Anne Rabbitte
Nominated by the Taoiseach · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“On Ireland's most popular pornography website, almost two thirds of the video titles indicate content of concern, including sexual violence, extreme misogyny and material that mimics child sexual abuse. This is not on the fringes of the Internet; this is mainstream, free and one click away from every child in this country.”
“I also acknowledge the role of Deputy Cathal Crowe in the Lower House and that of Senator Rónán Mullen whose Bill, which was before Seanad Éireann last week, spoke to this very issue. It is something we should all get behind and support to ensure we have the law to protect our young people. I also wish to bring up Skyclarys.”
“I am wearing sandals today. Good afternoon to everybody. I warmly welcome the Minister for justice's bringing his memo to Cabinet where he seeks to criminalise extreme violent pornography. For too long, this has been a glaring gap in our criminal law.”
“He said that we should not deny his son the chance to hold onto his voice, even if it is just to be able to ask for a glass of water. That is the parent of a child with Friedreich's ataxia, who has already lost a child to Friedreich's ataxia. We have 200 such patients in this country.”
“Where we have rural depopulation - and there are great reports coming from the GAA - the one thing we want to do is ensure a sense of community. That sense of community circles around a few things. It can be the church, school, post office or the pub.”
“The Senator also said, as did Senator Murphy O'Mahony, that if we can be anything in this world, we should be kind, and that is one thing Martin Naughton was, and it is one thing we should always remember. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. We think of him today. Senator McCormack raised the issue of active travel.”
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“Waterways Ireland does excellent work but, at the end of the day, we have to think not only about our wildlife habitats but also about how the farmers will supply their stock over the winter months. The Shannon Callows provide a huge number of opportunities for the farmers to salvage some hay. Finally, I will focus on Storm Éowyn. When I think about Storm Éowyn, I think about all the trees that Coillte and farmers have lost on their own lands. As regards a lot of those lands where the trees are down, I was talking to Coillte the other day and it has three years' harvesting on the ground. That is what is down at the moment. When I think about that, I think about Portumna and all the trees that are down across all the various drains that are part of the drainage system that brings the water to the River Shannon from the surrounding lands.”
“If a cut was taken off the silage, funding was given because a glass of water could be seen on top of it, but lads who had not let their cattle in to graze could not see the water under it. Some farmers were getting it, therefore, and others were not, but when the callows are flooded, they are all flooded equally. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that if a weather alert is coming where it looks like there will be an intense raining spell over the summer, whoever is in charge of the tap in Ardnacrusha will turn it on a little bit more. People always talk about navigation being the number one issue during the summer and we do not want to lose our wildlife on the Shannon Callows either, but there has to be a mechanism here.”
“The N65, which goes through Portumna, is the main artery through to Rosslare. If the water ever breaks the white line on that road, that means it is impassable. It also cuts off the communities of north Tipperary and north Offaly from being able to come to us. If the Minister of State could talk to his capital team as to where the design or plan for that gate is, that would be greatly appreciated. I am sure the Minister of State is well aware of the flooding that can take place coming into the summer on the Shannon Callows. I have no doubt he is very familiar with it. Last summer was an absolute disaster for us. A great deal of fodder was lost on the Shannon Callows. It was very unfortunate. I listened to Senator Malcolm Byrne speak about how funding was distributed when it was brought through from the Department of agriculture.”
“The Minister of State is very welcome. His visit gives me the opportunity to wish him well and show the hand of friendship to work with him. Where I come from in Portumna, on the banks of the Shannon with the bridge, flooding is a huge issue and has a huge impact on our lives. I have no doubt my colleague in Fine Gael, Senator Murphy, will be talking about the south Galway floods when he speaks and, therefore, I will focus solely on the gate in Portumna under the CFRAM. A gate was designed in line with the CFRAM programme but, as was the case when the Minister of State was previously in office, I am still calling for our gate. If we do not have the gate, it means Portumna is under siege. In 2009 and 2016, luckily, thanks to the good work of the OPW and the ESB, we managed to avoid catastrophe.”
“That funding is in the base but, unfortunately, it is not being released at the moment to the relevant organisation, namely, Variety - the Children's Charity.”
