We do not have centres of excellence in this country; we have centres of trolleys. That is the case for anybody who has actually been in those hospitals. In the last ten months, 20,000 people have marched on the streets of Meath to protect the accident and emergency department, the most important piece of health infrastructure we have in the county. I delivered a petition to the Minister's office just two weeks ago, signed by 15,164 people. The vast majority of the 220,000 people who live in Meath at the moment are…

-----in black and white, not just as a Minister's promise.

People power is the only thing that is saving it.

Could the Taoiseach confirm that?

Will the Taoiseach broaden the review?

Will the Taoiseach broaden the review? Yes or no?

Yes or no?

Will the Taoiseach answer the question?

Will the Taoiseach broaden the review? That is the question I asked.

We need a debate on the specific actions that can be taken to alleviate the pain and pressure put on families by the cost-of-living crisis. Spain and Portugal have an exemption from the EU rules and have reduced VAT on fuel. They have also been given permission by the EU to decouple non-gas-generated electricity from gas-generated electricity and the related prices. We will also have a situation this year where the Government will increase carbon taxes on people. It is absolutely wrong that carbon taxes are still g…

Who is going to be held to account for what happened at Siteserv? That is the major question that is not being answered in any of our debates. It is incredible that the Siteserv sale by the IBRC included a significant write-down of €119 million to Millington, a firm controlled by Denis O'Brien. That money was to come out of the taxpayers' pocket. This happened at the same time that Siteserv was giving €5 million to its own shareholders. That a debt-laden firm in receipt of a €119 million debt write-down could simul…

If there was ever a crisis that highlighted the chasm between the pressure people are under and the lack of Government action, this is the crisis. Though this issue has been ramping up week after week since before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and at least since the start of the year, week by week, families are being squeezed dry of their money. Whole sections of our population are now falling into food poverty. Some 47% of the State is in energy poverty at the moment. It is outstanding that such a section of soc…

Again, it points the finger at the European Union on this issue. However, Spain and Portugal-----

-----have managed to get a dispensation in this and they are carrying on. The Government’s attitude reminds me of Homer Simpson when he ran for mayor under the slogan, “Can't somebody else do it?”

I support the premise of the Bill. The idea that people are paying 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, and sometimes 70%, of their income on rent is incredible. There needs to be a tight relationship between the income people earn and the rent they pay for accommodation. This proportion is way out of whack in terms of people's ability to live. The Bill seeks to reduce rents by limiting them to a maximum of a quarter of the monthly income of a household. That would be a fair level across society in terms of what people should be pa…

Thousands of people marched in Navan last weekend to protect the emergency department in Navan, which provides life-or-death treatment and services for the people of County Meath. There was palpable anger that, at a time of key overcrowding, the Government was going to take capacity out of the system. Amazing data that blow the HSE figures out of the water have been provided by 23 hospital consultants. The HSE states that five patients travel from Meath to Drogheda every day but the 23 hospital consultants in Drogh…

The data come from the integrated patient management system.

In January 2021, parts of the final report of the mother and baby homes commission of investigation were leaked to the media prior to the survivors being furnished with the information. This was an enormous slap in the face to many survivors of those mother and baby homes. The Taoiseach verified the leak by giving a comment to the same journalist who ran the particular story. An internal Department investigation in to the leak has been going on for the past 19 months. It must be an incredibly in-depth investigation…

I asked three questions.

I asked the Taoiseach three questions. The first was when the investigation would be complete, the second was whether he knows who leaked it and the third was to indicate to what the other leak was related. I only have one answer, which was "I don't know", and I do not know what it related to.