Pauline Tully
Cultural and Educational Panel · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I acknowledge that there have been huge improvements on what is available for women, compared with a few years ago when there was nothing, but still far too often conditions affecting women are seen as a specialty or mystery when there is a range of supports and advice that women could receive through primary and community care services.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad. I welcome the Bill. We will be fully supporting it. It makes sense. It will reduce barriers for women and make access to contraception easier, which is always going to be welcome. It will also ease pressure on primary care.”
“We need to look at a better public transport system, especially looking after our older people in isolated communities. Even to support our rural pub, we need to look at some sort of incentive for a taxi service that is affordable for people, so we can maintain our rural pubs and look after our older people.”
“Community and voluntary services on the ground, which are vital for providing supports and services to many sectors of the community, including older people and younger people, are not seeing sufficient funding to help them to keep running, to recruit and retain staff within the youth sector, for example, to maintain buildings if they hav…”
“The motion that we have put forward is very broad and covers many aspects that affect us in rural life. I too am astounded by the amendment tabled by the Government because it does not call for anything, which gives the impression that everything that is needed is there, yet many colleagues across the room here ask for more gardaí in thei…”
“Sláintecare is being rolled out too slowly, so we need to see proper resourcing of community healthcare. It avoids people ending up in acute healthcare settings, which are overcrowded. I see a dangerous trend where many people are being referred from areas such as Cavan and Monaghan to Dublin for acute care.”
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“Other children are jumping the queue because they already having siblings in the crèche in question. That obviously makes sense because you want to keep siblings together. It still does not help the parent to whom I refer, whose child has been waiting 19 months for a place and for whom there is no end in sight. She is dropping down the list rather than climbing it due to siblings jumping the queue. I would really like another debate on childcare, on how this new scheme is actually going to work and on the projected increase in the number of childcare places.”
“They need to do that to stay in business, but it is putting an additional burden on parents whose finances already stretched and who are reporting that if they have two or three children, they are spending one entire wage on childcare alone. In recent days, approval was granted for a State-led early learning and childcare investment programme by means of which the State will acquire vacant buildings. That is to be welcomed, but who is going to run these facilities? We need to put resources into them. Many private childcare operators are not interested in this sector. We need to see more investment in community facilities and we need to ensure that they are run as community childcare and early learning facilities. One parent was in touch with me recently. Her daughter has been 19 months on a waiting list to get a place in a crèche.”
“RTÉ reported this morning that nearly 1,000 early year childcare services have closed since 2019. I know that 579 have opened, but there is still a deficit of 400. There are 40,000 children on waiting lists for childcare places. There is an absolute need for investment in this sector. Providers are saying that their costs are increasing. We know inflation is increasing and that the cost of everything is going up. Yet, Government funding is not going up by anything near what is needed. Staff are receiving improved pay, which I welcome. There was a promise of €10 per child for the cost of childcare in the budget, but this still has not been implemented. I do not want to see costs rising for parents, but providers are actually opting out of receiving core funding in order that they can increase fees.”
“Instead of having to appeal the situation every year, if a child wants to remain until they are 19, for example, they should be able to do so. I taught in a mainstream school. I can recall a student celebrating their 21st birthday while in school. It was a student who had gone through the mainstream system, but had additional needs and had repeated school years somewhere along the way. They were allowed to continue until they completed their education, even though they were at the age of 21. There is no age restriction in any other school, and I do not think it is fair to have it in a special school. I ask that we contact the Minister on this issue.”
“The family have appealed this decision but they have to wait until April for this appeal to be heard, which is quite late in the year, particularly for an autistic child, who does not know what is going to happen and who needs certainty and routine. Most children start school at the age of five and most complete 14 years in school, with eight in primary school and six in secondary school if they do transition year, which most do. That leaves them approaching 19 years of age when they finish school. It is unfair that children in a special educational setting should have to leave at 18. I ask that we write to the Minister for education and the Minister of State with responsibility for special education to ask them to look into this.”