“With tolerance from the Chair, I have a final point to make. A cross-departmental project that was worked on by the Departments of Health and Transport, under the stewardship of the then Minister, Eamon Ryan, was the recycle mobility programme. Between the two Departments, trikes were bought and one of those trikes went to Beaufort in County Kerry. Its purpose was to assist people with individual needs and children with low muscle tone. We all talk about how we do not have enough physiotherapists. If we can get children on a bike or trike and out on a greenway, they can improve their muscle tone. This funding was not just pulled out of a pot; the scheme works in conjunction with other initiatives.”
“The Galway Centre for Independent Living had a really good project but it seems it did not make it through come December and January. Another initiative that has not made its way through, but should do so because it is part of Rethink Ireland, is the Wayfinding Centre. It was allocated €89,000 to train people to use transport services. The centre is located not too far from here in the old Glass Bottle site, in the constituency of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. There is a bus, DART train and even an aeroplane there, with training provided to people with disabilities, including acquired disabilities, on how to use those services. There is still funding within the transport grant of €400,000. It would be wonderful if the staff who have been trained up to teach the people who come to the centre get their funding. I make that plea.”
“The Minister of State, being from the west as well, will understand that. It has been discussed in this House, including by our colleagues in Sinn Féin who talked about €17 million being spent on transport. There is a big issue with transport if people cannot access it, and that is a huge issue in the west of Ireland, in Kerry and in Cork. That is why, a number of years ago, we allocated €5 million under transport services to ensure people have access. The Minister of State's Department has allocated €3.5 million for the upgrade of vehicles and provision of new vehicles. I find that disappointing in the sense that we need to look outside existing provision, such as the kerb-to-kerb Local Link service, and see whether we can provide a door-to-door service whereby personal assistants can take people through their front doors.”
“Outside of officialdom and the interference of anybody, the Departments will now be able to pick up those 40 green shoots and the other 18 projects being allocated as we speak, which the Minister of State will get to announce in June. This engagement goes right across employment and sport. The No Barriers Foundation, which was late in receiving its grant funding, was previously allocated €389,000 under Rethink Ireland. The Together Academy supports people with Down's syndrome, with level 3 allocations being made in order that they can make their pathway through education. The reason all of this provision is there is to enable the Minister of State to ensure that other Departments allocate funding to step up and deliver services. One of the most burning issues for me as a rural Senator is transport.”
“I hope it continues to sit under the pillars of housing and employment and that we hold the various Departments to account. The Minister of State said in her opening contribution that €3.2 billion was allocated to the HSE. She does not have another cent of access in any other Department. The only funding she has outside that €3.2 billion is the €3.5 million that is allocated to the disability participation and awareness fund. For the past three years, that scheme has been the definition of putting down green shoots in other Departments, with 40 allocated projects undertaken in conjunction with Rethink Ireland.”
“It was a move of clear leadership indicating that we understood that people with intellectual, physical, sensory and acquired disabilities all had rights to housing, education, employment, inclusion in the community, disability services, social protection, health supports and cultural participation. The next national disability strategy will be the most important and transformative policy work the Government will have. It is across-Government, cross-departmental and across the desk of every Minister and Secretary General. It is imperative that when the national disability steering group is stood up - I wish the Minister of State all the best as chair - there are tangible measures outlined within the framework document.”
“The Minister of State is very welcome. I wish her all the best in her role. The current programme for Government is no different from the previous one. It commits to working tirelessly, alongside stakeholders, advocates, families and departmental officials, to ensure the commitments made under the programme are not just words on paper but actions with impact. As my colleague Senator Murphy O'Mahony noted, when the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, instructed that responsibility for disability services be moved from the Department of Health to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, he did so on the basis that we all have health issues, including people with disabilities. That move symbolised much more than just a movement of functions from one Department to another.”
“I would welcome the opportunity to have statements on autism awareness while also getting an update on the status of the autism innovation strategy, the chairperson and where the one-stop shops are being rolled out.”
“This is autism awareness month. Notwithstanding that the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities will be before us this evening to take statements on disability and that there will only be one week left in the month when we come back in the week of 29 April, it would be fantastic if we could have a session on autism. In the previous Seanad, a committee led by the Leader's good colleague Deputy Carrigy, then a Senator, produced some fantastic reports on it. One of the reports has 109 recommendations. We also had the report on autism school provision, which contained another nine recommendations. Those recommendations span not just disability services but also employment, housing, education, independent living, personalised budgets and much of what has been already raised this afternoon.”
