Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

The Minister may be able to pacify Mr. Durkan in the long term but surely an issue of such importance should have been dealt with in conjunction with those who are committed to peace on this island and efforts made to ensure that they understood his position. My party leader, Deputy Kenny, is the type of person with whom the Taoiseach and the Minister could at least discuss this issue. However, the record does not show such discussions taking place. This is a constitutional matter and it is being rushed through the House.

The leader of the Minister's party, the Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, stated that she has been aware of this matter for six years and that it is part of the programme for Government. Surely if she knew about it for that length of time, there was some potential for bringing together the main Opposition parties and the main groups dealing with the Good Friday Agreement to achieve some sort of consensus on this matter. It may be difficult for the Minister to accept but there has been a total failure on his part.

We have been informed as to why this matter should be dealt with quickly. Deputy Grealish referred to a leaking roof and how one might deal with such a problem quickly. I agree with him because I was involved in the structural seal business for some years and I received many calls for work to be carried out as a matter of urgency. The Deputy is correct about leaking roofs but this is not an emergency issue because the problem has not arisen overnight. For example, it is only today that the Minister provided some broad figures. We accept that something needs to be done but this is not the sort of emergency to which Deputy Grealish referred. There are many other issues in respect of which urgent action is needed. I refer, for example, to the 200,000 people who were informed two years ago that they would receive medical cards. However, there are a further 50,000 people who are currently without medical cards because they were taken off them.

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