Gillian Toole
Meath East · Independent · Ireland
“It made a significant contribution to discussions around the introduction of mandatory digital devices in post-primary education. It highlighted parental concerns regarding the cost and compulsory purchase. The roll-out was halted in 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic and remote learning and having one's own device become an essential.”
“I am thankful for the opportunity to discuss this important matter. I acknowledge the massive improvements that have been made. The national broadband plan is almost complete. Massive inroads have been made in my home county of Meath, including in the roll-out and the access it provides.”
“I apologise if I am repeating what other Members have gone through. The information is there. The plan and suggestions are effectively worked out for us. What we need now is to expand on the policy.”
“Like it or not, it may mean pulling back from the commercial one-to-one contract between the family and the provider and centralising it. That will encompass centralised State procurement, standardised device specifications and collective purchasing arrangements, having guidelines, and having additional targeted financial supports for sch…”
“I raise intergenerational music sessions, and we spoke about young people and their involvement earlier. These are also pivotal. It could be listening only, listening and singing, singing along or watching a choir. These will all help improve the multiple memory systems from episodic, semantic to implicit memory.”
“The reduction is significant - around 30% for developing cognitive impairment, 23% for all-cause dementia and 34% for Alzheimer's disease. Arts are linked to demonstrable neurological changes in the brain, lower deposits of amyloid beta, and lower numbers of lesions in the white matter of the brain.”
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“We do not know what the ultimate CAP figure is going to be but we need a radical overhaul of our food system, one that prioritises public health, traceability and viability. Essential nutrients should never be part of a trade deal. If we learn nothing else from history, where did the Famine of 1845 to 1848 lead? That was a control of supply of food and cutting off a food supply. When including food in these trade deals, we are at high risk of history repeating itself in the 21st century.”
“Global food systems are currently leading to widespread hunger. Indigenous communities are being moved off their land to make way for supersized farms. Obesity is a very clear problem in this country. Ultra-processed foods and the fast fattening of animals are contributing to a higher fat content and this is making its way to the Irish market. Some 45.9% of Irish household purchases include ultra-processed foods. That is not to mention the hormones and the additives potentially coming in as well. The environmental damage is in itself hypocrisy. Clearing forests and river basins for intensive paddock formation, tillage, etc. in the southern hemisphere is bringing its own problems.”
“The reality of that is borne out if we take books such as Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat , which was written 13 or 14 years ago by Philip Lymbery, Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken and Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet , written last year by Stuart Gillespie. Despite the gap of 13 years between the first and last of those books being written, they identify some very serious trends. Probably foremost in everybody’s minds is the lack of a fair playing field, traceability, food standards, the inclusion of hormones and the rampant use of antibiotics in foods produced in other jurisdictions. We can look at what global food systems are leading to around the world. This crosses over with climate change and migration. It is key to all those issues that face Europe, including Ireland.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle agus an Aire Stáit. I am going to take a slightly different approach here as a healthcare professional and also as a farmer’s daughter. It is not going to change the current position but it is just to make the case that essential food molecules, including protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals and water, are the very things that constitute beef, chicken and grain. Maybe not so much honey, although it primarily has a high carbohydrate content. Essential nutrients such as these should never have been part of a World Trade Organization deal going back 20 years or even well before that.”
“Along the way, we have to listen to our young people, including the voices of the members of Comhairle na nÓg, drug rehabilitation teams and community drug and alcohol rehabilitation teams. They have their fingers on the pulse and their ears to the ground. I do not know whether the escape room concept can be funded from a health promotion perspective or through proceeds of crime funding but I was highly impressed. If possible, I ask the Minister of State and her officials to read the transcript of the Committee on Drugs Use. I will get the date and flag it with the Minister of State. I can send the video link to her. It is something I will explore and try to implement in County Meath.”