“I thank the Minister of State for going off script and acknowledging his deep understanding of my ask. I am no different from anybody else. My kids have moved on and are in their 20s now, but I was a parent who did not have information. I have no doubt that if I was a parent of teenagers at the moment, be it boys or girls, having seen the programme that was released last week I would accept there is a huge awareness and information gap. Parents are willing to come together and work as collective communities. We have good strategies, policies and frameworks. I ask for the bandwidth to be extended to capture the piece that may require a laser focus at the moment. It is in all of our interests to support parents. We know all of them in our communities. I again thank the Minister of State. I will certainly liaise with the Minister.”
“Parents feel their child is safe when he or she comes in the front door. Times have changed, and now the bully follows them in the front door. We need to be able to speak to parents about how to support their young people. That is health and well-being.”
“I am looking to expand the brief within the framework in order that it would capture, for example, cases where parents want information workshops and ensure funding is allocated through the local authorities in support of and in conjunction with local schools and various organisations. We should not limit that to one organisation but extend it to all organisations. There is a gap in information here, and it is not with young people but with parents. We have experts in An Garda Síochána, a policy in Coimisiún na Meán, psychologists and people in the tech sector. They are the experts that can bring this talk in a meaningful way and communicate it to parents in local community halls. How is the money being spent? Can we find funding that would capture the parents who do not know who to turn to when their young person is online?”
“There is a continuous conversation regarding how we mind our children online and how we protect them. This is a fantastic framework which lasts until 2027. I want to bring to the Minister of State's attention that she needs to focus on another line in the framework, or its expansion, regarding how we can support parents, not just young people. The digital age has moved on so much that when we discuss the 4,500 people availing of the age-friendly homes programme, we also need to look at the cohort of parents who have missed the digital age and whose young people are way ahead of them in order to help parents understand how to mind their young people online. I raise that whole awareness and community grouping that is done with various organisations and works through the local authorities with co-ordinators.”
“Goal 4 is to "Create an environment where every individual and sector of society can play their part in achieving a healthy Ireland". The outcomes in 2024 were excellent because 19 Sláintecare health communities were established in disadvantaged areas, 14 Departments partook in the framework, 500 GAA organisations were part and parcel of it, 4,500 people benefited from the Sláintecare age-friendly homes programme and five new policies were developed, which are what I want to focus on. These were evidence-led policies and action plans addressing sexual health, physical health, nutrition, obesity, alcohol and mental health protection. Additionally, third level institutions implemented the healthy campus programme. I read the entire Health Ireland Framework document and the words "cyber safety" are used only once in it.”
“I thank the Minister of State for taking this Commencement matter. While I know it is not his brief, I appreciate the time he has taken to come to the House to take it this morning. In my Commencement matter, I asked that the Minister of State with responsibility for public health, well-being and the national drugs strategy, Deputy Murnane O'Connor, come before the Seanad to provide a detailed breakdown of the budget and the supports contained within it. I have before me the Healthy Ireland Framework report, which sets out four goals. Goal 1 is to "Increase the proportion of people who are healthy at all stages of life". Goal 2 is to "Reduce health inequalities". Goal 3 is to "Protect the public from threats to health and wellbeing".”
“Clinical governance to ensure that the assistant therapists can be taken on board and supported, be it in mainstream or in special education, would be a game changer.”
“The ratio for it was 1:11, which meant that children with mild learning disability needs were supported while in mainstream, but they also had the opportunity to integrate in and out of it. Sometimes, when children move to secondary school level, they find the step up too great. They should have that safe space where they could go in and out of it, while at the same time getting the educational supports they need. The programme for Government is very strong on therapeutic interventions in special schools and the hub-and-spoke model of supporting classes. I would like to know how many therapists have gone into our special schools. In the upcoming budgetary cycle, does the Minister of State plan on ensuring that we go from 39 to 150 therapists within the NCSE to provide the clinical governance that is required?”
