Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am obviously not asking the Minister to declare his leadership intentions or otherwise here, but I ask him for a guarantee that the leadership contest, irrespective of whether he is in it, will not affect his dealings as Minister for Health.

I already spoke on this to the Minister in the Chamber. Obviously, there is a hospital like Bantry General Hospital in every constituency. That hospital is a really good and well-run hospital, but is obviously starved of funding. As I pointed out to the Minister in the Dáil already, with a little bit of funding it could do amazing things and could ease up the whole waiting list saga in Cork city.

What are the Minister's plans to ensure people are enticed to apply for GP positions etc.? As far as I know, some positions are getting no applications. Obviously, something is wrong and something needs to be done. What are the Minister's plans to entice people to apply and obviously to keep them, particularly in rural areas? A big campaign was run last year to entice nurses to come home from abroad. I have heard several stories of nurses finding it difficult when they come home to get their NMBI PIN and to get set up and running within the hospitals to which they have returned.

Mr. O'Brien has gone; everyone is avoiding me this evening. In his absence, let me say I am very disappointed about the Respreeza saga. I ask him to keep me informed. What can we do? I definitely will be looking for further engagement on that because it is shocking.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, for coming here this evening. I praise him on his work ethic. He always has an open door for me, as an Opposition spokesperson. I am very grateful for that. I have spoken to him several times about the waiting list for assessment. There is no improvement. While the Minister of State has good intentions, not enough is being done. Children, in particular, are waiting for a long time for assessment and then have to wait a long time for treatment if necessary. As we all know, early intervention is very important. It is at crisis point with the lists so long.

I ask the Minister of State for an update on the ratification of the UN convention.

People are very concerned about the delay in medical cards for those who receive domiciliary care. They are wondering if they should apply in the normal way given that this is taking so long.