“The key thing arising from today will be to learn from the loopholes identified in the UK, particularly around non-compliant manufacturers who have moved quickly to include charging ports and refill features in their products as a means of circumvention. The other point is delivering effective and enforceable legislation. It will be worth spending time on this. We cannot on the one hand be here debating at budget time the spend on health, be it public health or rehabilitative health, yet not be taking proper measures to ensure our respiratory and circulatory systems and our physical and emotional health are well resourced. This is one of the stepping stones as a preventative measure.”
“Another area that will have to be resourced is youth work organisations and the comhairlí na nóg, as well as the well-being teams in our secondary schools. There will be fall-out from this. There are the best of intentions but we have to be prepared and have the safeguards in place. That may involve using nicotine replacement therapy, NRT, which is nicotine replacement without those ancillary chemicals with dangerous side effects I have listed. The other piece will be mental health supports. Apart from peer pressure and maybe wanting to look cool, if there is a mental and emotional health issue underlying use of a vaping product, we have to be ready and have a robust and well-resourced mental health safety net.”
“We need to pay attention to the learnings and reviews that have taken place since June 2025, when the UK carried out a similar exercise. They are at the review stage now. I think everybody received the briefing note from Responsible Vaping Ireland. Two salient points are coming out of that review, the first of which is enforcement. We have to make sure the Health Service Executive, as the agency responsible for enforcement, is adequately resourced around both the inspection and the education sides of things. I suggest the remit of the quit line be extended to include quitting vapes. If the disposable vapes are removed, we know that, despite the age limit on vaping, there will be many young people dealing with physical and psychological withdrawal effects. Where will they go?”
“It is there. There are formaldehyde and benzene, products with demonstrable cancer risks. There are heavy metals, including lead and nickel. The impacts of nickel include asthma, dermatitis, rhinitis, nausea and vomiting, and headaches; prolonged exposure can increase the risk of cancer. Lead contributes to behavioural and learning problems, hearing problems, fatigue and loss of appetite. We are getting a merger and possible confusion whereby what can be deemed to be behavioural issues for young people become completely intertwined with known side effects of products. It is important to get right what this Bill is attempting to do and to ensure, particularly on Committee Stage, that there is robust scrutiny of it.”
“Young people can complete a survey before going into the rooms and complete another on coming out. Then there is a debriefing session. After visiting the rooms, the learnings of the young people were doubled and in some cases tripled. That validates the young people's desire to know more about the possible benefits of products and, more important, the harms. When I left off previously, I was going through the side effects of the ingredients in all vaping products, not just the disposable vapes we are primarily concerned with. I will raise this as a point of learning and as something for us to take note of in the vaping space in general. Let us discuss some of the ingredients. Propylene glycol is commonly known as anti-freeze. We would put it into the engine of the car. Would we dream of putting it into something we might inhale?”
“I will try to pick up where I left off. I was commending the recommendations of Meath Comhairle na nÓg. In the realm of drugs of addiction, alcohol, vaping, etc., the feedback from that and other youth groups around the country is that education is key. They want to know about the harms of different products on the market. I sat in on the Joint Committee on Drugs Use a couple of weeks before Christmas. I am not a member of that committee but there was a very insightful and encouraging presentation by Ms Leanne Maher, a drug education worker with Canal Communities regional addiction service in Dublin 8. She gave the example of an escape rooms project funded from its own small budget. It is a youth initiative whereby there are four rooms covering cannabis, vaping, nitrous oxide and alcohol.”
“It also included vaping in that. Young people are crying out for support. I flag the necessity for inspection of the youth support services in conjunction with nicotine replacement services that are going to be required to make sure that they are available at the same time or shortly after the banning of the product because young people are addicted to nicotine and withdrawal effects will have to be dealt with. There is a broader issue in the regard around mental health, advertising and the safeguards, which will all be best saved for in-depth discussion on Committee Stage. Given the season and the prevalence of respiratory illnesses be they RSV or influenza-----”
“This is where the devil is in the detail and where the respiratory and the carcinogenic effects are most prevalent and dangerous. I disagree completely with the points that have been made in relation to substitution and vaping being a substitute for smoking. We have nicotine replacement therapy minus these other chemicals. That is where the emphasis needs to be placed. In terms of supporting people stepping down and stepping away from these products, there will have to be a concurrent support for people to step over and to step up to the use of nicotine replacement therapy through the community pharmacy network. I will speak particularly about Meath Comhairle na nÓg, the young people's version of Meath County Council. It carried out a poster campaign and has had various surveys and a video campaign on the harm of drugs.”
