The Order of Business is No. 1, Transport (Córas Iompair Éireann and Subsidiary Companies Borrowings) Bill 2012 - Committee and Remaining Stages, to be taken at the conclusion of the Order of Business and conclude not later than 2 p.m.; and No. 2, Private Members' business, Employment Permits (Amendment) Bill 2012 - Second Stage, to be taken at 3.30 p.m. and conclude at 5.30 p.m.
Order of Business
I ask the Leader to schedule time for a debate on adult mental health services. I raised the issue last week when I used the example of the Curam clinic in Swords in north County Dublin which I visited on 16 November. There are strong rumours abounding that there will be a 10% cut in the budget for adult mental health services. While there is no question but that the Government has tough choices to make we were promised an open and transparent budgetary process. It is important, in advance of the budget, that we have a discussion of our priorities.
In Curam 450 people with mental health issues are being counselled. They have been moved out of their offices and shoehorned into the back of a HSE office which has no facilities. For the past four weeks there has been no telephone access for any client who wishes to ring up to ascertain what facilities are available in the whole north County Dublin area. There are no proper nursing facilities and no counselling facilities. It is an absolute outrage in the constituency of the Minister for Health. In broader terms, there is a need for a proper discussion on mental health services and adult mental health services. Rightly so, the issue of suicide is raised regularly in the House and I agree with every contribution that has been made. We have to see what is important in these straitened times and where our resources should go. A proper reasoned debate on that issue is required.
As I have done every week for the past eight weeks, I ask where the Government stands on the issue of home help services and home help funding. As everybody is aware home help services were reduced by 500,000 hours earlier in the year and a further 450,000 hours are being cut by the Government to save €8 million. This is contrary to promises given by Fine Gael and the Labour Party prior to the election that not only would the Government retain home help services it would expand them. That was further restated in the programme for Government.
In our alternative budget proposal that is fully costed, Fianna Fáil has shown how the cuts can be reversed, yet still achieving the €3.5 billion adjustment needed while protecting mental health services, home helps and carers, and ring-fencing education. Because I am not getting answers from the Government, I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Health come to the House and confirm to us what is happening to home help services. Will the Government reverse the cuts totalling 950,000 hours it implemented this year? Will the Government give a commitment not to make further cuts in the home help service next year? It is a false economy.
As many colleagues on the Government side have pointed out, the assessments being carried out are not being made case by case but are being applied across the board. The elderly and the infirm who deserve to be looked after at home will end up in hospitals. Most people agree that, if possible, they should be looked after at home to allow them to retain their dignity and independence. They have had their hours slashed. Despite raising the issue repeatedly, I have not received an answer from the Government as to what the current position is. Therefore, I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Health come to the House and reaffirm the Government's commitment in the programme for Government that there would be no cuts to home help services.
I again call for a debate on the report of the expert group on the judgment in A, B and C v. Ireland, which has now been published. I welcome its publication yesterday and welcome that chapter 7 of the report clearly indicates that the best option for implementing the European Court of Justice judgment in the case of A, B and C v. Ireland is legislation, with regulation. I welcome that yesterday's Cabinet meeting agreed a clear timeline, with debates in both Houses of the Oireachtas in the next three weeks, a Cabinet decision to be taken before the end of this Dáil term and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children holding hearings early in January. It is welcome that the Cabinet has expressed the need to move swiftly on this issue.
We need to be conscious of how high feelings have been running since the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar. Women are camping outside Leinster House with the slogan of "never again" and making the point that it has been 20 years since the Supreme Court decision in the X case. I believe large numbers of people will appear outside Leinster House tonight to protest against the Government voting down Deputy Clare Daly's Bill. It is very important the Government has indicated it will move swiftly on this issue.
