Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 22 Oct 2024

The Order of Business is No. 1, motion regarding proposed approval by Seanad Éireann of the Social Welfare (Consolidated Claims, Payments and Control) (Amendment) (No. XX) (Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit) Regulations 2024, to be taken on conclusion of the Order of Business, without debate; No. 2, Social Welfare Bill 2024 - all Stages, to be taken at 3.15 p.m. and the proceedings thereon shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 6 p.m. by the putting of one question from the Chair, which shall, in relation to amendments, include only those set down or accepted by Government, with the time allocated to the opening remarks by the Minister in the debate on Second Stage not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed 15 minutes and time may be shared and all other Senators not to exceed five minutes, with the Minister be given no less than ten minutes to reply to the debate, with Committee and Remaining Stages are to be taken immediately thereafter; No. 3, Private Members' business, Curragh of Kildare (Amendment Bill) 2022 - Second Stage, to be taken at 6.30 p.m. and, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, to be brought to a conclusion after one hour, if not previously concluded; and No. 4, Private Members' business, Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person (Amendment) 2024 - Second Stage, to be taken at 7.30 p.m., with the time allocated to this debate not to exceed two hours.

Before I call on the first speaker, on behalf of the Members of the House, I welcome a delegation from the United States from the great state and city of New York, who join us in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. You are very welcome and I thank you for being here and for the work you are doing on both sides of the island of Ireland. Earlier today, I had the pleasure of meeting Congressman Tim Kennedy, from the wonderful city of Buffalo, who is an extraordinary friend to all of us in the Oireachtas.

I also welcome our Consul General in New York, Helena Nolan. I congratulate her on her imminent appointment as the new ambassador to Morocco. I wish her well and thank her for all of the work she has done and will do, but more importantly at the moment, for all the work she has done in New York. I also offer our deepest sympathies on her recent bereavement. I realise it is a difficult time and I thank her for being here today.

I will be meeting the delegation later in meeting room 2.

I do not normally single out people. My old friend Mike Carroll is here who has minded me since I became a Member of the Oireachtas in 2007 and led me into many different places I never would have been. I thank Mike for being here and look forward to meeting the delegation later. Céad míle fáilte roimh gach duine.

I also welcome our distinguished guests. I look forward to having the opportunity to say "Hello" to them properly later. We heard the sad and tragic news this morning of the death of a young man in Carlow. Our deepest sympathies are with his family. We cannot draw any conclusions about how he died but we know a young woman has been arrested. We often speak about domestic violence but we speak about it from the woman's point of view so it is important to highlight the excellent work Men's Aid does in counselling, court support and offering peer support. It runs an excellent service at hello@mensaid.ie. Its helpline number is 01 5543811.

I was at a meeting last night in Rathangan with local and community gardaí. It was an excellent meeting and it is great to the Garda rolling these meetings out around County Kildare and I have no doubt around the country as well. An issue that came to light about which I speak on an ongoing basis is the lack of gardaí in our county. Traditionally, we have had the lowest number per capita. With the help of a good friend in the other House, I had an answer to a parliamentary question regarding the number. On foot of that, by county, we are not doing too bad but when we take per capita into account, we are still the lowest in the country. Whatever, whenever, we need to have debate with the Department of Justice in on that to make sure there is equity. People need to be safe and secure where they live.

I draw the Leader's attention to something I saw the other day that I thought was important to highlight. As the previous Chair of the education committee, one of the issues we examined related to secretaries and the fact that they were not permanent staff. Andy Pike of the Fórsa union did excellent work on this matter. As of June, secretaries have been added to the Department of Education payroll. In my county, there are 125 and more than 3,000 nationwide. It is an important initiative. We need to include school caretakers in the next step.

I also wish to raise the HSE embargo. The HSE recruitment freeze was put in place as a cost-saving measure in October 2023. Although it was announced by the Government and media that it ended in July, unfortunately, HSE staff are still suffering the consequences of the embargo on many levels. We should look for the Minister for Health to come to the Seanad and speak to us about this and let us show our long-serving nurses and medical staff that we appreciate and respect them and want them to be looked after properly.