“I welcome the introduction of this Bill. I concur with colleagues. The willingness to accept amendments on Committee Stage will be most important. If that can be enabled, it would be a move in a strong and positive direction. This is something that parents, children, teenagers, teachers, Tidy Towns volunteers and public health professionals are strongly in favour of. I commend the Minister of State on the work that has been done to date. The devil will be in the detail. Nicotine, no matter what way it is dressed up, whether it is in a pouch, in a single-use or a continuous-product, is addictive. It is a gateway drug. The most concerning aspect of the contents of these products is the additional items, namely, propylene glycol, formaldehyde, benzine, heavy metals such as lead, nickel and cadmium, and the ultrafine particles.”
“One charges nothing and will continue to do so. The other charges a fraction of the rumoured €50 and will continue to do so. That is not accounting for the time that is taken in consultation on phone calls to GPs, consultants, carers and public health nurses.”
“The system needs to be reviewed and the recommendations of Age Friendly Ireland and the carers' organisations have to be taken on board but the record also has to be set straight that the service, in the main, has been provided free of charge or for a modest enough fee that is well below the cost - the cost of the time and the materials involved. I have absolute faith that proper consultation will take place, given that part of the new pharmacy agreement for 2025 is a section on medicines optimisation. This is exactly where that sits - in the discussion on medicines optimisation and enhancing the role of the community pharmacist and the teams within to make sure that if anything, the service is improved. I am not throwing down the gauntlet to my colleagues; I can speak for the two pharmacies I worked in over the past couple of years.”
“Some 22 or 23 years ago, a customer - a family friend, very dear to me - was on 16 medicines. The only way I could actually cope to make sure he got the correct medicines in the correct blister at the time was to go in at 7.30 a.m. or 8.30 a.m. when there was no one around, to do it in complete peace and quiet. That, effectively, is what is being done by pharmacy teams up and down the country. To be putting the fear of God into the general public about a phased scheme that is going to be reviewed is actually, in itself, shameful scaremongering and does not do anything for older people and anybody who is vulnerable or who may even suffer with anxiety as part of a mental health condition.”
“Sometimes there is a fear there where people are afraid to say to the receptionist in the GP clinic or to the GP that they do not need X, Y or Z medicine. They are afraid they might not get it again so it appears on the prescription and it is dispensed continuously. The other situation is where the blister packing was and is very highly regarded by Age Friendly Ireland and the older persons' councils, as it is primarily intended to be a safeguarding mechanism to make sure the patient gets the correct medicine at the correct time. However, the rules for phasing are currently set down by the HSE and relate to medicines that are high-risk medication or medication with a potential for misuse. The reality of the situation is that my colleagues going back 20 years have, in the main, been providing the service free of charge.”
“Then we jump to €50 and the fearmongering around that. I do not know where that figure came from. I am searching and I have not found it but I will put it in context as to where that may have arisen. A review of the scheme has been announced and that review has come about from the HSE primary care reimbursement service. That review was not announced by the Department and it was not announced by the Minister. There has been a reference to "age friendly" and Age Friendly Ireland. I was a member of the committee in Meath for a number of years and two recommendations came from Age Friendly Ireland about three years ago. They were to the IPU and the then Minister, Stephen Donnelly. That was the dump scheme to dispose of unwanted medicines properly because a lot of older people tend to stockpile, or medicines accumulate.”
