I understand the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, is dealing with the second and third matters for debate. We will take those now.
Adjournment Debate.
I understood from the Minister of State he would be prepared to reply to the matter I raised. Is that not the case?
No, I am not briefed on the first matter.
Since when does one need to be briefed to read out a reply to a matter on the Adjournment debate? Is this a departure from the norm?
We will proceed with the second matter.
Whom am I to expect? Is there any development regarding my matter on the Adjournment?
The Minister arrives at the moment.
My apologies, I lost my script.
That is all right. I look forward to great things.
Is the Minister replying to the first matter?
Yes.
School Accommodation.
I appreciate the opportunity for the Government to indicate how it expects schools to take seriously the promotion of 2004 as the year of sport in education when schools such as Scoil Phádraic Cailíní in Donabate, County Dublin, roll No. 18412W, are denied necessary grant aid for temporary accommodation. The school is, therefore, given no option but to commandeer its general purpose room as classroom space, thus putting an end to any physical education in inclement weather given that the playground is now, in effect, to be the only PE area. This is, in itself, indefensible.
If school children were injected with a disease that crippled them, shortened their lives and increased their dependency on the health services, there would be an outrage, yet we watch helpless as a combination of heavily advertised junk food and inactivity causes a similar effect through obesity, a condition that is rarely curable. The Minister well knows obesity is an increasing phenomenon of modern society, especially among children.
It is not merely indefensible, it is grossly damaging to pay such scant regard to the needs of physical education and to require schools effectively to commandeer general purpose physical education areas as classroom space. This is happening in a number of schools I have come across in Donabate and Loughshinny where the Department has said it is not essential to have a general purpose or physical education facility. That is evident from a letter received by the school from the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Noel Dempsey, which stated: "Only those [schools] with an absolute and demonstrated need for additional accommodation were approved [in the last round and, therefore,] your application was not successful on this occasion." What is being said is that the Government does not regard physical education as essential, which is grossly negligent.
The Minister said today it would be put right, but not in the short term. That is a total derogation of responsibility. Perhaps we should designate this year as the year of imagining education through sport or the year of dreaming about education through sport because it is not possible for it to happen in such situations. Can the Government not bring some joined-up thinking to its stated objectives and its actions? An extra teacher and furniture have been allocated to this school for September 2004 but the four walls do not exist in which to put the children, the teacher and the furniture.
Donabate is increasing in size and its population is projected to be similar to that of Dundalk in the next ten to 15 years. My colleague, Ken Duffy, a local Donabate representative, organised a public meeting to highlight the irresponsibility of much of the rezoning that is taking place without provision for facilities. This type of activity begs the question of for whom the Government is acting and what end it is serving when a place like Donabate with a burgeoning population does not have a secondary school, in spite of the fact that the nearby schools are full. Local people have to resort to private fund-raising activities to provide a hall for sport in their new school. Loreto College Balbriggan is not alone full, it has a 1907-built hall in a dangerous state of disrepair, a matter I previously raised on the Adjournment.
If 11 June was not bad enough for it, the Government will incur the wrath of the electorate next time out. It is unable to see the wood for the trees in this regard and, as a result, it is also incurring enormous costs into the future if children are not given the opportunity for activity and physical education which is a required part of any civilised society. It is an intrinsic part of natural development that children should have physical education. The Minister is effectively saying we can forget about physical education as it is not a requirement and the general purpose room can be used as a classroom as if that is normal. That is gross irresponsibility and should be addressed immediately.
Ba mhaith liom leithscéal pearsanta a thabhairt don Teachta. Ní raibh méábalta an óráid a fháil, agus tá mé buíoch den Teachta as an straitéis chuimsitheach atá ag an Roinn Oideachais mar gheall ar na cúrsaí a luaigh sé maidir le Scoil Phádraic Cailíní a chur ós comhair na Dála. Chuir an scoil iarratas isteach don Roinn i Meán Fómhair. Tá sí suite in áit atá taobh amuigh, ach gan bheith iargúlta. Tá fás cuimsitheach ar líon na bpáistí atá ina gcónaí san áit, agus tá stádas speisialta ag an cheantar.
Tá an ceart ag an Aire faoi sin.
