The Order of Business is No. 1, motion re the arrangements for the sitting of the House on Tuesday, 12 October 2021, to be taken on the conclusion of the Order of Business, without debate; No. 2, Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Bill 2021 - Committee Stage, to be taken at 1 p.m.

On behalf of our group, I wish to be associated with the comments expressed by the Cathaoirleach and the Leader on the sad passing of Mr. Tom Burke. When I entered the Oireachtas as a Member in 2016 I think he was the first person who snapped a picture of me and my family at the gate. He was a kind and jovial man. Right across the political spectrum, Mr. Burke was much liked and admired.

Time is limited, but I will address an issue that our party members have discussed over many months, as has the Leader and many other Members. I refer to the state of childcare services. The budget is upon us. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, have long lists of what we are all seeking for different parts of the country. It is important that we all make our pitch. Really and truly, though, as has often been said in this House recently, we have let our system of childcare fall apart. That is the only word that I can use to describe the situation. We must quickly ensure that childcare workers are paid a decent and proper wage. It is a priority. It is a responsible job that must be undertaken when we leave our children in the care of others day after day. We rely on those people, many of whom do a very good job, to look after those children. In situations like that, we must ensure that people are properly paid and that the system is properly funded.

We all know that the finances are tight from time to time. It is hard for Governments to have money to allocate to every cause. I feel strongly about this issue, however, and I am sure that the Leader will inform the relevant Ministers of the need in this area. I hope, therefore, that the budget will ensure, once and for all, that all our childcare workers are paid a proper wage and that more people will be attracted to the job. No childcare workers will be left if we continue in the way we are going now. That is a fact. This is the situation in every part of the country. I have often met many people in the Roscommon and Galway region who have told me about the desperate plight of the childcare system. It is important, therefore, that we all focus on childcare. It is important that it is recognised in this budget that childcare workers do a meaningful and important job. It is crucial for us to pay those people properly and to attract people into the system. People will completely fall away from it if we do not look after them.

I concur with the Cathaoirleach's comments on, and tribute to, Mr. Tom Burke. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Yesterday was European Carers Day. It was intended, "to coordinate and foster national efforts to raise awareness of carers’ issues under a pan-European structure". We have had debates on the value and importance of carers and the key role they play. They are the unsung heroes around the country. Every family is different. Some families can rally around if they have the numbers to look after loved ones, while some people may be on their own trying to look after a loved one alongside the pressure of everything else that they must do in their lives as well. The well-being of carers is important. They are looking after a loved one, or whatever, but they also need to be looked after themselves. Carers have their own needs too.

The national carers strategy is long overdue an update and Care Alliance Ireland, CAI, and other groups have been asking for that to be done. It is an area that we must focus on.

Covid-19 has been particularly difficult for all society, but carers who were so concerned of bringing Covid into a home were particularly isolated. Research by Care Alliance Ireland shows that 44% of family carers feel less able to cope as time passes. While they might get more accustomed and more used to the situation and better at the job, the needs and demands of their loved ones also become more onerous as time goes on. It is a role that is very important. I have personal experience of that.

Every family is different in how it is able to cope. It is not always financial, it is also the number of people who are there. I hope that in the budget we will see an increase in the income threshold for qualifying for carer's allowance, and an increase in the rates. It is doubtful I know. The Leader has experience of that role also.

Many carers felt isolated and underserved by traditional support-group models. The flexibility and access to 24-7, peer-to-peer support means so much to family carers, so they can engage on their own terms and at times that fit in with their living and caring duties. It is that collaboration and collegiality that members crave, so they do not feel as isolated and there is that support and advice from people who face similar challenges in similar roles.

On the budget, the key ask of groups has been the national carers strategy. Respite is also a key area for carers. Caring is an onerous and all-consuming task. In many cases it is a full-time job depending on the condition of the carers' loved ones. Respite is so important. We all know, from doing constituency work, the pressures that people can be under. I hope to see some improvements in next week's budget across that very important sector for carers.

