David Cullinane

I welcome the agreement. The Minister's predecessor admitted a number of years ago that the engagement with the Irish Pharmacy Union was not what it should have been and the State was not making the best use of community pharmacies. A number of years ago, I published a very comprehensive plan that set out a lot of what is in this agreement, and more, in relation to what we could do. It included ma…

Carers do invaluable work and each and every one of us, in our constituency offices, deals with family carers almost on a daily basis, certainly on a weekly basis. I visited one family in Waterford last week. It was a woman who was looking after her father. She was actually sick herself. When I got to the house, she was physically lifting her father, who is much heavier than her, out of a bed and …

Hear, hear.

There is no family that is not impacted by mental health difficulties and challenges at some point. We know early intervention is key to preventing serious illness, particularly for young people if a mental illness is caught at a young age and the intervention services are available. Jigsaw is an important service as part of the overall supports for young people. In Waterford, unfortunately, we d…

The Taoiseach left out my questions. This is just a reminder.

The Taoiseach skipped over them.

The school transport system is simply not up to standard. As previous speakers said, every year in the first week or second week back after the summer recess we are dealing with the same issues. In fact, all of our constituency offices are inundated in the months of July and August, but particularly August, with parents who are frustrated with the eligibility criteria, the concessionary criteria, …

I have lost count of how many times Waterford Airport has been raised over the last number of years in the Dáil Chamber. I have certainly raised it dozens of times. A meeting took place between Government representatives, the Minister for Transport and members of the board of Waterford Airport a number of months ago. There was a lot of frustration in Waterford following that meeting because, after…

The Minister of State might be familiar with the phrases "Build it and they will come" and "Show us the money". He stated that it is up to the airport "to demonstrate that sufficient demand and industry commitment [should] exist to facilitate regular scheduled passenger services". That can only be determined when there is a runway. If there is no runway, no airline will come in. At the moment, jet…

I was at an event about mental health a number of years ago where a presentation was given by an expert in the field who works on the ground. The person put up a photograph of a car that was held up, not by four wheels, but by plans and policy documents. She was illustrating the point that policy documents and plans are not in short supply. We have any number of them in mental health and the same …

Earlier this year, Deputy Conor McGuinness and I met with parents of children with disabilities from Waterford city and county. At the time, those parents were heartbroken because they had no idea if their child would have an appropriate class place. Many of them were sent on a wild goose chase, as they were told they had to contact schools themselves. In some instances, they had to contact 14, 15…

Hear, hear.

On a point of order, will copies of the speech be circulated?

The official notes given by the Minister can be read back to the Minister because those are the notes that are circulated.

That is a different matter.

It is a bit petty that the Minister does not share the-----

I do not need to be corrected. I know how the Dáil works. Accountability and good governance have always been at the fore of any debate about the health service. There is much great work is done by our front-line workers who strive every day to do their best. The efficiency with which many in the health service work, particularly in overcrowded emergency departments and under-staffed wards, is ge…

Over the last number of days, the South East Economic Monitor published its report, which showed a stagnant economy across the south east. There are very worrying figures in that report, which comes from a group of academics in the South East Technological University. One of the issues they cite is a lack of public investment in infrastructure. It is not that difficult to understand when there is …

It was a hole in the ground for ten years because of the Government's failure.

Read the monitor report.

I will send the Taoiseach the replies to the parliamentary questions I got on capital funding-----

-----for the hospital and the university.

The Taoiseach will see that we are at the bottom, unfortunately.

Sinn Féin held nine public meetings on the issue of endometriosis over the past number of months. I attended some of those meetings. I was shocked when I heard a lot of the stories told by women. I listened carefully and watched as many of them cried in the presence of family members. The collective trauma in the room caught me by surprise. The message from these women of feeling ignored and dismi…

Never have I seen a debate where the Ministers' speeches were so far removed from the reality of women and their experiences. I watched as women in the Public Gallery got very angry when they listened to the Ministers' speeches. Many of them were in tears, and rightly so. For so long, these women have felt ignored and dismissed. I wager that they feel ignored and dismissed by the Minister's respon…