Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like the Tánaiste to answer at least one question today. I have questions on the health information and patient safety Bill, the replacement for the mobility allowance scheme and the motorised transport grants and the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill. The health information and patient safety Bill was part of what the previous Government claimed to be the cornerstone of a new health system. The delayed HSE report for February revealed that 2,700 patients aged over 75 years had spent longer than 24 hours on trolleys. Yesterday there were 321 patients on trolleys, with the number in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in my constituency among the highest. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, reported that in March 9,381 patients were on trolleys, an increase on the figure for last year and double the figure for March 2008. The health information and patient safety Bill has faced significant delays.

When will it be published?

On the issue of the mobility allowance scheme and the motorised transport grants, in February 2013, the Government scrapped them and since then I have been on my feet constantly asking when the alternative will be put forward. We must remember these were scrapped on the back of a recommendation from the Ombudsman for the scope of these schemes to be widened but rather than widen them, the Government got rid of them. The Minister of State at the Department of Health at the time, Kathleen Lynch, acknowledged it was because it would cost too much. Almost four years later, the new programme for Government is again promising new legislation for a new mobility scheme to assist those with a disability to meet their mobility costs. It failed to do it during the previous term, so when will this legislation be published?

The immigration and residency reform Bill is also promised in the programme for Government. It commits to implementing the recommendations of the McMahon report on direct provision. That was in the draft programme but it was removed from the actual programme. That is a very serious decision. The McMahon report made 173 recommendations. Mr. Justice McMahon described the refusal to allow asylum seekers the right to access the labour market as absolutely heartbreaking and immoral. He also urged an amnesty for those who have been in this country for more than five years. I visited the direct provision centre in Mosney several times. Some children have spent their entire lives in what is a slightly tarted up version of Long Kesh, and whatever about the benevolent attitude of the management and so on, it is not right or fair that families should be detained there for so long. Will the Tánaiste consider a once-off amnesty? Will she reinstate the commitment to the McMahon report in the programme for Government, and when will she publish the immigration and residency reform Bill?

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