Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to hear that the Minister of State is concerned about the front-line staff who care for vulnerable people. She did not bother at all to respond to the front-line staff in Carlow for a significant reference period when they sent correspondence to her. She did not seem to take much action with respect to dealing or engaging with front-line staff. We have pointed out this issue consistently in this Chamber - the Minister of State fails to engage and fails to listen. She chooses whom she wants to listen to because they tell her what she wants to hear.

In particular administrative areas, including Galway, north County Dublin, and Carlow and Kilkenny, she is listening to the wrong people and it is having devastating consequences. Rather than bat them over the head with A Vision for Change policy when people speak out or demonstrate some dissent about her approach, she should sit down and engage with the front-line staff - she may learn something.

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