Tá a fhios agam faoi sin. Is mór an trua é nach bhfuil an fhadhb chéanna againne. Tá fadhbanna speisialta i mBaile Átha Cliath. É sin ráite, in the context of the available funding and the number of applications for that funding, it was not possible to approve all applications for temporary accommodation this year and only those schools with an absolute and demonstrated need for additional accommodation were approved. All other schools, including Scoil Phádraic Cailíní, are required, as an interim measure, to maximise the use of existing accommodation until the Department is in a position to make extra accommodation available.
The priority of the Department of Education and Science has been to concentrate resources on providing permanent accommodation for schools and to reduce the dependency on temporary accommodation which may not always give value for money solutions. In this regard, the need for extra permanent accommodation at Scoil Phádraic Cailíní will be considered in the context of a review which is being undertaken of all projects that did not proceed as part of the 2004 school building programme. This is being done with a view to including such projects as part of a multi-annual school building programme from 2005 onwards. As part of this process, consultations have already taken place with the education partners. The purpose of these consultations is to ensure that the prioritisation criteria used for prioritising large-scale building projects have optimum precision and are fully tuned to meeting the priority accommodation needs of the primary and post-primary sectors. The Department expects to be in a position to make a further announcement in this matter later this year.
In addition, over the remainder of this school year, a new school planning model involving published area development plans will be piloted in five areas. Included in the pilot scheme is the north Dublin-south Louth region which covers the Donabate area. The purpose of this new approach to school planning is to ensure that, in future, the provision of school infrastructure will be decided only after a transparent consultation process. In this regard, parents, trustees, sponsors of prospective new schools and all interested parties from a locality will have the opportunity to have their voices heard in the process. Following the consultation process, individual plans will set out the blueprint for schools' development in an area covering a period of up to ten years.
The Department is confident that this approach to school planning will provide a mechanism for ensuring that, in future, capital investment in school infrastructure, will not alone be targeted at those schools most in need but that it will also be made in the most open and transparent way.
Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an Teachta arís, cé go raibh ócáid aige an cás seo ——
The report never mentioned that the Department paid so much. I am not surprised because it is embarrassing.
Bhí mé ag caint faoi temporary accommodation. É sin ráite, beidh méábalta caint leis an Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíochta go pearsanta ar son an Teachta. Beidh séábalta athbhreithniú a dhéanamh ar an gcás seo i rith an tsamhraidh i mbliana, am a mbeidh ócáid ag oifigigh na Roinne é sin a dhéanamh ar na cásanna speisialta a bheidh ós a gcomhair. Déanfaidh mé gach iarracht ar son an Teachta.
Hospital Services.
I again raise the issue of the orthopaedic unit in Castlebar and hope that the Minister of State with responsibility for health will have definite answers for Members and the people of Mayo.
The promise was made that the orthopaedic unit would open on 1 July 2004. An orthopaedic surgeon was appointed and professional staff were given contracts. We expected people to be undergoing operations in Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar by the second week of July. Two weeks ago after a health board meeting, it was brought to the attention of the board members and the public that the orthopaedic unit would not open on the promised date. Last week on the local Mid-West Radio, the Minister for Health and Children told the people of Mayo and the surrounding areas that his Department would have discussions with the Western Health Board on the matter of the staffing of the orthopaedic unit for the hospital. However, he gave no definite commitment as to when the orthopaedic unit would open.
I raised the matter on the Adjournment that night, as did Deputy Cowley the following night. On the following day, a week ago today, Deputy Flynn, who is not involved in the Department and not even a member of Fianna Fáil, was able to inform the people of County Mayo at a rally of 5,000 people that the orthopaedic unit would open on 1 September.
When will the orthopaedic unit open? I want a definite date from the Minister of State. I want to know whether the contracts that have been offered to staff will be honoured. Will the orthopaedic surgeon who has been appointed be left doing nothing over the summer while people in my county and constituency suffer in pain as they wait for the hip operations they were promised would be available by the second week in July?
I had the pleasure last week of meeting the surgeon appointed. I am delighted with the appointment. He is a fine, pleasant person and I am sure he will do an excellent job for the people of County Mayo and the surrounding area.
I have a question for the Minister of State, for the chief executive of the health board and the board as a whole. Why was the timing changed and the unit not opened as planned? It has been promised for many years. Why do we now have the situation where the orthopaedic surgeon, management and other staff have been appointed but the unit will not open? Why did the Department and the chief executive of the health board not sort out the problem well before July? Why am I told in every reply I receive from the Department that it is talking to the orthopaedic surgeons in Galway? What has this unit to do with Galway?
