I welcome the second cath lab. It is a fantastic development and real progress for cardiac services in Waterford and the south east. It was one of those issues on which all Oireachtas Members in Waterford campaigned very hard over a long number of years and, indeed, colleagues who are no longer in the House. I commend everyone involved in that. It is also real progress that we will get to a point where we have a seven-day-a-week service from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for emergency cardiac care. That is real progress and sho…

The new national children's hospital will be a game-changer for the children of Ireland. It will be a fantastic, world-class hospital. It will nearly double surgical capacity and provide the best modern care, which the children of Ireland need and deserve. I want to see this hospital built and opened as soon as possible. I think that is in everyone's interest and it is what the children of Ireland deserve, but the long-running saga of the new children's hospital, a fiasco, it has to be said, from the start, has now…

I have even less confidence after that contribution, it has to be said. First, I did not put completion dates out there; you did-----

The Tánaiste's Government did. Ministers were saying-----

Excuse me, I am putting questions to the Tánaiste. His Ministers, including the one sitting next to him, were talking about March of next year as a completion date and then the Department of Health was saying it could be May. I did not put those dates out there. The board did and they were reiterated by the Minister. Previous dates were stated by previous Ministers as well. On costs, the Tánaiste's Government approved the total programme cost of €1.7 billion, and we now know the board is looking for hundreds of mil…

There is no secret.

We did put it into the public domain.

The Tánaiste throws whistleblowers under the bus.

The Tánaiste has a history of throwing whistleblowers under the bus. My party does not.

I am not grandstanding at all. I am doing my job.

And the Government has failed in all of that.

We do not know.

When?

Last year-----

Last February, my party leader and I wrote to the Taoiseach asking about the status of the pandemic inquiry into nursing homes. In his response, he said that a scoping inquiry would be established. We had asked that there would be sufficient engagement with organisations like Care Champions, the Irish Association of Social Workers, Safeguarding Ireland and others as well as briefings and discussions with the Opposition and party leaders to ensure the terms of reference for that scoping inquiry are robust. Can the T…

I thank the Minister for his contribution. Women deserve safe and unhindered access to lawful services. This Bill is an important step towards providing that access and for that reason, we will fully support the Bill. The Government has been slow in bringing forward this legislation. It has been apparent for many years that this legislation was needed and thanks to the tireless advocacy of many women, it is finally happening. I will caveat that assertion by saying that I accept the complexity involved in this legis…

When it comes to children with scoliosis and spina bifida, we have seen broken promise after broken promise. In 2017 the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, gave a clear commitment to children with spina bifida and scoliosis that they would not have to wait longer than four months for life-changing surgery. The report published today by the Ombudsman for Children is scathing and devastating. The report is a litany of failure and broken promises. After the promise was made in 2017 by the then Minister, Deputy H…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: - the majority of long-term residential nursing home care is delivered by the private and voluntary sectors; - since 2020, there have been 31 private and voluntary nursing home closures which have resulted in a loss of 915 beds; - increasingly, nursing homes are considering leaving the Fair Deal Scheme and contend it is not providing sustainable funding; - a significant number of nursing homes reported an operating loss in 2022, and are raising concerns about the viability of …

The Minister did not read the motion at all. Would a living wage cost €1 billion?

Read it.