I wish to speak about the Minister of Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, who made an announcement over the weekend, and pay tribute to a Fine Gael Minister who has done wonders for rural and local communities all over the country. She made an number of visits to counties Roscommon and Galway in my case, which were the result of investment in our region be it through CLÁR or the towns and villages schemes. Many funding streams from the Department of Rural and Community Development have had an impact. They are about showing that rural areas are great places to bring up a family, to start a family, live and work and we have everything to offer young people in our local rural areas. The Minister has done so much for that. She is passionate about rural life and what towns and villages have to offer. She has done so much work particularly for Meals on Wheels and bus transport - all innovate policies brought in through during her time in her portfolio. She will be here to speak to us later in the Seanad as the Minister for Social Protection. One of her prides and joys from listening to her on Radio 1 over the weekend and on RTÉ 1 is school meals. She sees it as one of her key achievements.

This Government has been able to do that. It has been able to ensure the scheme has been rolled out to more schools, from 30 only five years ago to nearly 2,000 schools now. The intent is to deliver school meals to all schools by the end of 2025. These are great achievements. I pay tribute to the Minister for that. There is no stopping her energy and enthusiasm, no matter what she may say.

Separately, the Minister for further and higher education, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, made an incredible announcement on Friday with respect to courses in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. Through the National Training Fund, this will unlock over €130 million to be dedicated to those courses and places. One of the programmes is a very innovative University of Galway based on and informed by international guidance.

Locally, I see what happens with GPs. We are unable to get GPs to serve in rural practices. What we see here is an innovative course, for the first time in Ireland, being run out of the University of Galway. It is going to look at graduate medical entry for rural and remote areas. That will mean we are going to take on graduate students with an interest in rural and remote areas. When they are doing their training, it will not solely be in the university. They will do training in medical academies in Castlebar, Letterkenny and the likes of Portiuncula University Hospital in Ballinasloe, and they will also be embedded in GP practices. How on earth are we going to get graduates to consider working in our communities other than by showing them that GPs are the fabric of our local communities? This is a crucial course. I have been calling for it for over two years and I am delighted to see the Minister has made this announcement. It is going to have a huge impact for us in the west.

I join in welcoming our American guest from New York. We are always delighted to have our American friends over, and we have a great interest in New York. To be honest, we do not find them nearly as interesting at the moment as the people of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia. Many of us do not anticipate getting much sleep on the night of 5 November. We wish our guests the best of luck with the forthcoming election. May all their dreams be fulfilled, whatever they may be.

This afternoon, the Oireachtas Life and Dignity Group had the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Tom Hutchinson, an Irish doctor based for many years in Montréal, Canada, at McGill University. He is an expert in palliative care who really gave us a very illuminating talk on the business of healing as opposed to just clinical management of patients. It was a very enlightened perspective on healthcare from a very reflective practitioner, and a great Irish export in medicine. It was great to hear his wisdom. We had that talk with him in the context of reflecting on the current debates about whether this country will introduce some kind of an assisted dying regime, and what the implications of that might be for high-quality palliative care.

Around 20,000 people will take to the streets on Sunday next to participate in the Dublin City Marathon. They will be optimistic people mainly, of all ages and conditions. Yet, should any one of those runners begin to falter in the last 1,000 m or so, we do all we can to encourage them over the line. There are stories of people who sacrifice their own position in a race in order to help a struggling colleague. We celebrate those who help others to get to the finishing line. I think that can help us understand how we should approach proper care in the end-of-life situation as well. Very few people want to die. They do not want to be pulled off the track before the finishing line but good-quality palliative care support can help bring people to the finish, and that is the struggle of life. Success is in getting to the finishing line and we all want that for ourselves and others. If we were to encourage pulling people off the track in the last 1,000 m or so, then celebration of those who finish would be diminished. So what if you finish the race? Promoters of assisted dying sometimes talk of intolerable suffering, yet the palliative care people tell us that pain can be managed, and managed well.

We are fortunate to live in a period of history where so much can be done to address the fear of suffering and loneliness. By world standards, we have high-class palliative care but nationwide support remains patchy. I note and welcome the national adult palliative care strategy that has emerged in recent times.

