Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

It is a good job the tent at Ballybrit has been closed because it would have been great fun if it had been open this week.

It is grossly unfair that children, people aged over 70 years and those on hospital waiting lists will be punished. On the issue of hospitals and the delivery of health services, I am sick to the back teeth of listening to the Minister for Health and Children tell us that it is economically preferable to take this or that approach. I am also sick of hearing about centres of excellence and long waiting times for services. What has gone wrong with the delivery of health services for members of the public? In recent weeks, I had occasion to speak to a 95 year old man who had to sit on a chair for 24 hours before receiving attention in a well known Dublin hospital. That is how good health services are being delivered.

We do not need rocket science but simply someone to get a grip and do something to address the glaring faults in the system. When the Government decides to address the problem in our health services it must take a meaningful, humane approach which recognises the need to provide services for people when they are vulnerable. We do not need a conveyor belt system under which people receive treatment having waited for up to four years.

I never understood the reason the issue of public housing was included in partnership negotiations seven, eight or ten years ago. Housing has nothing to do with partnership and should not have been dragged from the public arena into the partnership process where those involved are not accustomed to dealing with the issue. A range of ideas was trotted out concerning the way in which the housing sector would develop. We were told, for example, the Irish tradition of home ownership was a whimsical notion about which we should not be concerned as people all over the world were happy to rent their homes. Moreover, everybody would have access to housing through the rental system. As I predicted at the time, renting soon became as expensive as buying and those who were renting were paying the equivalent of a mortgage in any event. I could not understand the logic of the original argument put forward by some of those involved in the property sector, members of the Government and others who should have known better.

It is appalling that a generation of young people has been consigned to renting property in a market which is being artificially propped up. These young people are destined to remain in this market until such time as prices fall and come within their reach. If some people have their way, however, prices will not fall and they will swing in the market for another five or six years. The Government failed the younger generation by completely ignoring their housing needs. To fund their housing needs people found it necessary to borrow sums for 45 and 50 years or secure loans of 120% of the price of the property. Agencies will deny such loans were provided even though 150% loans were provided in some cases, as becomes clear when one considers that on some sites property prices increased by up to €50,000 within a 12-hour period. The Government stands indicted of failing to attempt to deliver to this sector.

In recent years, Government Deputies have loudly boasted about the large increases in social welfare payments awarded in budgets. They scathingly refer to the last Social Welfare Act introduced by the former Minister for Social Welfare, Mr. Proinsias De Rossa.

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