Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that a progress report will be made in March. However, if we take stock here, we have dealt with mortgage distress and education but the two big issues affecting people are health and jobs. The Taoiseach promised universal health insurance with equal access to care for all. A White Paper was to be published in the Government's first term. An implementation group was established in February but there does not seem to have been much progress since then. We still do not have legislation for free GP care for those with a long-term illness. A particularly sensitive and urgent issue, given the news about suicide, is the fact that the Government promised to ring-fence €35 million for mental health and 414 new posts but the money was not ring-fenced and the 414 posts have not been delivered. The Taoiseach also promised additional funding for the elderly and to provide more home care packages and residential places. Instead 1 million home health hours have been sliced and 900 beds in public nursing homes are being closed. I could go on but I am conscious of the time restraints.

The programme for Government rightly identified jobs as one of the major challenges facing the Government. Earlier the Taoiseach spoke about us being praised for the progress we have made, but 500,000 people are unemployed. The first annual review last March trumpeted progress made in the jobs crisis such as the establishment of NewERA and the strategic investment fund, but after 18 months in office the Government still has not introduced legislation to put NewERA, whatever its merits or demerits, on a statutory footing. A year after the strategic investment fund was announced we still do not have legislation to give effect to it. Despite what Sinn Féin has constantly said, the Government has not brought forward a stimulus package. We have nowhere near the 60,000 additional education and training places promised in the programme for Government.

In the progress report will the Taoiseach bring forward a specific focused report on health? Do the commitments in the programme for Government on jobs still stand? When will legislation be brought forward on NewERA and the strategic investment fund? When will the 60,000 promised education and training places be delivered?

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