Aidan Farrelly

Thank you, Deputy.

Thank you, Deputy. You are over time.

Thank you. The Labour Party is-----

Deputy Newsome Drennan, thank you. Your time is up. We will move to the Labour Party.

We stopped the clock for that so he did not.

Postal workers, as the Minister of State will be aware, remain a traditional pillar of our communities. Like other such pillars, including nurses, social workers and youth workers, they are often taken for granted. We never truly understand the hidden magic behind their occupation, the relationships they build, the local knowledge they develop and the many tasks outside their job description they …

The Deputy is over time.

The Select Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment has completed its consideration of the following Revised Estimates for public services for the year ending on 31 December 2026: Vote 32 - Enterprise, Tourism and Employment.

Seanad Éireann has passed the Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) Bill 2025 without amendment, and has passed the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 without amendment.

The Deputy is over time.

I believe the Tánaiste has already spoken about St. Patrick's National School with Deputy Ó Cearúil. I want to build on that. I have just spoken with the Secretary General at the Committee of Public Accounts. Everyone is aware of this now, especially with the damning findings of the architecture report. We need to bring everyone together on it at this stage. We could have modular units in the shor…

I am here.

The Minister said there was no one here from the Social Democrats.

If the Minister keeps looking at me when making his remarks, I will keep responding to him.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to speak on this matter. The Minister of State is faced with a rare situation whereby all the TDs in the constituency are working together on it. We raised it earlier with the Secretary General of the Department of education at the Committee of Public Accounts. We know that Simon Harris and the Minister are aware of what is happening. Deputy Neville out…

I was somewhat concerned about the fact that the officials of the Department of Education and Youth who appeared before the committee yesterday stated that they are conducting a peer review in respect of the architect's report. In some ways, this casts a shadow what the architect has said. Ultimately, what we need to know, in very clear terms, is whether the plan that was presented to the school o…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. Like my colleagues, I commend the work of Deputy Rice in the lead-up to this motion and in presenting a motion which, as Deputy O'Callaghan said, is not opposed. We still have as many questions as we have answers about the implementation of the motion. The irony, as we all truly know, is that you have to plan two or three weeks in advance if you nee…

Who is supporting that?

What are you talking about?

That is not in the amendment.

My thoughts on this amendment specifically are on the record from last week and, unlike others, I will not repeat them here tonight just because I have another opportunity to take the microphone. Tonight this Government is about to make history by legislating for the ability to detain innocent children for doing nothing wrong. As it stands, at the pace we are going at this evening, irrespective of…

Many of the points have been already made in support of Deputy Gannon's amendment. I truthfully cannot believe we are here legislating for the detention of innocent children. It is shocking that they can have committed no crime and done nothing wrong, yet we are legislating for their detention apparently if it "is in the minor’s best interests", despite the fact that we have heard from every corne…

94. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will provide an update on her engagements with Tusla regarding well-being checks of closed cases; if she has received a progress report or interim report from the agency and-or the independent steering group; if she has requested a broadening of the scope of these checks; and the workforce planning conducted …

Will the Minister provide the House with an update on the Tusla well-being checks, which she instigated within her Department on foot of a number of very tragic cases last year, for all children and young people who had their cases closed by Tusla during the Covid years?

I thank the Minister because she has pre-empted the piece I was going to try to discuss with her. To be honest, I have come around to the idea of this project. At the start I was quite cautious because my understanding and the meaning I would infer from "well-being" would suggest that you are getting a thorough understanding of how a child or a young person is, as opposed to what I called at the t…