There is a promise to fund that to the tune of €6 million. We would need €20 million a year to ensure the high-quality palliative care we need into the future in order that we can address the fear that may lead people to make unfortunate decisions at the end of life. I hope that does not become the route we travel in this country. I ask for a debate on the national adult palliative care strategy to discuss how we can help people finish the race well.

I want to raise two issues. The first is disturbing news regarding the crisis in teacher recruitment. I heard the INTO's John Boyle on "Morning Ireland" yesterday. Mr. Boyle commands widespread respect and support when it comes to teaching. The figures are shocking. There are a thousand vacancies due to difficulties finding staff in our primary school network. More frightening still is the fact that the figure is due to treble by next January. One of the points Mr. Boyle made was that the Salzburg report published in 2012 warned about a lack of planning for future teacher recruitment. Some 12 years later, we still have no planning for teacher recruitment. The impact on our children is profound. Special education teachers are being pulled away from the classes in which they work with the most vulnerable children in order to fill gaps.

Mr. Boyle described this as an absolutely enormous and chronic crisis. I am genuinely perplexed as to why the Government has not tackled this when it had a report 12 years ago highlighting a massive issue in terms of future planning for recruitment for teachers. We know there have been major issues in respect of salaries - in fairness, the entry-level salary issue has finally been fixed. However, we are now running into the housing crisis. We know teachers, in particular, have major problems in moving to larger cities because of the cost of housing. I have not seen a response from the Government to this. Our education system is now in crisis, even at a time when we have never had more money as a society. It is a massive issue and I call for an urgent debate on it.

I wish to highlight the related issue of housing. The quarter 2 social and affordable housing delivery figures from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage released on Friday are absolutely shocking. Just 1,174 of the promised 9,300 new-build social homes were completed by the end of June. That is 12.6% of the annual target. It is even worse than this time last year. It is very clear that the Government is nowhere near being able to hit the target for this year. It is a shockingly low figure. Of the 4,400 social and affordable homes to be delivered by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency this year, just 552 were completed by the end of June, or 11.8% of the target. These figures are not just behind; they are chronically behind. This is the fifth year in a row that the Government has not hit its housing figures. We all know the impact of that and the statistics bear that out. We see it in the increase in homelessness figures that followed this Government throughout its lifetime. I again call for an urgent debate on housing.

I want to raise an issue that is very personal to me, namely inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease and colitis. As someone who suffers from Crohn's disease, I know on a daily basis how it can affect a person. Over the past two weeks, I have been contacted by four people from south Kildare who are having difficulty accessing services because they suffer from Crohn's. In the first instance, a local authority has not allowed a person to apply for a grant for a downstairs bathroom because it does not recognise Crohn's disease as a qualifying condition.

I have been contacted by two other people in respect of similar matters. A lady approached me regarding an invalidity pension she applied for, but, again, Crohn's disease is not considered a qualifying condition. Anybody who suffers from Crohn's disease will tell you how difficult a condition it is to live with. There are almost 50,000 people in this country living with Crohn's, colitis and inflammatory bowel disease on a daily basis. I have spoken to Amy Kelly, the chief operating officer of Crohn's and Colitis Ireland, about this on a number of occasions. It does tremendous work, but is having difficulty in persuading Government of the difficulties of Crohn's disease and colitis and the difficulties people are living with on a daily basis.

Given the time we have left, I ask that we make representations to the Ministers for Health and Social Protection. I also will raise it with the Minister this afternoon. Crohn's disease is a lifelong condition for which there is no cure. These people need the assistance of local authorities and of the Government at one of the most difficult times of their lives. I ask that we recognise Crohn's and colitis as the diseases they are and ensure the people that most need our help get it.

