Liam Quaide

I raise the case of Paudie Cody from north Cork. As the Taoiseach knows, the Cody family has already suffered the devastating loss of Paudie's younger brother, Rory, to Friedreich's ataxia. Paudie, who is 16, is living with the same cruel condition and his health is deteriorating. I welcome the compassion the Taoiseach showed in meeting Paudie's father, Craig, in recent days and his commitment to …

9. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on infrastructure will meet next. [36951/26]

29. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the shared island unit in his Department. [38775/26]

In the context of today's discussion, I want to focus on bus services and their discontents, and in some cases their near-total absence, across east Cork. We hear a great deal about BusConnects, strategic corridors and the future of public transport in Cork. It is vital that the ambition extend beyond the city and the immediate suburbs. In east Cork, the current standard of bus service is utterly …

I commend Sinn Féin on this motion. This issue goes to the heart of whether we are serious about disability rights or content to keep repeating the language of disability rights while leaving disabled people to absorb costs that are neither optional, marginal nor of their own making. The cost of disability means higher expenses associated with transport, equipment, therapies, healthcare, communic…

91. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht the role his Department plays in tackling dereliction, vacancy and underuse of buildings in rural towns and villages; the way in which his Department co-ordinates with local authorities and other Departments to ensure town and village renewal funding is linked to housing, transport, community services a…

13. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Northern Ireland will meet next. [36949/26]

27. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on climate action, environment and energy will next meet. [35064/26]

One of the most important climate measures that could be taken in my constituency of Cork East is the restoration of the Youghal train link. The Taoiseach is well aware of the rail advances under way in the region. We look forward to new stations between Midleton and the city, and ten-minute frequencies of service. Youghal and its hinterland, though, are being entirely left out of that revolution …

I commend my party leader, Deputy Cairns, and her colleagues in the party, including Ellen Casey, on taking a lead on this Bill. Eight years ago, people in every part of this country voted to remove the eighth amendment from the Constitution. They did so because they had listened to women. They listened to women who had been sent away from their own country at moments of profound grief, fear and m…

Two weeks ago, I raised with the Taoiseach here a tragedy involving a young man who died in east Cork last year in the context of a prolonged wait for an ambulance to reach him and what the HSE has referred to as "omissions" in the administration of care at the scene. I followed up our exchange by emailing the Taoiseach's office with a clear outline of the efforts made by the family to secure a me…

6. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on the economy, trade and competitiveness will next meet. [29771/26]

30. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on EU and international affairs will next meet. [31757/26]

It is becoming almost impossible to find words to describe the dehumanisation of Palestinians by the Israeli State. In recent days, a Palestinian family in the West Bank buried their 80-year-old father. Israeli settlers then arrived and claimed the cemetery land as part of a settlement. The family was forced to exhume his body and rebury him elsewhere under the watch of Israeli soldiers. This is a…

International Nurses Day should not be treated as an annual exercise in sympathetic, soothing words about how great our nurses are. Nurses do not need another round of empty public praise or applause that carries no willingness to improve their working conditions behind it. Our nurses need a health service that take their safety, their working conditions and their health and well-being seriously. …

I commend Deputy Gogarty on his motion and the strong and sustained support that he and his office colleagues have given many families affected by the issues being discussed here today. As a psychologist working in mental health services, I have seen the fallout when family conflict becomes destructive, entrenched and entangled in the labyrinthine and secretive family courts system. I have suppor…

I want to raise the tragic death of a young man in east Cork last year and the serious issues that have emerged from the HSE's review of his care. The young man's family made an emergency call during a prolonged seizure event. The National Ambulance Service was unable to reach him until 47 minutes after that call was made. It is also a matter of public record that the HSE has acknowledged omission…

I acknowledge the significant improvements that have been made to the Bill through the Seanad process. That is very much appreciated. Amendment No. 276 relates to a very concerning provision in the Bill. A child in serious mental health distress needs urgent clinical assessment and therapeutic support. They do not need the trauma and stigma of Garda custody. A Garda station is not a therapeutic e…

I wish to speak to amendment No. 93 in relation to advocacy. It is obviously positive that information about advocacy is shared with the person who is involuntarily detained, but being told advocacy exists is not remotely the same as having a statutory right to independent advocacy. It is regrettable that despite a very strong focus on this from some of the interest groups such as Mental Health Re…

I commend the Minister of State on the inclusion of this section. I note my concern about the levels of professional defensiveness and detachment from the reality of service user experiences exhibited by the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland in its attempts to remove the term "pharmacological restraint" from the Mental Health Bill. It is highly invalidating of the experiences of people. These pe…

I want to make a more nuanced point on pharmacological restraint. I welcome this, as I said. Mental Health Reform has also welcomed the recognition of pharmacological restraint as a restrictive practice that must be regulated. It has also warned that the definition may be too narrow to capture the full reality of how people can be pharmacologically or chemically restrained. That concern is well fo…

I want to support the points made by Deputies Sherlock and Clarke and to come back to what I said on independent advocacy and independent complaints. What was the obstacle to enacting independent advocacy and independent complaints? It seems they would be basic parts of human rights-oriented legislation. They seem uncontroversial. I would not imagine there was lobbying against them. It is low-hang…

I commend the Minister of State on the epic undertaking that has been the very complex journey of this Bill and the vast amount of work she has put into it. It is fair to say that it is not a perfect Bill but it is a substantial improvement on the existing legislation. In the round, the Social Democrats are happy to support it. A number of important improvements were made to the Bill when it was …

20. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Taoiseach to provide an update on the work of the Cabinet offshore wind energy clearing house. [29770/26]

The consultation on the next phase of Our Rural Future is welcome but the real test is whether this becomes another high-level document full of warm aspiration or actually improves quality of life, economic development, town and village regeneration, inclusivity and protection of our natural and built heritage in rural communities. Rural Ireland needs services, infrastructure, housing, transport a…