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

I was a little taken aback by the Taoiseach's comment during Leaders' Questions about the murders that are ongoing. He said that he could not stop this. No Government should admit defeat by these criminal gangs, and there is an obligation on Government to do everything it possibly can across the board, involving an inter-agency response, to stop these murders and put an end to them. Governments should be clear and determined in the message going out to these groups that this will stop.

Part of this is the need for legislation to criminalise the sale of prescription drugs. This is an issue the Garda has raised in the north inner city area, where young children are now distributing tablets and so on. There is an issue around that legally. Whatever issues are there should be dealt with in legislation as a matter of urgency, because this has been going on for quite some time, apparently. It has not been resolved and I am asking for the appropriate legislation to be introduced as a matter of urgency.

There is a strong commitment in the programme for Government on housing and "to provide political leadership on resolving the housing shortage and homelessness crisis". This is one of the "first 100 days" actions contained in the programme for Government. According to Focus Ireland, there are now 2,000 children in emergency accommodation. This represents a 90% increase from this time last year. The inaction in recent years has given rise to this crisis. Everyone in the House is now agreed that this is completely unacceptable. A total of €45 million will be spent in 2016 on emergency hotel accommodation. Children are spending years of their childhood in hotel rooms in this city. When can we expect a list of Executive actions to get to grips with this as a matter of urgency? Will the Taoiseach outline to the House the Government's response to the latest figures, which are truly appalling and worrying?

In the programme for Government there is a commitment to implement new procedures to ensure more efficient and timely recruitment of nurses. Yet, essentially, despite what the Taoiseach said earlier, the HSE is still applying an embargo on staff recruitment. There is an estimated shortage of 3,600 nurses and midwives throughout the country's hospitals. The health service and hospitals are already operating under severe strain due to the lack of staffing. The embargo is making an intolerable situation utterly impossible. Will the Taoiseach indicate the position in terms of the programme for Government's commitment to implement new procedures to ensure more efficient and timely recruitment of nurses? This needs to be accelerated, especially in Drogheda, where the hospital is short 100 staff. How will the Government put flesh on the bones of the commitment in the programme for Government in terms of changing procedures to make it more effective?

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