The orthopaedic surgeons in Galway have refused to take patients from Mayo for the past few months. The people of Mayo have no service now. We have emergency services where people who break a leg or an arm will be sent to Galway. However, if a routine check is involved or a person is waiting to be assessed for a hip replacement, the people in Galway will no longer accept them.
This Government got a message last weekend. The people of Mayo are waiting to march again. They are angry.
Fuair siad gach tacaíocht.
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs may be among those who are due a change and, from what I hear, she may end up on the back benches. I do not mind where the Minister goes although I prefer to see her rather than some others on the Front Bench, although she might not do a better job than in her current Department.
Fianna Fáil said this promise that the orthopaedic unit would be up and running in July would be honoured. When will the unit in the Mayo General Hospital open? I want an announcement on this immediately. I do not want a former Fianna Fáil backbencher telling us one thing, the Minister telling us something else and the chief executive of the health board telling us something else. It is no wonder the health service is in disarray when nobody knows what is going on. The Minister and the chief executive of the health board do not know what is going on, yet a former Fianna Fáil backbencher tells us the unit will open.
I want to give the Minister and Fianna Fáil a warning. A record amount of shoes were bought last weekend because the people are on the march. If they have to march to Galway, Dublin, Donegal or the Minister's constituency office, they will do so. This is one broken promise they will not suffer. I hope we get good news tonight from the Minister of State.
I think the Deputy knows the answer.
Go raibh maith agat. This is an extremely serious matter. As a GP I sat in my surgery ten years ago and saw the deprivation experienced by people. I knew the distances people had to travel. If a person broke a hip, he or she was forced to travel all the way to Galway which is the equivalent distance of someone here in this House going all the way to Galway to the same unit. It is virtually the same distance from the end of Mayo to Galway. That is not an acceptable situation. It would not be acceptable to the people in this House and it is not acceptable to the people of Mayo. I started the campaign for an orthopaedic unit ten years ago. There is at present a 33-bed unit and theatre lying idle since 2001. We have no elective service since January this year because the four orthopaedic surgeons pulled out unilaterally. Unless one is a private patient, one will not be seen by the surgeons in Galway. It is unacceptable that there is no service. This is health apartheid for Mayo patients, particularly for Mayo patients who have no elective service.
The terrible deprivation I witnessed ten years ago is still there. People wait for years for a hip operation. Some people have been on the waiting list since 2000. The treatment purchase fund is no good to them because they have not yet seen a consultant. It is a second-class service.
Earlier this year, the Western Health Board with the approval of the Department of Health and Children recruited 58 staff and announced an opening date of 1 July. Those people have now been informed there are no jobs for them. Those for whom the health board has contractual obligations have been informed they will be assigned to inferior posts. For instance, a senior theatre sister has been offered a job as a junior ward sister. An occupational therapist has been offered a half-time post in the Sacred Heart hospital for older people. The junior hospital doctors have all left because they need to find other posts. The choice is to go to Galway. An excellent locum orthopaedic surgeon has been hired. Another locum orthopaedic surgeon has been hired but he has returned to India and does not know he has no job. People are being offered jobs that are different to the jobs for which they were contracted. There are 1,500 people on the waiting list since 2000. That is a list with no end and on which the people of Mayo must suffer.
We have been told in a roundabout way that 1 September may well be an opening date but there has been no official notification. If the ceiling has been agreed on the whole-time equivalent situation, then the unit can open on 1 July. If it can open on 1 September because that problem has been sorted out, then it can open on 1 July. If it is delayed until 1 September, the staff will not be available. Why should they stay when they have been offered inferior jobs?
Last week, I organised a march and 5,000 people took to the streets. The people are taking to the streets again on this night fortnight. I guarantee there will be treble or quadruple that number on the march. People will not accept what is happening. Two weeks ago, the Minister and the Minister for State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, informed me that discussions were ongoing between orthopaedic staff in Galway-Mayo but that is not so. Deputy Carty called me a liar, a rabble rouser and an alarmist but still no discussions have taken place. There is no need for discussions because the plan is already in existence for a fully-fledged orthopaedic unit in Mayo. However, that is not acceptable to the people in Galway who want to give us a second-class service but we will not accept that.