“In 2017, the HSE PRCS decided to take a more in-depth look because the fees for the phased dispensing service were increasing. They were up around €68 million per annum at that stage. They dropped back to between €53 million and €54 million, on average, in 2022-23 and €58 million per annum in 2024. There are effectively three systems in place. The first is phasing without a blister pack, which is requested by a GP or a consultant. If a pharmacist recognises that a patient is having difficulty with his or her medicines, they can advise the family, the carer or the public health nurse to have word with the GP or to request a consultation. There may or may not be blister packing. Then there is a blister packing service that has been provided for nothing by many of my colleagues. There is a charge of around €12, on average, by others.”
“Ní bheidh an Teachta Ó Nualláin anseo anocht. The Minister has had to leave. I missed the opening part of the debate but I hope to clarify some pieces of misinformation that in the media that have been bandied about in the Chamber this evening. The role of a pharmacist and their team, including pharmacy technicians, is a very professional one of safeguarding and ensuring that the right patient gets the right medicine at the right time. Over the years, the delivery of complex medicines has increased, as has the complexity of ensuring that the right patient gets the right medicine. Initially, pharmacists offered an opt-in for an optional blister packing service. Then it became slightly more formal with the recognition of phased dispensing. That could be requested by a GP.”
“Professor Aiken spoke in 2019 at an Oireachtas committee. She said she was aware of the importance of the tech industry to the economy but we have to grasp the nettle and that, perhaps, corporate social responsibility dealing with the algorithms is the way to go. There will be an economic cost, with reduced revenue perhaps, but the economic cost of the harm and trying to rehabilitate children who have been harmed is immeasurable.”
“I concur with Professor Aiken that tiered access and age-appropriate bans on accessing various content deserve more merit. We are, effectively, dealing with an uncontrolled experiment that has not been risk assessed. In respect of the school curriculum, while the review of the anti-bullying policy in 2022, the current Bí Cineálta programme and all of those measures have been introduced to try to empower children to deal with what is online, we are putting the cart before the horse. It should be the platforms and algorithms that are dealt with, rather than making our education system align with them. Those programmes have not been risk assessed, to the best of my knowledge. Going back to the policing of this, An Garda Síochána is under-resourced and the enforcement piece cannot be dealt with.”
“I thank the Minister of State for enabling this discussion. Our most precious asset is our children. They are our future. There is a saying that it is much easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults. I acknowledge the great work being done to ensure cybersecurity and to try to prevent cyber-bullying but I have to say that I concur with Professor Mary Aiken, who spoke on Monday morning with David McCullagh, that childhood has been rewired. Deputies raised issues with regard to access to adult content, cyber-bullying, body dysmorphia and other issues and I completely concur with them. Parents cannot compete with the continuous impact that is coming at them. I am not sure the Australian model is the best one to follow.”
“Now we have a home-sharing model that is being rolled out by the Health Service Executive. History has a habit of repeating itself. We have to take those learnings and implement them. I hope that the child, the teenager, the young adult will be at the very centre of all planning and delivery of services to meet their needs first. There can be no expensive layers of management to the provision of services. It should be needs first followed by the assessment. I have been reliably informed by disability services in my own area that by taking that approach, not every child might need the assessment. If the needs can be addressed in the community, that will probably filter out many hundreds.”
“Families use the budget to purchase bespoke services for their children, including teenagers and young adults. Families can be trusted to manage the funding effectively and efficiently. For example, I am holding up a piece of art by my friend Amy who is 22 years of age and has autism. She is pursuing a level 5 and a level 6 ETB art course at Grennan Mill Craft School. Leap Ireland supported Amy and her family through the personalised budget process to now reach her true potential. Last night, I saw the documentary, "Born That Way", a powerful account by Éamon Little of the Camphill communities that were set up by Gladys and Patrick Lydon. The activities they provided were suited to the abilities of the young adults who attended. Perversely and unfortunately, the Camphill communities were wound down.”
“There are colleges of further education and training, for example in Dunboyne in my area, that are training medical and social care administrators who would be able to free up therapists' time. There is an inconvenient truth here that was manifest in the HSE recruitment embargo of 2022 to 2023 and was preceded by the cancellation of developmental checks during the SARSCoV2 restrictions from 2020 to 2022. We have had four years that have effectively contributed to this backlog. The ages of the children affected concurs with that. For four-year-olds, five-year-olds, six-year-olds and seven-year-olds, that timeline is concurrent. There is another area that is working very well but is under threat, and that is the area of personalised budgets, a pilot scheme set up by the HSE that needs to be mainstreamed.”
