Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The ongoing failure to provide sufficient resource teachers, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists is unacceptable. Disability services have been run down on the Taoiseach's watch. Parents and teachers are distressed, while children are suffering because the basic services necessary for them to develop and flourish are being denied.

The health service, too, is under severe pressure, as workers on the front line and patients know, yet the Taoiseach has made no guaranteed or specific provision for the additional nursing staff and midwives who are so desperately needed in the service. An additional 1,000 posts, as advocated by Sinn Féin, would cost €40 million. This investment is absolutely essential.

There is nothing dedicated to enhance the ambulance service. A spend of just over €6 million would provide two additional ambulances and personnel in each of the four regions. This would address the existing inadequate level of cover. Is the Government aware of this shortfall and, if so, why does it fail to address it?

The vagueness of commitments on funding for mental health services and suicide prevention measures, in particular, is disappointing and alarming. There is not a community or family across the land that has not been touched by this tragedy. It is the sharpest end of the mental health challenge faced by us as a society.

The levying of prescription charges has caused hardship for many but particularly senior citizens, yet the Taoiseach has made no clear commitment to lift this burden. On his watch these charges have soared from 50 cent to €2.50.

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