Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I thank the Taoiseach for agreeing to pursue the issue of the two unfortunate men involved. I hope that this will produce a result for them that has not been possible to achieve to date. My colleague, Deputy McManus, raised the issue on the Adjournment last week. In a case like that we should not have to ask the Prime Minister to resolve and address the issue.

The case is not isolated. I am told there are four cases in total with similar difficulties involving the housing scheme in Greystones built by Cheshire Ireland. Deputy Shortall raised the issue of the houses in Castlepollard that have been idle for seven years. There seems to be a consistent problem of dysfunctionality in the HSE. On the one hand a service is provided or a house or other facility is built by taxpayers' money and then one finds that it cannot be operated because the moneys required to either hire the staff or get the service up and running is not provided. That aspect of the problem needs to be addressed as well.

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