I ask that the NCTS website be updated with clear messaging about the extension in order to remove stress and panic for people when they are booking. It is encouraging that new staff will be hired. At least there is a sense that the NCTS is looking to fix the problem. Unfortunately, I believe the NDLS used the pandemic to copperfasten changes that are disadvantageous to the public such as insisting on non-cash payments and making it more difficult for people to get driving licences. That issue needs to be revisited…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. As was articulated by Deputy Cullinane, I want to note that the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has done an awful lot of work to bring this complex Bill to the House so I am sure he is sorry to be missing out on this debate. It is not lost on us that he has done an awful lot of work to get this long overdue Bill before us. It is a long and complex Bill but it is not one that resolves everything. It is a foundational Bill that we hope will provide regulatory certa…

This is an unprecedented situation and we need unanimity, throughout this House but also among the local representatives throughout the country. We need to know what a standard resource document will look like for us to be able to deal with the problems and the issues we are facing. We are going to be running around between voluntary groups and statutory bodies and competing with ourselves sometimes in this regard and that just cannot happen. We must have an update to the House from all the Ministers to the spokesp…

There are 660 people on trolleys in hospitals throughout our country, with 1,338 people in hospital suffering from Covid of whom 61 are in intensive care, which is up by 24 in the past ten days. Will the Tánaiste support the calls of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, for an emergency to be declared in our hospital system? Will the Government look at measures, including the curtailment of non-emergency elective surgery and other Covid mitigation measures, such as increasing mask-wearing in crowded se…

Will the Minister admit that he and the Government have been played for absolute mugs by the major fuel providers in recent days? The financial resolution passed with assent last night by all of us has had zero impact. If Deputies were on a garage forecourt this morning, as I was, they would have seen that not only did prices not go down, but they had actually gone up. When I inquired as to whether the excise cut had been passed on, the person behind the counter told me that the price of Brent crude oil actually we…

Like Deputy Nash, I represent a constituency where we watch and are among tens of thousands of people who get up in the morning, get onto overcrowded trains or packed buses that go onto overcrowded and packed roads, or get into personal cars to get to work, school or college. Since the lifting of restrictions, workers throughout the country have been told to return to the office in their droves. Many people who had worked from home during the pandemic and had swapped their bus or car commute for a morning walk, som…

All our thoughts are with the women of Ukraine on International Women's Day and, indeed, with all the people of Ukraine. They are being indiscriminately killed throughout that country right now. On a street in Irpin, a family with two children fleeing war, with everything they had in their suitcases, were killed by Russian shelling as they tried to get to safety. In Sumy last night, Russian air strikes killed 18 people, including two children. On Sunday, the world witnessed the death of Kirill Yatsko, an 18-month-o…

We absolutely cannot condone it but believe it is a reflection of the anger many people are feeling. Has the Taoiseach asked the Russians why they need so many people working in their embassy in Ireland given our lack of cultural and economic links? What level of contact has there been with the UK on the taking in of refugees? Let me refer to what is needed practically. I was contacted this morning by a man who owns one of six houses in Enfield, County Meath whose owners are willing to give them over for this effor…

This morning, I met with representatives of the Endometriosis Association of Ireland to discuss the crisis in endometriosis care in this country. This illness is suffered by up to 100,000 women in Ireland but we do not know the overall figures. I have three questions for the Taoiseach in this regard. What will the Government do to tackle the waiting time for diagnosis of endometriosis, which can take up to nine years? Is the Government seeking to upskill GPs and provide adequate screening tools to help diagnose the…

I thank the Independent Group for this motion. It is the second Wednesday morning Private Member's motion in a row which makes eminent sense and is speaking to a real need felt by thousands of people who have been going through heartache in renewing their driving licences. The Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, has left and the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, has joined us. The Government has said it is not opposing this motion. What does that actually mean? Will we see any changes called for in this …

I know the Minister runs a constituency office. If it is anything like my advice clinics or those of Sinn Féin or the Rural Independent Group, which has tabled this motion, it ought to busy with people who are presenting household bills and the choices they have to make daily or weekly on whether to heat their homes or feed their families. These are not fabricated concerns on this side of House but the very real concerns of real people in communities throughout the country. There is a great deal in this motion and …

Like the previous speakers, the Labour Party welcomes the motion, which focuses on people with disabilities and support for them in the area of transport. As the previous speaker, an Teachta O'Rourke, stated, this has been an area of focus for us on the transport committee in the past 18 months. As was mentioned, representatives of the Irish Wheelchair Association and the National Council for the Blind of Ireland recently appeared before the committee to give first-hand accounts of the barriers, difficulties and ev…

I ask why the short debate on the citizens' assembly has been removed at late notice from today's schedule.

What happens to the amendment from the Labour Party?

When will that happen?

Continuing on the theme of waiting lists, my question relates to the waiting lists for child and adolescent orthopaedic surgeries. These are very complex surgeries which require complex follow-on care and recovery pathways. It is not a case of scheduling X amount of hours in a theatre to get a surgery through. The issue is more complex than that. I want to hear the Minister's plan for the treatment of these young people. With each passing week, month and year, their conditions deteriorate and they become more compl…

I thank the Minister. I am glad there is an ambitious plan and a good plan and that he has met with the three main hospitals in the past week. However, what was reported at the weekend in the Business Post gives all these questions a different complexion. Obviously, all these questions were submitted in advance of that. I heard the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and indeed the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte on the radio. They gave very credible accounts as to how they come up with their budgets and the work …

On the targets, I am aware the Minister probably cannot give full details. What I am getting from his response is we would be looking at theatres being open at off-peak hours and maybe on Saturdays and Sundays. Is that something he could confirm to the House this evening as part of this ambitious plan? That would be an encouraging sign that there is going to be real energy put towards making a dent in this. Nobody in this House believes something as serious and with such a depth of waiting lists will be resolved in…

Will that include the off-peak hours for the theatres?

I wish to raise the issue of inpatient services for young people with eating disorders who are in crisis mental health situations. Grace, who is 13 years of age, has been in Tallaght Hospital since 6 January with an eating disorder. She is currently being fed through a tube and her mental health is deteriorating. Tallaght Hospital has said she needs the specialist care of the Linn Dara facility in Cherry Orchard. Unfortunately, the waiting list means she will not be there until May at the earliest, which is three m…