I thank the Minister of State. That is certainly very welcome. I say genuinely to the Minister of State and the senior Minister in the Department that there is a real opportunity to show leadership and to prove their credentials by getting things done with regard to this particular issue. Our committee heard hundreds of hours of evidence from 82 witnesses since April last year. It was an incredibly extensive look at all the issues. The reality is that the Minister of State outright rejected our recommendation of de…

That to me is wrong. The reality is the issues are way too serious for that. There were 343 drug-induced deaths in our country in 2022. That is the latest available data. Over 80% of those in our prisons have addiction. Look at our communities. We need to change how we do things on drugs. To be honest, the Minister of State rejecting one of the recommendations less than 24 hours after publication is frankly not good enough. It is a knee-jerk response and it is anti-evidence.

A health referral and health diversion scheme was promised back in 2017, so we are almost ten years waiting for that. The reality is the Minister of State is fundamentally misunderstanding why we have recommended decriminalisation. It is not an end in itself. Depenalisation is to ensure that we breakdown the stigma and shame of addiction in this country. It is to ensure that people can access services and that we end the war on drugs that has not worked. The Minister of State can walk around her community or my com…

My question relates to delayed transfers of care and nursing home capacity. I understand that yesterday marked the highest number of delayed transfers of care across our acute hospitals in the year to date, with 555 patients who should have been discharged and were not. This marks 86 continuous days of over 500 delayed transfers of care in our hospitals. For the first four months of this year, almost 50% of those waiting to leave hospital were waiting for a nursing home place. What is the response to this crisis?

The average waiting time in DTOC is 24.8 days across all acute hospitals and in the midlands and north-east Dublin it is more than 30 days. This is a huge cause for alarm in terms of risk to the patients themselves and their prospects of recovery but also the cost to the hospital. We know that nursing home demand is the biggest driver of this, with more than 1,500 people waiting for a nursing home space, but I have to ask about the urgency with regard to the Government's response. In 2022, ESRI research identified …

Obviously, there are a whole range of issues as to why people do not leave hospital. Almost 70% of the cases relate to a need for residential care or complex care such as dementia. The big issue is the cost. We know the HSE is running a significant deficit at the moment. It will not even make the savings it is supposed to make at the end of this year. We know the cost of an acute daybed is about €1,300, which is almost five times the cost of a community nursing unit bed. This has a very real financial implication f…

My question concerns lipoedema. It is a condition experienced by an estimated 11% of women in this country. We understand a working group was set up in 2023 and was due to report in the second quarter of this year. We have not seen it yet. When will we see that report? I raise significant concern about the outcome of the report, in that the HSE has indicated it relates only to diagnosis and non-surgical management, when we understand surgery should be an important part of the care of these women.

Many in the medical community with expertise in this area are of the view that specialised sparing liposuction surgery - there is big distinction from other types of cosmetic liposuction - is the only intervention that can directly address the pathological adipose tissue issues. Many women have to travel to Cyprus and other countries to access those surgical interventions. Serious consideration has to be given to that surgical intervention in Ireland. Some women who believe they have this condition are seeking lipo…

I will be sharing time with my colleague, Deputy Lawlor. I pay tribute to the work of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland in its many years of fighting for this cause. I also pay tribute to my colleague, Deputy George Lawlor, who is co-chair of the Oireachtas working group on Alzheimer's disease. I warmly welcome Jordan and Cian Adams, who we had the pleasure of meeting earlier today. I have been bowled over by how they have turned their grief into such power. They have been an inspiration to thousands of people acros…

We welcome this Bill. The free contraception scheme launched in 2022 was ground-breaking at the time but access to it has been an issue. In that regard, it is most welcome that prescription rights have been extended to pharmacists by this legislation. The other critical thing is that for all those women not eligible for the free contraception scheme - and I will talk about that in a minute - it will lower the cost of renewing their prescription. I think we are all in agreement that when there is no medical need to …

I join Deputy Geoghegan in raising these concerns. The question has to be asked at this stage as to what it will take for the Government to respond to what is a very real crisis among the communities I represent and many other communities across this country. This is literally a life-or-death issue, or, many times, a fate almost as bad as death in terms of the horrendous acquired brain injuries that impact every facet of a young person’s life. It is simply devastating to think that there are children as young as si…

I find the reply we have been given deeply upsetting. This is not directed towards the Minister of State, but to the authors, the Department officials and the senior Ministers. It reflects no recognition of the crisis out there. The reality is that we can have all the powers we want in the world but if there is no enforcement, there is no point in having those powers. This is what is happening in our communities now. We need to see the Government, as a whole, taking this seriously. The Minister of State said that t…

On the point that An Garda Síochána has full powers, I know from talking to gardaí on the ground locally in Dublin North Central that they are very active in seizing scramblers and I urge them to seize e-scooters as well. The fundamental issue is that challenging a person under 18 has become a bit of a no-go area for many in An Garda Síochána because of the consequences if that child is injured. That is why we need a wholly radical response. This is not just about the injuries although they are to the fore of our m…

I very much welcome this very important motion and thank Deputy Quaide and the Social Democrats for it. I start by paying tribute to the Before We Die campaign, particularly Tony and Susan Murray, Alan and Vera Hughes and the thousands of other parents across the country who have had to tell their stories, lay their lives bare and tell the story of their children in order to advocate for others. There needs to be a conversation. We very much supported the theory behind decongregation when it was put in place 20 yea…

Deputies Farrell and O'Hara have one minute each.

Deputies Farrell and O'Hara have a minute each, as have the Minister and the Minister of State.

Question No. 11 is in the name of Deputy Fleming. With prior approval, it will be asked by Deputy Shane Moynihan.

I will allow the Minister to come back in after Deputy Moynihan's contribution.

Question No. 13 is in the name of Deputy Ó Fearghaíl but will be asked by Deputy Shane Moynihan.

We are over time but I will allow the Deputy back in briefly.