“That is very welcome because there is no doubt teachers need to have that training module. You do not send occupational therapists to disability and mental health and not also send them into acute or primary care. It is the same way with education. Teachers need to have a good grounding when it comes to the whole-school population they will be supporting in order that they will all have the basic skill set required. In my research for the debate on this motion - and I thank Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to talk about special education - I looked at the matter of the mild general learning disability class, which was decommissioned in 2013. Will the Minister of State consider looking at the mild general learning disability class that was decommissioned?”
“The raft concrete foundation went down, the room was built and it was opened instantly. From dealing with many boards of management, there is a reluctance when that bricks and mortar is not being offered. They feel that they are in something like the old prefabs of yesteryear. In fact, there are new methods of modern construction. We need to do a little work in reassuring principals, boards of management and parents' associations that modern methods of construction are really good. That classroom comes with a sensory room, is well kitted out and comes with large capacity. I understand the reluctance but there is a way to go when it comes to modern methods of construction. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, said this week that there will be assessed placements for teachers in special classes and special schools.”
“Work has also gone on in respect of the Dublin 15 task force, where we are working on a document to understand how families do not have to encounter countless applications from school to school. To see pressure put on that under the Minister of State's tenure, and to see it stood up and spread throughout the country, would remove much of the frustration and, at the same time, ensure that parents would have a one stop shop of knowing where they can be supported. There is no doubt that the building unit is a frustration, but there is a need to understand that if a school is to be offered a modular unit, that school should be welcomed and taken on board. I know that a new ASD class was offered to Portumna Community School. There were no reservations about it.”
“At the same time, there is no doubt that the building unit is struggling to keep pace with the requirement. There are peaks and troughs in this. Many of the peaks and troughs that add to this relate to the delays around assessments of need. There is no denying that whatsoever. It is very hard for school planning to take place. I welcome the new register that the NCSE brought out last September, whereby it is getting a wider lens of understanding of what the need is. One SENO cannot be across it all, but the most recent budget investment to increase the number of SENOs from 65 to 120, which means they can get to know the child better and get to know the family's needs, has been phenomenal.”
“He has hit the ground running. Since he came into office, we heard the announcement of 336 special school places, which is very welcome. It is also important to recognise that the Minister of State is not alone in his role. When we look at a child and put that child at the centre, there are educational, respite and therapeutic intervention needs. There has to be cross-government and cross-departmental support and collective working when we look at educational needs for children because, at all times, parents need all those vital supports. Respite is also a huge part of that when it comes to special education. I have seen investment going into special education since 2020. It has been phenomenal to see a 48% increase in that investment.”
“I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That Seanad Éireann:" and substitute the following: "notes that: - a child’s right to education is enshrined in the Constitution and, under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, must be accessible on an equal basis with others in the community in which they live; and - the Government is committed to ensuring that each child with a special educational need has an appropriate school place, in line with their constitutional right and Programme for Government commitments; further notes: - the continued significant State investment of €2.9 billion in supporting the provision of special education, a 48 per cent increase since 2020; - the increase in the allocation of special education teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs) to support children with special educational needs in our schools; - the strategic initiatives introduced to provide for the continued accelerated delivery of special class places in mainstream schools and special school places with the number of special classes having doubled over the last 5 years and 16 new special schools being established; - the work being progressed to provide up to another 400 new special classes and 300 additional special school places for the coming school year to ensure that every child known to the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has an appropriate school place; - the fact that the NCSE has confirmed that 336 of these new special classes are now sanctioned for the coming school year and that significant progress is being made in relation to the establishment of 5 new special schools and the expansion of provision in other special schools; - the significant investment in the expansion of staffing at the NCSE to assist families of children with special educational needs in all aspects of their educational journey, including accessing a placement appropriate to their needs; - the ongoing engagement between the NCSE, the Department of Education, school patron bodies, school management bodies and schools in relation to the forward planning of special education provision, which has yielded additional classes in every county at primary and post-primary levels in recent years; - the enactment of priority legislation in 2022 which