I do not accept what the Minister of State has said. I know who writes this stuff and it is not true. It does not reflect reality. There is a three-month delay in approving the national service plan and we know why that was. It was because there were serious concerns about underfunding of the plan. We have known for a long time that the population is increasing and ageing and that there is growing demand for services. It was spelt out very clearly last March that the budget provided was not sufficient to meet deman…

No. That is not what I asked.

The Department got notice of this question. I asked what the projected deficit for the end of year was and the Minister of State has not been able to provide that figure. She should have been supplied with it. I ask her to go back to the Secretary General, get that figure and send it on to me. We should have had it today. Everybody's fear is that there will be a delay in recruitment and that that is how the deficit will be addressed and what the Department will propose. We know the implications of that. It is servi…

I am sorry, but it is set out in the service plan. All of the shortfalls are identified in the service plan.

I heard that. What about recruitment?

I did, but I want answers.

How many of the 6,000 staff have been recruited?

Increasingly, the public across all age cohorts has come to the conclusion that this Government is utterly failing to deliver affordable homes. I do not think the Minister could point to anything he has done during his term of office that has contributed to actually driving down the cost of housing. In fact, most of the initiatives he has taken are contributing to the high cost of housing. He has concentrated on subsidies, which do nothing to tackle the underlying reasons house prices are allowed to remain high and…

More subsidies.

Another subsidy.

They are all subsidies.

What about cost?

What the Government is doing is not real cost rental, like Oscar Traynor Road and big subsidies.

Buying houses at market value is not cost rental.

Stop pretending.

In recent days a national scandal has been unfolding in relation to the most medically compromised children in this country. It relates to wholly adequate health services provided for them, and in the case of some of those children really serious adverse outcomes including the tragic death of one child. There is no transparency about what is going on here. All we have got is obfuscation. We have heard little or nothing from the Minister for Health. The Minister for Health needs to return to this country urgently. I…

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak in this debate. I welcome the motion because it is certainly a time when so many households are struggling with the high cost of living, including the spiralling cost of housing. In particular, we know that many mortgage holders are being pushed to the pins of their collars and that has to be addressed in some way. I am not necessarily saying that it should be addressed in the way the motion outlines proposals in that regard, but it needs to be addressed and we need to hea…

There can be no justification for the kinds of protests we have seen or indeed any protests outside healthcare facilities. The experience of accessing termination services can be daunting enough without being bombarded by distressing images, pseudo counselling attempts or chants, or crosses, for that matter. Not only can these types of protests cause mental anguish but they can also act as a genuine barrier to accessing services, adding to an already long list of barriers to timely and local abortion services. We m…

I move amendment No. 1: To insert the following after "the Commission on Care": "further calls on the Government to: — act on Recommendation 2 of the Final Report of the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, by carrying out a review into the impact of nursing home privatisation; and — urgently bring forward legislation to provide for a statutory right to home care.". I welcome this debate. It is long past time that we had a debate on the care of older people. It will be a short debate and we need to ha…

I thank the Regional Group for tabling this motion. The Social Democrats will support it. In 2018, a statutory right to home care was first promised, with 2021 being the target date for its introduction. Now, five years on, this Government still has not delivered it despite numerous promises from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and other Ministers. What is the problem? Why is the Minister of State not delivering on what she said she would do and what is so desperately needed? The Covid pandemic is usually bla…