John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If I could just mention the money message again. The Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) (Amendment) Bill 2018 is Deputy Michael McGrath's Bill. We are still waiting for notification from the Ceann Comhairle with regard to a money message for that Bill. There are examples of solutions that are being held up by the system itself.

The Taoiseach talked about health. FreeStyle Libre is a treatment for diabetes. A second treatment is Vimizim. Is there no resolution to what are now long-standing issues in terms of new treatments the Department of Health can bring forward? The Taoiseach mentioned the cost of the various health services and the new remedies and treatments in his opening statement. I am bringing to his attention the fact that those are issues that affect the lives of young people and I would like to see a resolution in those areas.

On social housing, we have county councils all over the country that have established their housing lists. In Kilkenny, if one counts everything it is 3,500. They were the housing authorities of the past and they are now working as housing authorities, and in conjunction with the voluntary sector, but there is such a blockage there that it is another area where reform is necessary. I suggest to the Taoiseach that it is the fact that councils are not doing the work that they should be doing, in conjunction with the Department and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, that is causing some of the logjam. One is faced with a further question about reform in the system in order to deliver what citizens are looking for. It is amazing to think that in the 1950s and 1960s massive amounts of local authority houses were built. Wonderful communities were created and large families were reared yet here we are now, with much more than we ever had in the 1950s and 1960s, and the numbers cannot be delivered. I suggest again that it is because of the bureaucratic nightmare that exists all around those issues now and having to have many things cleared by the Departments. I am asking the Taoiseach those questions in terms of reform but also the future of the confidence and supply agreement. Would he like to comment on that? Does he have any views on that? I believe he does not want it to drop dead after the budget.