Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Even though he is saying that it is late, it is good that he is being upfront about it at this stage. Others have not been as upfront. We will note that.

Correspondence dated 24 February from Sage, which is the support and advocacy service for older people, relates to fees and charges associated with nursing homes. This will certainly be a useful piece of information for our forthcoming meeting with the HSE. We will note and carry that forward to our committee meeting when we are dealing with that particular issue in the coming weeks.

No. 317C, dated 24 February, is from an individual on behalf of staff of a 24-hour suicide helpline formerly run by the Console charity. The correspondence states that the staff have been unpaid and seeks information on what the HSE plans to do about this. I suggest we write to the HSE and ask that the question raised in the correspondence be dealt with. We should seek a reply within seven days because, if there is a question of people going unpaid for their work, we will not let that run to the normal timescale for reply.