Seven years ago, the then Minister for Health and the Taoiseach's Fine Gael colleague, Deputy Simon Harris, promised that no child would be waiting longer than four months for scoliosis surgery. That promise was never met and of all the Government's broken promises, I think it is one of the most callous. The fact is there are more children on scoliosis-related waiting lists now than when the Minister gave that commitment in 2017. This has happened on the Taoiseach's watch. There remain, as of this month, 327 childr…

Tá níos mó ná fadhb ann sa scéal seo. Tá sé scannalach go bhfuil daoine óga ag feitheamh is ag feitheamh is ag feitheamh agus ag fulaingt mar seo. Tá sé scannalach agus is é sin an focal ceart atá i gceist. I have being raising this issue here for almost a decade, as have other colleagues. It is time for the Taoiseach to confess and own up to the fact that it is utterly scandalous that children in that degree of pain are left to wait. More scandalous yet is the fact that the Minister for Health could state last nig…

Are you serious? Let it publish details relating to the waiting lists.

Earlier, I cited the number of 327 children on waiting lists for scoliosis-related surgery. The Taoiseach challenged me on that matter. I wish to put the correct figure on the record of the Dáil, which is, in fact, 333. I had underestimated. This is published data from Children's Health Ireland from 19 February. The Taoiseach lost no time in summoning the Russian ambassador to Ireland to correctly express outrage at the death of Alexei Navalny and call for an independent investigation into his death. It is lost on …

We have a real problem.

The ongoing controversy at RTÉ serves no one well, least of all the members of the public who rely on it as a source of factual and accurate news and current affairs. It is damaging to people's trust in public broadcasting that the fallout from what the Taoiseach has described as a culture of arrogance and entitlement at RTÉ continues to play out. This issue is not going away because it underlines the fact that there is one rule for those in privileged positions and another for ordinary people. We see, on the one h…

I join with the Taoiseach in saluting the memory of Michael O'Regan, who was a gentleman and a truly fine and fair professional. Our thoughts are with him and his family. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. The scandal relating to RTÉ has gone on for months. It has gone on since last summer, and the Taoiseach still talks about it as if he was some detached, inconsequential observer. He still cannot give straight, concrete answers in respect of accountability and full disclosure of information. It is not, at this poi…

I am looking across at members of Government too, and the picture is not pretty.

The Taoiseach is concerned about my influence.

I suggest that he should be concerned about many things other than that.

I welcome the announcement by the Cabinet this morning of a significant commitment to jointly fund crucial all-Ireland infrastructure projects in partnership with the Northern Executive. This is an example of what we can achieve working together for the benefit of all people on the island. The delivery of projects like Casement Park, the Narrow Water bridge and the Battle of the Boyne site will have practical and important benefits far beyond the communities of Belfast, Down, Louth and Meath. The completion of the …

It is not.

It is time to scrap the television licence. The Government needs to face up to this reality. People's trust and support for RTÉ and the licence have crumbled. People see the fiasco of excess and waste at RTÉ and they feel taken for fools. They also see the lack of accountability and, frankly, they have had enough. This collapse in public confidence is not helped by the revelation that Toy Show The Musical , which lost €2.2 million of taxpayers' money, had not received formal approval of the RTÉ board. Today, we hav…

What is an insult and an affront to everyone is the Government's clear inability to take a decision. It has had a report for two years. That report made a clear-cut recommendation for the abolition of the television licence and its replacement by direct Exchequer funding. This has coincided with a collapse in public confidence in RTÉ and consequential non-payment of a TV licence the Taoiseach described as outdated and from another era. I agree with him on that. The question here is not about the necessity of qualit…

When? It is February. When will the Government make the decision?

Family carers do incredible and compassionate work looking after loved ones. As the Taoiseach is aware, they save the State billions of euro, yet they always feel that they are forgotten, left behind and ignored by the system and the Government. On Monday last, my colleagues, Deputies Carthy, Tully and Cullinane, met with families affected by the lack of disability services in County Monaghan. Dozens of families attended. For years, they have been crying out for a children's overnight respite care service. They are…

A long-term strategy for climate, nature and energy was one of the key themes of the World Economic Forum. This brought the gap between rhetoric and action into public view again. Every single report published in the last year from the EPA, the SEAI or Wind Energy Ireland follows a worrying trend. They predict that Ireland is to blow right through our 2030 targets and miss the momentous opportunity to become energy secure and independent. Based on current trends and full implementation of planned climate policies a…

There are moments in life and politics where you can feel the significance as the moment unfolds, where the political landscape is fundamentally altered and you sense that all is changed, and changed utterly. The restoration of the political institutions in the North last Saturday week was such a moment. The re-establishment of the Executive and assembly after nearly two years is an immensely positive development for workers, families, communities, the economy, the North and, indeed, for Ireland as a whole. It is a…

The long-running debacle surrounding the construction and, more importantly, the completion of the national children's hospital rumbles on. This afternoon we learned that the staggering cost of the hospital has increased again by almost €500 million. This pushes the current cost up to €2.2 billion, a cost that is frankly unbelievable. What is even more outrageous is that we can have no confidence that this will in fact be the final cost. Last week in the Oireachtas health committee the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, st…

In the spirit of accuracy, the Taoiseach should reflect the fact that waiting lists for children have not fallen and more children with scoliosis and spina bifida are waiting now than there were four years ago. That is the accurate fact of the matter. The Taoiseach says the hospital will be completed this year. When? He says it will be operational next year. When? The Minister was far less assured in his commentary today. He caveated every statement with a maybe, a perhaps and a reliance on delivery by the construc…