“I wish to raise an anomaly to do with the age at which pupils in special education schools complete their education. Special schools are classified as primary schools. It is intended to provide an education to children and young people with special educational needs from the age of four years until the end of the school year in which they reach their 18th year. I was contacted by the parents of a young man who is 17. He was in a mainstream primary school but was then diagnosed with moderate to severe autism and it was deemed that he would be more appropriately educated in a special school. He went into that special school, but he was then informed at the beginning of his fourth year that he would have to leave the school at the end of this year because he turns 18 next summer.”
“Some children have had no actual engagement at all with a therapist, or very limited engagement, and the parents are watching the children struggling. The same happens with primary care. The primary care lists are extremely long. What plan does the Government have to try to address this? There needs to be a workforce plan to put in more speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and so on. I could go on. I raised two examples but I could have raised any number of examples of different children in similar circumstances.”
“I thank the Minister of State. The two examples I have raised relate to primary care, but there are waiting lists for both primary care and CDNT. There is actually a lot of frustration and confusion even when children are referred from one team to the other. I know these matters fall to two different Departments, but they are all matters for the HSE, or the HSE with Enable Ireland. Regarding the CDNT, the staffing levels have improved but there is considerable frustration from parents still around the lack of assessment. There are a lot of courses being run for parents on how to support their children. Parents are more than willing and able and are happy to do those courses but they are saying the children need the contact with the therapists and that that is not happening to the extent it should be.”
“There were 1,604 awaiting an initial assessment for speech and language in Cavan-Monaghan. That is not including initial therapy or those waiting for further therapy. The HSE has compiled extensive data on this. It knows there are extensive delays. I know this relates to a different Department but the children's disability network teams, CDNTs, also have a huge waiting list for both assessment of need and for services and therapies. The staffing in Cavan CDNT was a huge issue of concern. It has improved and there are only a small number of vacancies, but there is a huge waiting list. Even with a full team complement, which it now has, I do not know how it is going to address all of those who have been on the waiting list since the time it did not.”
“Another little girl, Méabh, is almost three years old. She is deaf in one ear. She urgently requires speech and language therapy. She is on a waiting list for over a year. She was referred for speech and language therapy in September 2024. When I contacted primary care, I was told it would be early 2027. We are talking about two and half years in total that she will be waiting. Again, Méabh's parents cannot afford to pay privately but they say she requires the early intervention to prevent her from experiencing developmental delays. I looked at the lists in Cavan-Monaghan for the end of last year and there were 810 waiting for a first-time assessment with occupational therapy, and more than 500 of them had been on that list for over a year. Speech and language therapy was the longest list.”
“Had they addressed the issues then, he would not have speech delay at this stage. Now, he is being referred back to speech and language therapy. The parents are most concerned about the need for occupational therapy. The occupational therapist came back to them and said she would accept him onto her list but it would be up to three years before he was seen. They actually cannot say that that is definite because it is dependent on resources, that is, staff. He will potentially be eight before he is seen by an occupational therapist. He will have missed out on so much in that time. The parents could pay privately but they cannot afford to. Even if they could, it is very difficult to access a therapist. Many people I know are getting into debt having to pay out the money for therapists that they should be receiving from the State.”
“The physiotherapy team said it would take him in and assess him, which it did, and it referred him to occupational therapy. It was vital that the issues with his fine motor skills be addressed, as he was about to start school. In the meantime, he has started school and it has identified the issues too. While people at the school are very supportive, they are not therapists and do not have the knowledge or expertise to assist him to the extent that he needs. While doing the speech programme in school, he was identified as having a significant speech delay too. He had been referred to speech and language therapy by the age of two because he had not spoken at that stage. He waited two years for speech and language therapy and by the time he was accepted onto the list, he had started talking and they said he was fine and left him.”
