Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Senators for their contributions this afternoon on a wide array of subjects. Senator Malcolm Byrne, supported by Senators Maria Byrne, Dolan and Buttimer, talked about leaving certificate reform and the welcome introduction of two new subjects, namely, climate action and sustainable development and drama, film and theatre, from 2024. The Minister, Deputy Foley, has set out a vision and a work programme that encompasses a range of areas including a new curriculum, new subjects, changing the final assessment procedure to significantly reduce reliance on final examinations and the introduction of a teacher-based assessment component. There is much very welcome reform and I acknowledge the work of the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, and all its members, in their engagement with the Minister. We also will ask her to come in and debate what I believe to be a welcome and good news story.

Senators Malcolm Byrne and Buttimer also spoke about the long delays in Dublin Airport. We have discussed the collapse in aviation over the past two years because of Covid-19. Now that the industry is back up and running, it is absolutely not acceptable that people are suffering the delays that they are suffering in Dublin Airport. While Senator Buttimer is right to welcome people to Cork Airport, as I am sure many people would, and indeed to Ireland West Airport Knock and Shannon Airport as well, it is not a laughing matter for anybody who was caught up in the unacceptable delays at Dublin Airport. I will certainly invite the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan and Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, in to discuss this matter.

The census is a hugely important time. Going back to the time of Herod, we heard about the census. It is important that people are counted. The data are used for each district electoral division for the country to plan in regard to healthcare, education and all aspects of society. Nobody should be abusing any public servant and census enumerators who are doing their job should not be abused. Certainly next year, as I understand it they are moving to an online system. I am sure there will still need to be a follow-up system as well in certain cases.

Senator Maria Byrne talked about the offices of the Revenue Commissioners being continuously closed. That is not acceptable. It is important that the Revenue gets back to pre-Covid-19 days, notwithstanding the present increasing numbers of cases, and that there are in-person meetings with people who need to engage with the Revenue. I will ask the office of the Leader to write to the Revenue Commissioners to ask them to expedite the reopening of offices of the Revenue Commissioners throughout the country.

Senator McDowell rightly discussed the funeral today of Pierre Zakrzewski, an Irishman who was educated in Ireland and whose family live in the locality in Dublin, who was a journalist and biographer. He is just one example of the savagery of the unjust war within the Ukraine. We remember Pierre this afternoon. Senator McDowell also asked for a debate and I will request a debate in relation to issues on the housing matter, housing and renting. We have all come across landlords who are getting out of the industry or are planning to so do because they consider it is not worth it. Certainly that would have knock-on effects, exacerbating the crisis that we have within the rental sector and of homelessness. I accept that bedsits were fine for a certain cohort of people and once you remove those, you remove valuable accommodation. They had to be of a proper standard and up to scratch but removing those was a mistake. I will invite the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien.

Senators Black and Gavan talked about the Sadaka conference in regard to Palestine and Israel. I will invite the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to come in to debate the issue of Palestine. I am not aware of who exactly was invited to the conference or where that letter or email went to.Normally it would go to Government. I am not sure to whom it was sent, if it was the Minister. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to come into the House to provide an update on ongoing issues regarding Palestine.

Senator Wall spoke about PDFORRA and RACO and their ability to affiliate to engage in collective bargaining. I have previously urged the Minister to come in to discuss all defence matters as with the review of the Defence Forces, the substantial body of work done by the independent Commission on the Defence Forces and all that goes with it, there is enough material to have a large-scale debate on the future of our Defence Forces, having regard to all that has gone on, whether it be pre-conflict with respect to the manoeuvres off the south-east coast and all that has gone on since then regarding the provision of aid to Ukraine, our neutrality, NATO and associate membership and all that goes with it. There is much to discuss in that very important sector. I will ask for a debate on it.

Senator Keogan raised the situation of girls in Afghanistan. Education is such a fundamental right. Afghanistan, to be best of my knowledge, is still a member of the United Nations. We will contact the Minister and the ambassador to engage on this matter.It is extremely important.

The Senator also mentioned Canada. It is very much a democratic country. It had an election last September and Prime Minister Trudeau was re-elected. We have had debates in this House on our Covid-19 laws and not everyone was happy with them. I am sure not everybody in Canada was happy with their Covid laws but it is a democratic country. It is very welcoming to Irish and other immigrants from around the world. If there are specific genuine issues the Senator has, and she mentioned a man from Connemara which sparked my interest, I suggest she raises those concerns with the ambassador to Canada in the first instance and take it from there.

