Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the 15 Senators who contributed on the Order of Business this morning.

We started with Senator Comyn, who spoke about Ash Wednesday and its importance in our calendar, heralding a time not just to abstain but to reflect and take up some type of positive habit. Kindness was the one she suggested. I think we can never have enough kindness in the world, including in this Chamber at times.

Senator Comyn also spoke about two housing estates in Drogheda that have particular issues. In Bryanstown Wood, sadly there is a situation where there is a raw sewage leak, which has been investigated by Louth County Council and Uisce Éireann but, because the housing estate is not taken in charge, nobody is doing anything about it. I suggest to the Senator that there is a process under section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 whereby residents, in a situation where the developer has gone, can initiate the process themselves. Some years back - I cannot recall what year - legislation was put in place to ensure that there would be a fund there to support works that need to be done in a place that is unfinished. Essentially the estate is unfinished. That would pay for that to bring it up to the stage where Louth County Council would take it in charge. The Senator may wish to look at that as it is worth doing. In relation to Tullybrook Court, it is shocking to think that tenants are paying such huge electricity and heating bills. They are not using heat pumps, I understand, but electrical storage heaters. The best thing to do is to try to have a conversation with Clúid. That does not seem to be going anywhere. Some intervention should be made. I suggest a Commencement matter with the Minister for housing because that situation is simply not good enough.

Senators Boyhan, McCormack and Andrews spoke about the legend that was Larry Butler and expressed their deepest sympathies to his wife, Kathleen, and family. They remembered him in very kind words. I thank them for that.

Senator Boyhan, along with Senators Ní Chuilinn and Conway, spoke about the Rotunda Hospital and the shock we all felt when we heard the announcement on the news yesterday morning that planning permission had been turned down. I know the Minister for Health has expressed her deep disappointment. The Taoiseach did so yesterday as well. I think Senator Boyhan is wrong to say that the Taoiseach was wrong to express that. At the end of the day, Dublin City Council and the planning inspector had recommended this. The Rotunda is one of the busiest maternity hospitals in Europe. I remember seeing somewhere that this year they expect to deliver their one millionth baby in the hospital. That shows how important it is to the mothers of Dublin and outside of Dublin.

The planned new critical care wing is absolutely necessary for upgrading the essential competencies of the Rotunda. It includes a neonatal intensive care unit, 46 single-bed rooms , 19 postnatal rooms, which are really important, and a new operating theatre. It is shocking. There will have to be a meeting. I know that the master of the Rotunda offered to meet the Dublin Civic Trust some time ago and had invited the objectors to meet with him and engage. Unfortunately, that invitation was not taken up. That is disappointing, too. Senator Boyhan said that the power should be taken from An Coimisiún Pleanála. We have to have an independent planning process because there are a lot of vested interests on both sides in relation to planning. It is important that there is a planning process.It is important that this is removed from politics. However, having said that, there should be no issue with politicians saying that they are disappointed with the actual verdict that was given, as indeed we all are. Senator McCormack also spoke about Evan Power from Portarlington, who was a great advocate for disability rights and sadly has passed away. Our deepest sympathy go to Evan's family and community. The Senator also spoke about Droimnin Nursing Home, which HIQA found was non-compliant in eight areas. The licence was cancelled and the HSE took the nursing home over. The Senator would like to see that being put on a permanent basis. To see that carried out we should have a debate with the Minister of State with responsibility for older people, Deputy O'Donnell, about nursing homes, to see if we can advocate for the HSE taking more of them in charge.

Senator Keogan spoke about the EU consumer protection law, the consumer credit directive, which would expand protections to customers. The deadline for Ireland signing up was November 2025. The fact that there was a public consultation is important but it does not actually mean anything is going to happen. I will check with the EU scrutiny committee because I would be surprised if some level of scrutiny was not done. I genuinely do not know the answer but it is important that we find it out.

Senator Boyle spoke about water outages over the last two days. Luckily, supplies have been restored after scheduled works in the reservoir. The Senator is right that there is a problem with communication. It causes all sorts of problems. If these shortages and stoppages to water or electricity supplies are communicated in a timely manner, then people can make plans. For all of these vital parts of our infrastructure, we need to have proper communication to all those who are going to be impacted.

