With respect, the Government is splitting hairs in distinguishing between Covid-19 and long Covid. Clearly, long Covid resulted from Covid-19. The reality is that the request has been for a framework to be put in place to support these specific workers. We are only talking about health workers. We are not talking about gardaí or the many other front-line workers who went out to work during that period. The Government gave false hope last year that some sort of scheme would be put in place. Now those hopes have been…

We are all reeling from the revelations about Beneavin nursing home and the nursing home in Portlaoise in recent weeks. It is clear that HIQA has given a wide berth to nursing homes when it comes to its inspection regime, which is in sharp contrast, I might argue, to how other authorities regulate, such as the Food Safety Authority and the Health and Safety Authority. I wish to hear from the Minister and Ministers of State as to how the inspection and regulatory regime will be strengthened within HIQA.

I thank the Minister. There are four clear systemic issues within HIQA at the moment, notwithstanding that it is a much-trusted institution in the public's mind. That confidence has been dented, however. Clear legislative change and clarity are needed in four areas. The first issue is in regard to the licensing. I welcome what the Minister is saying about the licensing of corporate institutions and their intervention into the market. The second issue is the inspection regime. There is a large degree of ambiguity as…

There is an added piece with regard to leadership. In the responses at the health committee last week, in the instance of Beneavin nursing home, there is 100% non-compliance with fire safety systems in that building. We were told that it does not relate to the structure, but rather only to the fire systems. If the fire systems are not fully operational, there is an immediate fire risk. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but it could happen at some stage and there is a very real patient safety risk. To hear that s…

My question relates to Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire in Parnell Square. I ask the Taoiseach to make a personal intervention to get this building project done. This school is into its 23rd year of what was supposed to be temporary emergency accommodation. It spent a decade and a half trying to get its long-promised school project off the ground. Almost two years on from the sod being turned and two thirds into the construction works, the Department of Education and Youth has stopped those works. We are all left wonderi…

I genuinely do not.

I am sorry but what is happening now?

I appreciate that but I need to hear what is happening now.

The Cabinet today approved the patient safety (licensing) Bill. It is long-awaited legislation and one we very much welcome, but will there be minimum staffing numbers in that critical legislation? The INMO has been campaigning on this for a long time. On cervical cancer, I hosted the 221+ group last week. We saw reports at the weekend that cervical screening is still failing women. Three women have died of cancer and seven more have a positive diagnosis after smear tests were allegedly negligently misread between …

I move amendment No. 165: In page 73, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “(10) Where an application is made to the District Court under subsection (1) for an order authorising the reception, detention, and care and treatment of a child in a registered acute mental health centre, the Executive shall report to the Court— (a) whether the centre concerned is age-appropriate for a child, and (b) if not, whether a place is or may become available in a centre that is age-appropriate for a child, the Court, of…

My thoughts are also with the loved ones of those on the flight from Ahmedabad to England. I have friends in Ahmedabad and we are very worried about them today. I also offer condolences on behalf of the Labour Party to Deputy Conway-Walsh on the loss of her mother. One of the most difficult decisions a family will ever have to take is to put a loved one into a nursing home. This decision places enormous trust in strangers to treat that older person with the respect and dignity they deserve in the final years of the…

The Tánaiste was the Minister for Health when the report of the inquiry into private nursing homes was published in 2020, with regard to the failures that happened in nursing homes. The Tánaiste was the then Minister for Health who saw those very clear recommendations, which have not been implemented. We have a plethora of reports within the Department of Health post-pandemic, mainly stemming from 2020 to 2022, which have not been implemented. There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who are looking to t…

I welcome that we are having this debate today but we should not be here. I give huge credit to the "RTÉ Investigates" team for putting together that programme. If HIQA had been doing its job, we would not have had to have it. Clare Doyle should not have had to take that enormous step on her part to tell the stories that had been relayed to her. I would argue that we need to hear more from her because I believe she has more to say. To the Guy family in Glasnevin and to the other families of the residents in Portlao…

In the changes announced today, there is an air of desperation on the part of the Minister of State and the Government to try to drive up housing supply. By lifting the cap on rents in order to attract institutional funding, the Government is effectively condemning workers and families, in Dublin in particular, to a lifetime of astronomical rents when there are fewer and fewer options to buy. Young workers, those new to the city and those evicted will not stand a chance. It is about pulling up the ladder from those…

Hear, hear.

I am sharing time with Deputies Kelly and Nash. I thank my colleague Deputy Smith for bringing this motion before the House. We have been here many times before. The reality is that we have almost 500,000 women, men and children now being starved to death in front of our eyes. Approximately 1 million more people are on the brink of starvation and, yet, there are 116,000 metric tonnes of food, more than four-months supply, sitting metres from where hundreds of thousands of people live. Let us make no mistake here. T…

There is a reality for public health patients that they have less access to lifesaving drugs compared to private patients and patients in the North, the UK and other countries. We know that only about one third of medicines approved by the EMA ever get authorisation to go on the market and onto the reimbursement lists here. An EU directive is aimed at broadening access to medicines. In recent days, we have read that the Government has now done a U-turn and is opposing aspects of that important EU directive. I get t…

-----and why processing times are so slow. Will he commit to seriously ill people that we will ensure speed of access to medicines in this country?

It is the EU directive on medicinal products for human use.

I welcome that the O'Farrell family have finally got an apology today. Is it enough? I do not know but we all very clearly know that we are only here, 14 years on from that young man's death, because of the sheer persistence, tenacity and fight of a family. Lucia, Jim, Hannah, Gemma, Pia and Aimee, you have been fobbed off and told that Shane was to blame for his own death. No family in this State should have had to put in the effort you have had to put in over 14 years, day and night, but you have had to and it is…