Skip to main content
Normal View

Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 8 Feb 2022

Vol. 282 No. 9

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

The Order of Business is No. 1, motion regarding the Fisheries (Commercial Fishing Licences) (Alteration of Duties and Fees) Order 2022, back from committee, to be taken on conclusion of the Order of Business, without debate; No. 2, motion regarding the Planning and Development Act (Exempted Development) Regulations 2022, referral to committee, to be taken on conclusion of No. 1, without debate; and No. 3, Animal Health and Welfare and Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021, Second Stage, to be taken at 5 p.m., with the opening contribution of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, that of group spokespersons not to exceed eight minutes and all other Senators not to exceed five minutes, and the Minister to be given no less than ten minutes to reply.

It is important that the Seanad sends our congratulations to Leona Maguire on her fantastic achievement over the weekend. She has broken many records but the record she broke on the weekend by being the first ever Irish player to win on the prestigious LPGA tour is incredible and noteworthy. She has lifted women's golf and women's sport to a higher level. I congratulate her on that.

Today is the 19th Safer Internet Day and the theme this year is "Together for a Better Internet". We all have to work together with all stakeholders to make sure the Internet is a safer place for everybody but particularly for children and young people. We need to do more in our formal education system to teach our young people how to act in an online world. That is an important message that needs to go forward.

I have no doubt that everybody here saw "RTÉ Investigates" last night. Many of us were shocked by its coverage of the domestic violence situation. It is incredible that breaches of court protection orders in domestic abuse cases have increased by more than 60%. It was heartbreaking to listen to the stories from the women. I was glad that a man who suffered domestic abuse was included as well because it is wrong that there is not one domestic refuge for men in this country and we need to do much more about that. There are also nine counties without refuges for women.

The Minister for Justice has committed to doing more on this. We need an action plan that is very clear in its determination to tackle the root causes. We need to send a strong message so victims will have confidence that the system will support and protect them and that the perpetrators of domestic violence will be brought to justice. While there is a need for extra refuges, we also need a targeted, comprehensive, effective and victim-centred strategy to deal with these dreadful incidents within our courts services. They need to be time-bound as well. We need time-bound policies and actions put in place.

My last words today go to the memory of Maxine Maguire, a young girl I taught in junior infants. Last night was the fifth anniversary of her very sadly taking her own life. She was a beautiful young woman and a wonderful sister, daughter and friend. She presented at hospital with mental health issues, with which she had struggled for a few years, and she was turned away by those she felt would protect her. Very sadly, that led to her attempting to take her own life.

When she was in a physical situation because of her attempt to take her own life, she then got wonderful care from the hospital but sadly it was too late and her life was lost. Her family and friends would say that the care she got when she presented with a physical illness was 100% better than when she presented with a mental illness. We have to acknowledge that Maxine's life mattered and her death mattered. I spoke about this in the other House. We need to be far better at dealing with mental health issues in this country.

We have emerged from almost two years of lockdown where at each step of the way the Government protected jobs and income through the pandemic unemployment payment and the employment wage subsidy scheme. While there has been a strong return, there are shortages in respect of staff and skills, and challenges regarding the ramping up of supply chains to pre-Covid levels. We are also now in the middle of a global energy crisis. We need to act now. We in Fine Gael favour an approach to benefit all households, including those on low incomes and the squeezed middle. Many families are struggling with huge energy bills, childcare costs, mortgages and high rent. This high rate of inflation is having a significant impact on family income and we have to examine ways to put money back into people's pockets.

We see the effects each time we fill our cars with diesel or do the weekly shop, or when we pay to heat the house. We all see the impact and hear about it every week. Additional measures are needed. The fuel allowance scheme was increased as part of the budget by €5 a head, and we need to bring forward the schemes that were agreed in the budget to support people. The increase to the working family payment is due to take effect in June but it has to happen sooner.

A rebate on electricity costs is being considered. There are many such ways in which we need to make savings to show people we are there to support them. If people are working from home, they can claim 30% of the costs of heat, light and broadband, and we have heard about the new national retrofit programme, which will soon be launched. It will ensure people have an opportunity to retrofit their homes but we need to see benefits and funds for people now. It has to happen now, not in six months when they eventually get people in to retrofit their houses.

The cost-of-living issue has been discussed by the coalition leaders at their weekly meetings for several weeks and record inflation rates are being experienced throughout the eurozone. The Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform have been commissioned to develop a package of measures and the Minister for Social Protection is examining what can be done in respect of social welfare. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste discussed the fast-rising cost of living at the labour employer economic forum yesterday and there will be further discussions this week. We need to recognise that dealing with fuel and electricity costs is a matter not just for families but for small businesses as well, which need to stay competitive. We need to see action now.