“Every week, I am contacted by people either coming to see me or through emails and phone calls who are worried about their child because they have identified an additional need but no services are available for that child in the foreseeable future. I will give an example of one set of parents who contacted me last week about their son James, who is five years old and has just started school. He was referred for occupational therapy, OT, at a four-year check-up by his public health nurse because both the public health nurse and indeed the parents had concerns about his fine motor skills and gross motor skills, but he was refused access to OT and told that because he was already on the physiotherapy list, since, as a baby, he received physiotherapy for a totally unrelated issue, he had to go back to physiotherapy.”
“Maybe we should be looking at the fund as a source of funding to support our apprentices in getting better pay for the work they are doing. Sinn Féin supports the Bill.”
“That is not sustainable. There are many older people who are considering taking up an apprenticeship, but they cannot afford to do so. They could be married with children and a mortgage and have additional costs. We need them to take up apprenticeships. The pay is a disincentive, however. There are other issues as well and we are addressing those in the committee on higher education. We need to incentivise people to take up apprenticeships and make it attractive to do so, especially as three out of five of our young people are considering leaving the country currently. We need them to stay here. We need to incentivise them to take up apprenticeships or work here. We were talking about a change of use for the National Training Fund.”
“They cannot afford to take up an internship where they are being paid little or nothing for the year because of the cost of living, the cost of accommodation, etc. It is only people from wealthy families whose parents can support them who can now take up an internship. In relation to apprenticeships, we need to increase the number of people participating in apprenticeships, especially in the construction sector. We need houses. That is not happening, however. Poor pay, particularly in the first two years, is not enticing people to enter apprenticeships. One young man who lives near me left school at 17 or 18 years old, did something else for a few years and then decided to do an apprenticeship as an electrician. He was receiving just over €7 an hour in his first year. That went up to something over €8 an hour in his second year.”
“Other people in the hotel aged 19, 20 and over were doing exactly the same work. The work did not change when my son turned 18. He was able to carry out the same work as anybody else aged 17, 18, 19, etc. It is not fair that somebody is paid over €4 an hour extra just because they are a fewer years older when they are doing precisely the same work. Often, the work young people do is very hard. They work unsociable hours, weekends and late nights in pubs and takeaways. They are often subjected to abuse from people coming into those establishments. They deserve to be paid properly. We do not have gender discrimination; we should not have age discrimination. On internships, it is now the case that only the wealthy can take up internships. People cannot afford to live without being paid.”
“Young people have significant costs. We cannot expect parents to cover their phone bills, transport costs and accommodation costs, especially if they are in education and living away from home. The cost of living in general affects young people as much as it does any of the rest of us. It also affects families, all of whom are feeling the pinch. My party colleague Paul Gavan introduced similar legislation when he was a Member of the Seanad. I have colleagues in the Dáil who are considering similar legislation for introduction there soon. These reduced rates have been abolished in Germany, Spain, Belgium, South Korea and Canada. We need to follow suit. My son was working recently in a hotel. When he started to work there, he was under 18 years and was paid €9.45 an hour. When he reached 18 years, his pay went up to €10.80.”
“I commend Senator Cosgrove on introducing this Bill, and her colleagues. It is worthwhile. Sinn Féin supports the Bill because it does a basic thing, provides for equal pay for equal work. Anything other than that is discriminatory, exploitative and amounts to cheap labour. It is open to abuse by some employers. Young people, whether they are 17 or 21 years old, pay the same rate of tax, PRSI and USC. They are entitled to be paid the same rate for the same work. The whole concept of a reduced rate minimum wage is outdated and old fashioned. It was introduced to encourage people to take up part-time work, but not to leave school. As Senator Harmon outlined, times have changed significantly. We have one of the highest rates of secondary school completion and one of the highest rates of uptake of higher education. Costs have changed as well.”
