So do I.

I acknowledge there are good things happening in Clonmel and we have had great ambassadors, such as the late Frank Patterson and Mick Dell. Clonmel men are known all over the world. However, the town lost its borough council under Fine Gael. It lost Kickham Barracks, which was a major blow. It lost the mental health services at St. Michael's psychiatric unit. The biggest loss of all was the move of the power base from Clonmel to Nenagh. There have been great investments and I do not begrudge the people of Nenagh bu…

Yes. It is not needed.

It has apologised for it.

Why do you not bring them back?

He apologised for it. Why do you not bring them back?

Why do you not bring them back?

Going back to Clonmel again, there is a situation with water. We are in a very perilous situation as I said earlier, with outages on a daily or definitely on a weekly basis. Businesses have no certainty and nor do householders. We have a lovely supply in Poulavanogue in rural Clonmel, with rivers supplying from the mountain. Irish Water is hellbent on disconnecting and decommissioning that reservoir. It will not listen to its caretakers. I salute Eugene Dargan and his colleagues and indeed the plumbers who are cont…

Universal healthcare is a healthcare system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to healthcare. That is currently a pipe dream in this country, unfortunately. Our health system is broken, and I do not know what it is going to take to fix it. How are we getting the most basic things like providing our citizens with a decent level of healthcare so wrong? We currently have a health system in which our most vulnerable children and adults with disabilities are waiting years for the…

Ar an gcéad dul síos, I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this very important motion. It is an issue we have to deal with. My God, my own county was devastated last year with young deaths and we have had some this year again. This is a very important motion. There is not a simple solution. The Garda traffic corps has been decimated and we need those situations improved. We made bad decisions in investing a huge amount of money in GoSafe vans, which are only punishing people in safe areas. They will not go…

The childcare sector is in crisis. Although the Government has injected funding into the sector which, thankfully, has made childcare more affordable for parents, that has now created such a high demand that the services are not available to people because they cannot hire staff. Childcare facilities are now routinely turning away families and the waiting lists are getting bigger and bigger. Vacant positions are advertised for months without anyone applying for them. The sustainability of the sector is at risk as c…

The time is up.

I was not aware of that.

Go raibh maith agat, a Theachta.

I, too, am happy to contribute to the debate. It was interesting listening to the former Taoiseach and former Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar. He provided some different insights. It is a very complex issue. I would not say for one moment that there are not good things happening in the HSE and in hospitals, as there are. I have been in St. Vincent's public hospital myself too many times in recent years and, in fairness, I got top-class service in it. However, there are huge blockages and a lack of accountabili…

I rise to support the Sinn Féin amendment No. 3 and the other ones included, up to amendment No. 7. It does not make sense, although it probably makes sense to me who is running this Government. The tail is wagging the dog, completely, totally and utterly. We can raid this fund any time we like for environmental issues, pet projects of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the ideology he is following that is destroying our economy. He fundamentally refuses to consider building road projects. This amendment is about housi…

I am addressing the Taoiseach but I address my remarks to all of the party leaders, who have eventually and finally woken up. They were part and parcel of the problem all along for the past 12 months by not allowing debate, not wanting debate and shutting down debate. They were name calling people looking for debate, like me and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group. However, now that it has arrived in the leafy suburbs of Dublin 4, the Government is putting up tents and fencing to keep people out. When ordi…

The Taoiseach is very good at that himself.

Seven spin doctors.

I acknowledge that in his previous portfolio as Minister before he became Taoiseach, he did some good work in the area of higher education and diverting people towards trades. The haulage and agriculture industries and many others, including hospitality, are desperately crying out for staff and people to work in them. The whole situation with work visas is too slow and cumbersome. We also need to have more apprenticeship programmes for lorry drivers and machine operators in agriculture and industry because they are…