I want to mention the Dublin commuting zone. I was very worried and concerned about freedom of information items that were mentioned on my local radio station, KFM, as regards the Dublin commuting zone and train fares, as well as the unfortunate delays around this. Colleagues in this House and I have mentioned the commuting and short-hop zone on a regular basis. We had expected the new rail fares to be out before Christmas but unfortunately, we are now being told it will be quarter 1 of 2025. I urge the Leader to make representations to the Minister for Transport and the NTA once again, as I will also do. The people and commuters of south Kildare need our assistance. We continue to work with Jennifer Caffrey and her campaign and on campaigns by the Newbridge branch of the Labour Party on reducing train fares for people in south Kildare. It is not acceptable, given the freedom of information item that tells us that the delays could have been overcome. We need action. We need some fare reductions for those commuters now.

I wish to raise a nationwide issue regarding special school places with the Leader. We have a situation in Longford where there are families of young children looking for places in a special school. Unfortunately at this current time, that availability is not there. I call on the NCSE to put in place any measures needed to make sure that we increase the capacity within the special school we have in Longford to ensure children are not going outside their county. That is something none of us want. We want children to be educated in their own communities with their siblings close by. We do not want to have situations where families are having to travel 50 or 60 miles twice a day to bring kids to and from school. I want that capacity to be increased in Longford to make sure that every child from Longford who needs a special school place gets it in the special school in Longford.

I also want to raise another issue that has been brought to our attention. I have had numerous engagements with business people looking at the possibility of building industrial warehouses or expanding their own facilities. We currently do not have an industrial area zoned in Longford. Therefore, we need a sufficient site for whichever company comes in to locate their business . We are still waiting for an IDA advance factory. This has been going on for many years. I would like the Minister for enterprise to update us on where we are in respect of the IDA site. As I said, we have been talking about it for many years and do not seem to be any further on. We need to have land capacity, as well as properly zoned lands available within our county town, for the facilities of any business person who is looking to start a new project.

Over the past week or two I watched a video from the Leader’s home town made by a family that was quite disgruntled. We are in the middle of an electoral cycle now and I have to say, for social media to publish such videos to attempt to damage politicians in their home towns is outrageous. It is something that the regulator or whoever needs to act on. It is grossly unfair to follow politicians and try to highlight them doing their job. That is all that the people in question did; their job. From my perspective, we need to cut that out, certainly coming up to an election. It needs to be stopped and it needs to be stopped now.

Senator Gavan brought up the issue of national school teachers. As the Cathaoirleach will know, we stopped employing secondary school teachers in full jobs back in 1996.

We started hiring teachers on an hourly basis. Being totally honest, when I was president of the Teachers Union of Ireland I remember having one teacher who had one hour a day for five days. This meant they were not entitled to social welfare supplements. It is outrageous that anybody would do that. When the Cathaoirleach and I worked in teaching, we had full jobs. We went into jobs where it was up to the school to find the hours to fill the 22 hours a week and we found a way of doing it.

What has changed? The Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003, which protects people in employment, works against teachers. I believe nurses and various other health workers suffer the same thing where they are employed hourly. From that point of view, we might have a debate on that with the Minister when we come back after the next election. We will probably have to wait a few months for that but I would be happy enough to do that, as, I hope, the Leader is. We might get around to it.

I raise concerns regarding the child mortality rate under the care of Tusla in light of the suspected murder of eight-year-old Kyran Durnin in County Louth. Kyran was reported missing along with his mother to An Garda Síochána on 30 August 2024, as having been last seen on or around 28 August 2024. The whereabouts of Kyran are still unknown.

The annual report for the national review panel reported that 29 young people in care or after care or known to Tusla died last year. That is an increase of six compared to 2022 as the latest data shows. Of those 29 deaths, 18 were from natural causes, four were suicides, five were a result of accidents and in two cases the cause was unknown. A look-back at the 14-year period from 2010 to 2023 during which 315 children and young people died shows that while 139, or 44%, of the children died of natural causes, almost one in four, or 22%, which is 70 children, died as a result of suicide.

I welcome the Minister's intervention in seeking the files from Tusla regarding Kyran Durnin. However, all children who died in the care of Tusla, be it in State care, State residential care or foster care placements, need justice as well to ensure there are no shortfalls within Tusla to avoid these deaths. These deaths do not account for children who may have been under Tusla care and living with parents or guardians but who also died as a result of a lack of intervention from Tusla. This is really important. As a foster parent, I feel strongly about this. I had a child in my care for an emergency placement and I got a call from the social workers involved a year and a half later to say that child had died by suicide. This is really important. Children are dying while they are under the watch of the State. If we could call for an inquiry into all deaths that took place under Tusla, I would really appreciate it.