provides a power to compel schools to make additional provision for children with special educational needs and for the NCSE to direct schools to admit children with special educational needs; - the establishment of the D15 Taskforce to support forward planning for special education provision in the area and to support the trial of a common application system for special classes; - the recent publication of a circular letter by the Department setting out new guidelines for schools in relation to supporting the transition of students with special education needs, the review of special education placements and the removal of the need for parents to seek updated professional reports where a student is transitioning from a primary special class to a post-primary special class of the same designation; - the introduction of a new pilot project in conjunction with the HSE, to reinstate therapy services onsite in special schools and the commitment in the Programme for Government to provide for an education-led therapy service for special schools; - the funding provided for the training and upskilling of teachers and SNAs who support children with special education needs; - the request by the Minister to the Teaching Council to include a mandatory assessed placement period in a special class or a special school setting in all initial teaching education programmes; - the extensive review by the Department of Education of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act 2004 is nearing completion; - the establishment of a new SNA Workforce Development Unit by the Department of Education; and - the renewed focus of the Government on the area of disability services with a particular focus on improving the delivery of services for children with disabilities; calls on the Government to: - take any necessary steps to ensure that every child with special education needs who needs an appropriate school place has access to one in a timely manner; - continue to expand the number of special school places, special classes and special education teaching hours as required across the State; - improve communication and outreach to parents of children with special educational needs to streamline the process by which parents apply for specialist school places, reducing the burden on them and improving the timelines, including the introduction of a common application procedure; - continue to increase investment into the area of special education to ensure that every child can reach their full potential; - support additional schools and students to benefit from the Summer Programme; - ensure that the NCSE will continue to engage intensively with parents and all educational partners to continue to increase capacity." The Minister of State is very welcome to the Chamber.”
“I again ask that we bring in the Minister with responsibility for the safety of our children online to have statements on the matter.”
“Yet again, I stand here and ask whether the Leader could work with us to bring in the Minister with responsibility for children's cyber safety. We are sleepwalking through one of the biggest epidemics ever known here and the hugely negative impact social media is having on the youth and society. It is past time that Ireland recognised the damage caused every second of every day to children and teens who are allowed unmonitored access to these devices and the harmful apps associated with them. How many more young lives have to be lost to social media and its challenges? How many further issues with mental health and self-harm do we have to face? How many more television series like "Adolescence" do we have to watch before we take ownership of the causes and harms? We need to protect children and their parents.”
“I do not want the past five years of sports capital funding to have been a tick-the-box exercise. I want every club which signed service level agreements with organisations, whereby those organisations willing to participate enabled the clubs to make a wholesome application, to have delivered that wholesome application to the very end. Community played a large part in the previous round of sports capital funding with a new tier of up to €500,000. What impact did this have in communities that worked with education? Are there lessons we could take from this for the next round of sports capital funding so that other communities could get on board? I ask the Deputy Leader to ensure the Minister for sport comes before the House so that we can see the outcomes of the sports capital funding.”
“I ask the Deputy Leader to call the Minister for sport to the Chamber. I wish to discuss the outcomes of the sports capital grant which has been allocated for the past five years, with an emphasis on whether the Department has audited the outcomes of the huge investment of nearly €500 million. This investment was made under the pillars of what the sports capital funding was set up for, which were inclusion, diversity, women in sport, the environment and impacts on the community. The reason I am asking for this to be given consideration is that I want all sports organisations in receipt of these moneys to ensure people with additional needs are able to access the facilities and that the facilities are able to cater for people with additional needs.”
“Before the Minister of State responds, I welcome the exchange students from Georgetown Visitation School in the US and the students from their host school in County Louth, who are in the Gallery. How apt that we are having a conversation on education. Thank you for joining us today.”
“A changing place must have a hoist, larger bins, a tracking system and a screen or curtain for dignity. Most importantly, it must have enough space for a person with a disability and two carers to enable them to provide assistance. I ask the Leader to arrange statements with the Minister with responsibility for local authorities. The Government has changed Part M. We now need the other local authorities to come forward. In addition, there is no point in giving funding to sporting organisations unless they are also prepared to meet Part M requirements.”
