Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests and it is great to see them here again. Guests attending some committees may feel like they are being interrogated but this committee is a bit different. I want to discuss the In Sickness and in Death report published in April 2023. Mr. Deering, in his statement today, said it was an investigation into medical treatment in the EU, EEA and the UK. A number of recommendations were made. Reports are vital. However, the Ombudsman investigates situations and publishes reports to make things easier. However, very sneakily on 1 July the grant money for cataract operations was cut by over 50%. The Ombudsman is pushing the boat up the hill and the Government is pushing it back down the hill against him. Such a situation must be very frustrating.

Every taxpayer in this country who pays their taxes to the State is entitled to some bit of care when it comes to health. I have been working on a case for a long time. The person is 17 years of age and she has been waiting 14 years for a hip operation. As she has cerebral palsy, all we have gotten are excuses and I have a very thick file to show for it. I have gone to four Ministers and a junior Minister, and I have had a private meeting. There are surgeons who can carry out the operation but unfortunately they are based in the States. This person recently turned 17, so she is not a child anymore. She is now an adult but she has moved into the adult system and yet there does not seem to be any avenue whatsoever to get this poor young lady any help. I have been stonewalled left, right and centre. Is there any way the Ombudsman's office or somebody's office would investigate the fact there seems to be a conflict of interest between surgeons here and surgeons in America? Obviously, somebody has to protect their patch but in the middle is a child who has been in pure agony for many years and all she is given are excuses. I am very interested in this matter.

I want to ask about the claim that housing made up 60% of the complaints. I am not surprised because housing has been a disaster for years. The Ombudsman specifically mentioned HAP. I call HAP a trap because anybody who is on HAP is never going to get out of it and will never be accepted on to an alternative housing list because they are, apparently, adequately housed.

A lot of the conditions are absolutely atrocious. For example, there is mould and dampness, which leads to other health complications. This committee is a way for us to assist local authorities to try to address this matter but at the same time we are stuck with a massive housing shortage. When homeless people are mentioned, one automatically thinks of the homeless out on the streets.

There are thousands of people in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation and couch surfing.

Is there a way the committee might make recommendations to, and work with, the Ombudsman's office or the office of any other ombudsman, including the European Ombudsman's office, to try to progress the issues raised in Mr. Deering's reports? Those reports have been absolutely amazing. They have not been short of criticism but they also have not been short of praise. The 21 recommendations in the In Sickness and in Debt report will make a huge difference for people. I am trying to look for the good stories instead of the bad stories for a change, while highlighting that there are failings. On the issue of housing specifically, what can we do to get people out of the trap of HAP and substandard accommodation?