The Taoiseach gave a few statistics there but he has been in power since 2011 and the figures I quoted are not my figures. They come from the regional assembly report. The Taoiseach can see the economic gap is increasing. He might not like it and I do not like it, but it has to tell him the actions he and his Government are taking are not working. He tells us the population has increased in every county and it has, but the proportionate increase in the counties I am speaking of is much lower. It is still unsustaina…

I used six different ones.

I am making it for the region.

I fully respect the Minister of State's commitment to be here and I understand she may have to leave shortly. I am deeply disappointed that the Minister for Finance could not see fit to be present at this debate for the Finance Bill. I received an email from the Minister, Deputy McGrath, during the budget debate in which he apologised for being unable to attend. I accepted that in good faith. However, this is a short debate. It is the largest piece of work the Minister will undertake for the entire year. It shows d…

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion, which highlights that the expected budget deficit in health for 2024 will be in the region of €1.4 billion to €1.5 billion. I listened to the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, explain that many of the cost overruns in the health service were caused by the fact doctors are treating more patients than allocated or expected. He spoke about the higher cost of drugs. If that is the case, surely he and the Minister for Finance knew we faced this deficit. According to the Ministe…

We now move on to questions Nos. 11 and 26, and Deputy Brendan Smith has been nominated.

I want to raise with the Taoiseach the need to increase the top-up payments for the rural social scheme, RSS, and the Tús community employment scheme. Right now that top-up payment is €27.50 per week. It was increased by €5 a week in this year's budget but there is nothing for next year. Those participating in those schemes work three to five days a week. They have the cost of travel to work, including for petrol, diesel, bus fares or whatever else, and they may have childcare responsibilities. If they even buy a c…

There are times when mere words just seem futile and this is one of them. If we think of the millions of words that have been spoken, written, screamed or whispered in agony about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, those words seem to have evaporated and hold no weight. If we think of the billions of words used to negotiate one peace effort after another and one UN resolution after another for so many years to no effect, they too have disappeared. Yet tonight, I suppose that words are all we have at our dispo…

Yesterday's budget, like all other budgets, had winners and losers. It had good aspects but it had severe deficiencies. We heard the two Ministers yesterday and Government leaders today give their perspective and, of course, it is our role as members of the Opposition to point out the anomalies, the gaps and the downright unacceptable outcomes from yesterday's budget. I want to start with the disability sector. Like all other sectors partly or largely reliant on social welfare, the across-the-board increase of €12,…

In my few minutes, I want to focus on the complete and utter lack of any systemic plan of action in budget 2024 to address the historical underinvestment in the northern and western region and the lack of ambition by the Government to deliver balanced regional development. Before I get to that, I want to mention one or two other issues, to which I will return over the coming days and weeks as we discuss these proposals in detail. I welcome the increase in the income disregard for payment of the carer's allowance. I…

Today is the last day of the operation of the Leitrim community car scheme. It is run by the Leitrim Volunteer Centre out of Carrick-on-Shannon. It has more than 35 volunteer drivers and has transported 533 people in 14 months, 90% of them to hospital appointments in Sligo, Galway, etc. I raised this issue many times with the previous Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the HSE but there has been no progress. All this group needs is €20,000 to run the scheme for one year. A round-trip taxi fare to the ho…

I thank Sinn Féin for highlighting the issues to do with the cost and accessibility of childcare and the need to ensure early childhood educators have a decent salary scale. We also need to ensure the small to medium-sized childcare services run by more than 4,000 women across the country are sustainable in the medium to long term. That is not happening. The Minister made a good start in last year's budget, which I was happy to see, but there are still massive challenges around cost, accessibility and recruitment a…

Like many of my colleagues, I also want to offer my sincere sympathy to the family of Dollceanna Carter and express my deep concern to the families of those children who find themselves in the middle of this medical crisis. Our role here today, of course, is to ensure that lessons are learned and that action is taken to fully implement those learnings. I listened to the Minister, Deputy Donnelly's contribution earlier, and welcome his reassurance that the terms of reference have been deliberately written to be as a…

Given that many of these unregulated medical devices were used as early as 2021, has Temple Street hospital’s management given any explanation as to how this happened without its knowledge? This could not have happened without at least some members of a surgical team being aware of it. Has Temple Street conducted an internal review? We have its latest report, which is full of statistics, but there is not a word about accountability in terms of who, what, when and where.

My question is more about timing. This happened quite some time ago. Members of a surgical team had to have known. It could not have happened in front of their eyes without some of them knowing. Maybe management did not know. Has there been any review as to how this could have happened? Is the Minister just saying that the hospital is only reviewing the matter now?

Yes. I presume that information will come out. My next question is on the HPRA. It is the notified body and is in charge of what is happening. It is up to the HPRA to ensure the robustness of the supply chain. Has it started an investigation? Has it reported this breach to, for example, the European Commission? What is the HPRA doing? Is it updating any of its processes, including procurement processes, or is it just standing to one side waiting to see what will happen?

The surgeon did not.

The process was not followed. In that context, is the HPRA going to notify the European Commission? Is it going to look right now at what happened to ensure it does not happen again? That is the HPRA’s responsibility as the notified body.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion to reverse planned fuel increases. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, knows that the planned fuel increases are driving up the cost of inflation. It is not just car owners and car drivers who will feel the pain. It is everybody because that means the cost of other products will increase. How much of an increase in the Exchequer tax take are we looking at? I had a quick look at what diesel cost about six to eight months ago. One could actually get if …

Most of the Priority Questions this morning relate to the crisis in student accommodation. That is a strong indication that there has been a failure by Government to plan ahead. In Sligo, for example, we had two apartment blocks that for ten years housed students. Then they were allocated for Ukrainian refugees. That has been stopped for now but the owners have said that they are not for student use. That is a failure of co-ordination between two different Government Departments and it has left students scrambling …