The acquittal of the “golfgate” four may not have been satisfactory to the majority of those whose opinions on the subject were canvassed in the newspapers, but anybody who followed closely the events of August 2020 and who is concerned about the rule of law and the idea that convictions should come about only where there has been a clear breach of criminal law will be relieved. Credit and congratulations are due to our colleague, Senator McDowell, whose defence of his client and whose submissions helped bring the matter to the correct conclusion. They say success in the District Court often leads to greater things, and we will see about that.

We have to wonder about the expense that was incurred in prosecuting that case on such thin grounds, as it turned out, and ask why it was decided to investigate and prosecute the case in circumstances where there was an unhelpful media and political climate that seemed to contribute to a decision that perhaps ought to have been taken differently. It is odd that it was only in respect of an event that involved politicians that it was eventually decided to bring an investigation and prosecution. I say all this as a non-golfer. "There but for the disgrace of golf go I", I was tempted to say at the time but I did not want to join in the general pile-on of people who were already receiving disproportionate criticism. Some reflection is needed on how public opinion has been managed, and sometimes manipulated, over the past two years and the hysteria over the "golfgate" case should form part of that. What ended up happening was quite disproportionate.

I have raised the next issue previously but I will do so now in more detail because it is important. The Consumers Association of Ireland warned recently of an increasing trend of businesses refusing to take cash and accepting only card payments. This causes problems for, for example, people on strict budgets, low income or social welfare and older people. Some, but not all, of these people are used to paying by cash and do not find the trend helpful. It is interesting to note the legal position on this. Deputy Nolan was recently told by the Minister for Finance that, if a business specifies in advance that payment must be in a form other than cash, the customer cannot subsequently claim a legal right to pay in cash and that, therefore, under certain circumstances, retail businesses or service providers can refuse to accept payment in cash.

However, the European Commission recommendation 191/2019 on the scope of legal tender of euro banknotes and coins, signed by our old friend, Olli Rehn, provides that the acceptance of euro banknotes and coins as means of payment in retail transactions should be the rule and that a refusal thereof should be possible only where, for example, the retailer has no change available. I know a recommendation at that level is not binding law but it is a statement of best practice at EU level and it seems to me that Ireland is clearly diverging from this.

I would like it if the Minister for Finance could come to the House soon to address the question of whether we should allow consumers to insist on paying in cash for small retail transactions if they wish to. Does the legal position on cash payments in Ireland, as outlined by the Minister, not clash with the best practice at European level, which states that consumers should have that choice? Should we amend consumer law to allow customers to be able to insist in almost all circumstances on paying in cash for retail transactions up to a certain level?

It is a good day for Ireland and the retrofitting plan we will see announced this evening is a positive step. We could have done with it about ten or 15 years ago but back then only the Green Party was talking about this kind of stuff. Finally lots of other people are catching up and we have prioritised it. Since my first week in the Seanad I was having meetings with officials and advisers about how we could do this better and make it more affordable.

I suffered from fuel poverty as single mum when my son was small. I could not afford even half a tank of oil and I have said in the House before that I remember having to buy a bale of briquettes and move the bedroom down to the sitting room to keep us warm. Back then I found out about grants and told the landlord and I was lucky that he put in attic insulation, although I did all the work, and he also pumped the cavity walls. Those are two of the big things that will be coming in this retrofitting plan we have not had, which allows one to do small retrofitting works. I never had to sleep in that sitting room again because that insulation made a huge difference. Back then the grants were about €400 and now we will see a tripling of that.

This is a positive day but people will always throw mud, especially if there is a successful project in place and it is great that the three Government parties came together and put the money behind this to bring in this hugely important measure that will affect people on every level. People might say that only the rich can afford it but if you look at the details you will see: that all social housing stock will get it done for free; that people on low income will be able to avail of it; and that people with the lowest energy rated houses will be dealt with first because we know there is a shortage of qualified workers and we have to prioritise the most vulnerable first. That will be rolled out from tomorrow so it is not a long-term plan but a short-term plan to look at the most vulnerable first and then in the long term, people who want to do big and deep retrofits can do so. Already more than 400,000 houses in Ireland have received deep retrofits in case anyone thinks this has not been done before. It just was not as affordable before and now we will see the grants vastly improved. We will also see better and low-percentage green loans made available. This will be more affordable for more people and people will not have to come up with the money up front because the grant can go directly to the person who is doing the work.

I had meetings with people in the building industry a few years ago and this is what they wanted. They wanted a clear plan and commitment from Government so they would know as builders and tradesmen that it would be worth their while taking on more staff and reskilling and upskilling people. Now they can see the supports are there from the Government for the brilliant tradesmen of Ireland. We can do this as a result of today’s hugely successful announcement on retrofitting. It is always good to celebrate the wins. We can always throw mud but it is hard to find fault with this one and a lot of the money came from carbon tax. People go on about carbon tax as if it is the beginning and end of all the problems but it is 2 cent on the litre. About 30 cent of the increase is coming from global issues that we could do nothing about. We foresaw all of them years ago, which is why we have worked so hard on this day and night. I congratulate the advisers, experts and civil servants who worked hard on getting this across the line. I also congratulate the three Government parties that committed to it more than anybody else. Talk is cheap but this is action and this is a good day for Ireland and our Government.