“(b) Where the Minister proposes to make payments from the Fund for the purposes set out in subsection 2B, he or she shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas— (i) details of the payments that it is proposed to make for the purposes set out in sections 7(2B)(a) and 7(2B)(b) in the following 12 months, and (ii) outline how the making of such payments will impact on the funding available for schemes of the nature set out in section 7(2)(a) to (c) so that payments made for the purposes set out in section 7(2B) will not impede or frustrate funding for the achievement of the purposes set out in section 7(2)(a) to (c) aforesaid.”.”.”
“I move amendment No. 2: In page 3, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “(2) Section 7 of the National Training Fund Act 2000 is amended by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (5): “(5) (a) With respect to the performance generally by the Minister of his or her functions under this section, the Minister shall, on an annual basis, consult with such representatives of employees and such representatives of employers as he or she considers appropriate.”
“Within that, where there are payments proposed for the incoming year, they would be set out before the Houses of the Oireachtas, including details of those payments and how it is proposed to make them for the purposes set out in section 7(2B)(a) and 7(2B)(b) in the following 12 months. Again, the Minister will outline how the making of such payments will impact on the funding available for schemes of the nature set out in the original Act and show that the payments made for the purposes set out in section 7(2B) will not impede or frustrate funding for the achievement of the purposes set out in sections 7(2)(a) to (c).”
“My amendment provides that the Comptroller and Auditor General would evaluate the accounts as well and to include any funding spent that is different than heretofore. In this way, the accounts will specify what payments have been made under the new section, pursuant to section 7(2B) of the 2000 Act. The accounts will also "address how the making of such payments shall impact the funding available" for the schemes for which the fund was initially set up. I am also proposing in section 7(5) of the Act a small change with respect to the performance, generally, by the Minister of his or her functions under this section. The Act says "from time to time" but I am providing that the Minister shall, "on an annual basis", consult with representatives of employees and employers as he or she considers appropriate.”
“It was never supposed to be for the acquisition, upgrading, construction or reconstruction of facilities and premises, money for which would typically have come out of Exchequer capital funding. This is a deviation from what the fund was established for under the Act and it could rapidly deplete the surplus without delivering any real impact in skills development. That is the main concern of employers. My amendment proposes a couple of small changes to the existing Act to ensure that the employer's voice is heard. Amendment No. 1 proposes to insert the following provision into section 2, "Accounts of the Fund shall be prepared on an annual basis, in such form and (subject to paragraph (b))". Accounts are prepared annually as it stands and are examined and certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General.”
“(b) The accounts specified in paragraph (a) shall specifically identify payments made pursuant to section 7(2B), and address how the making of such payments shall impact the funding available for schemes of the nature set out in section 7(2)(a) to (c) and the overall achievement of the purposes set out in section 7(2)(a) to (c) aforesaid.”.”. As we know, this fund was established in 2000 and was paid into by businesses and employers to ensure the continued training and upskilling of employees and potential employees, including apprentices. I recognise that the fund has accumulated a considerable amount of money that needs to be unlocked and I agree with that unlocking. However, employers have concerns about the change of use of the fund.”
“I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 2 of National Training Fund Act 2000 1. Section 2 of the National Training Fund Act 2000 is amended by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (14): “(14) (a) Accounts of the Fund shall be prepared on an annual basis, in such form and (subject to paragraph (b)) in such manner as the Minister for Finance may direct, and the Comptroller and Auditor General shall examine, evaluate and certify every such account and a copy thereof, together with the report thereon of the Comptroller and Auditor General, shall be laid by the Minister before each House of the Oireachtas.”
“Supports to help families experiencing this should not recognise the Border either. It is something we should work in collaboration with the North on. If somebody requires a refuge space, it should not matter which county they are in. They should be able to access one where it is available regardless of whether it is North or South.”
“While people in Cavan County Council, working with Safe Ireland, are looking to identify a site in Cavan, the funding has not actually been allocated yet. I want to ensure that funding is allocated so that, when a suitable site is found, the funding is available to proceed as quickly as possible. The numbers are high, according to the statistics. While we hear more on the news about fatalities, unfortunately, it is an ongoing issue for many people. Many women are forced to stay in relationships because they have nowhere to go. The refuge would offer them that space to get out of there and try to negotiate the next part of their lives, which takes some time to do. It is a huge issue in the North. It is something we should be co-operating on across the Border because perpetrators of domestic violence do not recognise the Border.”
