Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I salute the An Lá Dearg protest that took place in Belfast at the weekend. Anyone who watched it on television would say that it was spectacular. There must have been at least 20,000 people there. Even though my colleague, Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, is quite a young man, I noticed that most of the people who took part were younger than him. It was such a vibrant and powerful protest. Of course, their key ask is absolutely just and it is that we see Acht na Gaeilge made law in the North. I express my solidarity and support for all of those who took the time to protest last Saturday and wish them continued success in their campaign.

The second topic I want to raise concerns what is happening in our hospitals at the minute. I tabled a Commencement matter on medical laboratory scientists but I wish to put the following on the record again. I cannot for the life of me understand how this Government has allowed this strike to come about given that it had six months since the strike notice was given last November to sit down and have concrete, meaningful negotiations with these workers. I am genuinely at a loss as to why that has not happened. To hear the statement repeated to me this morning by a junior Minister that the Minister for Health is very disappointed misses the point. We need to see the Minister engage meaningfully. There is a solution for every industrial dispute but it takes both sides to make that happen. These people did not want to go on strike and they were very clear about that when I met them, so we need to see action.

In a similar vein, I am concerned about University Hospital Limerick. Again, I wish to express solidarity with the laboratory scientists there, in particular. As members will know, a task force was established to solve the ongoing crisis in University Hospital Limerick. That is a good thing and is something we have sought for a long time. I am, therefore, flabbergasted to report that so far, the task force has met a number of times but has not even asked for a meeting with any of the unions.Given that the staff are keeping that hospital going, it is astounding that it has not even occurred to the task force to reach out to SIPTU and the nurses' unions to ask them what the problems are. Unfortunately, that is the case at present. I am very much at a loss in that regard. As always, I call for a further debate on University Hospital Limerick because of the depth of the crisis there and what is facing us next winter.

Regarding the comments on passports, again, I am astounded at the statement by the Department of Foreign Affairs that there is no backlog in passports. It made that statement this morning. At one point last week, all four Sinn Féin representatives were on the telephone to the Passport Service. I am sure it is the same for Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independent Members. It is astounding to say there is no backlog.

Finally, I pay tribute to Cathal Coughlan, an amazing singer with Fatima Mansions and Microdisney. He was a great Irishman and a complete genius who unfortunately died far too young at the age of 61 years at the weekend. I wish to put that on the record.