I think I have one minute remaining.

No. The standing order is for two hours until 12 noon.

With all due respect, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, the Minister is not here yet. Could I not finish my point?

So we are going to suspend the House.

Pardon?

I am bringing it to a close.

My point is that pension abatement rules exist in this respect and I ask the Minister to examine flexibility with regard to it. The final point I wish to make is that Family Carers Ireland has come forward with an innovative proposal to introduce a non-means-tested participation income for family carers, to move away from the carer's allowance altogether. It has put a very detailed proposal together. I ask the Minister to engage with it on that matter and get a commitment from the Government to establish a high-lev…

On foot of the request of my colleagues in the Regional Independent Group, the rent-a-room relief was extended to people receiving social welfare who wish to rent out a spare room in their home. This benefits older people, who can now rent out a room without it impacting on their non-contributory State pension or on the spouse or adult dependant of a contributory pensioner. It also provides much-needed accommodation in the current housing crisis. However, this change has not been extended to the medical card assess…

Some 120 front-line healthcare workers with long Covid are on a special leave scheme that will stop in 31 days. Hundreds more front-line workers with long Covid, including healthcare workers who contracted Covid since 15 November 2021, are left without any specific supports. The Government has been considering designating long Covid as an occupational illness, but I want to know when the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, will make a decision on that designation. If long Covid is not designated as an…

Is the greenway to get people in quickly or to get them out quickly?

On my own behalf and that of the Regional Group, I echo the condemnation of the attack on the young man that took place in County Meath. I wish him a speedy recovery. Deputies were yesterday told of the perverse situation whereby doctors are sitting in front of computers and inputting numbers instead of providing vital care to patients with rare diseases. That is, sadly, a practice that is far too common within our health services. While most rare diseases appear early in life, with about 30% of children affected n…

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. Our lack of an integrated medical data system, and the staffing to manage it, denies patients with rare diseases in Ireland access to the best possible and most cost-effective medical care in the world today. This failure to develop and staff a proper medical data system will also exclude Irish people from fully utilising the new EU health data space which is being designed to provide patients with access to new and innovative treatments for cancer and other common diseases th…

It is 20 years before that I am worried about.

There was an expert group set up a decade before that.

Commitments were given the past two programmes for Government to introduce a no-fault vaccine compensation scheme. This was again promised by the former Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, in advance of the introduction of the Covid vaccination programme. My engagement on this issue with various Ministers for Health has been ongoing for the past 250 months or more than two decades. We now have claims related to adverse reactions to the Covid vaccine. When will a compensation scheme be introduced in this State, as is …

I am deeply disappointed by the Minister’s response. Scoping reports were done by the former Minister for Health, Deputy Micheál Martin, who gave a commitment when he was Minister to deliver on this. Every other Minister for Health since then has given this commitment. We have this height of reports on this issue. This scheme has been introduced in 25 countries. The reality is that vaccination compensation schemes boost public confidence in respect of successful vaccination programmes. Vaccination programmes are vi…

Back in 2020, the recommendation was that a vaccine injury scheme should be introduced as a matter of urgency. The Minister knows that there is a culture of fighting claims within the State Claims Agency and the health profession. There are parents who have been advocating on behalf of disabled children for more than 50 years and the doors have been slammed in their faces by the health profession telling them it is all in their heads. The Minister's predecessor, in the 1980s, paid a £10,000 compensation package to …

It was done ten years before that.

I have questioned the Minister previously on the PGI status for beef. As he knows, my view is that we should have been looking for this status for premium Irish suckler beef rather than throwing in everything bar the kitchen sink with the term "grass-fed beef", which suits the beef processing industry. Having said that, 12 months ago the Minister gave me a commitment that the Commission was actively looking at this and seeking feedback from member states. What has happened and where is this application now?

Can the Minister explain why the original application did not include the island of Ireland? We have a common veterinary scheme on it. It was logical that it would be the island of Ireland. This time last year the indication was that it was full steam ahead. The Department was looking for feedback from the various member states. It seems it has been pedalling backwards since then. No progress has been made to date. Is it not the case that there is a feeling, definitely among some officials in the Department but par…