I join with others in the tribute to the photographer Mr. Tom Burke. What an extraordinary man. He caught the expressions, the good times, the sad times, the low times and the high times of many politicians. He stood outside Leinster House at the Kildare Street gate and was occasionally at the Merrion Street gate. I came in that side once and said to him, "You are normally at the front." He said, "I go everywhere. I am at every gate taking pictures." A few of us, including my friends and family, were in here on my very first day. He was very kind and said that he would send us on a photograph. He did more than that: he printed off three copies and he sent them on, one of which is sitting in my dining room. I thank his family for that. I am sure that many of us here have pictures that were taken by him and have them up, which captured a particular moment in the particular political life of us as individuals. I want to acknowledge this.

I raised the issue last week, which I wish to raise again, of the enormous waiting lists in excess of 900,000 people who are waiting to see consultants either for treatment or assessment. The list is now heading into 1 million people who are waiting for assessment or treatment. Subsequent to the day on which I spoke, I received a memo detailing and setting out issues around ophthalmology, dermatology, urology, gynaecology, cardiology, respiratory medicine, endocrinology, paediatrics, breast surgery, neurosurgery and oncology. The memo set out the enormous numbers of people who are waiting for scans, consultations and follow-ups. These are all part of this group.

I contacted the National Treatment Purchase Fund, which is an independent State agency that validates all of these figures for the Department, with which it works closely. The figures have gone up in one year by 66,000 people. I am aware that housing is a big issue for Government, for everybody involved in politics, and in life itself, but these waiting list figures are alarming. I am aware that the Minister has committed to establishing another unit. These functions are meant to be part of the National Treatment Purchase Fund's functions. The Minister has spoken about establishing a national task force to tackle the growing hospital waiting lists. Perhaps we will hear something about this in the budget next week and I do not want to pre-empt that. I now intend to commit myself to standing here once a month to read out the figures because they are alarming. I would like a debate on this issue at some stage in the future.

I thank all of those involved in the debate on wills in the House yesterday. It was a great debate. It was meaningful and interesting. I referred to Teagasc in last night's debate. Teagasc was bombarded online last night with its seminar on inheritance and succession. One can look at this on the Teagasc website. I thank the people involved. Hopefully the Government might come back with its own Bill. I do not have a hang-up about anybody's Bill, I just want this national register of wills in the future. Hopefully we will see something quicker than the nine months that the Government's motion put to the House, and which was agreed by the House, last night. I thank those who engaged constructively in that debate.

I welcomed yesterday's debate on succession. It is something very close to my heart and I believe the debate went very well. There was cross-party support for a change in the legislation.

I wish to address the issue of maternity restrictions. I will not say that it is becoming boring at this stage because it is still so traumatic, and we hear new stories every day. We carried 1,000 stories into Leinster House yesterday from mothers and their partners on how difficult this past couple of years have been. As I stood outside Leinster House yesterday one of my own family members was out there while heavily pregnant. It sends shivers down my spine to think that there are continuing restrictions. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, addressed the issue yesterday but, with respect, at the very least we need a timeline. I simply do not understand why we are continuing to see these restrictions when the vast majority of Government and Opposition Members are calling for a lifting of restrictions. It simply has to happen. The Minister put it quite well when he spoke in the Seanad yesterday. He said that if it was men who were giving birth these restrictions probably would not be in place and we would actually have a healthcare system that was set up to put women, or men in that case, at the forefront.

This brings me on to another issue in women's healthcare about which I am passionate, that is, menopause care. I welcome the commitment to set up specialist menopause centres across the country. Having engaged with the Irish College of General Practitioners, I am aware that training for GPs in general does not include menopause healthcare as part of the core training, nor does the training include contraception, as I discovered from the Irish Family Planning Association. Both of these areas need to be brought into core training for GPs so that one does not have to go to specialist services for an initial visit and can get the correct information from any GP in any part of the country, and then by all means be referred to specialist care.

Those are a couple of matters I would like to see in the budget. It is not a huge expense but it means an awful lot to all of us here who have advocated on this issue.

I thank the Senator for raising the issue of access to maternity hospitals. The Senator has been doing this, along with many other Members and the Leader, for months. Regrettably, we do not see a huge improvement.