I want to raise the cost of living crisis we have and the comments that were made by the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, on yesterday’s “Drivetime”. The Minister of State told people to stop complaining and to do some work for themselves by shopping around to find value in energy, gas and insurance.

Someone in receipt of a salary in excess of €100,000 telling people to shop around rightly caused outrage among listeners. I welcome that the Minister of State apologised for those comments because they showed just how out of touch he is with the day-to-day struggles people are experiencing in trying to make ends meet. They are having to make the choice between eating and heating.

While he apologised and his tone might have been off, there is nothing in what the Minister of State said in that interview that contradicts Government policy on energy poverty. "Shop around" and "switch supplier" is the advice repeated by various Ministers any time the issue of energy poverty is raised in these Houses. That is despite the fact that the energy poverty strategy that lapsed in 2019 clearly outlined there are mounting barriers to prevent people who are in energy poverty from switching supplier. The Government has known since a 2015 report was released that switching supplier is not straightforward. Despite this, advising people to switch supplier continues to be Government policy. It still tells people to shop around as a way to combat energy poverty. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, told me that in response to parliamentary questions. I have been told the same by the Ministers of State, Deputies Noonan, Ossian Smyth and Fleming. In both of these Houses, that line is being used in official responses all the time. We are told that people need to switch supplier and shop around to bring down the cost of energy.

The energy poverty strategy clearly outlined there is an issue around switching and there are barriers for people who want to do so. We were promised a review of the implementation of the strategy in 2021 but we have not seen that. How can we expect the issue of energy poverty to be addressed if we are not using evidence-based policymaking? Hiding behind the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, will not wash either. When the Government tells people to shop around, it also points in the direction of the CRU. Let me give an example of what the regulator in Britain does. It caps the default tariff energy providers can charge their customers who, for one reason or another, do not or cannot switch supplier. The tariff is capped. Likewise, the English regulator directly intervenes in the prepaid tariff rates. Prepaid tariff rates are significantly higher in this country despite the fact that those who avail of them are the people who are most vulnerable, under most pressure and struggling to manage their bills and income.

I would like the Leader of the House to get an update on when we will get the new energy poverty strategy, when we will see the review of the implementation of the previous strategy and when the Central Statistics Office will produce the indicators that will allow us to accurately gauge whether Government policy is addressing energy poverty. Simply telling people to shop around is not good enough. I am glad the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, said what he did because now we can all see this is Government policy. It was not just a gaffe on the radio.

I would like to be associated with the comments of my colleague from Kildare in congratulating Leona Maguire on her historic win on Saturday night in the Ladies Professional Golf Association, LPGA, event. I was fortunate enough to watch the final couple of holes she played. What struck me most was her response in an interview immediately after the event. She said her success would encourage other lady sportspersons to follow in her footsteps. That she was in a position to say that immediately after winning her first event on the LPGA tour shows the strength of Leona's character and what she is doing for Irish sport. She is putting us on the international map. It is important that we recognise what she said and send our congratulations to her.

One issue has already been mentioned three times. It has dominated the conversations I have in my clinics and the calls and emails I have received. It also comes up in general conversation with people. Everyone is deeply concerned about the rising cost of living, not just for themselves but for their families. Last week, my party introduced a Private Members' Bill to address these concerns and other serious concerns many people have. Unfortunately, the Government did not support the Labour Party proposals. Those proposals included the introduction of a rent freeze, the provision of additional targeted support for those in energy poverty by widening access to the fuel allowance, targeted energy cost relief through a VAT reduction for all, seriously addressing the need to make education free and tackling the increased cost of transport, food and housing, among other measures. As has been said, we are now hearing that the Government will introduce a series of measures to relieve the financial pressure and burden on many people this week.

I sincerely hope that those measures will include relief on fuel costs and further relief on energy bills. I have previously raised in this House the direction from our European colleagues that could allow the Government to reduce the VAT on energy bills, and even solid fuel prices, thereby putting money back into the pockets of those who need it most.

I also hope that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will use this crisis to reduce costs for commuters. Coming from the commuter county of Kildare, I have continually highlighted the unfair and discriminatory differences in pricing for train users in south Kildare compared to those in north Kildare. It is time that the Minister and the Government take public transport seriously. We need to reduce train fares from these stations in south Kildare to discourage those hard-pressed commuters from taking their cars onto the already packed M7 and N7 roads. We need a mini-budget to address this crisis. Too many need our help. They need somebody to help them.

I congratulate "RTÉ Investigates" on last night's heart-wrenching and infuriating programme on domestic violence. I say "infuriating" because there are so few practical supports for people who suffer from domestic violence. We cannot stand in this Chamber any longer and allow this gender-based violence to continue and increase. This morning, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Helen McEntee, said that the third strategy on domestic and gender-based violence would be released very soon. I ask that as soon as that happens we have a debate in the House about it. This strategy needs to be robust, well financed and ensure that at every step along the way the victim is minded. They just need to be looked after to make sure that they are safe and that they have a safe place to go to be looked after.

