It has to be said that the experience for patients in working through professional bodies has not been good. In terms of adverse incidents, generally speaking the HSE is the body named, as well as the hospital and individual. Allowing a person the opportunity to make a complaint about clinical judgment to the HSE does not preclude a person from making a similar complaint to a professional body. The legislation is very clear. A person is not entitled to make a complaint about certain matters, the stand out of which …

Tonight is an important and positive occasion in finalising the important legislation before us, but it is also a poignant occasion. Throughout the debate, we have held those women front and centre and thought of them continually. That includes those women who lost their lives as a result of what happened with CervicalCheck and those whose lives were turned upside down but who have survived. We also think of their families, who have had a terrible time, whether those families were bereaved or are coping with very s…

The cost-of-living crisis is having a devastating impact on workers, families and businesses right across the country. Since 2021, energy prices have trebled. They have more than doubled since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Average energy costs for consumers are now a staggering €4,300 per year. Everyone getting their gas and electricity bills in recent weeks will have been shocked by the amounts. As consumers suffer, energy companies are profiteering from this crisis and making what can only be described as obs…

I thank the Taoiseach. I welcome the indication that we are moving to a windfall tax, however late in the day. What is the timescale for the introduction of such a tax? Will that be retrospective? The Taoiseach spoke about the main energy companies and the extent of the profits they have been making. We know that in the first six months of last year, the ESB made profits of €390 million, yet it imposed three separate price hikes last year. The profits of Bord Gáis Energy went up by 74% in the first six months of la…

I want to echo the sentiments, which the Minister expressed before he started into this debate, on the many thousands of people who come here from abroad to work in our health service. We depend on these people to keep our health service running. It is shocking that they or any of their countrypeople are subjected to racial abuse in this country. As the Minister did, I thank them for their contribution and apologise on behalf of those elements who have targeted essential people who come to our country. The Minister…

It is timely to have this debate. The Sinn Féin motion notes all the different difficulties associated with the high interest rates in this country and the burden that places on ordinary families trying to provide homes for themselves. That is all very worthwhile and there are a lot of questions to be asked about why our interest rates are so out of line with other European countries. The motion provides for five key asks and there is no difficulty with a number of them. Sinn Féin calls for the Government to offer …

I welcome the fact that the Taoiseach has indicated that the report to Cabinet next week will be published - that is a good thing - and that he has agreed with my proposal that the Joint Committee on Health be fully briefed by the Secretary General. It would also be helpful if there were people there from the legal section in the Department. In 2005, when the Travers report into illegal charging for nursing home care was published, it blamed "systematic maladministration" in the Department of Health. The report det…

Is the issue not that successive governments penalised medical card holders who needed nursing home care? That was the question I asked earlier. Throughout that entire period of 30 years, did no Minister ever say, "Hang on, why are we not providing medical card patients with proper care when they need it?". Does the Taoiseach accept that fundamental to this entire issue is the fact that there is no legal entitlement to public healthcare? We talk about, and have always talked about, eligibility for care even though …

There still is not.

It was because of a failure to provide public nursing home care.

I welcome this motion. It is important that we talk about this issue until it is resolved. We seem to have been talking about shortcomings in mental health services for time immemorial and yet it seems nothing is being done to bring them up to the standard that is expected for a modern and wealthy society. Many of the problems impacting our mental health services, especially CAMHS, are microcosms of the difficulties within the health service. Those problems include the available capacity, the recruitment of staff a…

The point was made last week that the question is not about the fact that errors were made or that issues arose but about how those issues are responded to when they arise and how those errors are responded to when made. It has to be said that, in their response to this, the Minister and his Government have made a complete hames of it. That is a charitable reading of the situation. At the core of the Minister's defence is his statement that he thought the work was being done on a voluntary basis. That is a very rev…

That is a different point.

No.

With all due respect, the Minister should just answer the question.

The Minister is talking down the clock now.

Okay-----

I am taking that as the Minister's answer.

Okay. I have heard what the Minister said. There are a number of forms we are required to fill out after an election. With regard to the election expenses statements from 2016 and 2020, is it the case that the Minister has amended both of those documents to include additional expenditure?

Is there a corresponding correction that needs to be made in relation to the donation statements, which of course would have been filled in the best part of a year after the election? If the Minister is saying that he must change the election expenses declaration in relation to his expenses in his election campaign, surely that also requires a donation statement correction for both elections.