A horse is better treated in this country. The Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, had €50 million to spend in Punchestown. Who would not wish to be a horse? At least one would be given plenty of nuts and romancing and one's boss would receive a tax relief. A patient in Mayo is not even treated like the horses in Punchestown and that is not acceptable. People are being treated badly in a second-class service. It is unacceptable they must travel long distances. The people have taken to the streets and it is wrong they were forced to do so. They will take to the streets again. I ask the Government to think about people and less about the economy. What is more important than people? I ask the Minister and the Government to show some heart. We demand this unit opens in July. We demand a definite commitment for a start date. We demand that all the required staff are hired, which is 68 staff and another 68 people. The people of Mayo deserve no less. We want straight answers from the Minister.
I am making this reply on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin. I am very glad to have the opportunity to discuss the matters raised by Deputies Cowley and Ring about Mayo General Hospital. In raising the matter this evening, Deputy Ring referred to the fact that all of the Oireachtas Members in the Mayo constituency were concerned about this matter. He referred to certain extra-parliamentary utterances by the Independent Deputy in County Mayo, Deputy Flynn. Deputy Carty has taken a particular interest in this matter. He has been in constant discussions with the Minister for Health and Children——
Is that so? I am very impressed.
Where was Deputy Carty last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday?
——about this matter.
He is a good learner.
He has more time to be running around than has the Deputy.
Where were all the Mayo Deputies on Tuesday night?
Deputy Carty understands that it is not the function of a Member of the Oireachtas to bring politics onto the streets. It is the function of a Member of the Oireachtas to——
It is the function of Government to give proper service to the people. It is a function of Government to give fair play to people.
——discuss political matters here in Parliament and not——
The Deputy is a long time a GP and taking plenty from the GMS.
We take a fair bit from the Deputy; we are entitled to give it out occasionally.
That is the reason the Minister for Health and Children should be here tonight.
Where is the Minister for waiting lists?
(Interruptions).
The Government will not provide the services the people need.
Of course Deputy Carty is not interested——
The Government would not give the services.
Why is the Minister for waiting lists not here tonight?
Deputy Carty is not interested in cheap, political stunts orchestrated before local and European elections.
The Deputy will be given his answer now.
He is concerned to ensure that Mayo General Hospital——
(Interruptions).
There are plenty of Fine Gael people on the health board in Mayo.
Order, please. The time will expire.
No, it is full of Fianna Fáil people appointed by their Minister.
Where is the Minister for waiting lists tonight?
I do not wish to delve into the membership of the Western Health Board.
When will the orthopaedic unit be opened?
If I were allowed to proceed, I will answer that question. I have definitive news on all the issues raised by the Deputies this evening, thanks to the intervention of Deputy Carty with the Minister for Health and Children.
We have heard that rubbish before. The people did not buy that. He is the Minister for failure.
I will outline for the House some facts regarding Mayo General Hospital which will underline this Government's record in developing hospital services for the people of Mayo.
(Interruptions).
Deputies should be aware that time is being wasted.
This Government has invested heavily in the infrastructure at Mayo General Hospital. The second phase of a major development programme at the hospital began in 1998. The capital cost of this investment was €50 million——
When Fine Gael was in Government.
: —-funded by the taxpayer from the budgets which Deputies opposite have consistently voted against. This development included a new accident and emergency department; a medical assessment unit; a geriatric assessment unit; an obstetric and delivery suite; CT scanning facilities; a new helicopter landing facility; improved mortuary and post-mortem room; a new information technology system; a new administration and medical records department.
It also provided the necessary facilities for the development of orthopaedic services at Mayo General Hospital including ward accommodation and a state-of-the-art orthopaedic operating theatre to carry out surgery.
Annual revenue funding for Mayo General Hospital is now over €50 million. This Government has increased expenditure at the hospital by €30 million since 1997. The hospital now employs around 830 whole-time equivalent staff.
(Interruptions).
This represents an increase in staffing levels at the hospital of over 300 whole-time equivalent staff in the past seven years. These extra staff are providing additional and improved hospital services to the people of Mayo. Activity at the hospital has increased year on year. By comparison to its activity in 1997 the hospital has increased its in-patient activity by over 3,000 people per annum and has nearly trebled the number of patients it treats as day cases. The hospital's in-patient and day-case activity for 2003 was over 22,000 patients. Some 27,000 persons attended the casualty department in 2003. The hospital's out-patient department now treats over 33,000 people. There has been an increase in the number of beds at the hospital in recent years and the number of beds there when the orthopaedic service opens will be more than 300.