During the Order of Business a few months ago, I asked for a debate on the rising cost of living. We all hear that. We all live in the real world and, no matter what sound bites the Opposition likes to throw out, we know that the rising cost of living is a real and major problem for people. We all go to our petrol stations and we all have our bills, but this week the Government will, hopefully, have a real robust list of targeted supports for people who are vulnerable.

I also ask for a debate on how we will expand our energy market and make the transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar power. There is a major debate to be had on how we make sure that we have a proper energy supply in the interim before we are carbon neutral. We all want our energy to come from sustainable and renewable resources, but there has to be a strong debate on how we get to that point fairly for all our citizens.

We have a problem, which will develop even more over the next number of weeks, relating to people under the age of 40 who are looking to get recovery certificates after contracting Covid, especially during Christmas. We have a situation at present, through no fault of the people concerned, where those under the age of 40 who have had their first and second vaccines, and were going to get boosters, cannot have their boosters for three months because they got Covid. During Christmas, we asked people under 40 to take antigen tests instead of PCR tests and, because of that, under EU law they cannot receive Covid recovery certificates. This is now causing significant problems for people when they travel because they cannot go into countries unless they have a valid Covid certificate, with a booster, or if they have not got a booster, they have to show proof of recovery. This is a major dilemma for people under 40. We asked them to take antigen tests and we now cannot facilitate them to travel to other countries.

Two things can be done. The EU could allow expansion of the freedom of recovery certificates to those who took antigen tests that were reported to the State. People who took antigen tests and reported to the HSE that they had Covid should be allowed to get recovery certificates on the back of that, not just those who took tests such as professional antigen tests or PCR tests.

More importantly, the time period between recovering from Covid-19 and being allowed to get a booster is three months. That equivalent time period in the UK is 28 days. I call on the National Immunisation Advisory Committee to reduce the time period here from three months to 28 days to allow people to receive a booster in a timely manner. It is a simple recommendation that should be allowed. It should happen immediately. The biggest problem we have is that those under the age of 40 are currently encouraged to do antigen tests instead of getting a PCR test. This problem will become greater the more people book flights and travel abroad. If we do not change that policy to allow people under the age of 40 to get PCR tests, the problem will become worse.

I want to pay tribute to a Cavan woman, Leona Maguire, on winning the LPGA tournament this weekend. She is a great ambassador not only for Cavan but for young women in sport and young girls.

Last October the Leader promised me she would arrange a debate in the Seanad on mental health and young people. We talked last week and in previous weeks about the death of Eden Heaslip. This weekend I had the experience of the youngest death ever where I had to walk into and out of a house and that was of a 14-year-old child who died by suicide. We need to have a discussion on this issue and to put together some community crisis response teams and permanent councillors in schools. It has gone on too long.

We are not dealing with the issues on the ground. It is left to community leaders like ourselves to come up with solutions. We cannot do that. There is a ripple effect and everybody knows that effect. It was in Cavan last week. It had its fourth such death in the parish of Denn after Eden Heaslip. There was another death last week and now I know of another one in Duleek. I am afraid of my life of what that ripple effect will encounter for us in our town. We had five deaths by suicide in one year in 2017-18. It can devastate a community and it takes years to heal.

I want the Minister for Health to be invited to the House to deal with this issue and for us to come up with some suggestions on how we can set up a community crisis response team. There are no organisations doing that at this time. SOSAD, Pieta House, MyMind or Jigsaw do not do it. There is an opening for an NGO or a Government body to stand up and say it will do that, that it will go into a town and do a health check, and see what it can do to help and support that town. The National Educational Psychological Service and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service have been calling for this for years.

I note the Green Party has welcomed the national retrofit plan. We have the warmer homes scheme. There is a 26-month delay in the delivery of measures under it and 7,000 homeowners are waiting to get works done under it. It is all very well announcing plans but we do not have the manpower or workers in the construction sector to do this work. We must address the deficits in that sector.

I would like to raise the issue of sports capital funding. There is much speculation as to when an announcement will ultimately be made on it. The announcement of it was moved to the new year. We have been able to maximise the level of funding available to sports clubs as a result of that. Therefore, it was a welcome move. Clubs are contacting me, as I am sure they are contracting every Member, weekly seeking an update on their sports capital application. There are issues in terms of drawdown under previous applications where difficulty has arisen with respect to title in which the Chief State Solicitor's office has to be involved. I have raised this issue previously. I know the Department wanted the maximum amount of money drawn down prior to Christmas but an impediment to that in part has been the slowness in dealing with these issues in the Chief State Solicitor's office, which needs to be addressed.

I believe it needs to be addressed but that is a wider point.

