It acts unilaterally.

The Taoiseach could ask the Central Bank to comply with an instruction on this.

It authorises sales.

What about the sale-----

Children's Health Ireland is in crisis. Another three members of the board have resigned today. A succession of scandals has cast serious doubts on its capacity to provide quality healthcare to children in this country. A common thread in each of the scandals is an almost complete absence of clinical oversight. Medically questionable and unethical practices proliferated under the noses of highly paid clinical directors and management teams at CHI and Cappagh. The HSE and the Department of Health were either kept in…

We are talking about children, sometimes as young as the age of two and even younger, being operated on. What has happened is incomprehensible. When parents rang the phone line that was set up for them at the weekend all they were asked for was their contact details. None of the questions they asked could be answered by the people on the phone line. It is not an acceptable way to treat the parents. The Taoiseach said that everything needs to be looked at and reviewed and that clinical oversight needs to be reviewed…

Regarding statements this evening that the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is doing on the external audit into Children's Health Ireland, there are no questions and answers as part of that business but we need accountability. Parents at the weekend were ringing the phoneline but could not get any answers to any questions they put. They just had their contact details taken. We need the Minister this evening to take questions, answers and to have accountability on this, not simply statements.

First, I pay tribute to the family of Shane O'Farrell, namely, his mother Lucia, his father Jim and his sisters, Aimee, Pia, Hannah and Gemma, who are in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. I also acknowledge the official apology from the Minister for Justice. The family have been waiting for 14 years for this apology and for answers to questions about the death of their son and brother Shane. The apology is a reflection of the 14 years of campaigning by the family and their struggle for truth and justice. Shane O'…

Cara Darmody is continuing her protest outside the Dáil today because nothing she has heard from the Government has convinced her to end it. Asked repeatedly yesterday if the Government would stop breaking the law, the Taoiseach could not even give that assurance. The Government does not seem to see the problem with this. It has access to State resources, can direct policy and can authorise hiring. It can fix this, yet despite having all these tools and resources at the Government's disposal, all the Taoiseach coul…

You are breaking the law.

That is an astonishing answer. The High Court judgment was more than three years ago and the Taoiseach has just now told us that the reason it has not been acted on or that the Government has not got its act together on this is that the previous Government could not agree on what to do. Is that the case? We have more than 15,000 children waiting for an assessment of need that they desperately need, beyond the six-month limit, and the Government is breaking the law because for the past three years, the Taoiseach and…

Successive Governments have let children with autism and intellectual disabilities down in the worst possible way. Permanent damage is being caused to thousands and thousands of children. The fact this is happening is a national disgrace. Those are not my words but those of Cara Darmody, who joins us in the Gallery and who has begun a 50-hour protest over disability services outside the Dáil. Cara did not utter those words today but last year when she held a weekly protest outside Leinster House and Government Buil…

The Taoiseach talks about progress and step change but the HSE is saying that the shocking figure of more than 15,000 children overdue an assessment of need this year will be 25,000 by the end of this year. That is what is happening. He knows that early intervention is crucial for children. It makes a world of difference. It can mean the difference between children with the proper supports learning to talk, participate and make friends or, if they do not get that, getting left behind and left out. It makes all the …

The Government has repeatedly stated that it does not want to see a drip feed of information about the audit of hip surgeries at the three children's hospitals but that is what we are getting. Any information about the scandal has had to be dragged out of the Government. Yesterday, responding to me, the Taoiseach confirmed for the first time that he expected the audit to be finalised next week. Why did it take so long to provide this basic information, which families have been spending months trying to get? It also…

For parents and their families not to have information that they are seeking is hugely distressing for them. It is the least they deserve and expect. We know at this stage, from some of the information that has been drip-fed, that some of the recommendations in the draft audit are being implemented. Why can the Government not share with us all of the recommendations in that draft audit? It is already working on implementing a number of them, which parents have found out, so why not share all of them with us? Why wi…

It is more than two months since my colleague Pádraig Rice first asked the Taoiseach about disturbing reports of an audit of hip surgeries on children at three separate hospitals. Back then, the Taoiseach said the audit process was in its final stages. That was ten weeks ago. The parents of the children involved have received no further information since. They have been told the audit is in its final stages for months. The Taoiseach repeated that same mantra yesterday and refused to provide any timeline for the pub…

Thanks, Taoiseach. The parents who have been in contact with me are deeply worried about the situation. They do not know who to turn to for information and are finding that very frustrating. They want a timeline on this. They also want to know how many letters have been sent out. The Taoiseach does not have that information at present. Is that the situation? He is not able to tell us. When will he be able to tell us how many letters have been issued? How, as Taoiseach of the country, does it take him this long to e…

On behalf of the Social Democrats, I extend our deepest sympathies to the friends, colleagues and family of Garda Kevin Flatley. Garda Flatley lost his life while serving the community to keep us safe. Our thoughts are with all those mourning this terrible loss, his wife Una, and his children Aoife and Erin. The State is continuing to fail children with additional needs. All over the country there are hundreds of children who do not have a school place or an appropriate school place. The damage this is doing to chi…

I thank the Taoiseach for his response. Families have heard these promises before. There is a world of difference between a sanctioned classroom and a classroom that will actually open in September. A child cannot go to school in a classroom that is just sanctioned; it has to be up and running. No family should have to fight to get an education for their child and no parent should have to take legal action against the State to vindicate this right. A total of 399 new special education classrooms have been sanctione…

The Israeli blockade on Gaza is now in its third month. No food, no water and no medicines have crossed into Gaza in that time. The only things that Israel has sent in are bombs and bullets. As it slowly starves the civilian population, it has continued its relentless bombardment. Yesterday alone at least 59 people were killed in air strikes on two schools. People huddling together in a school, terrified and hungry, were targeted yet again by this murderous regime and still the international community does nothing.…