One year later.

Misleading.

The question I have for the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health is regarding stroke victims in Laois, Carlow, north Tipperary and Kildare, who appear to be left with a very precarious service since the stroke unit closed in Naas hospital. People coming to Portlaoise hospital with strokes were being sent to Naas but in the past month or so that has stopped. Apparently there is a very precarious service at the moment. The expectation was that Tallaght would take them but apparently Tallaght is not obliged to becaus…

I thank the Minister, there is a very serious issue.

Mortgage holders across the country are seriously struggling at the moment. I have received many complaints, as I am sure others have, from mortgage holders in Laois-Offaly. Households are paying interest rates of 7% and 8%, with repayments rising by thousands of euro per year. This is happening at the same time as the banks are making huge, record profits, but offering 0% interest on deposits. Banks are not passing on any share of their profits to ordinary people and mortgage holders. Instead, they are increasing …

The Taoiseach is misleading the Dáil.

I concur with what Deputy Flanagan has said. The school is in dire need of a new building. No words of mine can overstate this. I have visited the school several times, as have several Ministers. The children of the school need support at a high level. It is a special needs school and almost 40 children attend, with the number increasing each year. The conditions in the school are totally intolerable. There are prefabs and only one solid classroom. It is the worst case I know of. Large equipment is stored all over …

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I know she has a commitment to special needs from her time as a member of the Committee of Public Accounts along with me. It is an issue she cares about. However, no words can explain the level of need of the children in Kolbe Special School. They are children of high dependency. A huge amount of equipment is needed. This is no ordinary school. Large pieces of equipment have to be stored in prefabs and all over the place to try to facilitate the operation of the school. …

Dozens of households across Laois and Offaly are facing eviction in a matter of days. They have ten more nights with a roof over their heads and then the eviction ban will be lifted. Renters are stressed out and frightened. They are terrified of what is in front of them. They have been given no answers and no solutions by this Government as to what they should do or where they should go. Emergency accommodation is stretched to capacity and much of what is left is totally unsuitable. This Government and its predeces…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I will move to emergency generation in a minute. The Government must take greater measures to control and manage our energy needs. Households continue to receive sky-high energy bills, with electricity and gas bills more than double what they were just two years ago. One pensioner in my constituency, who lives alone, received a bill of €9,015.48, while a single mother on maternity leave, living on her own in a small flat, got a bill for €978.57. I have copies of the …

The eviction ban ends at the end of next month. I am extremely concerned about the number of families and individual renters who are facing the prospect of homelessness through eviction if the ban is not extended. Renters have come into my office in the past week. They are at their wits' end and absolutely terrified. I cannot express this clearly enough. They are terrified of what is ahead of them. They need security of tenure. When the current ban was introduced in November 2022, as other speakers have said, we wa…

A Fine Gael culture.

Before the Leas-Cheann Comhairle starts the clock, I would like to say that I would have hoped that one of the Ministers of Education would be here. Romance is in the air tonight and there is important business on outside the Dáil in terms of people's romantic lives, but there are three Ministers and I had been hoping one of them would be here. I trust that the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, will take back the information and see that it is followed up on. The issue I want to raise is St. Fergal's College …

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. This is about playing catch-up. This is about the children of Rathdowney and south Laois having the same opportunities and facilities as everyone else. As I said, the school opened in 1937. My father went there in the 1940s and those classrooms are still there. I welcome the fact the new classrooms were approved. This is welcomed by all and sundry, including the staff, board of management and pupils and I certainly welcome it as a local representative. Any significant sc…

At the outset, we have a calamity regarding public nursing homes, private nursing homes, section 38 and 39 nursing homes and another calamity regarding disabled persons' maintenance allowance, DPMA. Despite the fact that while it has been acknowledged by Government representatives that the State does not have a leg to stand on as regards the DPMA, for example, there needs to be an acknowledgement of that and an apology given to those people who were affected by it. The scale of this is massive, unfortunately. This …

Mortgage holders across the country are really struggling at the moment. I have been getting representations and complaints on this from householders in Laois-Offaly, especially over the past couple of months. There is a significant problem with the cost that is coming on top of the cost of living. Some people have been hit with interest rate increases of 3% plus and this means an extra €200 to €400 per month on their mortgage. Last week's hike was the fifth increase since July. That means borrowers will be paying …

On Christmas Eve, Midoc, a private company which provides out-of-hours GP services in the midlands, ceased trading. The company was paid nearly €8 million last year. HSE management has had to rush in and put a temporary service in place. I give them credit for that but it is a day-to-day service in place until 15 January. Since then, they have been trying to tie up a contract with an agency for a temporary solution but that is still not in place. The public and the HSE had the rug pulled from under them by this com…

No pressure now.

Shareholders can intervene.

Yet.