We need certainty in regard to when the sports capital grants will be announced. It involves many clubs in my county of Waterford across a whole host of areas. As a former PE teacher, I fully see the value of investment by the State in local clubs that do so much fantastic work with youths across the sphere. We cannot but compliment the volunteers involved in all of those clubs who give of their time freely for the benefit of others. I want to put that on the record of the House today.

I want to raise the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland's report into 27 loyalist murders and attempted murders in south Belfast between 1990 and 1998. As the House knows, this report comes on the back of previous reports into loyalist killings in south Down and the north west and is further evidence of a systematic policy of collusion between state forces and loyalist death squads. My thoughts this afternoon are with the families of the 11 people murdered, including a 15-year-old boy, and all those injured as a result of collusion between the British state and the UDA. This follows previous reports into mass loyalist killings in Loughinisland and Greysteel, carried out with weapons that British state agents helped to import and distribute to the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance. Eighty people were killed with these weapons and the ombudsman has revealed that those responsible for bringing them in have never been investigated, despite, or perhaps because of, the involvement of state agents. The ombudsman has also said that eight RUC Special Branch agents were involved in 27 murders and attempted murders in south Belfast. One agent was recruited because of his involvement in the “planning, preparation and execution” of previous murders.

The ombudsman has found collusion in each and every killing. Lives could and should have been saved, but warnings about attacks being planned were not passed on and state agents involved in murder were allowed to kill and kill again. There is then the fact that the RUC handed guns back out to loyalist paramilitaries so they could be used to kill again. The fact the rifle used in the Sean Graham Bookmakers attack ended up on display in the British Imperial War Museum clearly shows the total lack of remorse on the part of the RUC, given it was prepared to allow such a key piece of evidence to be displayed like a trophy. It is no wonder the British Government is rushing to implement legislation that would give these agents of the Crown impunity against prosecution.

It is time to address the legacy of the past by implementing the mechanisms agreed at Stormont House in a human rights compliant manner to ensure that families are not left waiting for another decade for truth and justice. I call for an urgent debate on this matter.

In one way, I hope the Leader does not have a definite date for the sports capital grants as there will be a hell of a rush for the door to get on the phone to the club secretaries and chairmen to give them the good news because everybody wants to get that first. I am sure they will come and I am sure they will be welcomed and, hopefully, most sports groups in the country will be happy.

Like others, I want to pay tribute to Leona Maguire on her fantastic win. I have a link to that. I used to produce a radio show and from when she was 11 years of age, we were ringing her parents because she was having huge success as a youngster. It is a really great story. The one thing about Leona Maguire is that she has been so humble in reaching the top, and that is what struck me about her. She is such a lovely humble person. I am sure there will be another homecoming in Cavan on this occasion - back to the Slieve Russell.

I want to speak about last night's programme, which was horrific. We need to recognise two things, first, that someone has suffered really terrible abuse and violence, and also that some men have also suffered. It was important to realise that the programme pointed out that men have nowhere to go. I am satisfied the Government is going to tackle this and I was very happy to hear the Minister, Deputy McEntee, speak so positively this morning about moving on this. It is very important that where we do not have refuge centres, and there is none in County Roscommon, we need to put them in place.

As somebody pointed out this morning, there should not be a rush to put them in place; this should be done properly. If it takes a little extra time to do it properly, so be it but we need refuges. As I have said previously during a debate in this House, if one is in the middle of a rural area and does not have a Garda station nearby and something goes wrong in one's home involving domestic violence, where does one go?

I want to be associated with the kind words of Senators Murphy and Keogan regarding Leona Maguire. On a personal level, her grand aunt was my primary school teacher and like Leona, she too was a lovely lady. Thankfully, she is still with us and is very active in our community. Her daughter is teaching here in Dublin. I want to acknowledge that wonderful family.

I also want to add my condemnation of the collusion found by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland in connection with loyalist murders in 1990. That would be a good topic for a debate in this House.

I want to talk about the impossible situation in which multiple families in Carpenterstown find themselves because the Archdiocese of Dublin insists on prioritising a date of birth admissions policy for primary schools over a siblings-first policy. I know this is well intentioned but it is causing havoc for families.

We have a very popular school in Carpenterstown, St. Patrick's National School, Diswellstown, which is perennially over-subscribed but there are other primary school places in the area, according to the Department, which makes calls to add an additional or fifth junior infants class at St. Patrick's for 2022 very challenging at the moment. Children who may not get in this year will either have to go to another school or wait another year. That might sound simple to some people but I can assure the House that it is not simple.

Families with children already in the school cannot be in two places at once. They cannot spend twice the time dropping children. Parents have commitments too. How and when are they supposed to work? Life for busy families is squeezed enough already. It is not just the practicalities that hurt families. We invest our time and our trust in our children's schools and in becoming part of the school community. It is impractical and insensitive to split siblings up between primary schools for eight formative years of their lives and expect their families to manage two schools, two ethoses, two uniforms, two drop-offs and two school communities. That does not even sum up the entirety of this issue.