“I had a meeting with a Garda superintendent recently who said one of the biggest issues the Garda had when addressing an issue like this was that gardaí had nowhere to bring a woman and children to if they have to take them out of the house for their own safety. It is often in the middle of the night. They are depending on local hotels or bed and breakfasts to facilitate them. For an already traumatised family, trying to negotiate rooms in the foyer of a hotel is not appropriate. I am speaking to both the councils in counties Cavan and Monaghan. In Monaghan, a site has been identified and a purpose-built refuge will be built. It is a few years away, but the funding has been allocated to it. In both counties, safe houses have been identified, hopefully for next year on.”
“I want to raise the issue of domestic violence. Last week saw the end of the 16 days of activism around the issue. While that is important in order to raise awareness, we need to be aware of it 365 days of the year. It is an issue that occurs more frequently around Christmastime when a lot more drink is consumed. While prevention needs to be concentrated on, we also need refuges for women who have to escape for their safety. County Cavan is one of nine counties that still do not have a refuge. In fact, several of the counties surrounding Cavan do not have refuges, namely, Monaghan, Leitrim, Longford and then further out to Sligo and Roscommon. There is a glut of counties without a refuge space for domestic violence victims.”
“While I am not opposed to the Bill, I have some concerns about its intentions. I would like to see more clarity. I am aware that we will have an opportunity to discuss this further next week.”
“The fund is in place to provide information on existing and likely future skills requirements and it should also be used for research. IBEC has described Ireland’s national research and innovation infrastructure as becoming obsolete and out of date. Therefore, we need to increase spending on research and innovation. We are very far behind the EU average in this regard. IBEC has also called for the fund to be used to attract skilled research talent. As well as investing in our domestic workforce and people seeking employment, we should be trying to attract research talent to the country. I would also like to see the fund used for North-South initiatives to increase and improve collaboration across training and apprenticeships, such that training or an apprenticeship could be accessed regardless of where you live on the island.”
“There need to be clear guidelines on how the fund will be spent in different areas. I am a little concerned that the Minister is proposing to spend money on things that should be provided through the Exchequer by way of capital funding. I can absolutely see the sense in upgrading laboratories or items of equipment for training where these have become outdated, but I am not sure whether the fund should apply to buildings and decarbonisation when funding should be provided by other sectors. I am not saying we do not need investment in our educational institutions but I am not very clear on whether the money should come from the NTF. I am a little concerned. Technology is constantly changing, so we need to use the fund to keep abreast of change and remain competitive.”
“We need to ensure we are providing supports for disabled people to gain access to training, be they in the form of personal assistants or in other formats. We also have a very poor record of employing Travellers. Travellers and other marginalised groups must be targeted. People who come to the country and who may need supports to access skills and training, and subsequently employment, should also be considered. After training, they become contributors to the economy. The fund was created by employers and businesses. Have IBEC, ISME and other representative groups been consulted about the proposed changes regarding how the fund will be used? It was very clear why it was established. If we are proposing to change how it is being spent, there needs to be consultation. Is this happening?”
“In Cavan just over a year ago, adult education courses were all cancelled because of a lack of funding. That left people unable to take up courses they were interested in. Some were unable to progress in existing courses because they were cancelled for a series of months. This left tutors high and dry, with no employment. They received only about two weeks’ notice that they would not be providing classes. Even when classes did resume after Christmas, they were seriously curtailed. We need to provide significant opportunities to people to gain access to various forms of training and upskilling. They need to feel much more supported. The fund should also be used to target marginalised groups more. Ireland has a dismal record of employing disabled people, for example. It is the worst in the EU in this regard.”