Senator Burke raised the energy issue and Coillte and asked that we invite the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to discuss the energy issues we have had. We recognise the major impact that rising energy prices are having for Irish people. There were announcements two weeks ago on fuel, excise and VAT and it is important those be kept under review. The Council of Ministers meeting last week that the Taoiseach attended considered the whole area of VAT on fuel. That is extremely important. Under the present rules, any temporary reduction would result in that VAT going back up to 23% thereafter when the change was reversed. That would be a major change. It is important to examine the changes that can made.

Senator Ward spoke about the auto enrolment scheme for pensions. We know the pensions issue is a major concern for people. Often people leave it too late in life to think about or engage in providing for a pension. It is important we consider auto-enrolment. The Senator is right to say there are areas where that might not happen under the system. I will invite the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to come into the House to debate the issue of auto-enrolment and the overall pension plans. She has asked the sectoral committee to examine the issue. I will certainly invite her to come to the House to discuss that scheme. The Minister has said participation in the new scheme will be voluntary and workers will have the ability to opt out. The scheme includes a matching employer contributions and State top-ups. For every €3 saved by a worker, a further €4 will be credited to their pension savings account. When fully established, a worker earning €35,000 per annum will accumulate a fund of €293,000 over his or her working life. This is an important area but certainly we need to ensure people are aware of it and that any issues are ironed out in advance.

Senators Hoey and Boylan raised the blood donation policy. I understood there were positive announcements on this a number of months ago. Perhaps if they tabled a Commencement matter they would get an early definitive response and if they tabled it jointly, the issue might be more likely to be selected by the good offices of the Cathaoirleach. Other than that, we can request the Minister to come into the House to discuss the issue. This is an important area. Blood is often in short supply . There is no reason we would have different policy vis-à-visother parts of the island, the UK or mainland Europe. It should be based on science. Senator Lombard talked about the crisis in the pig industry. The IFA highlighted the issue outside the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Senator is right that the pig sector is intensive. It is a high input cost sector due to the use of energy, feed and transportation so is particularly prone to the higher energy, fuel and feed costs that we have seen over the last period. I will ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine to come to the House to discuss this very important issue.

Farmers taking decisions to stop putting sows back into pig would have further long-term impacts on the sector and a possible culling of the sector. While there is always what is called a pig cycle in terms of prices, the industry is in a very difficult situation. If an industry like this one collapsed entirely then it would be very difficult to gear it back up again, which we have seen before in certain areas like sugar beet. The pig industry is worth protecting in terms of the number of jobs involved and the product so I will ask for a debate.

Senator Boylan raised the issue of blood donations, and the waiting times in accident and emergency departments. The Joint Committee on Health is doing a body of work on this issue. Recently the committee had before it representatives of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, Fórsa and SIPTU to discuss overcrowding. I know that we are to invite in representatives of some of the hospital groups as well. The issue must be continuously kept on the agenda. If there is a specific issue of an individual hospital or group then I urge the Senator to table a Commencement debate.

Senator Seery Kearney talked about the modelling of SNAs. There is no perfect model because the work is demand-led. Sometimes when a school has an SNA and suddenly does not have the children then the school loses the SNA, which is a matter of great concern to that school. Certainly there were issues with the existing model. I will invite the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, in to speak on the issue.

Senator Craughwell welcomed the expulsion of a number of officials from the Russian Embassy, and I am sure the matter will be kept under review. He also talked about the scurrilous attack on his wife and children of which I was unaware and my sympathies go to them. As he rightly said, they are private citizens as are all of our family members. The cut and thrust of politics is one thing and we are all subject to attack. Some of it is unjust and some perhaps just, but that goes with the job. Nobody forces us into these jobs but family members should be out of bounds in terms of any sort of attacks. It has become too easy and prevalent for anybody to type something anonymously. This matter has been raised within the Houses of the Oireachtas and meetings have taken place with Twitter, Facebook and a number of companies. They have all said that they are private companies that are there to make money. However, at the same time, they too easily allow people to run fake accounts to say whatever they like. The worrying thing is that the individuals who receive comments do not know the identity of the sender. It could be somebody that they know who uses a fake account. The recipient could be quite familiar to these people yet they are not brave enough to say who they are or show who they are.

I think that I have covered all of the contributions made by Senators.