You were asked to provide Government time and you are refusing to do that.

Are you prepared to provide Government time?

Moneylenders have been a feature of this country since the 19th century. They have acted as a source of credit for low-income households when mainstream providers simply did not do that. However, this easily-accessible credit comes at a cost and as we know it is a very high one. For households that are already struggling, these loans are a heavy burden. They may seem at the beginning to be helping people out of a difficulty but they inevitably end up being a heavy burden. According to a report from University Colle…

I want to ask the Taoiseach about the excise measures to cut fuel prices he announced last night. I welcome those measures but I want to ask him about his intentions with regard to some other measures that have recently been discussed. Cutting 15 or 20 cent off the price of a litre of diesel or petrol will really only bring us back to where we were two weeks ago with regard to prices. There is no indication that prices will stop increasing exponentially after those cuts are implemented. There have recently been rep…

We know the Cabinet was given stark warnings last night about the risks to our economy as a result of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. These included the possibility that household gas and electricity might need to be rationed, that public transport services might be cut and that food prices could rocket even further. How likely is the prospect of gas and electricity being rationed? Is this something that could happen on an EU-wide basis? What preparations are being made to address that possibility? My other question r…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill and to outline some concerns regarding business supports in the short term but probably more importantly in the medium term. Before that I would like to take a moment to reflect on the past two years and the role of the State during this period. While we in the Social Democrats might have done some things differently during the pandemic, we all accept that major efforts were made to scale up radically the role of the State, efforts which many possibly on the Government…

I commend Deputy Cullinane on the motion he has brought before the House. It is certainly comprehensive. It puts in context the scale of the problems that we are dealing with in our health service. It describes those problems well. The Minister described the problems well also. The difference, of course, is that the Minister is in a position to do something about them. Much of the time we hear commentary from the Minister on the problems in the health service. What are all looking for is action. We are looking for …

There were further revelations about the dysfunction at the heart of the health service in the Business Post at the weekend. Department of Health officials described a horror of waste in the HSE, criticised recruitment targets as incredulous, and expressed concern at their inability to hold the HSE to account. Concerns about budgets in the HSE went all the way to the top. The Minister himself was said to have spoken directly to the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, about the €514 million supplementary budget fo…

I am puzzled by the Minister's last comment because, too often, cost is a barrier to people accessing care. For cancer patients, in particular, unless they have a medical card or private health insurance, they are faced with a bill of up to €800 per year just to get life-saving treatment. How can the Minister defend that? It is utterly indefensible. While, of course, Sláintecare calls for the removal of all inpatient charges, this is year five of the Sláintecare plan and no progress has been made on that. That is t…

That is not true. Listen to the Irish Cancer Society.

It is absolutely a barrier. They are hounded by debt collectors.

Okay.

They hound them for the bills.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important legislation and outline some concerns, which I hope can be addressed as the Bill passes through the legislative stages. It is often said that the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 is strong by international standards but many experts and advocacy organisations have contended that it is very difficult to make such an assessment as there has been a relatively small amount of case law since 2014. On the ground, however, it is quite clear that those who have made a prot…

To stick with the issue of the shortage of GPs, we know there are major recruitment and retention problems right across the health service. The Minister described the problems well but we need to talk about what exactly will be done about them. General practice is central to our health service, to its future, to Sláintecare and to the aim of having the right care in the right place at the right time. Will the Minister tell us exactly what steps he will take to deal with the shortage of GPs?

The ICGP has done a lot of work in this area. It is great that it is now responsible for training, but the people in that organisation are the ones who provide the policy basis for general practice. They have identified four areas: workforce, workload, IT and data, and bricks and mortar. It is very important that we address all of those. Part and parcel of that is accepting the current business model for general practice works for some people, especially existing GPs, and maybe some in the future, but it does not c…

That is the situation at present. That has to change and we have to stop talking about it. We need to move ahead and take action on this. It is understandable that existing GPs who have invested heavily in their practices and premises should be protected, but it does not mean that should be the standard model for everybody. The Minister needs to introduce that flexibility. That can be done quickly. The contract is very much out of date. We need to start the work to update the contract, but that should not hold up o…

Will the Minister meet the ICGP within the next two to three weeks?

I thank the Minister.

I welcome this Bill. I particularly welcome the move from a health-dominated approach to disability to an equality and rights-based one. It is a very welcome development. Viewing disability primarily through a health lens has created a very narrow focus, one that is so narrow that it has been rejected by people with disabilities, their advocates and people working in the field. In that respect, I welcome this move. There is no doubt there has been far too much emphasis on people's actual disabilities and not enough…