The Minister of State should speak about the orthopaedic unit.
There has been a huge investment in County Mayo.
The record speaks volumes for the dedication and commitment of the staff.
It speaks volumes for inactivity and ineptitude.
Am I allowed, in the course of my reply, to compliment the dedication of the staff of Mayo General Hospital? The figures speak volumes for their dedication and industry.
The Minister of State should speak about the orthopaedic unit.
The new 33 bed orthopaedic unit will be an especially valuable addition to the hospital and of great benefit to the people of County Mayo.
If it opens.
Funding of €3.9 million has already been provided to the Western Health Board to allow for the opening of the new orthopaedic service at Mayo General Hospital. Currently, one consultant orthopaedic surgeon has been recruited by the Western Health Board and took up duty on 1 February. The Western Health Board has informed the Department that discussions between the orthopaedic staff in Galway and Mayo are continuing in an effort to configure the best use of the facilities at Galway and Mayo. These discussions are taking place within a framework to develop an overall integrated strategic and operational policy for orthopaedic services in the region.
They are to develop the Hanly plan.
The Deputy stated no meetings were taking place. Officials of the Department met the Western Health Board this afternoon and a constructive discussion took place.
I was referring to the orthopaedic unit.
I was glad to note the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Ring, was well aware of and expressly referred to the meeting.
We do not want meetings, we want results.
The Department conveyed the Minister's wish that the new orthopaedic service at Mayo General Hospital should commence as soon as possible. The Western Health Board has advised the Department that staff recruited for the orthopaedic unit at the hospital are not being asked to accept alternative positions to those originally offered to them. All offers of employment to individuals for positions in the orthopaedic service at Mayo General Hospital will be honoured in full. This has been explained individually by telephone to each candidate, in addition to the relevant confirmation of appointment being sent to them. I hope that clarifies the matter for Deputy Cowley.
The in-patient orthopaedic service is scheduled to start in September 2004. In the meantime, patients will be seen on an out-patient basis. The preparation of the unit, development of policies and procedures and staff familiarisation will also take place in the meantime. The Department has agreed to work with the board for the remainder of the year to ensure compliance with approved staffing levels. The Minister will ensure that the new orthopaedic services are established at Mayo General Hospital at the earliest possible date.
It will be before the next general election, which may take place sooner than the Minister of State thinks.
The Minister has the interests of the people of Mayo at heart, unlike certain other people.
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs should not forget I was born in County Mayo.
God love the Deputy.
God love the Minister when I am finished with her.
The Minister has become very disorderly since the weekend.
I am fine.
Social Welfare Code.
In case the Minister is traumatised after the weekend — welcome to reality, it is wake-up time. The matter I raise is related to the reply to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 98 and 610 yesterday. I would not have raised the matter except that the Minister appeared to protest too much to the effect that——
I expressed concern.
No, she protested her innocence to the effect that I should know that certain procedures have always been in place when the reverse is the case. She also thought I was referring to a particular case when I was referring to several cases related to the cuts imposed in the most recent budget. The matter concerns a young mother whose child was born subsequent to the death of her husband.
No.
The Minister knows it is a fact and should not protest. When a single mother or widow has a second or subsequent child, the child dependant allowance has, heretofore, always been payable to the mother in respect of the child. However, in the case of mothers resident in rent supported accommodation and in receipt of supplementary rent allowance, they find that their child dependant allowance also incurs a penalty, namely, the reduction of the rent allowance by a commensurate amount. This has never been the case and is illegal. The Minister should know that and, with all due respect to her, whoever codded her into believing this practice is acceptable is wrong.
A similar practice was used by local authorities around ten years ago when they deprived local authority tenants receiving rent allowance of social welfare increases by increasing the rent by the same amount. This is an illegal practice and the Minister is wrong to approve it. If she does not do something about it as a matter of urgency, a case will be taken to the courts and won by the people concerned for the simple reason that——
Under no circumstances would a case be won.
——if an increase due to a person causes the Minister to modify policy in a way that deprives the person of his or increase——
The Deputy knows better than that.