“I am cautiously optimistic about the announcement today by the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, and I wish them well. I am going to give a different slant and focus on the needs piece followed by the assessment piece. I have met and listened to parents, educators from the earliest stage, teachers, those working with young adults and therapists in my area of Meath East. Focusing on the needs, there are many local initiatives that can actually be enacted using alternative respite budgets, treatment purchase funding, therapies such as art, drama, equine and music, and investment in sensory and nurture rooms within existing early years and school facilities.”
“Compellability and adhering to the strict timelines that are in the existing legislation is the starting point. In relation to those issues I would be very grateful to the Minister of State if there is some way of accelerating the matter that he can embark on.”
“Everything in the 86 pages of the 2022 Act has been followed but there has been no follow-up. We are past the three-month mark. In one case we are about to hit the six-month mark. There has been no follow up by the OPDC, An Garda Síochána, the HPRA, the HSE or the PSI. There is not supposed to be penalisation by employment but in the case of one person there is absolute penalisation in their employment status. In my opinion, the compellability piece is the missing piece. In closing, I note the comments by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, yesterday on the Order of Business, that whistleblowers should not find "that their own situation is affected in a negative way". Unfortunately, that is not the reality. The Minister also said that he or the Government would be open to looking at improvements.”
“I thank Independent Ireland for bringing this forward. It is probably fair to say that most of us here grew up from childhood with a moral phrase repeated by our parents or guardians, "If you tell the truth, you will not get into trouble" and now we are here in the Chamber, dealing with the Protected Disclosure Act 2014, as amended in 2022 on foot of EU Directive No. 2019/1937. I most recently brought two constituent and professional colleague protected disclosures to the Chamber. PD 2025 No. 17 has been raised twice previously. Most definitely both issues are in the public interest and they have been made with a very strong evidence base, the second one being a child safeguarding and Garda vetting issue. I just want to point out that at this point all correct disclosure procedures have been followed by the reporting persons.”
“Finally, there is the irrecoverable impact of Mercosur on farmers. That is threatening food safety, our Irish food security and ultimately public health. The Minister of State has heard plenty on that but those are a few simple suggestions.”
“I will not go back over what colleagues have said on statistics but we have to enable all of that. The SMEs in Meath East are offering some suggestions for improvement and providing future opportunity as follows. For example, school books and stationery vouchers were put forward by Forever Amber bookshop in Ratoath. It would dovetail with the school books scheme. The local enterprise offices could strengthen and increase supports to retailers and service sector SMEs. They continuously look for support and shop local campaigns should be year-round. In particular, local authorities and utility companies should co-ordinate road and footpath work and communicate in advance with the SMEs. The impact of unannounced road works, etc., is deleterious for business. There should be provision of adequate and free parking facilities.”
“I will speak to the subtle costs borne by the brave, community-entrenched entrepreneurs of the SME sector. Local craftspeople, farmers, growers and shop owners have symbiotic relationships with local rural and urban communities. I acknowledge previous Government supports during Covid but the impact of restrictions then, which forced so many consumers to go online, can never be repeated. I raise that as a flag for future consideration. Regardless of global opportunities or turbulence the SMEs are the constants in our communities. They are employers and sponsors. They are keeping a look out for older members who may be living alone. When we join the dots and connect everything up, the hauliers connecting the producer with the consumer are the vital cogs in the wheel.”
“What has happened and, more importantly, why has it happened? It is that issue of accountability, particularly the accountability of senior HSE management. If we look at the mission statement and values of the Health Service Executive, they are listed as care, compassion, trust and learning. We have had a breakdown on several fronts in that regard. That is a key area. The fourth A is action. Again, that is linked to the first A, namely, the asks. I ask the Minister to consider the 2024 scoliosis Bill brought forward by Senator McDowell because the accountability is built in. The fifth A is, to go back to the beginning, to acknowledge the efforts of the Minister in a short space of time against a system that is stacked against her.”
