Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend Sinn Féin not only on its tabling of this motion but also on following up on this issue time and again and not letting it go. If one found a cure for cancer, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, blindness or some people’s deafness, as many others and I have often imagined, it would be an absolutely brilliant day. Now that that brilliant day has come for many people who suffer from deafness, the Government seems to think it is bad and some sort of burden. If a cure for blindness was found in the morning, I imagine the Government's reaction would be to ask how it would fund it. It would be bad news for the Government.

Everybody talks about the numerous choices that must be made, including all of the tough choices the Government must make. I include the choice with regard to the €2 billion in tax relief on pensions for the most wealthy 20% in the country. The Government could have spent some of the money on cochlear implants, but it made the choice to ignore the people affected. It chose to spend the State's money on subsidising Independent News & Media by writing down its debts. It made the choice to subsidise a billionaire who did not even pay his tax in this country instead of helping children who could hear if they were helped. There is no need to imagine any more that there is a cure because there is, but the problem is that we live in a country in which the Government does not care enough to do anything about it. There are none so deaf as those that will not hear.

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