I thank the Cathaoirleach and the Senators who contributed to the Order of Business. Senator O'Loughlin raised issues surrounding domestic violence from the perspective of men who may be on the receiving end of it. She commended the work of Men's Aid and put its details out there for those who may need to contact the organisation. She also spoke about a positive community gardaí meeting in Rathangan, County Kildare. She referenced school secretaries who are now employed by the Department of Education, which is welcome. It is a step forward and progress and something that has been sought for many years. We have 146 school secretaries in my county. This is a fantastic piece of work by the Department. The Senator also called for a debate with the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, on the HSE recruitment freeze and its impact.

Senator Dolan paid tribute to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys. We will debate the Social Welfare Bill 2024 today, which will give us an opportunity to speak about some of the issues the Minister has worked on. The Senator specifically pointed to the Minister's work for rural communities and one of the areas the Minister is most proud of, the school meals provided to children across the State. She also highlighted the recent announcement by Minister for higher education, Deputy O'Donovan, on additional college places in important courses, such as medicine and veterinary. The National Training Fund was used to find the funding for this as there is a gap in third level funding.

Senator Mullen raised important issues around the ongoing debate on assisted dying or assisted suicide, whatever term people feel is correct. I am not sure that the two are as interchangeable as sometimes they are used because they are quite different. He spoke about a briefing to the Oireachtas Life and Dignity Group today by Dr. Tom Hutchinson. I am not sure if he has Irish heritage but I think there is a connection there. He made an interesting analogy with the Dublin marathon and helping people get over the line and that is often celebrated. I think the Senator has raised very important issues there. There was a very interesting article in the Sunday Independent by David Quinn which I think is very much worth a read. It certainly provokes thoughts. Senator Mullen has been on the joint committee which dealt with this and the rest of us have probably not delved into the question in the same depth as our colleagues who sat on that committee. My party is giving a free vote on that and I imagine other parties will do something similar. It is an area where there is still much debate to be had. It coincides with the debate around palliative care, resourcing that and ensuring it is properly funded. It is something we will all need at some point or other. Hopefully we all get to that stage.

Senator Gavan raised issues around teacher recruitment. He is right to point out that there are acute problems. In my own county, Mayo, and lots of rural communities it is quite difficult to get a teaching job so it is the opposite challenge to the difficulty in recruiting teachers into positions. I know the issue is more acute in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare, that is, the capital and the commuter belt. There is merit to considering some sort of top-up payment for people working in the capital city because it is just more expensive to live and work here. We need teachers in schools here as well as we do everywhere. It does merit consideration for front-line workers especially, such as teachers, nurses and gardaí to acknowledge the significant additional cost in living here. It is much cheaper to live in Mayo than it is to live in Dublin. That is just the fact. You see many teachers trying to get back to their home counties who cite the cost of living up here. It is something that must be considered to try to address those shortages in the areas where it is most acute.

Senator Gavan also raised issues around housing. We have had this debate back and forth over the past four and a half years. I will say, and I believe, the Government has made housing a top priority. There has never been more money put into housing. There are so many schemes. Cost rental did not exist before this Government. There is the help-to-buy scheme, which I know Sinn Féin wants to get rid of but which we think is helping people get on the property ladder and that is evidenced. There is the first home equity scheme. Sinn Féin wants to get rid of that too but it is another support to get people on the property ladder to buy their first home. There are supports for first-time buyers and on the commencements and delivery of housing, we should reach about 44,000 units by the end of this year. That is an increase on last year and the previous year. The numbers are going in the right direction. Is there more work to do? Yes, of course there is. We still have a housing challenge right across the country where we need to get more homes built. Supply is the key issue there. It is and will remain a top priority for this Government and I am sure the next too, whenever it is constituted.