“Níl a fhios agam an mbeidh mo chairde sa tSeomra i gceann tamaill. I thank the Minister for her update. It was very comprehensive. I was here earlier but I had to step out for a while. I will confine my comments just in case my colleagues thunder in, but I can jump back if necessary. I will consider five As, like an A rating. The first A is that consideration be given – the Minister has even addressed one already – to the asks of the parents and advocates of the children. The second is to acknowledge the conscientious and hardworking healthcare professionals already involved over the past 13 years, and probably longer. The third A, which is probably the most serious and one, to my science background mind, I consider the common denominator no matter what subject of healthcare we discuss here, is to always get the why.”
“Public-private partnerships and industry collaborations in every area of science must be clearly and unambiguously advertised as such to ensure that informed decisions can be made by citizens and the Government on behalf of the taxpayer. To go full circle, back to childhood, may we create environments where children’s curiosity can be supported and satiated, informed by facts and not ideologies.”
“If people asked any question, despite having a scientific background, they were labelled as, perhaps, a conspiracy theorist and vilified. Now, new and disturbing peer-reviewed research and evidence on this gene therapy is available from Italy, Japan and the US. It must be investigated and followed up on in the true spirit of science. Analysis is also being carried out on recent CSO data into medical mortality rates in the 15 to 24 age category. Again, this is science-based and it must be questioned and followed up on. In accordance with the objectives of the programme for Government, Ireland aims to be a centre of excellence in research and development, particularly in the areas of healthcare and technology. In these endeavours, we must embrace and encourage curiosity and questioning continuously.”
“We must ask about the who; the what; the how; the action; any other medication; whether there is a child aged under two; and whether there is a pregnancy. Preparing prescriptions involves more in-depth questioning of doctors, nurses, carers and hospital teams, all to improve health outcomes. Long may that curiosity and questioning continue to ensure that these best outcomes are achieved. It is fair to say that science was never meant to be followed. Its very essence, from the time of Archimedes, Galileo, Hippocrates and Pasteur to former influential lecturers Des Corrigan and Ingrid Hook, was always rooted in curiosity and questioning. In 2020, a most worrying development arose with the outbreak of a new virus, followed by a new gene therapy, messenger RNA, mRNA, therapy. The instructions were to follow the science.”
“We were encouraged and, in some cases, demanded to question past theories, prove a theory and improve on past outcomes. This involved a lot of messing around in the labs, to the chagrin of many of the lecturers who at the stage feared they might have to call the fire services. The memories of Friday practical sessions in pharmaceutical chemistry with projects, as well as Ms Esmond’s mixed-bag interrogations, haunt me to this day. When I entered the world of community pharmacy after graduation, the curiosity continued. In order to help patients effectively in the pharmacy – Deputies who have gone into a pharmacy for assistance with over-the-counter medicines might not know this – there are at least five basic questions we must ask in order to come up with a solution.”
“Seachnall's school in Dunshaughlin, County Meath, with the very simple concept of the nature table. I hope we can go back there at some stage. That was followed afterwards with the expansion to biology, chemistry and maths in Cabra, Dublin 7. Then, down the road from here, I studied life sciences with a degree in pharmacy at Trinity College Dublin. I studied genetics, physics, statistics, botany and all of the different “ologies”, including physiology, microbiology and zoology. That continued on to the pharmaceutical sciences where, in our final year, we were let loose on patients in St. James’s Hospital for our practice of pharmacy. Common to every branch of pharmacy that we studied along this journey was the ability and necessity to question at every step.”
