Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Nobody over here has any difficulty about appearing on programmes. The Minister will do a programme on this issue very shortly. I would like to think that some of the issues dealt with in the programme last night should have been dealt with long before now. For example, why does somebody have to wait for four years to make his or her home wheelchair accessible? Why is somebody suffering from motor neurone disease turned down for a medical card? One of my best friends died from that disease. I know, from a layman's perspective, the sad and tragic path of that disease, yet one cannot get any facilities without a medical card, even though it is a terminal illness. Some of the shocking revelations that were made in the nine cases outlined last night speak for themselves. That is precisely why we have to review the entire structure of the way services are delivered and money is spent. This goes on every day and it is a shocking indictment of society in 2011 that many of these things came to light. I do not deny that and I sympathise and empathise with those people whose cases were highlighted last night. Many others who we both know have to contend with this every day, and that is not the way things should be. When the Government gets the truth about the scale of this, that is not the way it will be. I would like to think that we could reverse all of these things overnight, but we cannot do that.

It is important that everybody has a genuine interest in these things and we in the Oireachtas should see to it that when we get the relevant Ministers' responses to the comprehensive spending analysis, we determine what is in the best interests of those who should be given a clear priority here.

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