Fianna Fáil should run a few candidates there and see how it gets on. The Deputy is all talk.

I am.

Kicking and screaming.

I would also like to wish the Minister all the best. I am not sure if he is going to be Minister for Finance or the Taoiseach. Only time will tell. The reality is that this Government puts aside money every year for capital projects and fails to deliver on some of them. Meanwhile, areas like Cork North-Central are screaming out for funding and investment because of underinvestment over the years. I refer to the northern ring road and northern distributor road. The Minister is a Cork man. I invite him to drive to th…

Last week it was announced that the new elective hospital in Cork will be based in Glanmire. That is something I welcomed. However, I was disappointed to learn that it will not be open and operational until 2027. There are tens of thousands of people in Cork on the waiting lists for elective surgery. It is not good enough that the earliest opportunity they will have to access treatment is 2027. We need action to be taken now. The delivery of the hospital must be fast-tracked because those people need to be treated …

Last week, when I raised with the Taoiseach the issue of a GP service that is closing in Blarney in Cork he said the HSE should seek an interim GP. He also said he would follow up with the HSE and the Minister. Patients have now received letters sending them to GPs in Ballincollig, which has no direct link to Blarney. Some will be going as far as Ovens. This is despite an offer from a GP to run a temporary service and despite the Taoiseach's assurances. I assume that if the Taoiseach instructs the HSE to appoint a …

No, I asked the Taoiseach to do it.

No, that was Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan.

Unfortunately, he got it wrong. He thinks the people of Ballincollig and Blarney-----

I am not wrong; I am out with the people. I am on the ground.

No, we are okay.

Going to Ballincollig from Blarney is too far. The Taoiseach knows the area himself.

This week, we heard the shocking statistics that rents in the State have risen by 82% since 2010. In the same period, they have risen by only 18% in Europe. Last year, investment funds purchased one in ten second-hand homes and one in four apartments in the State. In Berlin the Government is taking homes back from investment funds and ridding the city of the cuckoo and vulture funds. There are 166,000 vacant homes in the State. Almost 50,000 of them have been vacant for longer than six years. In France there is a h…

Actually, I never did. Know your facts, Deputy. I never did. Do not make any statement here without knowing what you are talking about.

That statement should not have been made. It is not true.

I begin by acknowledging this Bill is a huge step forward. It has taken 14 years to get here. It is unfortunate that, once again, we have complex legislation being pushed through ahead of Christmas. I hope the Government will give us time to debate, analyse and strengthen this legislation because we recognise it is badly needed. We must recognise the men and women across the island of Ireland who highlighted the harm caused by gambling. We are here because these men and women refused to allow this harm to continue.…

I listened to the Minister of State's description of what the Government has done. This Government's treatment of and support for people in recovery, recovery services and people at the coalface of addiction have been shocking. Deputy Martin Kenny made the point that in the alternative budget Sinn Féin put forward, we pledged €45 million for this. A sum of €45 million would not solve everything, but it would be an ambitious start to support people, something which I do not think this Government is serious about. I …

There should be a budget. Where is the budget?

It should have been budgeted for.

On 28 September Dr. Una O'Halloran notified the HSE that she will be leaving her GP practice in Blarney. She notified the HSE that she was leaving and here we are more than two months later and the HSE still has not advertised the post. Dr. O'Halloran is finishing on 31 December. The practice has almost 2,000 patients, between medical card holders and private patients, and it will mean the loss of a GP service in Blarney. Will the Taoiseach instruct the HSE to put a locum in place in the current clinic? I know of a…