Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Deputy Leader for a debate on the proposal for free GP care for those aged under six. Despite everybody's best intentions for reform in the health service, it is worrying that we are going ahead with a political gimmick in making free GP care available for those aged under six. It is not supported by the GPs and they have not been consulted on it. They are advising against it for a variety of reasons, yet we still intend to press ahead. This is happening at a time when we are inundated with distressed elderly people being subjected to reviews of their medical cards and in many instances losing discretionary cards. This requires very close examination before we press ahead with it. There have been many GP meetings throughout the country. Their criticisms represent more than vested interest and we should listen to them.

I agree with Senator Mooney on the concern nationally about Irish Water. There is concern about the cost and confusion. This outfit is now established. While most people agree with the principle of those who can do so paying something towards their water infrastructure, we have set up this super-quango and in the interim all national capital works have ground to a halt. For example, there is a scheme in Sligo known as the bundle scheme, where Tubbercurry, Strandhill and Grange are waiting for wastewater treatment facilities. Everything is ready to go, but because Irish Water is now in control of such schemes, it has come to a complete stop. The time to secure a single connection for a rural dwelling seems to have gone back by several months. These are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed.

As for the accusation that Fianna Fáil signed up to this, that or the other in the past, I was never in government and never signed up to anything. Even if I did, I listened to the people who indicated by taking 53 seats from the then Government that they did not approve of what it was doing. It must be stupid in the extreme for a government not to learn from the mistakes of a previous one when the public spoke so clearly against what it was doing. Just because somebody happened to do something in the past and played for the same team, it does not require me nor any of my colleagues to do anything today. We cannot play last season's matches again this season.