I call the Minister to reply.

Tá sé deacair a bheith ag éisteacht leis an bhfreagra ceannann céanna a thug an tAire Stáit don Teachta Ó Snodaigh. Tá an cheist seo ardaithe agamsa, ag an Teachta Aindrias Moynihan agus ag an Teachta Ó Snodaigh. An fáth go bhfuil sé ardaithe againn ná go bhfuil sé chomh práinneach sin. Impím ar an Aire Stáit gan dul ar ais go dtí an freagra atá scríofa dó agus a chur in iúl don Dáil go bhfuil tuiscint aige cé chomh tábhachtach is atá an earnáil seo do na ceantair Ghaeltachta, do na gasúir, do na coláistí, do na mn…

Tá gá práinneach le soiléireacht. Croílár na Gaeltachta is ea an earnáil seo agus tá a fhios ag an Aire Stáit go bhfuil an Ghaeilge chomh leochaileach. An tseachtain seo, leagadh tuarascáil os comhair Thithe an Oireachtais ón gCoimisinéir Teanga, an beart deireanach a bhí sé in ann a dhéanamh. De réir mar a thuigim, tá sé i ndeireadh na feide de bharr easpa dhul chun cinn ó thaobh An Gharda Síochána de toisc nach bhfuil a chuid dualgas á chomhlíonadh aige. Níl ansin ach sampla amháin ach tá samplaí eile. Tá muid ag…

The Deputy is out of time.

I welcome the Minister's speech and his leadership. Hopefully this will be a transformative day where this matter is concerned. Direct provision coincides with my involvement in politics; I went for election in 1999 and direct provision was introduced in 2000. After 21 years we are finally grown up, in theory in any event. I hope the Minister actually makes this happen, with our support. We will be pushing him every step of the way. Looking at the Minister's leadership, I must say I welcome it, though I must put it…

Baineann mo cheist le Gaillimh agus an fáinne fí atá ar siúl, faraor géar, le fada an lá maidir leis an roinn timpistí agus éigeandála nua agus an t-ospidéal nua atá beartaithe. Tá neart eolais ag an Tánaiste faoi Ghaillimh. Is iar-Aire Sláinte é agus bhí sé i nGaillimh cúpla uair agus labhair sé faoin ábhar. My question relates to the hospitals in Galway. The Tánaiste is familiar with this subject. He is a former Minister for Health and has been to Galway. I used the term "fáinne fí" to describe the unreal magic g…

If the Tánaiste has difficulties understanding the replies, as I do, then that tells us something. It is time for leadership. An elective hospital came from an options appraisal. It was never exclusive to the plan for a new hospital on the Merlin Park site. It was to be step 1 in the phase. If the accident and emergency department is better suited to the new hospital in Merlin Park, so be it, but let us stop the fáinne fí ag dul ar aghaidh agus ar aghaidh gan aon chiall. Tá daoine ag cailleadh muiníne as an gcóras.…

Let the Tánaiste respond.

Is the Bill opposed?

As this is a Private Members' Bill, Second Stage must, under Standing Orders, be taken in Private Members' time.

We can start with the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler.

The Minister will excuse me if I leave out the "thank yous". We are dealing with a pandemic where we have had almost 250,000 cases and the up-to-date figure for deaths is 4,856. I have always said that vaccination is part of an overall programme. I stand here week after week in utter frustration that there is no overall discussion. I do not blame the Minister for that. The Taoiseach should lead an overall discussion about where we are on this. I have a specific question for the Minister about the call centre. More …

I am not going to go through this and I will tell the Minister why. He included it in his speech four weeks ago. When he had finished his speech and I eventually got my turn, I asked him about that call centre. He said he would come back to me with the details. I emailed his office and it came back to say that it would tell us, but it did not. Then it came back to ask which call centre. We said it was the call centre that the Minister referred to in his speech. I will park it unless the Minister can answer me becau…

I thank the Minister, but I will have all the details. It is not a question of how much knowledge the Minister or I have. It is a question of the Minister including it in his speech four weeks ago. I know nothing about that now because I am still waiting. I ask the Minister to please give me a commitment that he will do that, and I will be happy with that. Mind you, I have got a commitment twice already with no result. It is important, because at that point there was huge consternation among GPs regarding communica…

Lovely. While the Minister of State is on her feet and regarding respite services, I know her heart is in the right place. However, more than a year later the families have no respite. They are going to go under. Surely, it is not beyond the ability of the HSE, or whatever is the appropriate organisation on the ground, to restore safe respite services

That is fine, but I am going to come back to this issue. I do not like doing this case-by-case, because I know that Ministers and Ministers of State are very busy. I must come back to it, however, because we have to know about the situation on the ground.

Turning to temporary accommodation for healthcare workers, I would like the Minister to address this issue. Briefly, why has this debacle arisen where two healthcare workers were sent home? I have tried raising this before referring to it here on the floor of the Dáil. I always try to do that first, but I have been told in a reply that that temporary accommodation scheme has not been stopped. Yet, the interpretation of that scheme allowed for two workers to be sent home. Can the Minister add to that or clarify the …

That was not my question. I had moved on from that. This is about an issue which arose, and that has been in the news on RTÉ and in various newspapers, about two healthcare workers being sent back to direct provision centres, as it happens, because temporary accommodation was not available. I have gone to the trouble of tabling questions on this issue and I am told that the temporary accommodation scheme is up and running. Yet, it is being interpreted that temporary accommodation will only be provided to workers in…

There are four minutes remaining, should the Minister wish to use them, or we can conclude the item.

We have come to the end of the list of speakers.