I thank the Minister of State. There is an obvious problem with recruitment. Things are going to have to change. At one stage, we received a glib reply to the effect that this is a €200,000 per annum post and so there is no reason people would not want to travel to Kerry and stay there. It is not just about psychiatrists. Consultants who go to the general hospital need support staff, resources, equipment and, in many cases, an office. That has to change as part of the recruitment strategy. The Minister of State men…

I thank the Minister of State. They are all good proposals, but I cannot stress enough the urgency and the importance of communication with the patients and their families. I was contacted by one family whose daughter suffered from chronic fatigue and experienced social anxiety going into secondary school, in respect of which she was put on antipsychotic medication which is used to treat schizophrenia, mania and other types of serious illness. Those who are already aggrieved, damaged and hurt by the system that is …

During the 1970s and 1980s, "the murder squad" or "heavy gang", whatever way one wishes to describe it, travelled around this State when requested. It operated collectively and it often thought collectively. It formed a consensus. Sometimes it was the right conclusion but other times, and on too many occasions, it was wrong. Its conclusions were sometimes outrageous, sometimes malicious and would sometimes have been laughable if the consequences had not been so tragic for the families and individuals arrested. Live…

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. Because it is the case I am most familiar with, I want to raise the Kerry babies case. The initial inquiry was a total whitewash and while Joanne Hayes and her family were vindicated through a settlement, there are a number of outstanding issues. One is that the apology did not go far enough. For the gardaí to say the investigation fell far short of the standards of a police investigation must be the understatement of the century. It has never been explained. As their so…

The oldest of the cases in the recent "Crimes and Confessions" series concerned the Ratoath or Lynskey murder. This morning I met Mr. Martin Conmey and Ms Ann Donnelly, the wife of Mr. Dick Donnelly and whose brother was Mr. Martin Kerrigan. Will the Taoiseach expedite a full cold case review of that case? The case destroyed a number of families. The Taoiseach promised to meet with party leaders and I ask that he would bring this forward and order a full statutory inquiry into that case, and also the Sallins case.

What would the Taoiseach suggest?

Will the Taoiseach commit to some investigation of that?

Families affected by CAMHS catastrophic failure of children told me that they found the report soul-destroying, that they were sick to the stomach when they learned of the harm suffered by their vulnerable children and that worse, it could have been prevented had changes been made first, after the resignation of consultants in the south-eastern service or at least shortened had the issues been addressed when they were first raised by the whistleblower. There were children who asked to self-medicate and who were a y…

Over the past couple of months I have been dealing with a family whose teenage daughter is being fed through a tube. When they reached out in desperation due to her eating disorder, they found that Éist Linn, Linn Dara and Merlin Park were unavailable to them because there are not enough beds. The simplest answer is that there should be more beds but there should be more consultants. The report that came out today by Dr. Seán Maskey mentions the difficulties with finding consultants. It is not good enough to say th…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the time today. The recent "Crimes and Confessions" series has shone a spotlight on the interrogation and investigation of innocent people by some members of An Garda Síochána: people including Nicky Kelly, Osgur Breatnach and the Hayes family in my constituency. We have heard allegations of bullying, assaults and torture. We heard about statements that were tailored or, in the words of the Hayes family solicitor Mr. Patrick Mann, "dovetailed" to fit the information that they had. I …

The apologies are not-----

The apology-----

The English Supreme Court has ruled that the PSNI’s decision to discontinue an investigation into the internment and torture of the hooded men was illegal. Hundreds were interned and some were subject to beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme psychological torment and denied food and water. That is torture in my book. This was sanctioned by the British Cabinet, just like the killing of Pat Finucane was sanctioned. There are a number of legacy issues here but Boris Johnson’s Government seems determined to ignore basic…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the time to speak about the hospital in Dingle. In 2008, Ospidéal Pobal Chorca Dhuibhne was granted funding of €16.4 million and promised to deliver badly needed services for west Kerry, including 76 beds, an X-ray service and a place where minor injuries could be treated. The hospital, however, has not fared well under successive Governments and is operating now at 30 beds below capacity. It never provided more than 54 beds. Given the storm that happened recently and the e…

I concur with what the previous speaker said and support Deputy Connolly's amendment. I am thinking in particular of Seán Binder, who spent some time in County Kerry. He was arrested four months after arriving in Lesbos in 2018. He faces trial, as we know. Particularly in light of what happened in the English Channel, there is a feeling out there that there are hordes of people fleeing wars, most of whom are entitled to asylum, who are being lured in by people traffickers, criminals and so on. That is not the case.…

I support the motion. The Government's stance is mind-boggling. The tendering process does not make sense and the community not-for-profit model must be preserved and not dismantled. I find it hard to understand why the Government would do something like this from a community point of view, a jobs point of view and a political point of view. Taking the decision to commercialise these schemes and introducing targets and quotas and commissions means that staff will have little incentive to ask what is actually best f…

Iarradh an cheist seo cheana féin le blianta ach níor freagraíodh í fós. Cén plean atá ag an Aire chun na daoine atá in ann deontas SUSI a fháil agus atá ar an working family payment a bheith in ann cothabháil agus táillí ollscoile a fháil? Are there any plans for families in receipt of the working family payment to be eligible for the fee and the maintenance SUSI grant?

This may not affect very many families but it is very important nonetheless. I understand the exclusion of the working family payment from reckonable income and that is appropriate. The fact remains that there are families who are in receipt of this payment and in order to survive, raise their families and educate them, they do that in spite of the fact that they are denied a maintenance grant due to the income thresholds. These income thresholds exacerbate the problem because they are banded. For example, a family…

Will the Minister engage with the Minister for Social Protection on this? The former Minister responsible for higher education, Deputy Bruton, promised to correct what he called this “anomaly” four years ago in response to a question by a Deputy from another party. A family in need of social protection with one assessment is denied the right to educate children with another assessment. Families I know have children who have dropped out because of the financial stress. This was presented to me a number of times. It …

I wish to share time with Deputies Buckley, Mythen, Munster and Ellis. I want to tell the Minister and Minister of State about two boys from Kerry, James and Michael. They were left to the mercy of this State and suffered a horrendous childhood. They were boarded out from the county home in Killarney, County Kerry. James was eight and a half and Michael was seven. The State had a duty of care to these little children but sent them to work in servitude and enforced labour. "You are here to work," they were told. The…