“It is important that the NTF, which was established in 2000 for the purpose of supporting the training and upskilling of those in or seeking employment, be maintained. I recognise that the fund has accumulated significantly. It needs to be unlocked. However, we must not lose sight of the intention behind it. It is not like there are no gaps in skills and training. There are gaps. It was pointed out to me that in 2014, 82% of the fund was used on training programmes. Last year, the proportion was only 55%, representing a huge drop in the percentage used for training programmes. We need to remain competitive as a country, and the best way to do so is to ensure we have a skilled and educated workforce. We need to provide supports to ensure that people have the ability to access lifelong training.”
“They do not want to be going from budget to budget wondering if they are going to get anything this year to address the cost of living. They welcome any sort of payment at this stage and they really need an emergency payment before the end of the year as they face into the winter. I am asking that this is brought to the attention of the Minister for children and disability, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, without delay. The Leader might say there was a huge investment in services for disabled people in budget 2026 but not all disabled people avail of services. While it is welcome and needed, it is not enough. We need to see a cost-of-disability payment so that people are not living in poverty. That is what they are being forced to do at the moment. They are saying it is not equal treatment.”
“The Government commissioned a report on the cost of disability which was carried out by Indecon in 2021. It found that the cost to a family with a disabled member was anything from €8,000 to €12,000 a year. They reckon that has increased now to approximately €15,000 in some cases, or more, depending on the complexity of the disability. That report is sitting gathering dust. Nothing has happened to it. It is not the first report on disability that is left gathering dust. What is the point of commissioning these reports, costing thousands or maybe more, when they are not actioned at all? Not only is there no cost-of-disability payment; there are no energy credits, no additional payment for disabled people or carers as was paid out last year. Disabled people want a definite payment.”
“Yesterday I attended a protest outside the gates of Leinster House by disabled people and their advocates and carers. They were there to highlight the desperate situation they are facing due to the lack of support in budget 2026 on the cost of disability. They have been advocating for a cost-of-disability payment for years. It was promised before the last election. They really feel the issue of disability was used during the election to get votes based on false promises of a cost-of-disability payment being introduced. They are facing a situation now of either eating or heating. One man spoke about how he has to consider if he can afford to put on the second bar of his heater in the evening. They talked about the embarrassment of having to go to a food bank.”
“They carry the most traffic and that is important, and no one is arguing about that, but it is no good if you cannot access your rural road to get to your regional road. It will not encourage investment in the county. As it is, we are a county without a rail service and with a very poor public bus service. We need to invest in our roads to ensure that people can travel on them safely and without additional cost or damage to their cars.”
“The Minister of State pointed out that the funding had increased by 25% since 2021, but so have the costs, so the increase is probably negligible. The council does prioritise roads, but it has to spend money on other aspects as well. It cannot put everything into roads. Repairing 1% to 1.5% of the rural road network per year is just not sufficient. It has to be addressed or we will not be able to travel on the roads if this continues on. The Minister of State says that Exchequer funding disincentivises councils from putting in their own funds. They put in whatever funds they can into the roads. They try to be as imaginative as possible to get the funding together to spend on the roads, but it is just not possible. I understand that regional roads have to be repaired.”
“It may not be different in other counties but in general in Cavan there is a very large network of rural roads and we need investment in them to ensure we maintain them. Cavan is a drumlin county and it has 365 lakes and a lot of rivers and streams. This needs to be factored in as well but I do not think it is. Has the Department of Transport looked at this and considered increasing funding to ensure the roads do not disintegrate further?”
“It believes there is a shortfall of €200 million when account is taken of inflation and the fact the cost of construction has risen dramatically, as has the cost of construction materials. The money has not kept in line with inflation. If the council needs to break into land for the development of housing or enterprise, it costs a huge amount of money and this is not being factored in. In order for the council to deal with the housing shortage or ensure there is economic development in the county, more investment is needed. Something has to be done. People depend on the rural road network. We are not going to be able to put public transport on all our rural roads. People need to be able to get to work, to their farms and everywhere else they need to go. As things are, the roads are just disappearing.”
