Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have previously raised with the Taoiseach on the Order of Business the issue of extreme obesity and the lack of funding available for surgery for those who are at high risk in this regard. As he is aware, funding stopped halfway through the year. It has now emerged that, instead of funding operations in St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin and University Hospital Galway, the HSE is flying patients to the United Kingdom for surgical treatment at a cost of €15,000. The cost of such operations here is approximately €10,000. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that this makes no economic sense whatsoever. Is he in a position to confirm that this issue will be examined in order that surgery might be performed here rather than in the United Kingdom? In that context, when will the health reform Bill be published? The question of obesity is one of fundamental concern in the context of the future.

The Children and Family Relationships Bill was originally published in draft form by the former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, last January and welcomed by most, including the then Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, who issued a press release at the time in which she stated this complex and sensitive legislation would assist in making all children equal. In her current capacity as Minister for Justice and Equality, however, she published the actual Children and Family Relationships Bill on Friday last and has excluded the section on surrogacy. In January the Government - through the former Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter - launched the general scheme of the Bill which included a section that would have provided legal clarity on the parentage of children born through assisted human reproduction and surrogacy and granted "court oversight in the making of declarations of parentage in order to ensure future arrangements consensual, altruistic and non-commercial". Surrogacy was mentioned on 97 occasions in the general scheme published in January, but there is not one reference to it in the Bill published on Friday last. On promised legislation, the Government previously indicated that the issue of surrogacy would be dealt with. Why has the section contained in the original general scheme been excluded from the Bill published by the Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald? When can we expect the promised legislation on surrogacy?

Reports today indicate that the banks are lending up to four and a half times the combined incomes of couples seeking to purchase houses. These reports do not make for very comfortable reading. House prices in Dublin are rising fast and are currently up by 25%. There is going to be a continued shortage of housing. People are going to be pushed into extreme positions and further mortgage distress if there is no intervention on the part of the Government. When can we expect the credit guarantee (amendment) Bill to be published? Are there further proposed legislative measures to deal with the housing issue?

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