Marie Sherlock

I put it to the Minister that 1 June is 19 days away. The majority of pharmacists I have spoken to - and I have spoken to many - tell me they are not signing up to the free HRT scheme. I understand that no communication has been made to the pharmacists about the software. It is my understanding that the providers of the software have not been given any information by the Department about adding fr…

I thank the Minister for the reply. At the heart of this mess are women on HRT and the women who could be on it. For non-GMS patients, the cost is €35 to €70 per month. This is a serious amount of money for many women. I am hugely passionate about this scheme but this crack of announcing first and working out the details later is simply unacceptable. There are four key issues here, the first of wh…

The first thing was to have written to every pharmacist in the country-----

I wrote to pharmacies across-----

----- my constituency. The first they heard of it was on "Liveline". The key thing is that the Department-----

----- has form on this. With regard to the Covid vaccination, the first pharmacists heard of it was through the airwaves. The prescription extension scheme was introduced last September, and no homework was done on it. GPs are writing "do not repeat" scripts. There was no fee agreed with the pharmacists. The scheme is not operating as intended. On the fee itself, there is a sense out there that th…

----- is the straw that is breaking the camel's back. We are all clear that pharmacists are not on the breadline.

It is extremely foolish to assume that the pharmacy sector is like what it was 20 years ago. This is about recognition and respect for what pharmacists are delivering. A figure of €6.50 was agreed for the contraception scheme. I get that a negotiation has to take place - I come from a trade union background - but to my mind, no negotiation took place here. With regard to the IT system, I have loo…

An additional line has to be put in. I have spoken to a number of pharmacists - not just one - and they have told me that there has been no communication with them about what will be added to the software to link them to the PCRS by 1 June.

I thank Deputy Cummins and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this important motion. They have a long track record in this area. From a Labour Party perspective, I wholeheartedly welcome this motion. It addresses an issue that was close to the heart of our former education spokesperson, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who very much championed it in a cold place when his was a lone voice calling for gre…

I am calling for an urgent and speedy review of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. Many of us recognise and applaud the intent and ambition of the Act in supposedly giving greater power and autonomy to vulnerable individuals and to significantly increasing the numbers registering enduring power of attorney, EPA. The reality has proved very different, however. I want to relay to the …

I thank the Minister of State for that. It is important to understand and listen to the experience of those who have the working knowledge of how this Act has operated. Five years is simply too long a period for a review of this legislation to take place. I want to relay to the Minister of State some of the views of the Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland, which talks about how the Assiste…

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this important motion. It is a pity that the Minister is stepping out because I have some important questions for her, but no doubt the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, will be able to take them up. There is considerable frustration among parents, early years workers and providers because, while this issue got an awful lot of attention in the run-up to the electio…

We have a large number of parents in the Gallery this morning who come from brilliant groups like the NIC Side by Side group, FUSS, the ICON FAACT group and Embrace Autism D9. Many of these are part of the Equality in Education in Dublin Central group. These groups were set up out of sheer desperation because of the lack of health and education services for children. They have provided a lifeline…

This is my final point. While we rightly focus on the many children with autism, there are other children with learning needs such as dyslexia. There is an inherent hostility within the Department of Education that we have seen for many years with regard to the opening of new reading classes in schools. That needs to change.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 6, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following: “Role of jury in High Court defamation actions 4. (1) Subject to subsection (2) and notwithstanding section 94 of The Courts of Justice Act 1924, or any other provision made by or under any enactment or rule of law, where a defamation action is tried by the High Court sitting with a jury— (a) all questions of…

I very much welcome that we are having these statements. It is important to say that over the past number of weeks, I have spent a good deal of time talking to staff of CHI - doctors and nurses - and many of the parents of patients. As we all accept, every day brilliant work is done across the three sites in question. I know that as a parent who has had to use Temple Street hospital on a number of…

May I just make two quick points, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle? First, with regard to the weight of expectation, the Minister raised earlier the 22 new theatres. They will be brilliant when they are up and running, but it will take years for them to open, from what I hear when I talk to the commissioning team in CHI. I think we have 15 theatres at the moment. There is a very serious question about the …

The reality is that three years ago the commissioning team in CHI put in a request for 382.8 whole-time equivalent staff and they believe they have got little or no response from the HSE or the Department of Health. In fact, in the words of one, they have never been so far behind in the staffing of a new hospital project. We need to make sure that that staffing is put in place next year because th…

When the Taoiseach was asked yesterday about a public inquiry into the practices at CHI, he appeared to rule that out. I believe jumping to that conclusion without considering the facts, the impact and the outcome is a mistake. Parent groups and patient advocates have for many years been calling for transparency and accountability. We have to be clear that there are many fine clinicians across Tem…

We do not.

There is the matter of the Medical Council.

As this is a trade war that none of us want but that we have to respond to, we need to be clear about a few things. I do not believe anybody in this House is calling for an economy-wide wage subsidy scheme as I heard the Taoiseach and some others suggest in recent days. To do so would be disproportionate and unnecessary, so we should not waste our time on a bogus debate about jobs supports or no j…

197. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Finance the measures he proposes to take to amend Ireland's obligations under Prospectus Regulation 2017/1129 and ensure that all securities licensed by the Central Bank of Ireland are not used for the financing of war efforts in Israel or any other country in the world and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16514/25]

Yesterday, I spoke to Louise Collins in Tralee, County Kerry. She is mother to 14-year-old Daniel, who suffers from severe scoliosis and has 95% curvature to his spine. The Taoiseach might have been alerted to the article about the family in The Irish Times today. In the 14 months since Daniel was told he needed surgery, his surgeon in Crumlin has not been able to offer him a single date, not even…