I very much welcome the comments of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, in the Dáil last night and again this morning that the Government will act on this issue and that the Government's action will not go anything like as far as many of us would want. The Minister also made it clear that whatever option is taken - I very much hope it will be legislation, which the Labour Party has urged - it cannot leave out suicide risk. The risk to life of a pregnant woman needs to cover both physical risk and risk of suicide, and that will also need to be legislated for. To suggest we could legislate for a bit of the judgment in the X case is like saying a woman could be a little bit pregnant. It is simply not possible. The judgment in the X case has been confirmed by the people in two separate referenda in 1992 and 2002. It is very clear that it is incumbent on the Government to move swiftly and to legislate. I look forward to our debate on the matter in coming weeks.
Many of us will have noticed road improvements in the area of Dublin Castle with much tarmac being laid, potholes filled and roads made better. It is very largely a cosmetic exercise that conceals the reality for many people. Another soup kitchen is opening today. Unemployment is increasing and people are unable to pay their bills. We are all experiencing straitened circumstances. Remarkably we have learned today that children in schools with no heating in the winter are being told by their teachers to jump up and down and to skip. Their parents are receiving texts advising them to put on extra clothes. I find this pretty appalling. It is Dickensian and hits the poorest and neediest sections in the hardest way possible. They are expected to make up the deficit by raising funds themselves. A substantial number of schools are in debt. Therefore, we must ask the Leader to pass the message to the Government that the Taoiseach's leadership of Europe should not be cosmetic in the way the road improvements around Dublin Castle are. The Taoiseach has been awarded European of the year, on which we wish him well. He has become the poster boy of Europe on the cover of Time magazine. We now need to ask him to step up and earn that reputation. As President of Europe he can put Ireland firmly on the agenda and seek to make arrangements and create the context in which the people will no longer suffer with the system put before them.
I speak as a man and abortion will not affect me. It is a difficult and complex subject, but we should always attempt to understand the position of the other person, in this case a woman. Some 20 years ago or more I said during a debate in this House I was glad of three things: first, that I was not heterosexual; second, that I was not a woman; and third, that I was not married to any man who would value me at the same level as and on the same terms of equality with the fertilised egg. I ask anybody who feels this to try to reverse the equation and ask how he would feel if his wife, girlfriend or consort placed that kind of value on him after 20 years of bearing his children, feeding them, washing their clothes and loving them. That is the value placed on them at the end of it. Mr. Halappanavar put it very well when he said there was a bigger life involved - the life of a woman who could continue to bear children.
I call on the Leader to ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to come to the House to make a statement on the Control of Horses Act 1996. Many horses are not microchipped, even though it has been a requirement since 2009. I will give an example of the mayhem they are causing. In Kilkenny over the weekend horses broke from wherever they were being held, went up a country road and into people's gardens, including the garden of a nursing home that was destroyed. Nobody is taking responsibility.
I want the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to come to House and make a statement on whether all horses born after 1 July 2009 are being microchipped. Is the law being enforced whereby a horse caught wandering three times in the previous 12 months may be seized, resulting in the owner not getting the animal back? Another part of the legislation provides that the local authority may decide to dispose of a horse that has been detained on two or more occasions in the previous 12 months. Is that being done? It costs €34.16 to license a horse and a further €16 to microchip it, which comes to €50 or so. Some families have 40 or 50 horses. How can these people afford horses? They are causing mayhem on the roads, with children under 16 years often in charge of horses, which is against the law. People on country roads are in danger owing to people having sulky races on these roads.
In the 1930s a person with a pony and trap was required to have a number plate for that trap. I ask the Minister to consider requiring these sulkies to be licensed and carry a number plate. It should cost money for people to own them. The people concerned are not treating the rest of the community with respect and are causing a danger on the roads. Are the laws relating to microchipping, horses wandering and horses that have been detained twice being enforced?
I second Senator Darragh O'Brien's amendment to the Order of Business on the home help service. Most Members of the House have been attending meetings. Senator Kelly and I attended a public meeting on Monday night organised by SIPTU in Hannon's Hotel in Roscommon town. We heard from home help workers who are helping and serving many people in the community. Fianna Fáil has a very proud record in this regard in that we established the home help concept. When I was a member of the health board, being a home help went from being a voluntary part-time job to being a full-time job, albeit not well paid. Although it is one of the least paid jobs in the HSE services, it provides a vital service. It is galling that in the general election campaign Fine Gael and the Labour Party promised to maintain, develop and expand home help services. It is another broken promise, which we know is a regular event. In this regard, there is no reason to cut the amount involved because it is approximately €8 million. The Government is now trying to save another 500,000 hours, which just will not work.
