Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)

We all know community pharmacies are incredibly important in our communities, villages, towns and cities. Last week, there was a competition to find the best community pharmacy. I am absolutely delighted that Shane Ryan’s pharmacy in Rathangan, County Kildare was the national winner. That was of no surprise to me because Shane and his team are absolutely fantastic.The minute you walk in the door, you get an incredible welcome. That welcome, that service and that friendliness means so much to everybody in the area. It is something I witness every time I go to the local shops. As we are approaching Christmas, it is hugely important that we shop Irish and shop local. I had the opportunity over the weekend to do that. I give a big shout out to Cameron and Andrea in The White Stuff. Their service was second to none, which is something I find among the young people working in my county of Kildare and throughout the country.

I also want to mention the Kildare child poverty profile. Kildare was one of four counties selected to do such a profile as part of a pilot scheme. The profile was launched last Friday and there are very important learnings within it. For example, 77,000 people in Kildare - about 31% of our total population - are in economic hardship. When we look at that in the context of other areas, we see that the number in question is bigger than the total population of each of counties Longford, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, Monaghan and Carlow. Surely that should set off alarm bells. Kildare is a county that is perceived to be wealthy and doing well. Therefore, the cost of rent, housing and everything else is as high as it is in Dublin. There are many concerns about children who are neurodivergent. As we know, the services in CHO 7 are not up to the national standard. It is important that we have a debate in this House about the four different areas chosen for the poverty profile. I ask the Leader to seek such a debate.

Women's Aid which has launched a very important new online tool around domestic violence to help to equip the friends and family of those who they may feel are suffering domestic violence and who do not know how to have that conversation with them. While we are in this period of the elimination of violence against women, I thank Women's Aid for what it is doing and highlight it. I encourage those who feel they may have somebody in their circle who is going through domestic violence to equip themselves about how to have those very difficult conversations.