Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

Ba mhaith liom aontú leis an Seanadóir Ó Murchú mar gheall ar seachtain na Gaeilge. Ba chóir dúinn cabhair a thabhairt don iarracht sin, agus páirt a ghlacadh ann. Aontaím go mór go bhfuil sé riachtanach go dtiocfadh ceannairí an tSeanaid le chéile agus rud éigin a eagrú ionas go mbeimid páirteach i seachtain na Gaeilge

Yesterday, I met a family of somebody who lost their job at SR Technics. It brought home to me the human reality of a 28 year old man with a mortgage. It is a great trauma for the family and for him personally. For that reason I have the simple view that the Tánaiste should have checked out the colour of Mr. Michael O'Leary's money in the first instance. I accept he engages in these publicity stunts; I am well aware of all that. However, the colour of his money should have been checked and bureaucracy should have been cast aside to meet the man. It is what had to happen today. For the sake of those 1,100 workers I hope we can retrieve some of the jobs and I hope that is the outcome of today's meeting. It is incumbent on all of us to work towards that. Having met that family yesterday and heard of the great impact on them, one could not but feel for them. Urgent action is required. I support the call for a debate, which I hope will simply be accepted unanimously.

Today the Royal College of Physicians has highlighted that C. diff and MRSA are not being properly monitored in nursing homes. We recently had a debate on nursing home inspection. More needs to be done on monitoring infections in them and training the staff to deal with them. There needs to be laboratory back-up to assess them.

Lastly——