Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I am disappointed he is not prepared, or is indicating an unwillingness, to introduce a scheme for miners who kept the industry going during the so-called bad times and who now suffer from an extremely debilitating disease, pneumoconiosis, which affects their respiratory systems, particularly their lungs. A similar scheme was introduced in Europe, particularly in Britain by miners there, but they were stronger in numbers and had more power. We are ignoring them here. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan's party leader, expressed concern about human rights in Tibet but one does not have to go that far. The human rights of people in Ballingarry, Arigna and Castlecomer are being denied by this Government and have been denied by previous Governments. Last year, the Minister's former ministerial colleague indicated publicly on radio that the Government had settled on a compensation scheme for those miners, but an election came up. I call on the Minister to honour the commitment of his colleague who did a lot of work for this country and for the Minister's party. During the term of the previous Government, he said that a scheme was ready to be introduced. Why is the scheme not being delivered now? Why is the Minister ignoring the matter now that he is in a new Administration? I welcome the Minister's commitment to meet the miners. I would also like to hear the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan's comments on this matter as he is the Minister with responsibility for it. Is he prepared to introduce this scheme?

See this speech in context