One carer was looking after two elderly persons for one and a half hours and had to change and prepare them and do everything else. They outlined the position. It is pretty galling when they know that so many who have received massive handouts in pensions are getting away without bearing the burden. In the circumstances, I strongly recommend to my colleagues on the opposite side that they ensure funding will be restored because they will pay the price at the next general election and local elections. The trouble is that the elderly are paying the price. That is the tragedy of the matter.
I support calls by my colleagues, Senators Darragh O'Brien and Leyden, on the issue of home help services. We attended a meeting on Monday night last in Roscommon where home helps were reduced to tears trying to explain the bonds that they have created with the elderly with whom they have worked for years, being deprived of hours of home help and how it is affecting the elderly.
I appreciate what Senator Leyden stated, namely, that Fianna Fáil has a proud record. I made the point at that meeting that five or six years ago we should have been worried about this issue because we were down to talking about home help minutes when the Senator's party was in government and now the issue has come to a head. We do not have a vote on budgetary matters.
Is the Senator looking for a debate on this issue?
I have a question. We do not have a vote on budgetary matters, but we are aware that it makes no economic sense whatsoever to take such persons out of their homes and put them into hospital. I need to know whether there are economists advising the Ministers making these decisions on budget day.
There are other issues. Children who have ADHD are being deprived domiciliary care allowance because the medical profession does not recognise the disease ADHD, even though, as those who watched "Prime Time" last week will be aware, it is harrowing to see what families are going through to look after children who have this ailment. I ask the Leader to bring to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Reilly, the importance of this issue when it comes to budget day and that there be no cuts. Whereas I support Senator Darragh O'Brien's call on this issue, I do not support his call for an amendment to the Order of Business because he will be aware that the Minister will not come here to discuss budgetary matters with him in advance of the budget.
It is about home help.
Some 26 years ago Sir Kenneth Cork, the leading expert in Britain on companies that went into receivership, wrote in an article that he discovered that companies that were going to run into difficulty often had built a new office, but the sure sign that it would go out of business was if it put a fountain in the foyer. The reason I bring it up is the Central Bank is moving from its offices in Dame Street to the former Anglo Irish Bank's headquarters on the quays. I do not know whether the Central Bank has a fountain planned for that office; I hope not. However, I was surprised at the number of staff the Central Bank employs. For Ireland alone, it employs 1,500 staff - that is why it is moving - and yet the European Central Bank based in Frankfurt employs only 1,400 for the whole of Europe. It seems there is a danger that we get into the habit of the luxury of too many staff to do a technical job and also of buildings that are far beyond our need.
I think of the unfortunate death yesterday of Mr. Hugh O'Regan, a man I did not know well. I met him approximately five years ago. It was a time where this House was going to have to vacate this premises to go somewhere else. There was talk of the Seanad moving to the National History Museum. Mr. O'Regan asked me, "Would you pass on an offer that I would like to make to you of the United Services Club?" That is the club next door to the St. Stephen's Green club that he owned at the time. He said, "I would like to offer it to the nation for a couple of years so that the Seanad could sit there." It was not needed in the end and was not used. I mention it because developers got a bad name in recent years but there were some things we should remember of those who wanted to give back to the nation a great deal of the benefits they had. I remember Mr. O'Regan whom I did not know well in that regard and my sympathy goes to the family.
My last point is one I brought up previously, namely, the frustration of getting our Order Paper every day in a sealed envelope. I do not know why we waste so much paper and funding on doing so. I suppose I am a little careful with what I spend my money on. I was going to unseal these envelopes to use them again, except I discovered they have also put my name on the outside as well and I would have to write to myself. I am sure somebody should draw attention to this and ask why there is a need to have the Order Paper sent to everyone in a sealed envelop, with all of that paper, with our name and address, which is Leinster House I assume I am not the only one getting it; everybody else is getting it. Most of us, with the exception of one Senator who corrected me, have an iPad or some means of contact by which to relay information without needing paper. Let us start an anti-paper campaign.
