Yes, they have two and a half minutes each. When the Minister goes to hospitals, everything is clear and pristine. He is given PowerPoint presentations. He needs to speak to the nurses, staff and healthcare assistants on the front line. He needs to call when the hospitals are not expecting him to call to see exactly what is going on in these situations. It is not fair on staff or the people in Mayo that they have to tolerate situations like this. Is it any wonder that people who need to be in hospital are afraid to…

I had five minutes.

Go raibh maith agat. I wish to raise the lack of classes for autistic children in County Mayo. I have one case where a parent is looking for a school place for next year and she has been told it is not possible. This parent and other parents will be forced to take cases in the High Court to try to get places for their children. I ask the Taoiseach to please look at what is happening in County Mayo in respect of the unavailability of school places for autistic children for next year and to please have this issue fix…

Have a look at your own.

Have a look at your own.

He needs to have a look at his own; look at your own seats.

Like many others, I am very concerned by the proposals to continue with the ICRIR, to appeal court judgments and to block an inquiry into the killing of Sean Brown against the recommendations of the coroner. The UK Labour Party needs to end the failed approach of the Tories and deliver on its promise to repeal and replace. This Government and any future government must continue with the European case until this legislation is binned. We will meet with the Secretary of State as part of the Good Friday Agreement comm…

I listened to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and he made clear that he is completely and utterly satisfied with himself and the Government in relation to housing. When we break down what he is satisfied with, we see he is completely satisfied with having more than 14,000 people homeless, of whom over 4,000 are children. The Minister is also completely satisfied that 13,500 adults between the ages of 18 and 44 - more than the population of Castlebar - are living at home with their parents in County Mayo. He i…

I do not often find myself agreeing with Deputy O'Dowd but I certainly agree with him on much of what he said there. There is lots more to do. This Finance Bill gives effect to the budget. I think it is a budget of missed opportunities. It was introduced earlier this month. It is a budget and Finance Bill without a sense of national purpose. I have heard that said a lot since. I will outline the reasons why I think it is. It was described by the European Anti-Poverty Network as a giveaway budget that fails to addre…

A progressive social protection system is the equaliser that attempts to level the playing field. In real terms it is the difference between a life of poverty and drudgery and a life in which potential can be reached. It is a safety net for our citizens and a net too many people are now falling through. This Government's budget is a lost opportunity to enact a progressive social protection agenda. The Government's mean-spirited approach to the thousands of carers across the State is one example of a Government that…

I thank my colleague Deputy Pauline Tully for bringing this important motion to the House. It is a real shame that she was compelled to do so but this is what happens when we have a Government that turns its face away from citizens who need support. I acknowledge all the section 39 workers who gathered outside Mayo County Council yesterday. One after the other, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors stood up to say how absolutely disastrous the way section 39 workers are being treated with regard to pay parity was, …

I raise the issue of section 39 health and community workers. As the Minister knows, an agreement was reached in October last year between the Department of Health, the Department of children, and the INMO, SIPTU and Fórsa trade unions on behalf of these workers. The agreement included an 8% increase while negotiations were to continue regarding future pay movement. I understand that the staff in some section 39 organisations have still not received the 8% pay increase a year after the agreement was reached. Furthe…

Where is it?

I agree with Deputy Andrews. What is more, there is no Minister who will come forward and say he or she is accountable for this and nobody to take responsibility for the wasteful decisions that are being made around it. We will get to the bottom of that on another day. This Government's wasteful spending of other people's money must be brought to an end. The plan to spend €9 million on fancy phone pouches for schoolkids is just the latest scheme to spend taxpayers' money recklessly and needlessly. I have worked wit…

It is a joke.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Today is the day this Government will try to buy the Irish citizens with their own money. Its desperation to cling onto power permeates this budget. Ministers queue up to clap themselves in the back for divvying out the spoils to the electorate to persuade them to turn a blind eye to how they have been failed, how their families have been failed and how their communities have been failed. I wonder whether they will thank Commissioner Vestager for the part she has played in this in fighting to give us the €14 billio…

This impacts on patients and healthcare staff throughout the State. The people in Mayo want me to ask how many more projects are handled in the same manner. How much more of our money is wasted? How much more is this Government hiding from us? How many times is commercial sensitivity used to cover up costly mismanagement of projects and the granting of open-ended, undefined contracts? Lessons are never, ever learned by Fine Gael or by Fianna Fáil. Let us cast our minds back to 2005, a time when the country was awas…

Again, there was no accountability. Everyone scattered. We have to have a public inquiry, which the taxpayer will pay for, but we have to find out the truth. We know what happened. We know how they have been failed by this and previous Governments. All of the measures introduced by the Government today are, by necessity, dealing with the fiscal space in the here and now but I do not want our nation restricted by what currently exists. We have the potential to reimagine our society and to turbocharge our national ec…