The CCTV monitoring system for Limerick city and county, currently located in Moyross, oversees 360 community cameras spread throughout Limerick city and county. Unfortunately, within the next ten days it is due to close with the loss of 11 jobs and dire consequences for crime prevention and detection in Limerick city and surrounding areas. This is due to the loss of funding from the social inclusion fund, which, as the Minister knows, is being gradually wound down. It has left a deficit of approximately €660,000, …

In Limerick, women who need maternity services have long enjoyed an excellent system. It is called a midwife-led series of community clinics. Effectively, what it means is that a woman will deal with the same midwife during the entire course of her pregnancy. In the past 48 hours, without any notice to anybody, the HSE has pre-emptively decided to terminate that service, allegedly because of a shortage of staff. I cannot overstate the anxiety, angst and distress this has caused. I have been inundated with phone cal…

While we welcome the fact that the Minister for Health has been quite proactive in following up the accident and emergency difficulties in the mid-west following the HIQA report, I nevertheless want to draw attention to the report and the statement from the medical board of University Hospital Limerick, UHL, yesterday, which pointed out that patient safety was still a huge concern. As a matter of fact, it concluded that the problems surrounding patient safety had not improved at all since the HIQA report, which is …

I am referring to the report yesterday from the medical board.

Recently the courts exonerated a number of gardaí from the mid-west region. They had been subjected to a seven-year investigation for being involved in practices that were commonplace in every single Garda district from one end of this country to the other. They were they only people who were prosecuted. During the course of that seven-year investigation, the gardaí were suspended, interrogated, vilified and had their names dragged through the mud. The net result of all this is a huge legal bill for the State and G…

Twenty years have elapsed since the financial criteria for qualification for civil legal aid were last set. It was in 2006. It is estimated that someone who purchased goods or services in 2006 with €100 would have to pay €250 to €300 today, which means that two of every three people this State judged eligible for legal aid because of their financial circumstances would no longer qualify. I have been dealing with people who can barely buy groceries for the week and they are judged to be too affluent or wealthy to qu…

I welcome the acceptance by the Government of the Minister for Health's proposals relating to hospital facilities in the mid-west. These proposals were based on the HIQA report, which stressed patient safety. It said patient safety was central to its proposals, which means time is of the essence in implementing these proposals. We are all concerned about patients. I pay tribute to the staff, who have worked with great dedication and courtesy in UHL in what continue to be very difficult and sometimes intolerable con…

Will the Taoiseach comment on the ambulance service in the area? Two private hospitals were built in Limerick after the last 96-bed block was commissioned. They were built in two or two and a half years. It took six years, from start to finish, to build the 96-bed unit. It is projected it will take another six years to build the next one. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, has proposals to move on and expedite these large infrastructural projects. Does the Taoiseach envisage those will have an impact, such that that jo…

There has been much commentary about Government plans being stymied by bureaucratic inertia and delay. I will give a textbook example. After years of effort, we finally persuaded An Garda Síochána of the necessity for a new Garda station to serve the Castletroy–Monaleen–Annacotty area, a rapidly growing suburb of Limerick city. The Government accepted this, and I have been informed that capital funding has been provided. For a period going on two years, we have been consistently informed that the OPW and Garda are …

Subsequent to the election, the Government produced a very ambitious programme for Government, which made many commitments to improve the lot of people in this country. Of course, the extent to which the Government can meet its commitments is contingent on a successful economy, and that should be obvious to everybody on all sides of this House. The Government decided to strengthen the economy and make sure the economy was in good shape despite the headwinds, volatility and uncertainty we face. It decided to use the…

In the programme for Government, the Government has committed itself to improving the situation in relation to income tax, disability, education, justice, etc. In order to bring about that improvement, it has committed to do these things over a five-year period. It was quite wrong for the speaker who has just left to say that the Government broke its promise in not getting rid of carer's allowance means test in year one. It was the Fianna Fáil Minister who introduced the carer's allowance. There was no such thing a…

During the week, the HIQA report on the inadequate accident and emergency services at University Hospital Limerick was published after HIQA had considered the matter for 16 months - it took 16 months to produce the report. The report told us what we had already been telling the Government for several years. It refers to a significant inpatient bed deficit in University Hospital Limerick and a growing demand for services, which continues to grow strongly. This is all presenting a risk to patient safety, and I can qu…

Like everybody else, I welcome the efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. I hope the present peace agreement takes hold. I am very disturbed by reports that the Israeli Prime Minister has unilaterally sought to change certain fundamental aspects of that agreement. If so, he is acting in very bad faith. The Israelis say they have achieved their war aims but I am not entirely sure what their war aims are. Their only stated war aim is the destruction and elimination of Hamas. I suppose from one point of view that …

I apologise, as I have a frog in my throat. I come here today to bring something to the Minister's attention and, more importantly, to the attention of workers who have not yet been signed up to a company pension scheme. It has come to my attention that there are a number of brokers and pension providers who are approaching companies, particularly small ones, to advise them that they can avoid the auto-enrolment scheme by signing their workers up to a pension scheme now. I urge employers to reject those approaches.…

-----nevertheless, the former's reasons for not using the NTMA were contradictory.

Some 17 months have elapsed since HIQA was tasked with the objective of looking at the totally inadequate accident and emergency services in the mid-west, particularly in Limerick University Hospital, and making recommendations on what should be done. They informed us at the time that they would take a year to report, which we did not agree with but had to accept. Some 17 months have now elapsed. I have a reply from the Taoiseach dated 6 November 2024 confirming that the final report would be available in May 2025.…

I had some queries on the technical aspects of the transitional sections of the Bill, but time does not allow me to go into them; four minutes is a very short time to debate a Bill such as this. However, on the general thrust of the Bill, there cannot be any serious objection to the notion, if we are trying to expedite the housing programme, that we try to save extant planning permissions. The point was made that three and two years, or five years in total, is too long. I would prefer to see somewhat shorter times …

Last year, the Garda Commissioner finally gave his seal of approval to the provision of a new Garda station in the very heavily populated suburbs of Castletroy, Monaleen and Annacotty in Limerick city. I understand that the Government has set aside capital funding and approved capital funding for the project. Unfortunately, the task of identifying a site has been given to the Office of Public Works - this was more than 12 months ago - and the OPW, moving at its usual ponderous haste, has not yet identified a site. …

St. Munchin's College, Corbally, Limerick city, is accommodating two autism special needs classes at present in one classroom, which is completely and totally unacceptable. It has made an application to the Department of education under the ASA scheme for refurbishment funding, which would solve the problem and would, in fact, enable it to accommodate more autistic students in the years ahead, for which there is a huge demand. The Minister in a written reply last week told me the request had been received and is be…

Research commissioned by Limerick Chamber of Commerce revealed that of the houses purchased in the State over the past two years, 40% were purchased either by approved housing bodies or other entities supported by the State. Contrary to what we hear from some on the other side of the House, that represents substantial public investment in the private housing sector, which is to be welcomed. However, the comparable figure in Limerick city is 60%. In other words, State entities and approved housing bodies purchased o…