Senator Wall raised the concerns of those with IBD, colitis and Crohn’s disease which is a very serious condition. I take his points about invalidity pension. That particular payment is directed at those who cannot work due to severe disability and often with Crohn’s and colitis, it is a spectrum. It is probably difficult to assess and many people are working with that condition. It is probably difficult for the Department to categorise, as it were. There should be some flexibility within local authorities on the housing adaptation grants. Every case is different and each individual is different. Giving more autonomy to local authorities to make a decision around meeting the person concerned and assessing his or her individual needs would be a progressive way of doing it because often, one size does not fit all. That is where people fall between the cracks and are not cared for, particularly where they are suffering with a serious health condition.

I take on board the Senator’s comments on the Dublin commuter zone. I share his frustration around that. Promises were made to commuters in those areas. I know Senators Wall and O’Loughlin regularly raise issues relating to Kildare, where many thousands commute daily and the cost difference is significant.

Given the cost-of-living challenge we still face, with costs still very high across the board, I will certainly ask the NTA to look at accelerating that. Quarter 1 of 2025 is not that far away, but it still would make a difference to people if it was accelerated by the two or three months to get it over the line.

Senator Carrigy raised issues relating to special school places in Longford. He and Senator Ardagh raised this last week and I know it is an ongoing topic of conversation, particularly at this time of year when parents are looking for places for next year. Two thirds of all special school places that exist today were brought about under this Government in the past four years. The Government has made incredible strides forward in the provision of special education places. However, we were coming from such a low base that there is a considerable way to go yet. It is unacceptable that a child does not have a place when they are ready to go to school. This puts further pressure on parents who are already under pressure. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, has responsibility in this area. For both her and the Minister, Deputy Foley, the senior Minister in the Department, it is a top priority to deliver more places. It just cannot happen quickly enough. There remains a huge gap to be bridged.

The Senator also mentioned an advance factory in Longford. A total of €15.5 million was allocated in budget 2025 to IDA Ireland specifically for the purpose of regional development and attracting foreign direct investment. There is money available to buy these sites and build those advance factories. I urge IDA Ireland to progress that with the local authority. It is a matter for the local authority to work with IDA Ireland to try to identify a site and get things moving because it can take a number of years to get planning permission and build a factory. However, the money has been provided in the budget to do exactly that in the regions to try to rebalance the regions.

Senator Craughwell spoke about certain videos and visits from certain individuals to certain politicians but he did not say much more on that. It is a very unpleasant situation. As we move towards the general election, we all need to have a heightened awareness of the impact of the online space on the electoral process and democracy. We cannot underestimate the impact of that on the electoral process. One of the things that has yet to be addressed is the moratorium on traditional media on the day before polling. As this restriction is not placed on social media, there is a gap there which needs to be looked at. It is moving at a faster pace than our laws and regulations are moving. I am sure in the aftermath of the general election we will analyse what the impact has been because it is certainly here in terms of the distortion of the electoral process.

I take on board the point the Senator raised regarding the patchwork of hours that secondary school teachers are often given to try to pull together a full-time job. That has a direct impact on the ability to get a mortgage, build a house, buy a house, start a family, etc. It is something that needs to be looked at. It is more acute in certain areas and with certain subjects, depending on the teacher.

Senator Keogan raised the very sad case of Kyran Durnin. I am completely shocked that it would take two years to notice that a child was missing. There are many reasons for that, including intention on the part of some people not to provide full information to the school or local authority. I hope the investigation yields justice for Kyran. It poses questions for Tusla and other State authorities as to how that could happen for such a young person. We will certainly request a debate on the area. I do not know if we will get an opportunity to schedule it, but the Senator has raised a very important point. Children under the care of the State are the most vulnerable children in the State and we need to keep a close eye on their welfare and well-being. Suicide rates would certainly be of serious concern. These are very vulnerable children. As a foster parent, the Senator will know the kinds of circumstances under which children come to her and what they have come from as well as the challenges they have had to deal with in the early parts of their lives, placing them at higher risk of those types of circumstances. It is a very important point to raise on the Order of Business. I will certainly try to get that scheduled if we get the opportunity to do so.