On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, I thank Deputy Ellis for raising the important issue of the provision of a primary care centre in Finglas. The development of primary care is central to the Government’s objective to deliver a high quality, integrated and cost-effective healthcare system. This involves a move away from the older hospital-centred model to focus on the delivery of care in the community and at home. Finglas has been identified as a high priority location for the development of a prim…

I thank Deputy Ellis for raising this issue. As he knows, the development of a primary care centre is a key building block in enabling the vision of Sláintecare and is required to meet growing demands for health and social care services. The Deputy said the centre in question is subject to planning permission and there are many hurdles to be got over yet. The construction programme for primary care centres will continue through the National Development Plan 2018-2027. The HSE had been successful in developing a net…

I thank my friend and colleague, Deputy Brendan Smith, for raising this very important matter. Deputy Smith and I have had some very interesting meetings over the years in the context of the Good Friday Agreement and the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. The work that he has done with all the other Members of this Parliament, the Oireachtas and all the stakeholders has been vital. I look forward to meeting people on the ground. The Deputy is right in that there is nothing better than going out and meeting all t…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. As the programme for Government acknowledges, drug and alcohol task forces play a key role in implementing the national drugs strategy and increasing access at local level to harm reduction initiatives. They also ensure that a co-ordinated approach is taken across all sectors to address substance misuse based on the identified needs and priorities in their areas. I will examine how the Department of Health can continue to support task forces in identifying local …

I thank Deputy for raising this very important issue and for giving me the opportunity to address it as the newly-appointed Minister of State with responsibility for the national drugs strategy. I also want to take this opportunity to affirm the Government’s full commitment to implementing the national drugs strategy and its commitment to a health-led approach to drug use and the development of harm-reduction interventions. Nitrous oxide is a colourless gas that is most commonly found in pressurised metal container…

I thank the Deputy once again for raising the important issue of nitrous oxide. She raised issues regarding the banning of this substance and the fact it is freely available on the Internet. I share her concerns about the apparent ease of purchase of this gas. I assure her that as the Minister of State with responsibility for this area it is an issue I am taking very seriously. I will take the points she has raised this evening back the officials in my Department tomorrow morning. However, I reiterate the HSE is cu…

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, I thank Deputy Stanley for raising this matter regarding Portlaoise hospital. I also thank him for the kind remarks he made about me. The Minister would like to reassure the Deputy that the most important issue regarding the consideration of services at the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise is that patient safety and outcomes must come first. As the Deputy is aware, the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise has been the focus of a number of reviews, investigations and r…

I reiterate that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is committed to securing and further developing the role of the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise, as a constituent hospital within the Dublin Midlands hospital group. A number of reports point to the need for a reconfiguration of some services at the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise, to ensure that patients are treated in the most appropriate setting by specialist staff who can safely meet their needs. As the Deputy said, significant work has been carried ou…

I wish the Minister every success in the coming months and years. He will have my full support in everything he does because the health service is so important to us. We have seen during the Covid crisis just how important it has been. I pay tribute to the front-line staff who have delivered huge resources and have worked extremely hard. My sympathies go out to the families of the more than 1,700 people who have passed away. I am from the constituency comprising Sligo, Leitrim, north Roscommon and south Donegal. Ni…

I knew Detective Garda Colm Horkan. Like every other Garda, I respected him and was thankful to him and at all times believed, as Deputy O’Callaghan stated earlier, that they are of the community. We have a relationship with An Garda Síochána since the foundation of the State about which we must ask ourselves. Over the past number of years, I saw in both the Seanad and the Dáil that when the Garda whistleblowers and other matters came to the fore, politicians could not wait to get out and undermine the confidence a…

First, recently, I have noticed an influx of young children with autism being enrolled in smaller rural schools. The principals are very concerned. They want to know if funding is available for extra accommodation and to work with those young children. It is an issue that has happened in the past while. Second, Scoil Mhuire, Carrick-on-Shannon, is a primary school with more than 460 pupils. I have raised this issue in the Seanad and with the Minister. This county town in Carrick-on-Shannon needs a new school. Does …

I am sharing my time with Deputy Dillon - six minutes and four minutes. Once again, I want to express my sympathy to the families, loved ones and friends of those who have been lost to this awful disease. I welcome the Minister's update on the Covid-19 disease, our response and its impact on the health service. It is reassuring that this week nobody passed away from the Covid disease and, as the Minister rightly said, we had only a small number of new cases. It makes the reproduction number difficult to estimate bu…

I am sharing time with Deputies Higgins and Carroll MacNeill. I acknowledge the progress that has been made by this Government in restoring our peatlands. While I refer to this Government, one of the toughest times in my political career was when we took office in 2011 and there were huge issues regarding turf cutting. At the time, I said at a public meeting in Athlone that we would set up a peatlands council, and we did. I thank Conor Skehan and Seamus Boland for chairing that council. One of the most embarrassing…

Yes, at seven minutes and three minutes. First, our thoughts are with the families of the more than 1,700 people who have passed away due to Covid. The past three or four months have been a difficult time for them. The Minister referred to the reopening of nursing homes to visitors. Like him, I thank the nursing home owners, staff, residents and the families of residents and staff for quickly adapting to the new reality. For many months, nursing homes' doors have been closed. My town of Boyle in north Roscommon has…

Yes. If one is a soccer supporter, what exactly can one do? What criteria did the HSE use? Perhaps we could have gone to 120 minutes and given the soccer supporter a bit more, but we will see. Will the Minister update the House on the national review of cardiac services, which has been ongoing for some time? At what stage is it and when is it expected to report? That review is vital to clear the way for provision of a fixed cardiac catheterisation laboratory service in the north-west region, which will be located a…

We were very thankful that Sligo was one of the few counties that went 29 days without any further Covid-19 infections. We did have one new case last night but we hope we can go another 29 days without any more. I thank the Minister and his officials for meeting representatives of the Irish Dental Association, which is something I called for in the Dáil more than three weeks ago. Their situation was an issue that needed to be dealt with and I thank the Minister for doing so. I will conclude by being a bit self-indu…

I am delighted to see the Minister in the House to discuss the annual adaptation transition statement and the policy measures adopted by the OPW. There have been issues over the years. In 2009 one of the most difficult times I recall as a politician was when we had flooding of the River Shannon. I remember going to businesses and houses and standing up in water. As a politician I felt helpless. At the time no one seemed to be in charge of the River Shannon. It was supposed to be the ESB but most of the local author…

I welcome the decision to select Sligo and Dublin as the first counties for the new antibody testing. I had an unusual request last week from a constituent who wanted to know when social dancing in Ireland could return in the context of strict guidelines. She stated that it is a great form of interaction, exercise and mental well-being. I told her I would ask the Minister when he believed social dancing could return.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I suppose we have been talking ad nauseam about Brexit for nearly five years. It came as a huge shock to people in the UK, as well as in this country and around Europe. When the people voted in the United Kingdom for Brexit, it was a sovereign decision of the United Kingdom. The then Government was anxious that we could influence Irish citizens who were voting there that it was in our best interests for the United Kingdom to stay. Unfortunately, due to various promises and misca…

Whatever happens, the friendship and political relationship between the two islands, certainly in the 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement, have been very strong. Whatever happens, I hope those friendships - cross-party, North-South and east-west - will be maintained. The implementation of the Good Friday Agreement happened in this House and I thank Deputy Crowe for his leadership during the negotiations. I also acknowledge the work done by the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. We need to have more engageme…