Twenty years ago, we moved from an apprenticeship model of nurse education to a degree model. It was a fundamental shift and transformation in nurse education, sought by the nursing profession, particularly the nurses' unions. I introduced it myself as Minister for Health and Children. It was important in giving a higher degree of respect to the nursing profession within the overall health service hierarchy. This debate has been very much politicised and characterised by short-termism. It has been designed to put o…

The Deputy and everyone else knows that there have been ongoing discussions about this issue between the INMO and the Minister over the past number of weeks. Those discussions are continuing and will result in a review before the end of December on the allowances applying to student nurses. I am trying to say to the Deputy that the days are over for saying it is all right for student nurses to be given the menial tasks, or whatever tasks, while they are supposed to be learning and going through an educational progr…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the vaccine. It is a historic day and a vindication of science as the ultimate route to follow in dealing with this terrible virus that has wreaked such havoc across the world in terms of lives lost, of people becoming ill with long-term consequences and of economic and social upheaval. It has changed our way of living. I applaud the Deputy's initiative and I would have no difficulty in signing such a petition. We need to be strong and positive in support of vaccination t…

First, I think we should point out that about 2 million people receive the flu vaccine. We are not strangers to national immunisation programmes, although this will be of a far greater scale than we have had so far. There has been a very significant roll-out of the flu vaccination programme in itself. That worked very well, notwithstanding all of the complaints and criticisms. Clearly, one of the task force's work streams is around an IT infrastructure to capture the data on those who have been vaccinated but also …

First, I am not privy to the meeting the Deputy had. Was it with the head of CervicalCheck?

I am not aware of what was said because, obviously, I was not at the meeting. I will check the position immediately because we must all uphold the decisions of the Supreme Court and of the courts in general. On the previous Government's decision, those who work for the State can have their views in terms of Government decisions but they must facilitate the execution of those decisions within various services. That remains the position. Since it entered office, this Government has been doing everything possible to f…

In the first instance, we should draw a differential between a screening programme and diagnostic procedures in themselves. That is very important, and in some respects, the original cervical screening programme gave a sense that if one had come through the screening programme, one was okay, whereas we know that is not the case. All screening programmes are general population screening programmes-----

Where there is a problem and where negligence has been established, of course the laboratories are negligent in that respect. The laboratories gave an indemnity to the State in respect of that, which is why they are still, in the context of the tribunal and of the courts, joined as third parties. In the broader sense, each case can be different. I do not think we can make generalisations in regard to this-----

-----or create schemes and frameworks due to subjective analysis of a particular case. CervicalCheck screening has never been, under the older technology, the most precise of screening programmes. I think most people would acknowledge that.

Anything beyond the margin of error obviously needs to be pursued and dealt with and compensation should be paid.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. At one level, I can understand the Deputy's point in terms of rural life, rural populations and young people on their own land not being in a position to get permission. At that level, one can empathise, particularly given the cost of housing today, that they are finding it very difficult to secure planning permissions. On the other hand, the advice to locate in villages is sound advice too. It is sound advice because it is close to services.

From the State's perspective, the best economic use of resources is to build up the infrastructure in the towns. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's point is valid that where towns do not have sewage treatment facilities, that presents an additional difficulty. We considered the EPA report yesterday, for example, at the climate change Cabinet sub-committee. We are down to approximately 20 clean rivers in the country. That is not the fault of housing. That could be the intensification of agriculture or whatever. However, we ha…

I have only been in office for six months. I will engage with the Minister to see where those guidelines are. My own view is that where there has been a history of habitation, there should be continued facilitation of habitation. The Deputy talked about 16 people living on one road.

I have walked the boreens and seen dilapidated houses, with bigger and better houses built adjacent to them. I often wonder why a dilapidated house was not retained. Someone should take those houses over, even if it is the county council, and get them back into a reasonable state for somebody to live in. I am into practical solutions but the highest environmental standards have to be attached. I am not, by nature, in favour of serial objectors. I do not like that trend and phenomenon. We have seen in forestry, for …

That makes sense. To take up the Deputy's point, we need to build infrastructure in towns, in terms of sewage treatment plants and other facilities, that would render the situation a more enjoyable one.

We live in a democracy.

I kind of think it does somehow.

I would say they have their own version of democracy in Kerry.

I thank the Deputies for raising the issue. The necessity for a debate on Brexit preparedness is a fair point. We must be honest too. We did have a good debate in the context of the Brexit omnibus Bill that went through the House two weeks ago. Various Ministers took that Bill in respect of their various areas of responsibility in terms of preparations and decisions we have taken for Brexit. Even in the event of a deal, we are still facing a significant degree of disruption. One is going from 1.5 million customs de…

I will be in Brussels on Friday.