“A huge amount of work needs to be done even preparing a road because it has been so long since the previous repair. Cavan is a county that depends largely on agriculture, agribusiness and small and medium-sized enterprises. All of these contribute significantly to the economy, as do ordinary people who pay their road tax and cannot understand why they cannot travel the roads. I hear from carers who find it very difficult to get to the people they are caring for. Their cars are being destroyed. I hear from people delivering meals on wheels. I hear from school bus drivers who cannot travel the roads to get children to school. The council prepared a comprehensive report, which it sent to the Department. It looked at the funding it has received for roads since 2008.”
“Cavan is a largely rural county. It is divided into three LEAs, which correspond to the three engineering areas. Speaking to the engineers in these areas, they tell me there are approximately 1,000 km of local road in each area. Based on the funding they have received, when we take out the cost of repairing regional roads in the area and town centres, they have approximately enough to repair 1% to 1.5% of the local road network per year. One engineer told me he had enough to repair 15 km of local road out of almost 1,000 km. At this rate of going, a road repaired this year will not be repaired again for another 100 years. Roads are disintegrating in front of our eyes. When the council goes out to prepare a road for tarring, practically all of the culverts all need to be repaired.”
“We can build on that, but we need the Government to lead on the preparation for Irish unity. I do not want to see a referendum happen without the preparation, but I do not want to see it pushed onto the long finger. We need to engage with all sectors of society. We need to engage not just with other political groupings but marginalised groups like women and people from other countries. In order to do that, we need a forum of some sort. Whether that is a citizens' assembly or it is called something else, we need the engagement to start. Engagement is happening on the ground, but it needs to happen at formal level led by the Government to ensure we create an Ireland of equals for all our people.”
“By doing so we have the opportunity to create a new republic, a country that will embrace all of our citizens, Irish, British or other. The issues that affect people on the ground, whether they live in Fermanagh or Cavan, Dublin or Belfast, are ordinary issues like housing, health, disability and childcare. We have an opportunity to oversee the establishment of new all-Ireland departments that will deal with those issues. We already see where we have co-operation on issues such as health. We need to see more of that. It makes sense in a country this size. I was a member of the Good Friday Agreement committee in the previous term and some good work cross-party work was done on constitutional issues. An in-depth look was taken at the economic impact of a united Ireland, of an all-Ireland health system and the role of women in that.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. I grew up in County Cavan, which is a Border county. I grew up long enough ago to know and remember what a hard border was like. It was a Border imposed over 100 years ago without any consultation, purely for political reasons, by a British Government. It created two conservative states, one on each side of the Border. It did not just partition our country. This Border partitioned our people as well. It divided people and created a partitionist outlook. I know while things have moved on and the hard border is long gone, the impact of that still remains. The north west is one of the poorest regions in the EU for infrastructure, and that really affects investment. We need to see the end of a border in Ireland.”
“Will the Leader write to her to ensure the meeting is arranged and that she will expand on the good work it is doing? I ask that she also take into consideration post-sepsis syndrome. People suffer for a month and sometimes years from symptoms such as tiredness, weakness, loss of appetite, nightmares and even PTSD. If the condition were recognised, it could be treated more efficiently than it is currently. I ask for a follow-up with the Minister to ensure that happens.”
“The symptoms can include slurred speech, new confusion, extreme shivering, muscle aches, fever, shortness of breath, lips tinged with blue and many others. We want people to think about whether their symptoms could be sepsis and to request a test for it. Medical personnel in emergency departments need to consider sepsis at all times. We sometimes hear of people going into emergency departments and by the time staff realise the person has sepsis, it is too late for treatment. In other instances, people do not recognise the symptoms and do not seek treatment. For those who survive sepsis, there is such a thing as post-sepsis syndrome, which is not yet recognised by the World Health Organization. North East Sepsis Awareness is hoping to meet the Minister for Health in the new year.”