For the Senator's information, the Committee on Procedure and Privileges made a recommendation to that effect. It was raised yesterday at the Oireachtas commission's finance committee meeting as well.
I welcome the commitment from the Government that it will have decided on its option from the expert group report by Christmas. That is the type of timeline and clarity we need. Between this and then, I appeal for cool heads on this issue to give the Minister and the Cabinet the time to make the correct recommendation and to go with the correct option.
I request a debate on Shannon Airport at some stage in the near future. The Cabinet discussed the issue of the break-up of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority and the amalgamation of Shannon Airport with Shannon Development which will happen in the new year. Unfortunately, there has been a slight delay with the announcement of the detail on this issue because there are a couple of small matters that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, needs to clarify. I understand that this delay will be a matter of days as opposed to weeks. I commend the Minister. He is in government 18 months and we now have a firm commitment and clarity on the future of Shannon Airport which is so vital, not only for County Clare but for the mid-west and western regions. For decades it has been a gateway for millions of tourists from America and all over the world and it has the potential of being a gateway to generate and drive, not only tourism development in the west but, with the new entity of Shannon Development combined with it, industrial and economic development and job creation. It is a novel move by the Minister. This agency will have a specific brief to attract aviation industries. Shannon has been synonymous during the years with aviation-related industries and a new emphasis in that area must be welcomed. I also welcome the fact that there are memoranda of understanding already signed with myriad companies that will, in the next couple of years, result in 12,000 new jobs for the Shannon region. It is a good news story. It certainly warrants debate in this House in due course.
Yesterday I raised with the Leader the issue of Deputy Reilly's continuance in his position as Minister for Health and my view that he should resign or be sacked by the Taoiseach. In response, the Leader read the qualifying criteria used by the Minister for the selection of primary care centres across the State. What Senator Cummins did not explain, and what he must, is how at the eleventh hour the Minister was able to include areas and sites from his own constituency and that of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan.
Any site that was included could fit into the criteria if necessary but in reality the Minister of State resigned because she could not stomach stroke politics. The CEO of the HSE has resigned because he could not work under the Minister for Health either. It is vital that the Government acts on this issue and I support the amendment to the Order of Business to have the Minister come to the House to discuss the cuts to home helps. There is also a major overspend in the hospitals that will have an impact on services when adjustments must be made. I simply do not have faith in the Minister to run the health service. He has the Midas touch in reverse, where everything he touches turns into a complete mess. We see that with hospitals up and down the State, including in the Leader's area in Waterford and the south east, with planned hospital reconfiguration and a possible downgrade of Waterford Regional Hospital. The bigger issue is whether the people trust the Minister and if he is doing what he was elected to do. In my view, he is not and he puts stroke politics front and centre instead of the interests of patients or the people. I reiterate my call, despite the assurances the Leader gave yesterday, which I simply do not accept, for the Minister for Health to resign and if he does not have the stomach or courage to resign himself, he should be sacked by the Taoiseach for his performance as Minister for Health and because he put his own constituency ahead of the wider interests of the people.
It is interesting to hear Senator Cullinane raise the issue of primary care centres. Last week I raised the issue of a primary care centre in Cork where it was agreed in 2004 that it would be built. Here we are seven years later and it is still not open. The HSE cannot give a date for when it will be opened, yet it paid €956,000 for it. It was built four years ago and has been vacant since. Perhaps we should look at what was already built before we look at new sites being identified. In fairness to the Minister, he identified two new centres but if we look at the time for this centre, they will not be built for seven years going by the current rate of progress.
I wish to raise the issue of care of the elderly and nursing homes. I remind my colleague on the Opposition side of the House that €485 million was wasted when it had to be paid back to people in nursing homes because of the previous Government's failure to put in place proper legislation.
Will the Senator remind me about the promises in the programme for Government - "No cuts to home help services"? Does he remember that?
