That was not my question. A comment is not a question.

The Tánaiste did not seem to have a problem with it vetoing a resolution on 18 October.

The Tánaiste did not.

I thank the Minister of State for taking the debate this morning. I will pre-empt it by saying I hope by the end of the discussion she will strongly consider meeting representatives of the families of the 68 patients in Cherry Orchard Hospital who are due to be moved, mostly against their will, to the Bartra Healthcare centre in Clondalkin to allow the refurbishment of two units, namely, Sycamore and Willow. Many of us have been forced to drill down into detail that we are not familiar with. From the outset, answer…

I do not doubt that the Minister of State’s statement that all residents will remain in the care of the HSE is true. Unfortunately, the transfer on a like-for-like basis will not actually be like for like. For example, it jumps out at me immediately that there is a 24-7 medical team on site in Cherry Orchard. A GP will only be present one day per week in the Bartra Healthcare centre in Clondalkin. If our fathers or mothers were residents in Cherry Orchard and got sick there, they would go to the hospital they norma…

Is it not a conflict of interest that those who carried out the inspection on the Willow and Sycamore units do not have engineering qualifications? We need answers that go much deeper than what we are getting.

I wish to share time with Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett.

I have to come back on two very obvious, almost glaring, contradictions in what the Minister of State has just said. Both he and the Tánaiste are at pains to create this equivalence by all of the time going on about 7 October and what Israel is doing without, by the way, ever once condemning Israel. There are two pieces that I am going to pull out from what the Minister of State has just said, the first of which is on the hostages. The Minister of State thinks that under no circumstances should hostages be taken an…

That is even worse.

I want to draw the attention of the Taoiseach and the Chief Whip to the fact that on Saturday the world will mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. As this House does not sit on Saturday, it is unfortunate that we will not have a session on it this week. I ask the Business Committee to guarantee that we have a serious session next week on the elimination of violence against women during the UN week to mark it internationally. This is particularly important given that there has bee…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 7, line 4, after “writing” to insert the following: “, or by any other manner and in any such system as may be prescribed by the Minister in accordance with subsection (6),”. This is about the warning system we talked about during the course of this Bill. In other words, if somebody commits an offence by breaching a safe access zone, a garda can give them a warning, tell them what they are doing is not on and move them on. The question arose in the course of the discussion around thi…

I am not trying to correct the Minister, and while it is true there have not previously been safe access zones, it is only recently there has been access to abortion in this country, which gives rise to the protests that are happening outside providers, whether they are hospitals, clinics, GP services or whatever. There has, however, for a long time been an amendment to the Electoral Act. In just my personal experience, there is a zone around a polling station that persons cannot go beyond to distribute leaflets en…

I hope I use my two minutes carefully, correctly and usefully. I am here going on eight years. When I first got elected, we were trying to fight for the referendum on the eighth amendment. I have got a news flash for the Deputies who have just spoken: the train has left the station, the eighth amendment was passed, women do have a choice in this country, and rehashing all the old arguments serves no purpose whatsoever. I recommend that the Deputies read the Bill we are dealing with because they will note it is not …

I move amendment No. 3: In page 7, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(6) The Minister may, following consultation with the Minister for Justice, prescribe by way of regulation, the systems which shall be used to record warnings issued under subsection (2) .”.

With all due respect to An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, this is not aimed at him at all but this is very disrespectful to us. Deputy Gino Kenny and I came from a meeting in Cherry Orchard where there was a large protest by families about this urgent and distressing move, which is to take place from the hospital there to a centre in Clondalkin in the next few weeks. We came from that meeting and have sat in the campus here for the last three hours. Obviously, one is always busy and has loads to do but at 10.30 a.m. toda…

The Deputy has a meeting of the health committee to attend.

I ask the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach to emphasise to the Ceann Comhairle that this is not just about Deputies being annoyed about having to hang around until 10.30 p.m.; it is the issue itself and the urgency with which it has to be heard in the House for all of the families and residents involved.

Go raibh maith agat.

No, nobody is getting any of it. It is all mine.

I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion, which highlights the problem with our two-tier health system and the specific impact on the provision of care for the elderly in regard to home-help hours. Indeed, the facts and stark statistics laid out in the motion illustrate that we are dealing with a scandal of historic proportions when it comes to the care of our elderly. That scandal is not just in home help but right across the system. We now have a system that has moved from 80% of care of the elderly being…