Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

Two of the three Bills I would like to raise have just been mentioned by Deputy Crawford. The Minister of State, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, has previously said that the Office of the Attorney General has highlighted legal difficulties with the section of the social housing miscellaneous provisions Bill that provides for the sale of council flats to tenants, which is a provision that has been outstanding for some time. Given that the legislation is now due to be considered during this session, can I take it that the legal difficulties have been dealt with? Do I understand correctly that a tenant purchase scheme, which is currently not available to those who live in flats, will be established on foot of the legislation? When can local authorities expect to get such a mechanism up and running?

On 14 December last, it was promised that a Green Paper on local government would be published. We are still waiting for it to come before the House. Can the Tánaiste indicate when the House will receive the Green Paper?

Deputy Crawford raised an issue that pertains to the Department of Health and Children. I have been informed by officials in the southern HSE region that costs relating to subvention are completely ring-fenced so that they apply to the long-term residential care service. Many people are unable to cope with the annual increases in nursing home costs because the subvention payments are frozen. This is an issue for the Department of Health and Children rather than——

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