That €485 million would be very useful now. I wish to raise the need for all parties involved in elder care-----
Is the Senator seeking a debate?
I am looking for a debate on the issue, particularly about the need for those involved in care for the elderly - the nursing homes organisations, HIQA, the HSE, the NTPF, the patient organisations and those involved in home packages - to sit down around the table and plan for elder care in the future. We are not doing that; we approaching this in a hit and miss fashion when we must start planning for the long term. The number of people going into elder care is growing all the time and we must have a strategy for that. I met people from nursing homes this morning and they told me they have never had the chance to sit down with all the other parties to deal with long-term planning. There is a need for that and I ask the Leader to allow a debate on the matter and to invite the Department of Health, the HSE and all other involved parties to sit down around the table as soon as possible.
The House will welcome the announcement by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport that the link-up of the Luas lines in Dublin will go ahead. I am sure, however, many businesses and those of us within the city centre area will bemoan the disruption once construction starts. While that is good news, it is tempered by the statement made earlier this morning at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications by Mr. Cormac O'Rourke, the chairman designate of the National Roads Authority and Railway Procurement Agency, which are being merged. I raised the issue of ongoing road maintenance requirements on our new national motorways, apart even from the regional and national roads. He has revealed there will be a shortfall of €100 million in the maintenance budget. This is a serious issue if it continues unchecked because that shortfall could rise to €200 million next year. Those of us who have been here long enough know that during the recession in the 1980s, one of the most damaging factors in infrastructural terms was the loss of revenue to local authorities for the maintenance of local and regional roads. It haunted us for the next ten or 15 years across two Administrations. We were all involved. I know the Minister is coming, but I am directing my comments not so much at him through the Leader, but at Government Members of the House in order that they can raise the issue at the meetings of their parliamentary parties. Most of us have been involved in local authorities and know the severe damage as a result of the reduction in the budget for road maintenance. If this is going to happen to a road network we can be proud of, and which is an important link in our trading capacity, the issue must be raised in order that the necessary money is made available to the NRA, despite the current severe difficulties.
I want to raise the issue of preventive medicine and what we are doing to ensure the nation has good health. Professor Ivan Perry of UCC, in conjunction with safefood launched a report yesterday that gave the cost of obesity in Ireland. We have not discussed obesity in detail but this report is very important. It has found that €1.64 billion is being spent on obesity-related illness per year across the island, with €1.13 billion spent in the State. We are talking about health but money talks. The Minister for Health should come into the Chamber to discuss this report in detail because there is such invaluable information in the report. We have been talking about obesity for years but when this is broken down, we see what we can do with preventive measures. Obesity in children has very much become an issue and we must take it seriously. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government must ensure local government plays a part with sports partnerships and the provision of adult exercise facilities and children's playgrounds. I would like to see further funding in local communities on exercise and exercise programmes. There must be community-led sports partnerships to take communities by the hand. This will not cost money; it will save the State €1.3 billion per year. I am asking the Leader, therefore, to ask the Ministers for Health and the Environment, Community and Local Government to come in to discuss this report.
The Minister for Health has just announced the intention to extend free GP care to the entire population. I am sure this will have many desirable effects but the warning from the extension of medical cards to the over 70s should be borne in mind because that cost far more than was expected. The cost per patient varies between 4.4 times and 4.8 times the average when treating an affluent person over 70 who has a medical card in a system that previously dealt with low income clients. There are dangers in proceeding so perhaps this should be done gradually instead of in one fell swoop given our experience with how much it cost last time.
Perhaps the measure should be extended gradually rather than implemented in one fell swoop, given our experience of how much it cost the last time.
I join other Senators in calling for a debate on the expert group's report. It is important that the debate take place prior to any decision being taken by the Government, if we are to have any input into it. Once the decision is made, all we will be doing is commenting after the event. It is interesting that the report discusses the role of psychiatrists and mentions that in the case of suicidal ideation there are recognised clinical challenges in correctly diagnosing express suicide intent. The absence of recognised clinical markers makes it a more subjective process. We must bear that in mind.
