I know that.

The question that I must answer to my electorate is whether I support this Government to continue with its current policies on health, housing, support for carers and, crucially, a delivery of a fair share to the regions, and the north west in particular. My answer has to be “No”. The Taoiseach earlier asked us to be fair. Therefore, I will stick to the facts. The European Commission has downgraded the northern and western region from a developed region because our GDP, the measure of our wealth, is collapsing arou…

I thank Deputy Cairns and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. When we refer to the cost of disability, what are we talking about? We are talking about the extra costs that a person with a disability incurs in their day-to-day lives simply because they have a disability. There is something deeply unfair about that because having a disability in the first place is often a massive extra challenge for that person. In addition, they face extra financial costs. In most cases these are costs that they c…

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very timely and important motion. This reflects the real concerns of many families, certainly those who are in contact with me and from what I hear from my colleagues in the House in this debate. Throughout the country right now, many families are worrying about back-to-school costs and have been for many months. Families are trying to set a few bob aside week by week to buy books, or it might be a pair of trainers for PE, a new uniform jumper or a …

For the third time in two weeks, I raise with the Tánaiste and Minister for Health the closure of the cath lab in Sligo University Hospital. As the Minister will be aware, the lab is closing its doors today and we now have no service north of a line extending from Dublin to Galway. I wrote to the Minister almost two weeks ago asking for an emergency meeting with all four Deputies in the constituency and I am still awaiting a response to confirm that meeting will take place. The current service is a private one and …

The legislation before us has a number of positive aspects. Certainly, it is an improvement on what was originally proposed, which was pretty pathetic. However, like the homes affected by mica, pyrite and pyrrhotite, there are cracks in the overall structure of this legislation, and individuals and families will fall through those cracks. It is bad enough that it has happened once already to these families, but for those families to know that it could happen again as part of this remediation scheme would be unaccep…

I thank Deputy Connolly for her comprehensive and eminently reasonable motion on the provision of adequate respite care services. This motion lays bare the cruel situation in which many family carers find themselves and asks that an adequate and sustainable service is put in place. It also very reasonably asks that all respite beds closed as a result of Covid be reinstated. This is what we call living with Covid. It is completely unacceptable that this has not happened. Unless someone is a carer and has responsibil…

Last night, I received a devastating response to a Topic Issue matter I raised about the closure of the catheterisation laboratory, cath lab, at Sligo University Hospital. There were no new proposals offered; just excuses. I was told about the existing link with University Hospital Galway but the recent national heart attack audit confirmed that the average travel time between the two hospitals is three hours, which is double the maximum recommended time of 90 minutes. There are six specialist heart units in Irelan…

The Minister for Health has just left the Chamber.

Last week, the Saolta University Health Care Group announced the closure of the two day per week cath lab service at Sligo University Hospital, SUH. This announcement sent shockwaves not just through the community in Sligo, but across Leitrim, Roscommon, Donegal, Mayo and Cavan. This two day per week service was inadequate to begin with. What we really need is a full-time service. It is a slap in the face that this service is being withdrawn. What steps were taken by the Minister or the HSE to stop this service clo…

I do not doubt the sincerity of the Minister of State. I have read the answer which stated that the HSE advised that all options had been explored. What were those options? When did they know? What did they do? We are getting absolutely no information. The Minister of State spoke about when she was first elected to the House. Back in 2018 a colleague of hers, the former Deputy, Eamon Scanlon, raised this issue here. He also said that not having a permanent cath lab in Sligo has serious implications for the recruitm…

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, has expressed its concern around the number of patients on trolleys in Sligo University Hospital, SUH. I have raised this issue with the Taoiseach many times, most recently last December when there were 25 patients on trolleys in SUH. The Taoiseach said that he would ask the HSE to focus specifically on Sligo to determine how it could be helped further to alleviate pressure there in the next while. Yesterday there were 39 patients on trolleys in SUH. Today there are…

It is an emergency. We need action.

The programme for Government committed to support family carers. We have also been told that a home care package will be in place by the end of the year. In that context, I ask the Minister about the Government and the Green Party position on the important issues relating to carer's allowance. Carer's allowance is means-tested. That means any household with a total gross income, before tax, USC etc., of less than €37,000 is entitled to full carer's allowance. That is a minimal amount of income. If the total gross i…

I thank the Minister. I have heard what he has said about targeting. Whether the Government gets rid of the means test or increases further the income disregards, we will see the outcome when the modelling is done. The Government needs to take one of those measures because that is what the Citizens' Assembly has asked it to do. The Citizens' Assembly also made another important point. Gross income is taken into consideration. This means family carers, male or female, are relying on their partner's income to support…

I thank the Rural Independent Group for tabling this motion. We have had several motions on the rising cost of energy and fuel and the huge impact that has on the cost of living for ordinary people. It drives some people into energy poverty. Energy poverty means that people cannot afford to heat their homes or to turn on the hot water for their shower. It means they live in fear of rising energy costs and money that might be set aside for school books, urgent home maintenance or whatever else is eaten up day by day…

Despite significant local opposition from landowners and business people and a unanimous vote from Leitrim County Council to oppose the application, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, has granted a prospecting licence for gold, silver and base metals in 47 townlands in north Leitrim. I know it is a prospecting licence and not a mining licence but it is a foot in the door for Flintridge Resources, a subsidiary of the Canadian gold mining company, Galantas Gold. We will be told, of course, that it is mining for base metals b…

What specific concrete measures are being taken or will be taken by the Government and by An Post to ensure the viability of the post office network? The context in which I ask that question, as the Minister is well aware, is that recently there was a meeting of the Irish Postmasters Union, IPU, at which there was overwhelming support for industrial action. They are balloting their members and they expect a result by the end of April. Therefore, this is a crisis situation. That is the context of my question.

I heard what the Minister of State said. She said that the Government is committed to a sustainable post office network. The next thing she said was that she met representatives of An Post and that they fully understand the Government's position. The Minister of State probably has clarified it a bit there but why has she not met the Irish postmasters? The sentence the Minister of State just uttered struck fear into my heart when she said that there will be no compulsory closures. We know that but if postmasters can…

I do not doubt that the Minister of State wants to see a sustainable post office network. My issue is not with her personally. It is with how this is being done, or, how it is not being done. We have a situation where next year, postmasters will be basically relying on payment for transactions. Has the Government looked at a public service obligation, PSO, levy? Why has the interdepartmental group, which was supposed to report last July, still not reported? It is now nine months after it was supposed to report. Wha…