“Part M is in place and the guidance has been launched but only nine of the 32 local authorities have changing place toilets that meet an older person's standard and only six have some that meet the current building standards. That speaks volumes as regards where we are in terms of disability in this country. The NDA has communicated with between 17,100 and 36,000 people to see where the need is. We are locking people out of travelling around the country and leaving their home to travel to different local authority areas. We have fantastic facilities, be it walkways or greenways, but people do not have access to a basic need such as a toilet and a proper changing place that meets the requirements of Part M of the legislation and the accompanying guidance. What is in the guidance?”
“I thank the Leader for being here this morning. I will use my time to discuss universal design guidelines for changing places toilets. It was a good colleague of the Leader, the then Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, who brought forward the change in regulations for Part M 2022. The changing of the regulations was to ensure that all of our local authorities would be in a position to make their public buildings more accessible and inclusive, particularly as regards changing spaces. On top of that, the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design at the National Disability Authority, NDA, produced guidelines to work with the legislative side relating to good practice when choosing the location of changing places, in their design and in managing and maintaining them. Nearly 12 months have elapsed since the regulations were amended.”
“When we are doing the proper care planning, Dónal needs to eat seven days a week and we cannot assume he cannot. As a single bachelor man who would be living in an isolated rural setting, that care provider has a duty when it takes on the package to ensure that full delivery is adhered to.”
“Every provider puts its hand up for the 9 o'clock visit slot but as soon as it is two months into the contract, it says that does not really suit and it will move to the 11 o'clock visit. The resident person is then left in bed until 11 o'clock. That was never the modus operandi . I have a little story about Dónal who is 77 years old and from the mid west. Dónal has a disability. He requires two people to get him up every morning and two people to put him to bed every evening and he needs his dinner brought to him every single day. Dónal has support from Monday to Friday, with two people getting up in the morning and two in the evening but, unfortunately, only one person is available on a Saturday and Sunday. Every second Saturday, there is nobody available to give him his dinner.”
“It is a family-run nursing home in rural Ireland, employing a lot of people but also providing a lot of comfort to people living in the local communities. Regarding home care, I sometimes wonder whether it is home care we do not have enough of or people. I believe we do not have enough people. We have a great number of providers in that space. We need a more streamlined approach because all I can see are cars running over and back the road from different providers. Everybody wants the 9 o'clock visit slot to get up in the morning and the 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock visit slot to go to bed. We need to have a little bit more of a geographical or centralised approach or perhaps a better mapping system to show if a provider in an area can provide the services.”
“The NTPF has a duty of care over its financing. It also has a duty of care in determining how its cost base is allocated to the nursing home sector. All of us in this House want to ensure that our family-run nursing homes have the sustainability and financing to ensure they can stay working. We have lost a number of nursing homes because it was not financially viable for a nursing home with fewer than 30 beds to stay open. Now we need to ensure that the nursing home with fewer than 60 or 70 beds is equally funded to deliver services. We need to see how they are graded and how they are awarded the funding. I live in Portumna where we have Portumna Retirement Village, which is a family-run nursing home with fewer than 65 beds. We have the Killimor nursing home, which this week received a HIQA report of 100%.”
“I welcome the increasing of funding for dementia-intensive home care packages. There is home care and there are different allocations of hours, for example, seven hours and 21 hours, but a dementia-intensive home care package may be needed where that person has chosen to stay at home, possibly using the Decision Support Service, and does not wish to go into nursing home care and the person's family are honouring that. It could just be the husband in his 70s who is honouring that. The person's care needs change, so an intensive home care package is vital. They are like hen's teeth within the Department of Health, so we would welcome many more. I welcome two calls in the motion on publishing the NTPF's review of pricing systems in early 2025 and working towards an equitable funding model for the nursing home sector.”
“It is also great to see that Ireland was designated age-friendly status by WHO in 2019. The fact that the Minister of State is across two Departments is a welcome opportunity that needs to be embraced. The fact that he has a foot in the Department of Health and the Department of local government means that perhaps we have a more opportune approach in dealing with who is funding what. The age-friendly activities initiative is based out of the Department of local government, but if that Department matches what the HSE or the Department of Health invested, we would see it spread far more widely. At the moment, Meath County Council provides its secretariat. Fantastic work is done there. In my time, I would love to have seen it mirrored in the disabilities sector, as there is such good work being done on it.”
