Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that, Taoiseach. Obviously I gave the document to the Taoiseach last week after the meeting in Mayo. As we speak, one of the longest-serving members of the Mayo Pyrite Action Group in Erris, where the pyrite defective block was first noticed, on the Atlantic Ocean, is having her house demolished. She has the saddest of stories and I know she will not mind me saying that her name is Dorothy Keane. Her husband has ended up in hospital and that is all linked to what the family has suffered over those years. I would be there with her today if I did not need to be here in the Dáil. She is just one case. Dorothy, Josephine Murphy and others who are not with us today have fought and fought. I am not going to go down that road here but I ask the Taoiseach to sit down with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The positive thing is all of those things can be fixed in a very short space of time. People have given the solutions to all of the issues that have arisen. We do not want to waste billions of euro on assets that are not going to do what they are supposed to do to let people get on with their lives and rebuild their homes. They are not going to do that. We do not want to waste money either, but we want to ensure that these people can rebuild their homes, which is all they want.

Deputy Doherty is right in what he has said. None of these people in counties Donegal or Mayo would be in those halls and hotels to point out what they need changed in the scheme if they did not have to be there. If there is one thing Deputy Harris can do as Taoiseach, it is to, please, make those changes with the Minister for housing and let us all get on with our lives. Of course, it should never have happened. We talked about inquiries earlier. There must be a public inquiry into what has happened, why so many have had to suffer and why so many childhoods have been robbed, particularly from children who live along the western seaboard. I ask the Taoiseach to ensure that happens.

Will the valproate inquiry come under the remit of the Taoiseach's Department? As the Taoiseach will know from being Minister for Health, valproate under the brand name Epilim was prescribed for use by pregnant women while there was mounting evidence, spanning more than 40 years, that it would have a detrimental impact on unborn children. Obviously it has had that impact. The evidence of that is not only in this country but also in France and England. I believe the search or invitation for a chairperson of the inquiry will close this week, so I expect the inquiry will start quickly. Will the inquiry come under the remit of the Department of the Taoiseach or the Department of Health?