Senator Gallagher spoke about a jetty that was constructed from recycled plastic about 20 years ago to assist people with mobility issues to fish Unfortunately, this was set on fire last Sunday night. He expressed his thanks to the fire service and has requested that anybody who saw anything suspicious to please inform the authorities, and obviously we support that.

Senator Andrews spoke about Irish Sport for Palestine, which has submitted a complaint to UEFA saying that UEFA is legitimising the occupied territories. The FAI is in a very difficult situation here. Some time ago, it made its preference known to UEFA that Israel should not be included in the competition. I think the FAI was absolutely right and I would completely support its stance. UEFA has taken its own decision. It has put Ireland and the Irish players who are involved in a very difficult situation. The Senator said that Israel is playing politics with football. It is, but that does not mean we should follow suit. The Senator is saying that because Israel is doing that, Ireland should do the same. There is nothing about Israel that I would like to copy, particularly in relation to the kinds of things it is doing.

Senator McCarthy spoke about the public petitions committee two days ago and a witness named Sinead O'Reilly whose sister in law, Sarah O'Reilly, had died from sepsis. Had protocol been followed, she would be alive today. There is a very real fear about sepsis at the moment and everybody is right to be concerned about it. We need to have a time-bound strategy and a development of an awareness campaign. We certainly will ask the Minister to come to discuss that. Perhaps Members here in the Seanad who are on the health committee would raise it in that forum. We are hearing about sepsis more and more and it is affecting people of all ages. Everybody is right to be concerned but we need to do more than show concern.

Senator Scahill spoke about the situation in Kerry and the families of 300 children who were in CAMHS. The review showed that there was very weak governance and failures there. There is a concern that something similar might happen in Castlerea because of key posts that are left unfilled. While I have no doubt but that staff on the ground are doing their best,it has to be a concern and we will look for a debate on the CAMHS service and mental health services.

Senator Duffy spoke about housing and the fact that in Westport, Castlebar and Ballina, while councillors and other public representatives want to see more affordable housing, apparently it is a requirement of the Department that KPMG carry out a survey and an analysis. It does not make sense on any level. As he rightly says, every village, town and city needs to have more housing. We need to see more affordable housing and affordable sites everywhere. In rural areas where people find it hard to get one-off planning, having affordable sites zoned for those who could build their own houses is important. We will take that up with the Minister for housing. The survey requirement does not seem to make sense.

Senator Sarah O'Reilly spoke about the poor quality roads in Cavan and the reliance on national funding. I would suggest that the Senator put in a Commencement matter in relation to that.

Senator Craughwell spoke about children and access to social media and about the need for a cyber awareness campaign. I understand that today at Cabinet there is going to be debate on that and actions that will be taken. In the education committee a few years ago we had a number of sessions with the anti-bullying centre, ABC, from DCU. The centre is internationally recognised and it does incredible work on cyber-bullying and online harassment. An observatory was set up there following the enactment of Coco's Law. We will ask for the Minister for education to come and speak about that and to speak about the work being done in DCU.

Senator Kelleher spoke about the SNA situation, which I know we are all concerned about. About 200 schools received letters over the last week, and the Senator spoke about Scoil Barra National School in particular, and the concerns there, particularly about next September's intake. The school would need three SNAs for just the new intake alone, which would leave just three for the rest of the school if these cuts were made. Yes, certainly it is good that a pause has been announced but we need more action than that. We need to have a debate with the Minister on the matter. None of us should have an issue with reviews because they are important at every level. A review of SNAs had not been done for about eight years, I think. However, the way this was handled was completely wrong. The communication to the affected schools was completely wrong and anyone who has a child with special needs faces uphill battles all of the time and they take things like this very personally. Schools pride themselves on inclusion and so many of our schools that are really doing excellent work in the inclusion area take it very personally as well. I had a Commencement matter last week about a similar situation in Newbridge. While we welcome the pause, we need to have a debate in the House about how we go forward. Given that there will be 1,700 new SNAs, there has to be a better way of redeployment. We get what the Minister has said about needing to ensure that redeployments are in the areas of need.That is what we all want but we see and we recognise that need in the schools in our communities.