Before Saturday?

I was delighted to hear in the Taoiseach's maiden speech that he would "ensure a step change in how we care for our elderly". As the Taoiseach is aware, this is completely at odds with the decision of the HSE to annex the new 50-bed nursing home unit in Nenagh which was built because the St. Conlon's community nursing unit was effectively condemned by HIQA and has to be closed. I am aware of all the issues at University Hospital Limerick. I have probably raised that issue more than any other issue in my career in h…

I very much welcome this debate. We should have had it, though, some time ago. I will not lay all the blame for that at the Minister's doorstep considering how early Easter was, St. Patrick's Day and the appointment of a new Taoiseach, etc. There was a lot of time taken up in not being in here and with other business. As the Minister is probably well aware, I live in the midst of a progressive farming community in north Tipperary. I grew up on a dairy farm. Talking to all my neighbours and my dad, this is the worst…

I am glad the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, is in the Chamber to take this motion. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward. The issues around general practice and primary care are obvious to anyone who is a public representative. The burden on GPs is so enormous that we need an all-encompassing contract for them whereby they would be provided with all the services they need. The stop-start, haphazard primary care roll-out needs to be dramatically changed as well, particularly in the context of the impact…

I want to ask the Minister about Nenagh community nursing home. I announced funding for this nursing home, which will be the most state-of-the-art nursing home in Ireland. Funding was provided in 2016 and it went for planning in 2019. We built it beside the hospital in Nenagh. The Minister for Health, in May 2022, told me it would be open by the middle of 2023. The construction and so on was completed in October last year. Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, the Minister has written to me, through the HSE, to say…

The Minister for Health has come back in the past two weeks and told me he does not have a date.

I do not know the Minister well personally but I have always found her to be fine. However, I have to say that I have found her to be very much a hands-off Minister. I said previously that when she equivocated in relation to people paying their licence fee that was a sign of how she was handling this issue, and it was not good. I also said previously at the public accounts committee that if a chairperson had not told me, as Minister, that he or she had asked for the resignation of the chief executive of a State boa…

No, I watched it.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. However, the Labour Party will not support it. I have been around a while. This motion is probably one of the most amateur I have seen, which surprises me. I say that with all sincerity. Frankly, it is a crazy motion that is not very well written. There are lots of holes in it. The figures, and the Minister alluded to this, do not add up as regards supplying the adequate amount of funding that would be required for public service broadcasting. I am wondering why Si…

-----which is rather unfortunate.

I will let ye speak lads. Do not try to shout me down. It will not work. This amateur, populist way is not what Ireland needs right now. It is not what the taxpayer or those who believe in public service broadcasting, such as the Labour Party, believe is needed. At the end of the day, things have to be paid for. Populist nonsense in this country-----

Are you finished?

Populist nonsense in this country will get us nowhere. Sinn Féin does not want pay for carbon tax, household charges, property tax and now the TV licence. Where will it end? This one big pot of taxation paying for everything is not sustainable. It is not a left-wing position that is credible in a modern democracy. It is simply not credible. Sinn Féin needs to learn that lesson once and for all. It will not work. The issue for the Minister is that the Government's position is not sustainable either because it does n…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that: — while it is acknowledged that the horse and greyhound racing sectors do not qualify for sports capital funding, they are unique in Irish sport in that they are supported by the State through their own ring-fenced statutory fund; — that payments into the Fund have increased from €54 million in 2014 up to the €95 million proposed for 2024, an increase of 76 per cent in a decade, with the proposed payment…

How many households have availed of the microgeneration support scheme to date, broken down by year? How many are feeding electricity into the grid? How many are projected for installation in 2023? How many have availed of the maximum grant available? Will the Minister consider increasing the amount available for the scheme in the budget for 2024?

I thank the Minister for that information. The scheme has had a number of teething problems, some of which would probably have been expected. Many people are concerned about the bureaucracy relating to it. I have a question about those who are in the system. The Minister has outlined the figures for how households many have participated. Why is a static rate being paid per kilowatt for energy from the likes of Electric Ireland, while consumers are being charged fluctuating rates? Why can we not mirror both going in…

It is across a whole range of issues, including the volume of contractors and people working in the area. That is why the retrofit scheme is so far behind and that is why there have been multiannual transfers of budgets. It is quite unusual that it is going on two years in a row. Can we not transfer some of the budget that is not being used so we can bring more people in on this scheme? I do not doubt the figures the Minister is outlining but we need to do more. We also need to make provision to ensure those on low…

The Minister should go back and read the transcripts from the Committee of Public Accounts last week.

What about an employment regulation order?

This motion is very important. I thank Deputy Duncan Smith and my other Labour Party colleagues for bringing it forward. I am speaking about this because I have elderly parents and my elderly uncle passed away recently. This is very personal to me and is related to my work because I deal with it all the time. I will make three points to the Ministers of State that all fall into one another. Demographics in Ireland are changing substantially. We will have far more people over the age of 65 in the coming years. This …