It was interesting for people who took the trouble to go to the address on the paper by Patricia Casey this morning to hear about the research she has carried out. It shows that between 1980 and 2011, a period of 31 years, there were 686,000 births in the three major maternity hospitals in Dublin. Two people died from what are called maternal suicides. Maternal suicide is where the woman dies during the pregnancy or within the six weeks following the birth. Both cases occurred in the six weeks following the birth. In one case, the woman had a history of depression and in the second case the woman had a history of abuse. There were, therefore, other reasons for it.
We must have this debate because the guidelines and regulations must be teased out vis-à-vis the option of legislation. The problem with taking the legislative route, according to what I am told by lawyers, is that one must legislate for the X case judgment. That case includes suicide and taking that route means opting for a liberal abortion regime.
That is nonsense.
Senator Walsh to continue, without interruption.
This is the demarcation between Senator Bacik's and Senator O'Keeffe's position on the matter-----
The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, has made that clear.
-----and the position of the pro-life people who do not want abortion on demand but want to protect the life of the mother.
We are not debating the matter today.
We must have a debate on it, to discuss the continuation of life. This is challenging, particularly for those in the Fine Gael Party, where there are people on the pro-choice side and on the pro-life side. We should follow the advice of Edmund Burke, the great Irish parliamentarian. Do not abrogate one's conscience to people such as Deputy Alan Shatter, Deputy James Reilly, Senator Ivana Bacik, Senator Susan O'Keeffe or Deputy Eamon Gilmore. People should follow their own consciences-----
The Senator is out of time and completely out of order.
-----and I urge them to do so.
The Senator is out of line.
We are not having that debate today.
We must have a debate on this issue before rather than after the event.
An informed debate.
For a man who is asking for a debate, Senator Jim Walsh is starting from a very strange place by accusing people of all kinds of nonsense.
The Senator is pro-choice.
The Senator should make no assumptions.
The Senator is pro-choice.
Does Senator O'Keeffe have a question for the Leader?
I have, but I will not be hectored and lied about. Senator Jim Walsh should not make accusations about me.
I am asking the Senator to be honest.
The Senator had his chance to speak and went over time also. Does Senator O'Keeffe have a question for the Leader on the Order of Business?
I welcome the expert group's report. I thank the members of the group for the effort they put into it and the clarity of the report. I am sure the Leader will try to allocate time for us to have that very robust and proper debate in this House.
I take the opportunity to raise the suicide of young Lara Burns. We have spoken a great deal in this House about young girls taking their lives through suicide. The Minister for Education and Skills has been here on several occasions and I again urge that the work of the working group on bullying, particularly relating to this matter, be expedited as quickly as possible. Members of the House will recall that we committed ourselves to keeping this issue on the agenda by continuing to talk about it. Perhaps the Leader might ensure that we keep that dialogue going with the Minister for Education and Skills in order that as soon as the working group has reported we will again consider it. It is a matter of what we will do about this. Doing is what is required, we cannot simply talk about it. Children's lives are being lost. I extend my deep sympathy to Lara's family.
I am strongly pro-life-----
As we all are.
Exactly. I said that yesterday. I have said nobody here is in favour of killing; we are saving the lives of mothers.
We are not having the debate today.
I know, but I have a question for the Leader. It is important that we be calm and that there are debates within the parties as well as in this Chamber. I ask the Leader to arrange for a debate on the report of the expert group whenever he can conveniently schedule it but soon. We should not get hung up on this, that or the other in the meantime. Please God, we will do the right thing and be pro-saving lives.
Senator Darragh O'Brien raised the issue of adult mental health services. It is certainly a matter that should be addressed. I will try to arrange a further debate on it.
I thank the Leader.
The Senator outlined circumstances in Swords which he should possibly raise as an Adjournment matter. He would get more information on it.
On the question of home help, I have explained on a number of occasions that the Government is committed to supporting older people living in the dignity and independence of their own homes and communities. I cannot pre-empt the budget process by announcing what will be in the budget and what finance will be available for home help services next year, but the House can be assured that it is a priority for the Government to provide the necessary finance to ensure that everybody who needs home help will receive it.
