John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to congratulate each and every Minister who was appointed today and I wish them well. I wish the Taoiseach well also. He is a man of compassion and understanding, as I know from personal experience. I was glad to hear him speaking today about what citizens can expect from this Government. I ask Ministers to look at the programme for Government and detail the timeframes. The timeframes I have heard for various targets this evening range from the 2017 budget onwards, but the people are suffering now.

The Minister for Justice and Equality should immediately examine the eviction courts that take place all over the country. They are evicting families from their own homes, but the legal representatives in court do not even know the details of those they represent or of their family homes. If one attends those courts, one can see that they do not even read the papers that are presented to them. People are being evicted regularly each week. I am asking the Minister for Justice and Equality to immediately intervene to suspend what is going on in those court actions. A fairer place is required for those difficulties to be ironed out for the individuals and families concerned.

I ask the Government to examine the issue of mental health immediately. Apart from cutbacks in mental health services, we have seen in individual cases that it costs families a small fortune to get private intervention. That is because they could not get that intervention through the public health service. Young people are queuing on waiting lists for treatment while on extensive medication, and their lives are being ruined. Some of the mental health issues stem from the pressures that banks are putting families and business people under. There is no mention of this in the document.

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