A total of 13 children on the waiting list at the moment are at the age where they have used their two years of early childhood care and education, ECCE, and are not entitled to any more. Even if they held back for a year, they still would not be entitled to it because of the rules. The local childcare facilities have no space for these children because they prioritise ECCE and we are under-supplied. There is literally nowhere for these children to go. Another school is not a solution and keeping them home certainly is not a solution. Something has to be done. In areas like Carpenterstown, where schools are over-subscribed, we have to change to siblings-first admission policies or we fail families.

I want to express my sympathies to Senator Buttimer on the passing of his father. I have not had the opportunity to do so since his dad died and I just want to say that we are thinking of him at this difficult time.

I rise today to draw the attention of the House to a study carried out by the University of Limerick. The study, which was actually carried out across 21 countries in Europe, looked at young carers aged between 11 and 18 and found that they are more likely to suffer from depression because they are carers. The study is really frightening.

The University of Limerick has been very involved in it. The study found that people with more social interaction were less inclined to be as depressed as people who were at home constantly caring for people or otherwise very much involved and did not have other social interaction. It is an interesting study which was supported by Family Carers Ireland. I commend carers on the role they play. Young carers and carers generally help to keep people at home and living longer. I pay tribute to them.

Senator Currie raised an issue with schools. We have a case in which 12 students in Limerick do not have a place in secondary school. They have not received an offer of a school place. All the offers closed approximately one week ago and they still have no school places. It is an absolute disgrace that 12 children have not been offered a school place. We have a common application system where people fill out 11 schools, but 12 children were not offered a single place in Limerick this year.

It is awful for the children and their families because it is a worry and also makes the children wonder why their friend got offered a school place when they did not. I call for intervention from the Minister for Education and the Department. The families are referred to Tusla which has no role to play in this regard. They get an appointment with Tusla but the person in Tusla has no part to play in this. The system needs to be changed. I call on the Leader to intervene with the Minister for Education on this matter.

I associate myself with Senator Byrne's remarks directed to our colleague, Senator Buttimer.

I, too, send my sympathies to Senator Buttimer and his family on their recent bereavement.

It is apt that today is Safer Internet Day. I express my disappointment, as a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media which carried out pre-legislative scrutiny in this area for the best part of 2021, that this is not on the agenda, as it should be at the start of the legislative process. I look forward to the Minister spending significant time in the House to discuss the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022. I am also disappointed that one of the main parts of that Bill, the independent reporting mechanism proposed by the committee, has not formed part of the initial Bill.

With regard to July provision, we welcomed significant investment in the July provision programme in 2021. Some €40 million was set aside for that programme last year during Covid, yet only €14 million of that was spent. There are issues in the way the scheme is set up. A significant number of schools did not take part in it, which meant that a significant number of children were not able to avail of it. This whole area needs to be looked at now and a proper system put in place for summer 2022 to ensure a significant number of children and families get to avail of it properly when the funding is put in place. A discussion group and forum met in early November 2021 but I understand it has not met since. Parents want clarity on what July provision will be this year. It has to be different from last year because a significant number of teachers and schools did not take part in the scheme and children with special needs, in particular, were not looked after.

I agree with Senators Currie and Gavan about the report on collusion. It is welcome to see an acknowledgement of the truth of that collusion coming forward. There is more to come on that front. I also believe there is no hierarchy among the dead or the victims, on either side of what was a dirty war in Northern Ireland. The grief and suffering of the families of one side is more or less the same as the grief and suffering of the families of another side.

In that context I wish to point out that, last week, there was the sad news that the Glasnevin Cemetery board was forced to throw in the towel and give up trying to maintain a non-judgmental necrology wall, which commemorated everybody who died in the period 1916-23 during the Troubles in this country, regardless of who they were, be they children, civilians, combatants on either side of the Civil War, policemen, IRA volunteers, British soldiers, and the like. This monument was at that cemetery, which is a wonderful heritage site, in a non-judgmental way. It was erected by the board of the cemetery, which is a charity, to remind people that while they are surrounded by history, they are many people who are forgotten by history. It contained the names of children and policemen in the RIC who were shot down in their homes and the like. Their families are looking back across 100 years. Surely, they are entitled to have their names memorialised in some way without thugs coming in and smashing the whole monument.

There was the possibility of attempting to keep that necrology wall functional as a memorial and the cemetery board had to give up on that proposition because it could not afford the security involved. Perhaps the blank tablets that will now be put up instead will be more eloquent in the future than the inscribed names. Perhaps there was a case to be made for leaving it smashed as an indication that the haters in Irish society are the tiny minority and the great majority of us, like Joe Duffy, believe that small people and those who were unpopular deserve not to have their memory obliterated in the cause of some ideology.

The last word today is with Senator Conway.

