Show us the money.

Some weeks ago, I bought to the Tánaiste’s attention a National Office of Clinical Audit report into heart attack and ambulance transfer times, which showed that patients in the south east are being delayed by up to 11 hours in the context of having cardiac interventions done. Last Wednesday, another patient, a 48-year-old mother of two, was rushed at midnight down to Cork hospital. She was chased by her husband in the car behind, who was wondering if she was going to survive. Her stenting operating took five and a…

There are no beds for it. After two years of engagement with HSE Estates, there are no beds to service that unit.

With respect, there are no beds to support the new cath lab.

There are no day beds to support the second cath lab coming operational in December. There have been two years of engagement with HSE estates but there are no beds.

The Communications Regulation Bill is certainly a topical subject in light of the cyberattack on the HSE and news from the US today that a chief technology officer from Uber is being prosecuted for a data breach in 2016. This Bill is designed to enact a European directive on data management, network management, and security and legislative provisions. Customer care has been a significant feature for many people dealing with communication companies in this country, particularly those dealing with cable television, p…

I fear the budget will be a case of "A lot done. More to do". It is certain the supports for SMEs will not be enough to prevent a wave of insolvencies and redundancies in the coming months. I have brought the case of one manufacturing business to both the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. It employs 45 people in the south east. Its production processes use both gas and electricity in both heating and cooling procedures. Its energy bill has rocketed from €8,000 per month to €45…

I gave a range of metrics at the enterprise committee this morning on the real performance of the south east. I have not got the time to go through them here but, unfortunately, they do not tally with what the Taoiseach has just described. The supports the Government is offering to the SME sector in particular are not enough. A lot has been done, as I said, but it will not be enough to hold back the wave of insolvencies and redundancies over what is essentially a geopolitical issue that is going to take out good co…

The funding is key.

I will take up the Taoiseach on that.

As has been said a number of times already, insurance costs as a result of personal injury awards have been a blight on the Irish business landscape for a number of years. It is not stretching it to any degree to say that a lot of businesses have been on the verge of self-insuring in recent years. In actual fact, I know of some that were trading without insurance for a period because they just could not sustain the cost. We are still seeing businesses failing to secure adequate liability insurance and that is a sig…

I often mention University Hospital Waterford here. I congratulate the management team because it is now recognised as the best performing model-4 hospital with regard to trolley counts and it is the only acute model 4 to reduce its outpatient waiting list by 20% so far this year. I have key questions that relate capital resources to which the Taoiseach's office might respond. They relate to the capital plan for 2024, consultant packages, the confirmation of a new 160-bed block, the cardiology beds to support the s…

With respect to the justice Vote, I welcome the measures introduced. Everyone will welcome additional gardaí on the beat and new recruits passing through Templemore. I wish to make a point about my constituency of Waterford. It may be an issue for the Office of Public Works, OPW, but we are waiting for upgrades to the Garda station there, which is now the headquarters south east Garda division. There are additional civilian staff coming in and there is nowhere for them to be accommodated within the station. I ask f…

In case anyone has not noticed, our economy is in a weird place at the moment. We witnessed a short economic lift as we exited Covid-19, yet in the past quarter we watched a reversal as our economic growth narrowed significantly. Corporation tax, which is expected to top out at €20 billion this year, is surely keeping the lights on in Ireland. The energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war and Russia's strategy to divide Europe by turning off gas supplies is causing energy prices to rise. These increases are feeding i…

I welcome the idea of a rainy day fund which, in theory, sounds sensible if done at scale and over the long term. The trouble in Ireland is that it rains all the time. The quantum of funding is probably not enough to address even a moderate shower, let alone a downpour. As a ring-fenced savings plan, it has its deficiencies if it is to be raided at every fall-off in national income. This idea has been knocking around for decades and it only works in theory in our political environment. Given we are entering a high …

On behalf of the Regional Group, I thank our parliamentary assistant, Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, for the work she has done on this motion. We are in an energy security difficulty and an energy cost crisis. I want to read into the record commentary from the Irish Petrol Retailers Association. A station owner, Johnny Brady of Coolquay, recently received an electricity bill of €23,000 for August. He says that paying these bills is unsustainable. His electricity cost for the overnight rate has increased from 7 cent per kilowa…

Over the space of 12 months, there has been a €1,000 increase in annual household gas and electricity bills, with some commentators suggesting this could end up reaching up to €6,000 per annum. This is unsustainable for households and domestic businesses. I know of business owners who are paying up to €100,000 per year in gas and energy bills and who are now facing tariffs that would bring that cost up to €360,000 per year. The economic and the social fallout for families and businesses will be staggering without i…

Will the Minister outline the steps her Department is taking in terms of supporting back-to-school expenditure?

I thank the Minister. I would never say that she is a person who does not have concern for those going back to school. I welcome the expenditure she has secured in terms of advance steps. I will refer to those who are not eligible for back-to-school payments. Recent surveys have shown that the average cost of sending a child back to school is now nearly €1,200 for a primary school student and nearly €1,500 for a child in secondary school. The Irish League of Credit Unions recently released the results of a survey t…

As the Minister will know, many people who are in receipt of social welfare payments are not eligible to receive this allowance. These include those receiving rent supplement, the guardian's payment and benefits for the blind. There are people who need this support who are not eligible. I have specific concerns for the squeezed middle, for example, families where there are two working parents whose income renders them ineligible for any support from the State in sending their children back to school despite being t…