Micheál Martin

No, sorry I-----

Hold on a second-----

How long is this going to continue?

It is not my problem. I am not in a position now to answer.

I cannot get my points across because of this constant-----

I ask the Ceann Comhairle, given what has happened and what has happened in the past number of weeks, I want a review of how this is happening. I am not going to come in here-----

-----and listen to everybody and give them the courtesy of listening and not be allowed to reply.

That is fundamentally wrong.

It needs an intervention from the Ceann Comhairle-----

-----and the Whips as well, and the Chief Whip, to sort this out.

I fully agree with what Deputy Bacik is saying in respect of people's entitlement and families when they place their loved ones into nursing homes. It is absolutely shocking and scandalous there would be any abuse of people residing and living nursing homes. There is a range of existing legislation, including the 2007 Act amended on a number of occasions. There are a lot of measures and powers ava…

Who said that?

The power to remove or cancel a registration is there.

Eight nursing homes had their registration removed last year. It has happened and can happen. Looking at the protected disclosures and the list of complaints in respect of these nursing homes, one could argue that the case merited that type of intervention. However, I think the interim report contains an argument made by HIQA that the profile of one of the nursing homes was completely changed from…

The Deputy's juxtaposition of the migration issue with the genuinely serious problem of overcrowding in prisons is stretching credibility.

It is a false juxtaposition.

Sorry, I did not interrupt the Deputy. I just want to make the point. The Deputy said there are more than 5,000 prisoners. He is saying that if a number of asylum seekers are imprisoned, for whatever reason, they should not be, irrespective of what the reasons might be. That is what he indicated. His suggestion that it is all about some performance for the optics that we just want to get tough on …

Sorry?

The Deputy started by saying it is very difficult not to interrupt. I respectfully suggest-----

The Deputy said it was with great difficulty he could not but interrupt. He has never had any difficulty interrupting from my experience in the House. There is a prison overpopulation issue. That is accepted by the Government. The Minister has brought forward proposals which will result in about 960 additional prison spaces. That can be done as quickly as possible. Opposition is being created whe…

There has to be a balance. I suggest that the Deputy's basic assertion is wrong and flawed.

I agree with the Deputy this must be a priority to reverse the pollution of Lady's Island Lake. A specific action plan should be developed for the lake and so forth. That will have to involve a number of stakeholders. It will not just be agricultural stakeholders, but, obviously, they will be key. The Minister of State responsible for biodiversity should lead on this in conjunction with the Minist…

I certainly do not. Over the last number of years, I have taken a direct interest in the work of the NPWS and the biodiversity issue. We doubled the staff of the NPWS and we bought additional lands to transform into national parks. We now have a biodiversity officer in every local authority. When he was Minister of State, Senator Malcolm Noonan, did a lot of good work and I worked very well with h…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Prior to and during, the general election, I included a number of issues regarding disability in our party's manifesto. I was very clear in putting in to the programme for Government the need to increase the DCA. The previous Government increased it by €20 per month. It is a very important allowance and it helps the families of those with disabilities wit…

I accept that up to a point, but of course if we compare the most recent census to the previous one, we see that the number of people, including children, identifying with a disability is increasing exponentially. This can be seen from both censuses. The DCA was originally introduced for severe impacts on children, resulting from disabilities. I expect the numbers to continue to increase. There is…