I agree wholeheartedly with Senator McDowell's contribution. In terms of the report and collusion - it is reprehensible. There is no other word to describe it, to be frank about it. Everybody who lost their lives on this island, irrespective of what side they were on, were cherished by loved ones. They had families. They had parents. Some of them had children. We need to reflect on that. What happened to the wall in Glasnevin Cemetery is appalling. To think that we have to give up because of vandals is terrible. There is a lot to be said for leaving the wall in its vandalised state as a symbol of the hatred that exists in our society. We all have to fight against that type of hatred. We all have to identify ways and means of eliminating that type of hatred from our society.

I would like a debate specifically on the fishing industry. Fisheries received notoriety in recent weeks because of the situation with the Russian army and the exercises that were due to take place off the Cork coast, but there is a very serious side to fishing in this country. To think that we can only catch less than 5% of products like hake and other popular fish off Irish coastal waters. Brexit has resulted in our quota being reduced by a further 25%. This has gone unnoticed by a significant portion of our population. It is very serious because we are an island nation.

If we could reach our potential in the context of the fishing industry, it would create tens of thousands of jobs. We could process the fish and export it all over Europe and it would create tens of thousands of jobs. This is not possible because of the restricted quotas that we have as a result of the Brexit negotiations. British waters were returned to Britain, and Ireland was hit worst in the dilution of its quota by a further 25%. A quarter of what was already a small portion has been wiped off it.

I do not think that is sustainable. We need to fight against that and to try to claw some of this back. Our fishermen do a great job, but we need to claw some of this back because it will create jobs. My fear is that if we do not do something about it, jobs will be lost.

I thank my colleagues for the range of topics raised today. First of all, I join with colleagues and offer, on all our behalf, our condolences to our colleague, Senator Jerry Buttimer, whose daddy passed away last Wednesday and was buried on Friday. He was a remarkable man. It is not surprising when one sees the fine people Jerry, John, William and Mary are. They did not lick it from the stones. He was an incredible gentleman. I hope he rests in peace, please God.

I join with others in talking about the remarkable achievements of Leona Maguire. What is most remarkable is that we are only talking about her now. Obviously, what she achieved in the past couple of days, on top of the Solheim Cup, is wonderful and absolutely newsworthy. She was an amateur golfer for 104 weeks and I never knew about it, and I can assume that many other people did not either. This fact perhaps shows how we reflect on the difference between male sports and female sports in this country. Perhaps we should be championing females a hell of a lot more than we do. I recognise her enormous contribution and achievement.

I agree with Senator Murphy in that the most incredible thing about her that comes across is how genuinely humble and grounded she is. It is so lovely to see hard work paying off and what is being achieved. I wanted to acknowledge those two things today.

I recognise Senators McDowell, Currie and Gavan talked about the report issued today by Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Marie Anderson. I was lucky enough to be out for a walk and I listened to her on the radio at lunchtime. She is another remarkable lady. As Senator Gavan said, I think she is only warming up. This is not the first and last report in which she will reflect upon the activities in Northern Ireland.

I would genuinely say that how we reflect and respond to each other and how we speak about each other certainly shows the measure of what the true will of the Irish people is. While we all say we want to share the island and live in harmony and respect, sometimes the actions and activities of some people do not necessarily reflect that. Senator McDowell talked about the small number of haters. It is a real tragedy that the trustees of Glasnevin Cemetery have to give in to the thugs who have continuously wrecked that beautiful memorial. It is incredibly poignant and it reflects that there is no hierarchy of victims or the pain victims' families have felt over the years. It certainly is not shared by a small number of people, who I believe we are giving in to. It is a shame. I commend Mr. Joe Duffy on his vocal contributions in the past couple of days.

It would be good if there was any way that we could resolve that issue on behalf of the State and on behalf of all of the Irish people who want to live on a shared island and respect each other, without every glorifying anything that has happened in the past. We should be able to find a way to be able to memorialise and just remember what has happened on this island without, as I said, ever glorifying anything that either side did or continues to do to each other.

Senator Conway looked for a debate on the fishing industry. The Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 will be in the Seanad tomorrow afternoon. That would be an opportunity for him to raise with the Minister all of the concerns he just raised.

Senator Carrigy spoke about the fact it is Safer Internet Day today. We were due to take the Bill with the Minister this afternoon but, unfortunately, the schedule changed and I could not do anything about it. I apologise for that inconvenience.

I reflected on a statement that was made in the past number of days about how we teach our children, who now at younger and younger ages have access to the Internet, because of peer pressure and mammys giving in to 12- and 13-year-olds, perhaps when we should not. The reality is that our children are learning far more from the Internet today than ever before. An awful lot of the time, it is not a positive experience. When we talk about teaching our children the three Rs in primary school, perhaps we should add another critical pillar to children's educational experience and teach them how to interact in a safe matter so that way we could alleviate some of the issues Senator Keogan spoke about so eloquently. I will reschedule that debate as quickly as I can and let Senator Carrigy know as soon as I can.

Senator Maria Byrne spoke about the study by the University of Limerick in regard to carers, particularly younger carers, and how much pressure they are under. The fine work they do and the adult roles they step into for their families and loved ones is to be commended.

