Limerick as the same issues that occur periodically in other hospitals seem to arise daily in Limerick. Something is seriously wrong and we look forward to getting to the bottom of it and maybe fixing that, please God.Senator Ahearn talked about access to childcare and the fact that there are no places. We changed the industry number of years ago to make level 7 the minimum education requirement but we did not change the funding to pay these women - and they are women. We need to have a debate again on how we value care. The Committee on Gender Equality that was established a number of weeks ago is certainly going to try to implement the recommendations from the Citizens' Assembly. We have a long time been talking about these kind of things and we need to start acting on them.

Senator McGreehan raised the issue of native Irish trees. It is clear from how she talks about them that she has a real grá for them and it reflected on the debate we had this week.

Senator Black brought up the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland report. Marie Anderson was on the radio on Tuesday. She also is a remarkable woman. The word "shocking" is not serious enough to reflect what she is uncovering. What I took solace from is that she said she is only warming up. This certainly will not be the end of what she will try to shine a light upon. I genuinely say that how we reflect on the past obviously reflects on ourselves. There is dignity required for all of the people who died and all of the families who lost loved ones. Sometimes that gets a little bit lost. I thank Senator Black for bringing that up. I have asked for a debate on it, just to let her know. As I have also asked, as Senator Boylan brought up this morning and Senator Black did last week, for a debate on the Amnesty International report. Senator Chambers contacted me this morning to ask for the debate. I suggested to her that I had already done so last week on Senator Black's request, but I will chase up and try to get a debate and a time.

I sit here and think, "Only in Ireland," on certain occasions, such as this one. Senator Boylan also talked about how the ability for schools to put solar panels on their roofs in order that they can provide some of their own electricity and perhaps sell it back is being halted by the obligation to do a report into whether those solar panels will affect the airports around the country, in respect of planes landing and taking off. Yet, Dublin Airport is applying for a solar farm. It beggars belief. I will send a letter highlighting that to the Taoiseach on her request.

Senator Wall, apart from speaking on the report on the Defence Forces, spoke about the gambling report that was issued yesterday. The research being done is very welcome and it will feed into the new regulator office being established. However, I was concerned that people who do a weekly lotto of two lines were included with people with gambling addictions. I thought this was odd. I do not know about everybody else, but I am assuming nearly everybody the lotto once in a blue moon or on a weekly basis. Therefore, I thought it was odd.

However, what was more concerning was that people who have serious addictions but have money and, therefore, their gambling does not impact on household finances, were not included as those who are at risk and needing help. That should be irrelevant. The outcome of the illness would obviously impact people with less income in their households than people with more income. However, if it is an illness, then we need to measure, monitor and help everybody who has the illness, and not just say, "Well, sure, they have loads of money, so they are grand." That was a bit odd. The welcome report and research is timely and it will feed into the establishment of the regulatory body.

The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, talked about the new European innovation partnership, EIP, process in the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, which is still in its infancy. It is very welcome and it will only grow with time.

Senator Boyhan spoke about the ability of people to make observations on and, indeed, object to planning where they think the planning is not suitable or required in their own areas. Obviously, nobody will ever curtail anybody from making observations or, indeed, objecting to bad planning. In the past number of weeks, the Taoiseach has been speaking about how, when there are serial objectors, we have to question what is at the root of the serial objections. We are all aware that there are certain people who do not live anywhere remotely close to something and yet they object. We probably need to find out why and address the issues, as opposed to complaining about it. We certainly will not ever curtail anybody's ability to object to bad planning. We have all seen and experienced bad planning, unfortunately.

Senator Conway asked for a debate on the cost of public transport, which I will certainly do.

Senator Cassells opened our contributions today by talking about something that we will all welcome in spades when we get the clubs' announcement of money and funding in the next couple of days, which is very good. He is absolutely right. Whether a person live in rural or urban Ireland, we see competing clubs all wanting to have their own Astroturf pitch or dressing rooms. One can say that is a hangover from years gone by and the way clubs used to compete with each other. There is absolutely nothing stopping us from putting in new clauses whereby new Astroturf pitches that go into towns have to be shared facilities and, indeed, as they grow, they become municipal sporting campuses. Where there is a will, there is a way.

What we currently have in the country is everybody trying to compete with everybody else, without having the shared facility and shared mentality of that. The Senator is right. My kids are older now but when they were smaller, I would be running from Billy to Jack and from one club to another. All of our kids play more than one sport and enjoy more than one local activity. We should be funding and putting together schemes that look for best value for money.