“I welcome the Minister to the Seanad. I thank Fine Gael for tabling this welcome motion. I appreciate being allocated time to speak on it. The motion is a comprehensive one that covers an array of what needs to be done in the older age sector. Last year alone, 24 million hours were delivered when it came to home care. Some 320 day care centres were open right across the country. We have 55 dementia-specific day centres and the motion is calling on a further 20 to be added to that. The budget for meals on wheels has doubled from €3 million to €6 million since 2020. The meals on wheels service is about far more than just a nutritious meal. It is a social connection, the knock on the door. It actually makes up the triangle of care. There are the day centres, meals on wheels and the integrated care of services for older people.”
“They must not assume that because a child is nonverbal or has a condition such as Down’s syndrome or other intellectual disability that he or she does not have a pain. As was mentioned earlier, everyone needs to have their markers checked, temperatures, bloods and have their scans taken. Mum might not want it but please do it because not taking those markers costs lives. Staff should not assume. Staff need training in this to work with people with intellectual disabilities and with children who are neurodiverse. On International Women's Day some mums are grieving for the loss of their child due to diagnostic overshadowing. My speech today was dedicated to a five-year-old whose name is, it is important to say, Kate Molly Colum, who suffered from diagnostic overshadowing. She had Down's syndrome.”
“Some of our children who are neurodiverse or have intellectual disabilities need to be put in an environment where they are not actually over stimulated, where they get over-anxious, where the lights are too bright, the noise is too much and there are too many strange faces. Could we look at our emergency departments to ensure that there are nurses trained in intellectual disabilities and with autism training as part and parcel of the core team? I thank the Minister for that. The next issue I want to focus on relates to diagnostic overshadowing again in the context of emergency departments. My ask on International Women's Day is that we listen to mothers, sisters and aunties in order that the staff in the emergency department listen to a child who is nonverbal.”
“I welcome the Minister to the Seanad and wish her all the best in the role. In the two minutes allocated to me, I am going to focus on two important issues relating to accident and emergency departments, training and this environment. We need to ensure that when a parent brings a child, a teenager, young adult or an older adult who is neurodiverse or has intellectual disabilities that there is a space there for a sick person to be seen. They need to feel safe and have their rights protected. I welcome the Minister's comment about listening to the mother, the aunt, the sister and the sibling. The sibling knows best, and the mum knows best.”
“Earlier today, I hosted Sonas in the audiovisual room, which represents a women's refuge from domestic violence. We heard harrowing stories from a number of articulate ladies with lived experience. While Cuan has been set up and progress is being made, a lot of progress is still needed in the delivery of support for people fleeing domestic violence. I ask the Leader for the opportunity to have statements in the Seanad to discuss the matter and open it up to all parties and none to contribute to the conversation. I did not realise until today that the living standards in some of the women's refuges are not fit for purpose. I did not realise that they were not regulated or inspected, including by HIQA, yet we are putting children and women in them. That was a large part of the conversation today.”
“I ask again that we have the Minister responsible for local government come to the House to discuss standardisation issues. I raised chainsaws yesterday and am raising rescue boats today. I would really welcome the opportunity.”
“Lough Derg is the widest of the three lakes on the Shannon so the rescue boat could also support and be of great value to Offaly County Council, down towards Banagher. If we are going down to Killaloe, it will be of huge support to Clare and if we have to go over to Terryglass, it is of huge support to the people of Tipperary. Other than that, our nearest launch rescue boat is actually down in the mouth of Limerick, which would have to come all the way up. That is operated by the RNLI. It is not that we do not want to wait for the RNLI, but we have trained people with the proper materials to provide support to a vehicle that has had an accident on the Shannon and run aground or somebody who might have accidentally fallen overboard. Time is always of the essence when a tragedy happens.”
“I would like to second what Senator Fitzpatrick has said on acknowledging the 40th anniversary of LAMA. I would welcome the executive and the wider group of local authority members coming to meet the Members of the House. I have no doubt everybody here feels the same. This my second time this week raising the issue of co-ordination in respect of local authorities. At home in Portumna, we have a rescue boat for the River Shannon. For any colleagues who do not know, Portumna is at the mouth of Lough Derg. The rescue boat is operated by the local authority. The crew members from the retained firefighters are trained to a very high level in how to launch the boat and do rescue procedures.”