Senator Murphy asked me not to give away what I was told this morning in regard to the sports grants. I can tell him that it will happen relatively soon. He also touched, as did others, on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on domestic violence which aired last night. Senators McGreehan and O'Loughlin also spoke about it. It was an absolutely shocking programme. Sometimes, it takes a programme like RTÉ "Prime Time" to bring it into everybody's home.

We have been talking about this issue particularly in the past couple of years because of lockdown as it has accentuated the difficulties in which many women and men live on a daily basis. In the ten years that I have been working in this campus we have been talking about domestic violence but nothing seems to have changed. I put store in the ambition and aspiration of the current Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, to make a change once and for all. As a first step, we need to stop talking about it as a single sex issue, which it is not. It is apparent that many men never tell anybody about it because they do not want to be seen to be victims of what is historically seen as a gender-based violence. There are many men who are mistreated in their own homes. Equally, thousands of women are likewise mistreated in their homes. We know from recent Garda reports that there was a 60% increase in reporting in the past two years, which is shocking. It shows the extent of the problem.

For years, nine counties have had no refuge places and there are currently only 140 such facilities in the country. That is a reflection on nobody but ourselves. It does not make me proud to say that. The time for talking is over. The time for doing is now. As I said, I put store in the fact that the current Minister for Justice has made it her issue. Hopefully, we will see a real reaction when the report on the strategy is published in the next couple of weeks. As soon as that report is issued, I will arrange a debate on it.

Senator Cummins spoke about capital grants and Senator Keogan spoke about mental health. I will double down on efforts to try to secure a debate on mental health. Senator Keogan is correct in what she had to say. Senator O'Loughlin mentioned a young lady she taught in junior infants. We have a real crisis in this country. We continually say that but, again, it seems like nobody is listening. There are tens of thousands of families who Senators know as well as I do are struggling on a daily and weekly basis to keep their children alive and afloat. With the exception of some exceptional charities, we do not have a service that we can say is value for money for the €1.2 billion that we spend on mental health in this country. We should have a service that we are able to say we are proud of and delivers that community response on an emergency or exceptional needs basis that currently is so sadly lacking. We have an issue with regard to how when people of any age present to our accident and emergency services they are not being dealt with appropriately. I acknowledge the Senators' contributions. I will try to arrange that debate as quickly as I can.

Senator Ahearn spoke about the under 40s. He made a very valid call to NIAC to allow the timeframe in respect of getting the booster to be reduced to 28 days, which I will follow up on. Senators McGreehan, Wall and Boylan spoke about the rising cost of living and the Government responses. In framing the budget last year, the Government was acutely aware that there was an increase in the cost of living and appropriately responded by not only providing a tax package of €550 million to allow people to retain more money in their pockets and to account for the inflation, but also a social welfare budget of which I was envious because it was over €550 million, which is nowhere close to what I had secured for the previous number of years. That was a reflection of increasing costs and an awareness of an increasing cost base in Ireland. Unfortunately, when that budget was framed the anticipated increase in the cost of living was 2% to 2.5%. As we all know, it is now closer to 5%. That is why Government is at this time reflecting on how it can help hard-pressed families, of whom there are tens of thousands. We will see reaction from the Government this week.

Senator Garvey spoke about the retrofit scheme. A great idea has many mothers but nobody wants to take the blame when something bad happens. Senator Garvey is correct that this scheme is genuinely very worthwhile. I acknowledge Senator Keogan's point that we are short in terms of the workforce that we need.

That is why when the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, introduced extra places for apprenticeships in these particular industries a number of years ago it was with the foresight that we would need those people to ensure we could carry out the works that will be needed by every household in the country, no matter what type it is.

Senator Mullen spoke about how people in the court of public of opinion, as opposed to the actual courts, reflect on some of the events of the past couple of months. It is probably fair to say, genuinely, that the courts system is as robust in most cases as it was in the case last week. I commend everybody involved. What is also obvious is that the court of public opinion can be incredibly reactive and buoyed up by whatever way some of the media outlets report on events. There was certainly a frenzy of upset and bad feeling around the events that occurred in the summer of 2020. I wish the people at the centre of this case well and hope they can get back to their careers and day jobs without further ado.

Senator Mullen also referred to the need for the Minister for Finance to address the refusal of payment by cash. I was not aware that was occurring but I will certainly bring it to the Minister's attention today and come back with a response.

Senator Dolan spoke about the energy costs crisis and the increases in childcare costs and our shopping bills. People up and down the country are well aware of the issues she raised because they are all experiencing them. They will all be addressed by the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and investment which is meeting this week. I hope we will have a response from the Government as setting out exactly what it will do to ensure we address this issue for people.

Senator O'Loughlin spoke about Internet safety and the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on domestic violence. I am sure we will have a debate on the report in question as soon as it comes out.

I thank the Leader.

Order of Business agreed to.
Top
Share