Senator Bacik and several other Members referred to the expert group's report. I will arrange a debate on it. It will not be next week but probably the week after. I hope we will have a calm and informed debate, although there has been a bad start this morning. If the debate is conducted in that type of atmosphere-----
Hear, hear.
-----I wonder if we should have it at all.
The Leader has seen nothing yet.
However, in deference to the majority of Members, I believe we should have a calm, informed debate.
And soon.
I said the week after next, if the Senator was listening.
I was.
Senator O'Neill mentioned the Control of Horses Act, the microchipping of horses and the enforcement of the Act. We all appreciate the dangers in that regard. I will bring the matter to the attention of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Perhaps the Senator should raise it as an Adjournment matter also.
Senator Quinn raised the issue of the Central Bank and the number of people employed there compared with the European Central Bank. The Cathaoirleach outlined the position on brown envelopes and Order Papers. We have been raising this issue for years and, as the Cathaoirleach mentioned, the Committee on Procedure and Privileges will take it up also. The wheels grind slowly when getting little things like that to happen, but I hope it will happen soon.
Senator Cullinane referred to primary care centres and the criteria used, which I outlined yesterday. On the one hand, the Senator is criticising overspending but, on the other, he is looking for more money to be spent on other services. He cannot have his bread buttered on both sides. Again, Sinn Féin is engaging in a cynical exercise in what it is doing with regard to the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly.
Senator Colm Burke asked for a debate on the nursing home issue and the plan for care of the elderly. We can arrange that debate early in the new year.
Senator Mooney welcomed the proposed linking of the Luas lines, which is long overdue. I note his point on road maintenance, especially in the case of motorways.
Senator Keane raised the issue of preventive medicine and referred to a new report published on obesity related illnesses. Again, that is an issue we can discuss early in the new year.
I note Senator Barrett's comments on free general practitioner, GP, care and his advice that it be introduced on a gradual basis rather than being implemented straightaway.
Other Senators raised the question of the expert group's report. The matter will be addressed in the House the week after next.
Senator O'Keeffe also raised the question of the working group on bullying and asked that we act on the report when it is published. We all share her sentiments.
Senator Darragh O'Brien has proposed an amendment to the Order of Business, "That a debate on Government policy on the reduction of hours in the home help service be taken today." Is the amendment being pressed?
Yes.
Amendment put:
The Seanad divided: Tá, 16; Níl, 29.
Tá
- Barrett, Sean D.
- Byrne, Thomas.
- Crown, John.
- Leyden, Terry.
- Mooney, Paschal.
- Mullen, Rónán.
- Norris, David.
- Ó Murchú, Labhrás.
- O'Brien, Darragh.
- O'Sullivan, Ned.
- Power, Averil.
- Quinn, Feargal.
- Reilly, Kathryn.
- van Turnhout, Jillian.
- Walsh, Jim.
- Wilson, Diarmuid.
Níl
- Bacik, Ivana.
- Bradford, Paul.
- Brennan, Terry.
- Burke, Colm.
- Clune, Deirdre.
- Coghlan, Eamonn.
- Coghlan, Paul.
- Comiskey, Michael.
- Conway, Martin.
- Cummins, Maurice.
- D'Arcy, Jim.
- Gilroy, John.
- Harte, Jimmy.
- Hayden, Aideen.
- Heffernan, James.
- Henry, Imelda.
- Higgins, Lorraine.
- Keane, Cáit.
- Kelly, John.
- Landy, Denis.
- Mac Conghail, Fiach.
- Moloney, Marie.
- Moran, Mary.
- Mulcahy, Tony.
- Mullins, Michael.
- O'Keeffe, Susan.
- O'Neill, Pat.
- Sheahan, Tom.
- Whelan, John.
Tellers: Tá, Senators Ned O'Sullivan and Diarmuid Wilson; Níl, Senators Paul Coghlan and Aideen Hayden.
Amendment declared lost.
Question, "That the Order of Business be agreed to," put and declared carried.
Sitting suspended at 11.35 a.m. and resumed at 11.45 a.m.