We have had a housing crisis in this country for some time and the reason for it is that Fianna Fáil crashed the economy in 2008 and decided to stop building houses. It had no foresight whatsoever and allowed our construction workers to leave the country and go elsewhere. Now we have in excess of 17,000 people in homeless accommodation, including 5,000 children. This does not count all the families who do not access emergency accommodation, including those who sleep on our streets, in their parents' box rooms and o…

Ar dtús, déanaim comhghairdeas leis an mbeirt Teachtaí nua, an iarSheanadóir, Seán Kyne, agus Daniel Ennis. Today, I will raise the issue of the autism protocol brought to Cabinet by the Ministers for disability and Health this morning. As a member of the Joint Committee on Autism of the previous Dáil and a member of the all-party parliamentary group on autism, I want more clarity on what exactly this protocol is. It is to be launched today with the HSE. It is a new autism assessment process for children and adults…

The lack of availability and the unaffordability of what is available are proving a barrier to some pursuing further and higher education options. We see many young people forced to live at home with parents, which is the last thing they want to do. After doing their leaving certificate, they want to experience college life and get away. I know a lad doing his leaving certificate next week and he cannot wait to get away. Hopefully it will all work out for him in the autumn. The fact that students are living at home…

Before I start, may I ask why there is no Minister or Minister of State for health here? I was not notified that there would not be one. This is nothing against the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish; he is here to represent whatever Minister there is. This is very disappointing. This is a very important health issue, yet there is no Minister or Minister of State for health here. The Minister of State is not going to be able to give me a comprehensive answer because it will be a pre-prepared statement. It is very d…

Yes, please.

I know, and it is nothing against the Minister of State.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I wish to raise a couple of cases relating to Cavan General Hospital. Aaron is a 12-year-old boy who was admitted to Cavan General Hospital in severe pain on Monday, 27 April. An ultrasound was carried out and it was determined that he had appendicitis, so he would have keyhole surgery on the Tuesday. On Tuesday morning at 3 a.m., he was in extreme pain and a nurse constantly called for a doctor, but no doctor came. Later on Tuesday morning, he was prepped to go to theatre for the o…

The people of Cavan and I are delighted that we have a general public hospital in our county but we want a hospital we can trust. We want to know that when somebody goes in there for whatever reason, he or she will be cared for in a timely fashion. I have had wonderful experiences in the hospital and there are wonderful staff in there but they are overworked. Hospital management has said that it operates at safe staffing levels and so forth and the Minister of State's response says the same, but that is not the fee…

Yes, they do.

Much has been said about the good work the OPW does, and I acknowledge that. However, there is also deep frustration about the number of buildings which are left lying idle for many years. Some of these buildings could be used as dwelling places and community spaces. I want to raise a couple of them with the Minister of State in the context of County Cavan. I live near the village of Kilnaleck in County Cavan. There is a house there that is attached to the Garda station. It was used to house gardaí over the years. …

I congratulate my party colleague Senator Nicole Ryan and her partner on the birth of their daughter, Réidín. I wish them health and happiness into the future. The portal for the school transport scheme closed on Friday for applications, payments and medical card details. A few years ago, there was a review of the school transport scheme and it was indicated and recommended that the condition that you had to attend your nearest school in order to be eligible for school transport should be removed and that the dista…

This morning, I met staff of the National Ambulance Service who are on strike on the picket line in Cavan. The first thing they said to me was that they do not want to be there, they want to be out doing their jobs and it should never have got to this stage. They are looking for the recognition of the upskilling they have undertaken in the past 15 years. One woman who was there told me she has been working for the NAS for 30 years and when she began working there, her job was to transport a patient safely from one …

This issue has been discussed in the Chamber, the Dáil Chamber, the audiovisual room, the justice committee and many other committees. It is good that it is being discussed and different things are being highlighted. However, there is a deep frustration among many organisations like Safe Ireland and Women's Aid that we are still discussing this. There have been improvements - Acts introduced that have helped things and more refuge places - but there is still a lot more to be done. The fact that this is still contin…

I welcome the Minister of State. In recent years, we have seen a huge increase in after-school facilities. Many of these services are provided either on the school campus or in conjunction with a nearby crèche or preschool. It enables the children to go there after school, do their homework, engage in activities and maybe get a meal or whatever. It is good for all involved. It allows the parents to continue working until 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. However, a problem has emerged where children with additional needs face signi…

The AIM programme is excellent for the preschool children. Something like that would need to be extended into the after-school provision as well. In the case of the manager I met, there is a crèche and preschool facility on-site and she is familiar with AIM. She said that is the sort of support you need for the after-school service. She wants to include the twins to whom I referred, for example. I am sure there are many other children who would love to be included in after-school provision. It would be beneficial f…

I want to highlight the case of a woman who lives in County Cavan. She is a wheelchair user. She acquired a disability earlier in her life but has lived a very independent life, worked until retirement and never looked for assistance. She never needed it but now she does. She has a shoulder injury and is awaiting approval for surgery on it. She has been approved for home support care but is waiting months for home care assistance to be provided. She cannot get into or out of bed without assistance, which means she …

A 12-year-old boy's life was put at risk in Cavan General Hospital this week. At 2 p.m. on Monday, a 12-year-old boy, Aaron, was admitted to Cavan General Hospital in extreme pain. An ultrasound was carried out and appendicitis was diagnosed. His parents were told he would be kept overnight, keyhole surgery would be performed the next morning and he would be home in a few hours. On Monday night-Tuesday morning, at approximately 3 a.m., he was in extreme pain and the nurse repeatedly called for a doctor to come to s…

I also want to raise a housing issue, which is the social housing income thresholds. Currently, there are three bands. Band 1 is for city areas and commuter counties around Dublin and €40,000 is the threshold, band 2 is €35,000 for a number of other counties and band 3, which County Cavan is in, is only €30,000. I was contacted by a person yesterday. She is a single parent with four children who is working and she is above the social housing income threshold for Cavan. She has just received an eviction notice even …

Sinn Féin will not be opposing this motion but there is a serious need for safeguards to be established on how the relevant data is stored and used. The proposal involves the transfer of personal data, including names, addresses and vehicle details, from the national vehicle and driver file to British authorities so the Minister must, as the Minister for justice, assure the Oireachtas robust safeguards are in place to ensure this data is not misused, retained longer than necessary or shared with third parties. Give…

I was contacted by Paula, who lives in Cavan. Her son Tadhg was stillborn on Sunday, 5 June 2016 in Cavan General Hospital. She consented to an autopsy, which was carried out on 7 June and buried her little son on 9 June. Tadhg's parents received the post-mortem report on 17 November 2016, which was a period of five months later but this is not the main issue they have. A year after this, in November 2017, which was 17 months after she had buried Tadhg, she received a phone call asking what she wanted to do with he…