Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The national framework is not sustainable at the moment and we must have some recourse to be able to question where we are going.

Senator Fitzpatrick asked me to write to the Minister for Finance with regard to introducing a vacant property tax arising from the CSO figures released last week. I certainly will do that.

Senator Keogan highlighted another serious anomaly with regard to the CSO figures. Again I concur with her. This is not unique to Dublin or Meath. I am sure it is infringed in every other county council area in the country with regard to developments and planning for our towns and villages which we want to do in a sustainable and supported way. If we do not even know who we are supposed to be developing our towns and villages for and the correct populations, we are hampering and starting off on the back foot. Senator Keogan is right, the national planning framework needs to be re-evaluated, in particular for all those county councils that are still mid-national development plans and local development area plans. I certainly support that call today.Senator Malcolm Byrne spoke about the 242 international companies that continue to do business as usual in Russia, as if there were no terrorist attacks or atrocities being inflicted on other human beings. I certainly concur with him in that regard. I will write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, today and make the request sought by the Senator with regard to the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates. I will revert to him on that.

Senators Hoey and Buttimer called for the staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas to be paid a fair wage. I know all Members of this House support that. The matter is currently before the Workplace Relations Commission and the sooner it is adjudicated upon, the better for us all. What we want to see is the quality we have in all our offices recompensed by a decent wage on which those concerned can afford to live. Senator Hoey also called for the repeal review to be updated. I will ask the Minister to update the House on when the final report will be issued to us. We will organise a debate on it. The Senator also touched on the issue of DEBRA Ireland, which made its pre-budget submission this morning, seeking the relatively small sum of €786,000 to try to address the issue of the people it supports.

Senator Gavan sought a debate on University Hospital Limerick. He has done so on several occasions, as have Senators Conway and Maria Byrne. There is a standing offer of any time that I can allocate for the Minister. I will reiterate that today. The only thing I can say, particularly on behalf of the people in the region, is that I hope the independent review group that has been established will come back very soon with recommendations that will be enacted. Senator Gavan is also seeking a debate on the hospitality sector and the joint labour committee, JLC. He is right to point that out, insofar as the State has really supported that industry in recent years, particularly because of Covid, the very least it can do is to come to the table and have a conversation about a career structure development and pay progression plan for the people on whom it relies to work in the industry.

Senator Boyhan spoke about thalidomide. He also sought an update from the Minister on the plans announced earlier this year in respect of scoliosis patients which do not seem to have come to fruition just yet. The Senator also asked me for an explanation as to why I am proposing to take all Stages of the EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill 2022 next week. To explain to colleagues, I did a deal, for want of a better word, with them in recent years that we would not take all Stages of a Bill together unless there was an absolute emergency. It appears that such an emergency has happened. There is a problem with the Estimates for the particular organisations dealt with in the Bill. If we do not get the Bill passed and signed by the Minister and the President by the middle of next week, the Estimates will fall and all those organisations will have no money. We need to bring in a new schedule of Estimates and that can only be done after the House passes the Bill and it goes to the President. It is not our fault that it has been left as late as this but I ask for Members’ co-operation in dealing with the Bill next week. Obviously, if they do not wish to co-operate, I will have to come up with a plan B. I am asking them to consider allowing us to do it, given that it is only a money Bill to give extra money to those organisations to ensure they continue to keep the lights on, in effect.

While I am on my feet discussing this, the agenda for the following week is currently being prepared by my office. At this time next week, I will probably be asking Members to take all Stages of two other Bills in the final sitting week. I give them notice of that. The reason all Stages will be taken together is that the Bills have not even been published yet, so I could not attempt to put them on the agenda for next week, even if I wanted to do so. One of them will relate to the €100 charge for children’s hospitals. Patients aged under 16 are currently charged €100 when they go to an accident and emergency department or for an overnight stay. That Bill will come before the House in the week commencing 11 July and I will be asking Senators to take all Stages of the Bill that week. The Department of Justice is bringing forward a Ukrainian omnibus Bill that apparently requires to be finished before the recess. It has not yet been published, however, and I cannot schedule it until I get it. Forewarned is forearmed. Members can come back to me next week and let me know their views, but I ask for their co-operation in respect of taking all Stages of the EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill next week. I hope that answers Senator Boyhan’s question.

Senator Conway spoke about the International Day of Parliamentarism and called for a more reflective representation in both Houses. Obviously, this House is a little better than the Dáil in that regard. He called for more diversity, with people reflecting the entire population of Ireland, including from ethnicity and disability perspectives. There is a need to have all walks of life represented. The debate in the Houses would be far more interesting if we had lots of different representatives of communities. Senator Conway also joined the call for a debate on transport and the NTA.

Senator O’Loughlin opened the Order of Business by referring to the disability capacity review. She also raised the issue of the Defence Forces being called in to do emergency support work at Dublin Airport and the need to ensure they are paid properly and, at least, to have the decency and respect to have conversations with the people upon whom we consistently rely so often.

She also highlighted the cessation of operation of bus route No. 129 in County Kildare. She is right that it is not the only bus route that has been ceased this summer without notice. Handing out leaflets on a bus route to say a bus will not be operating for the next couple of months and the company might get back to its passengers in September, as has happened in Fingal and Kildare, is really not the way to do business. We should be supporting all public transport, particularly the services with the PSO levy. I will send a letter to the NTA and the Minister today on her behalf.