“I welcome the opportunity to discuss Science Week 2025, whose theme this year is "Then. Today. Tomorrow" and how past knowledge informs present and future science. I commend Science Foundation Ireland, now Research Ireland, on its vision to establish Science Week 30 years ago. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, and the Minister for the continuing investment in STEM subjects, personnel and facilities. Essential to the study of science is a quest for knowledge: challenging past theories, proving theories and improving outcomes. It also involves experimenting with variables – for example, temperature, light, dark, moisture, drought, age, gender, ethnicity, wellness, illness and so on – changing them and then examining the new outcomes. My experience and love of science began, definitely 50-plus years ago, in St.”
“The question has been voiced to me about how accommodation offers and expressions of interest can be fast-tracked for international protection applicants but previously they have not been sought nor offered for people who are on local authority housing lists. Another issue I would like to point out is, as of this evening, I can book a two-night break in the Hilton in Kyiv-----”
“Farmland is being taken over, populations are being moved to urban areas which are overpopulated and then people are forced to leave their country of origin. That links in to the climate piece as well. There is a much bigger picture here. Another concern is whether there are robust checking mechanisms in place with the Department of Social Protection. Perhaps reforms are needed there as well. Many small businesses in County Meath cite an unavailability of workers who will work more than 18.5 hours a week, so there are some issues there. I will point out some glaring surprises. It is unusual for ordinary people in my own area to raise flags with me on the issue of migration but two cases come to mind.”
“I am somewhat concerned that there may be a crossover between using an international protection application route disingenuously where a work permit application may be appropriate, albeit more timely and at a cost. It is possible that avenue is being used disingenuously. I wonder whether a critical skills audit is being carried out to determine sector by sector the number of migrant workers we require. I note that Brazil, Georgia and India were mentioned earlier as countries of origin. I am not sure whether that was for work permit applications or international protection. There are two countries in particular which have areas where their geography, geology and demographics are changing very rapidly because of large corporations moving in looking to increase output and productivity.”
“There is probably a public relations piece in terms of the information given to us and getting that out into the wider community so that people are aware that huge efforts are being made by the international protection team and the ministerial team. However, as our population is increasing rapidly, I sought information previously on capacity audits in the areas of housing, healthcare, education and transport in order to determine in advance the services that are required for those who legitimately apply for and qualify for international protection supports but also for the communities that will host international protection applicants. The other area I queried previously is that of critical skills audits. That links in with the issuing of work permits.”
“As every Member today has done, I condemn the barbaric events at Citywest and, more recently, in Drogheda, County Louth. I want to express my gratitude to the members of An Garda Síochána and the emergency services for their swift actions. However, it should not have come to this. As I said on 18 September, there is a real risk to social cohesion if we do not put our house in order in a fair and humane manner as quickly as possible. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, and the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, for the detailed updates they provided to us this afternoon and the briefing document, which I skimmed through. I am grateful for that.”
“The recently formatted and agreed community pharmacy agreement, which will take effect from 1 January next year, will provide affordable and accessible men's healthcare and, indeed, healthcare for everybody. That is an opportunity to access help on the main street.”
“I am grateful for this opportunity. I acknowledge the "him" in my life who contributed greatly to getting me in here. I am grateful to the Movember organisation which provided us with recent research into the whole area of men's health. It is an area that I have a particular interest in. I found a module on men's health from 2003 from the North-Eastern Health Board. Despite criticism, I acknowledge how far we came between 2003 and the policy in 2009, but also how much further we have to go. Pivotal to that is the contribution of men's sheds, On Feirm Ground and the local sports partnerships that now deliver specific men-orientated programmes, in particular Men on the Move and programmes for those aged over 55. I acknowledge those. A couple of speakers made a point about accessibility.”
“All of the processes have been followed, including contacting the OPDC. By referencing the other agencies, my point is that there is silence. This is a matter of serious public health. When I cross-check the criteria and scope with the Covid-19 evaluation committee that the Department of the Taoiseach established, under scope and exclusions are the very matters included within this protected disclosure: the care of older people in nursing homes between 2020 and 2022; the administration of gene therapy to people during the same period; and various other evidential and research-based issues that have arisen since then, even in other jurisdictions, and have been the subject of parliamentary questions. I would again ask the question - will there be an inquiry into this protected disclosure as a matter of urgency?”