The child dependant allowance is in respect of the child and has nothing to do with rent allowance. The person receiving child dependant allowance is entitled to the same rent allowance to which he or she was entitled before the child was born. The birth of the child incurs certain additional expenditure and the child dependant allowance is merely intended to compensate the parents for this expenditure. If the Minister is not aware of this, she has a serious problem. Whoever advised her to take this route advised her wrongly.
As a former Minister of State in the Minister's Department, I strongly advise her to re-examine the matter and change the rules because they are wrong. There is no basis in law for proceeding on the basis that a person may be deprived of an increase in payment of benefit by virtue of a decision of a Minister to reduce another payment by an equivalent amount. I will give an example. The income of a person who is not in receipt of allowance but paying rent in the normal manner would not be affected in similar circumstance.
I ask the Minister to review the position as a matter of urgency. If she fails to do so, she will be liable and in breach of the law.
A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I seek your guidance as to whether the person to whom we refer should not be mentioned either on the floor of the House or through freedom of information requests.
Individuals should not be named in the House.
On a point of order, I am not referring to a specific person but many cases.
I will refer to a particular case which will remain a matter between me and the Deputy.
The matter I raise refers to all cases.
Allow the Minister to continue without interruption.
In due course, I will refer to a case which should be between the Deputy and me and not available——
The Minister should deal with every case as they are all the same.
I would never introduce to a debate the circumstances of an individual. Subject to certain conditions, the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered by the health boards on behalf of my Department, provides for the payment of rent supplement to eligible people living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources.
Rent supplements are normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to his or her family circumstances less a minimum contribution, currently €13 per week, which recipients are required to pay from their own resources.
The regulations governing rent supplement stipulate that in addition to the minimum contribution, recipients are also required to contribute towards their rent any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate. This requirement is not new and is set out in the regulations governing the scheme, of which I am sure the Deputy, as a former Minister of State in my Department, is aware.
I could write a book about it.
At present the rate of child increase under the one parent family scheme is €19.30 per week while the corresponding rate under the basic supplementary welfare allowance scheme is €16.80. Where a person on one parent family payment who is in receipt of rent supplement has an additional child, the rent supplement is reduced by €2.50, the difference between these amounts. This has always been a feature of the rent supplement scheme and I have not altered the rules in this regard.
It was not a feature of the scheme until the Minister took office.
When a case is being reviewed, changes in the applicant's household composition or financial circumstances are taken into account in determining the amount of rent supplement payable. For example, a person could receive an increase in maintenance payments which would have an effect on the rent supplement payable.
Scrooge.
The position, therefore, is that a change in household composition or household income may affect the rent supplement payable at a given time.
I am conscious the Deputy may have a particular case in mind, as I have answered four parliamentary questions on this matter.
I have not. I refer to every case.
As I pointed out in my replies to the parliamentary questions, the rent supplement in payment was initially reviewed to take account of a change in family composition.
Presumption is dangerous.
The case was further reviewed when the person was awarded the appropriate increase in her one-parent family payment. I understand from the health board that the case has again been reviewed to take account of the fact that the person concerned is in receipt of additional maintenance payments in respect of her second child. Child benefit is also payable in respect of additional children but this money is not assessable for rent supplement purposes.
The Minister reduced rent supplement.
It costs €100 to reply to a parliamentary question. I reiterate the case involves a particular and unusual circumstance.
Why does it cost that much?
On a point of order——
There is no provision for points of order on an Adjournment debate.
On the basis of maintenance——
I will not take a lecture from the Minister. She got a lecture from the public last week and she should listen to what the public has to say. I am appalled and surprised at her attitude.
Order, please.
I will outline the facts. As an eminent Member of the Oireachtas, the Deputy is acutely aware of the circumstances of this person. The Deputy and his secretary are aware of the people they represent. I would prefer not to outline the background information to this case.
The Minister is referring to one case whereas I referred to every case.
I am referring to a case about which the Deputy has tabled four parliamentary questions.
The Minister's party was decimated at the polls last week because of its arrogance and because it will not listen. I am surprised at the Minister.
Order, please.
We are often accused of not outlining the facts. The reduction of €2.50 per week is the issue to which the Deputy refers.
There should not be a reduction.
The Dáil adjourned at 10.45 p.m. until10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 17 June 2004.