I am happy to support this motion tabled by the Regional Group in respect of housing adaptation grants. It is no harm to run through the three grants that are available generally for community and housing adaptation. The housing aid for older people grant is essential to providing repairs to improve the condition of the homes of older persons, usually aged 66 or over, who are living in poor housing conditions, in order that they can continue to live in them. The Government provides a mobility aids grant scheme. Thi…

The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022 is complex legislation designed to amend the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. Essentially, the Bill proposes to bring an end to wardship in Ireland, which is most welcome. Many of us will be aware of the historic, and perhaps also the contemporary, nature of wards of court, where young adults were incarcerated in institutions oftentimes for a large duration of their lives and without any assessment of their own thoughts or feelings, or their…

I was hoping the Minister would be present because, on 28 April, I highlighted to him during Leaders' Questions the dysfunction that exists in DAA management, which was clearly seen at the weekend. It is also a reflection of the Government's ability to spend eye-watering sums on Dublin Airport without any regard to the efficiencies or capacities it delivers. I suggest that the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, look at the exclusions that were offered to workers who were made redundant and see if they can be b…

On standing for election I gave a commitment to the people of Waterford city and county and the south east that I would do my utmost for our regional hospital, University Hospital Waterford, and the patients it serves. Yet again, I have to bring the issue of the hospital's under-resourcing onto the floor of the Dáil. Recent work on heart attacks by the National Office of Clinical Audit using data from 2017 to 2020 demonstrates that no patient from the south-east region is getting to alternative cardiac care when th…

I was hoping for a "Yes" or "No" answer but I understand that the Taoiseach feels he cannot give it. With the additional money put into University Hospital Waterford, it still remains the most underfunded of nine model 4 hospitals in the country. That is the first issue. Second, the Taoiseach talked about the provision of additional services to the cardiac care suite. What he is offering us is an aeroplane with no pilots, baggage people or transportation on the ground to operate it. Without the people, we cannot op…

It is not enough.

Do it then.

It is a political decision. It is no longer a clinical decision.

I think we would all agree that every functioning democracy needs to have an independent policing authority, a police force to ensure the security of the population and the upholding of our democratic laws and mandates. In Ireland, we are lucky to have An Garda Síochána. It is a force that is recognised across the world for it close ties to community, its professionalism and the fact that most of its members do not carry arms. This is unusual for most police forces across the world. That being said, the shape of ou…

Like many others, the Tánaiste included, I welcome the introduction of a statutory sick pay scheme. As I stated in committee, however, there is an issue of discernment here in terms of the scale and size of the employers. What some of the amendments are speaking to, in seeking ten days of immediate sick leave, is wholly inappropriate for microenterprises. That needs to be said first and foremost. The second issue for small businesses is that they have a small number of staff. In the case of an employer who loses on…

Evidence I have received in the past ten days shows the worsening clinical situation for heart attack transfers in the south east when the Waterford cath lab is closed. In the three years from 2019 to 2022, of 134 blue-light ambulance transfers from University Hospital Waterford to Cork University Hospital, not one arrived within the 90-minute treatment window. In fact, the time from call of ambulance to Cork University Hospital patient hand-over averaged three hours and 14 minutes. A three-year audit of heart atta…

Indeed I will, a Cheann Comhairle. I enjoyed some of Deputy O'Dea's prescient remarks. As the Minister of State outlined, this Bill will transpose two directives, namely, the digital content directive and the sale of goods directive, which relate to contracts for the sale of goods and contracts for the supply of digital content and services. It also transposes elements of a third directive, namely, the omnibus directive that relates to better enforcement and modernisation of EU consumer protection rules. The Minist…

I am sharing time with Deputy Canney. We have ten minutes, I think.

We are witnessing the horror of war at the moment, although we are removed from it. The destruction that is happening in Ukraine and the annexation of parts of Crimea are truly horrifying. War crimes are taking place there, brutality, rape and genocide. The Russian leadership will have to be held to account for it in the future. Pictures have come out of Bucha in the past two weeks showing victims with their hands tied, their fingernails removed and obvious evidence of torture. Women and children have been raped. T…

Let me, first, put my green credentials on the record. I have sold commercial green energy solutions. I was part of a consortium that successfully lobbied in Brussels for changes to alternative fuel feedstock specifications. I am no climate denier. The Minister has warned us on many occasions about the urgent need to address climate change and I have a warning of sorts for him. I have outlined in this House to both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste the lack of funding that is being directed to the south-east region an…

I thank the Minister. Indeed, I accompanied the Minister on those initiatives that he discussed, but I say to him: resources, resources, resources. I have seen more reports about the south-east at this stage; I could walk on the paper of them from Waterford to Dublin.

There is no delivery. The Minister confuses the green agenda with a Government agenda of delivery. The only boots that we have on the ground in the south-east is a chain of chemists and although all of the projects that the Minister has outlined are laudable, none of them is under way as yet. We are being promised, promised, promised. Funding to our airport has not occurred. Funding to our hospital has not occurred. Funding to the IT has not yet occurred. Funding for the north quays, although promised, has not yet …

The Minister has two-and-a-half years done in this Government. I have asked the Minister if he will commit to the delivery not only of the green agenda but to the social and economic agenda of Waterford that it has been crying out for and it has deserved. It has been denied for the past 20 years.

And the most underfunded.

We have the longest waiting list of any in the country.