Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues for their contributions.

I thank Senator O’Loughlin for describing the recommendations made by the Ukraine Civil Society Forum. Given the announcement of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, yesterday, that we are putting aside €2 billion next year to look after the guests we have in Ireland, it is a very logical request to have a refugee agency and a national lead who represents the Government. I will certainly pass on the Senator's messages.

Senator Sherlock and Senator Gavan raised the issue of what I can only describe as a very unfortunate strike. Obviously, however, after 14 years, people felt they had absolutely no choice but to go on strike today. I am mindful about section 38 and 39 organisations. The reason we have them is because the State does not provide certain services for the people in need. It is disingenuous on behalf of the State to say it is not its responsibility to set pay policy when Government policy is to outsource these services to the people and organisations we all recognise as being valuable and, indeed, as Senator Sherlock said, the workers themselves whom we also recognise as being valuable. I find myself probably not being on the side of the Government’s response the morning because I think it is time for Government to intervene and take responsibility for those workers who may not be direct employees of the State but who are actually providing services in lieu of the State. I very much concur with both Senators’ remarks and I will pass them on.

Senator Dolan spoke about a meeting tonight in Mountbellew on the smart villages initiative and rural transport funding. I acknowledge that she is inviting everybody to come along.

Senator Ó Donnghaile talked about a concert in Liberty Hall that is happening on 11 August to raise money for the Save Moore Street campaign, and I acknowledge that.

Senator Murphy and the Fianna Fáil group leader raised the issue of the meeting on and the support for further changes to Tús and the rural support scheme, RSS, that were announced by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, last week.We did see some welcome changes. I can only say this from the experience of being in the Department, but we need to be mindful that the schemes in the Department are considered employment and activation schemes. At a time when we have nearly full employment, it is hard to find people to fill those schemes. The reality is a lot of them are income supports and community facilitation for work and organisational support in local communities that would not otherwise be supported by the State if we did not have them. There is a real need for some flexibility. I will try to arrange a debate in the autumn with the Minister, as requested.

Senator Murphy also referred to a very large meeting in Roscommon last night on an issue he and Senator Aisling Dolan raised last week with regard to the special area of conservation, SAC, at Lough Funshinagh. Again, I wish the Senators continued success in the deliberations with the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, in trying to find a resolution.

Senator Keogan brought up the recent Roe v. Wade decision in the United States and the debate that has been struck, not just in America, but internationally arising from that. We have our own three-year review of the abortion legislation that was passed arising from the repeal of the eighth amendment a number of years ago. As I had committed to beforehand, I will certainly organise a debate on that review once it is released by the Minister.

Senator Malcolm Byrne, not for the first time, brought up foreign births registration. I am flabbergasted by the example he gave and I will certainly bring it to the Minister's attention because it is not acceptable.

The other point raised by the Senator this morning is that we will hopefully be finishing the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill in the Seanad next week. What I can tell him personally is that from the interactions we have had with social media companies, they are certainly not happy. They are not happy that we intend to issue the regulations immediately but they have done absolutely nothing to crown themselves in glory with regard to how they treat people whom we will call them victims. I am sure there are a few of them in this room, but there are certainly plenty of people we know, many of them far too young to be resilient enough to be able to deal with the harassment and negativity they receive on social media platforms. The companies have done little or nothing to try to protect people. It is certainly time the State took the bull by the horns and started to regulate that industry. I thank the Senator for raising the matter.

In response to Senator Ruane, I am between a rock and a hard place at the moment. I totally recognise the Senator’s concerns and I hear her loud and clear. The position I am in is that we have two weeks left and we have an awful lot of work to do. I have tried to facilitate in particular the Electoral Reform Bill because some colleagues were not here last week. Ideally, we should have finished Committee Stage last week and then we would only have Report Stage this week, and we would have had plenty of time to put in the amendments. Given that some colleagues were not here last week, I extended Committee Stage to have it this week and to allow that debate, but it meant I had to put Committee Stage and Report Stage together, which I know is not acceptable to the Senator. There may be one or two options I can take to swap things around, if I can talk to the Senator afterwards. I know it does not affect today's order because that is as it is. I had asked last week if we could do all Stages of the EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill in the Chamber on Thursday. There may be a way I can swap the Institutional Burials Bill to the evening and then try to split Committee Stage and Report Stage, but I can only do that if I have the acquiescence of the Cathaoirleach because to turn around the Report Stage amendments between Wednesday and Thursday would require an exception. The Bills Office and our colleagues who work to support us are under pressure at this time of year, as they always are. I will try, and I will see if I can come up with some sort of flexibility.

To be honest, I do not like using guillotines and I do not like closing off debate. However, if we do not close off some debates this week, then we are pretending we are going to take amendments because I can bring them in next week, but there will be no Dáil to take the amendments. The Higher Education Authority Bill and the Electoral Reform Bill are time-sensitive. We need to establish the electoral commission and the boards of our universities are changing during the summer, so the legislation needs to be passed before then. I find I am between a rock and a hard place. As the Senator is aware, even though the Electoral Reform Bill has been around a long time, we only got it relatively recently, and the HEA Bill was only published last week, so we could not have taken it any earlier. I will do my best to try to juggle things around. I will liaise directly with the Senator after the Order of Business, once we speak to the Bills Office and the Cathaoirleach. I hear the Senator’s concerns and I totally understand them.

Senator Gavan spoke of the Irish Wheelchair Association. He also brought up the Air Navigation and Transport Bill from last week.A tender for external expertise has been issued by the Minister for Transport to advise him on the search and rescue contract because the Department does not have expertise. The Cathaoirleach is well aware that I have strong personal views on this. Recommendations Nos. 29 and 31 of the Air Accident Investigation Unit arising from the loss of life on Rescue 116 specifically targeted the lack of expertise in the Department. The Department still does not seem to see fit to put expertise on its own staff. It is not something I can commend.

Deputy Berry made a statement recently and Senator Craughwell has made a call today for Army members to be paid €10.50 per hour for any hours they are asked to work for the DAA. I will certainly pass that on to the Minister. The Minister is right, and it would be remiss of me not to stick up for the Government occasionally, that we borrowed €36 billion in the two years we supported our people and businesses during Covid. It is an enormous amount of money but it was the right thing to do. It was a time for us to be generous. We have to wonder with the amount of money we used to support people why companies still took the opportunity to let go some of their most expensive and valuable staff.

Deputy Buttimer spoke about ChildVision and the HSE's CHO 4 in Cork. ChildVision has been providing a wonderful service not only in Cork but in other parts of the country. It is unfathomable that the HSE would not give ChildVision a service level agreement. What is wrong is that the HSE does not pay for services already in existence. It only pays for new services. There would be an outcry if the service was not available. For the HSE not to provide the miserable sum of €144,000 for a service for 80 children and their families would be a crying shame. I will certainly raise the mater with the Minister for Health on behalf of Senator Buttimer and Mr. Brian Allen.

Senator Chambers opened proceedings seeking a debate on Tús and the rural social scheme, including a top-up and the need for greater flexibility in recruitment. I will organise such a debate.