Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Why are we not supporting the people who elected us and the people on the ground who are struggling? Families, husbands, wives and children are struggling. Sometimes children do not have food put on the table because a father or mother is gambling every last penny that comes in. All the while we do not have a regulator or regulation. Why do we not have that? It is because the Government has been sitting on its hands since 2013 and is not prepared to introduce it. It is not prepared to man up to the hard facts. That would be serving the people.

We all agree that the judicial system needs reform, but the Government had the opportunity last October when Deputy O'Callaghan introduced his Bill. If the Government had been reasonable and understood what was needed, it would have grasped the Bill with open arms and worked with it, but it decided not to.

Is the Minister, Deputy Ross, really interested in reform or is he just interested in showboating? I believe he is interested in showboating. If he were serious about his portfolio, he would note that British tourist numbers are down by 4%. Our bread and butter in the west of Ireland is tourism and he is not prepared to address it, talk about it or deal with it. He has not met industry representatives on it and it is part of his portfolio. Shame on him.

I will move back to gambling. Particularly as gambling has moved online, a large number of children and young people are sadly becoming addicted before they even reach 18 years of age. The experience of bullying is an innately harmful and damaging experience for a child or young person. As the digital world becomes intricately interwoven with the real world, particularly for younger people, the experience of cyberbullying has sadly become commonplace. Whether it is the sharing of intimate or otherwise damaging images online, or the circulation of rumours through messaging apps, the Internet has truly opened up new modes of bullying.

Both the special rapporteur on child protection and the Law Reform Commission have noted this phenomenon and called for legislation to be brought forward which creates specialised offences in the area of cyberbullying. In April 2017, the then Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, indicated that the drafting of the heads of a Bill addressing these issues was under way, but we have yet to see anything concrete in this regard. All the while, constituency offices around the country are hearing very sad tales of teenagers and children who are experiencing online harassment or bullying.

The Minister, Deputy Zappone, has failed to introduce legislation to implement the single affordable child-care scheme, meaning that many children will once again be deprived of access to quality affordable child care.

In the absence of a strong legislative framework to protect the rights of children, we are utterly failing to protect children, particularly those who are most at risk, such as those in foster care, involved in family law proceedings and those from underprivileged backgrounds.

It is important to understand the legislation that is awaited. The affordable childcare scheme Bill is to provide a single affordable child-care scheme to replace the current non-statutory schemes. Pre-legislative scrutiny took place in February and we are awaiting the Bill. The child care (amendment) Bill is to provide for extensive reform of guardian ad litemservices in child care proceedings. It was expected in February or March 2017 and is now promised for next session. The adoption (information and tracing) (No. 2) Bill is to extend the provisions of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill to inter-country adoption. The date for that Bill is unknown and I have submitted a parliamentary question on it. I have already spoken about the gambling control Bill, which has been sitting there since 2013. Shame on the Government.

According to Sinn Féin we live in a bubble here. Sinn Féin Members talk about the bubble of Leinster House; I think they are in the bubble. Deputy Butler, who spoke before me, talked about real issues. When I ring my constituency office are people interested in discussing the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill this week? Absolutely not. What are we talking about? I am talking about the lack of a superintendent in Gort whom we lost in 2013 and I am wondering when we will get a replacement. Two superintendents are to be appointed in the entire country and I am lobbying to get one reappointed in Gort. However, as I am not a member of the Independent Alliance, I hold my breath on getting a superintendent.

I am well outside the bubble. My feet are clearly on the ground as to what is affecting people. The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill has taken up all our time this week and will seemingly continue into next week. The Oireachtas committee has now advised that it will not accept it. Why are we wasting time on this? What is the fear of the Minister, Deputy Ross? I believe he was embarrassed by the manner of the appointment of the former Attorney General to the Court of Appeal. I think he hung his head in shame and felt he could not cope with it. It was fear and a knee-jerk reaction. It was like "Get me out of here."

Last week the dwarfs came forward to us. Deputy Butler put on a beautiful presentation where we had 16 dwarfs who are participating in the World Dwarf Games in Canada in August. They came to make a fabulous presentation to us because they get no funding. That is in the area of sport, which also falls under the brief of the Minister, Deputy Ross. Those 16 people meet up in different locations to train every week. They are the most amazing people. They will go to Canada to fly the flag and represent Ireland. However, the Government has not given €1 towards it. We are lobbying really hard to get them a few euro to offset some of their costs with flights and accommodation. One of them is 12 years of age and his family is very proud of him. It is horrific to think that we do not acknowledge people who have put in the effort and are going forward to represent our country and who will represent us so well. I raise this because it falls under the brief of the Minister, Deputy Ross.

Local government in Galway is under severe pressure. We are about to hit bankruptcy being €2 million in arrears. We need local government funding; we need intervention. While we have a good network of roads, most of the roads that need an upgrade are controlled by TII. Who is responsible for that? It is the Minister, Deputy Ross. On numerous occasions I have asked him to provide an injection.

We need a Minister who is prepared to legislate and work on his brief. He is the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. Unfortunately we are not seeing any actions from him. He is far too interested in items that do not fall under his remit. It is an old axe he wants to grind. It is about populism and being the centre of attention. He has been the centre of attention all week. If Members on the other side of the House really believed in it, why have we not seen more speakers? I have never in my life seen as few speakers from the other side of the House. Either they do not understand it or they do not support it. Either way it is apparent to me that this is the Shane Ross Bill - earlier Deputy Troy said we should rename the Bill.

I do not mean to be flippant but it is very apparent that there is very little support for the Bill coming from the other side of the House.

Home help, homelessness and the domiciliary care allowance are the real issues that are outside of the bubble. Claims for domiciliary care allowance now take 22 weeks to process and getting the July provisions is like finding hen's teeth. It is wrong for people to have to wait 22 weeks, almost half a year, for the domiciliary care allowance. People were told initially it would take 14 weeks and then the time kept being pushed out. The last response I got from the direct line for Deputies was that I should not check again as no date could be provided. That is no response to give to a Deputy or for me to have to give to a constituent but, regrettably, that is the reality on the ground.

Last Christmas I spoke to the Minister for Health about a young lady, Beatrice, who needed an emergency medical card. She is in an unusual position in that she has a life-limiting condition and will not reach full life expectancy. She is an 11 year old child. The situation is complicated because she is Brazilian and does not have full status in this country, which means she fails to qualify for an emergency medical card. She needs medical attention and intervention all the time and she is waiting on an emergency medical card but because she does not have the right reference numbers she will not receive it.

A woman in north Galway who has four children is waiting for a house from Galway County Council. Her landlady has told her she must move out of her house for the simple reason that her daughter is returning to Ireland. The four children are all under the age of 17 years and the eldest is hoping to go to college this year, which she will do, with the help of God. The woman is on a waiting list for housing with Galway County Council. She has been told that she must present as homeless with her four children in the middle of August when her tenancy lease is up. They will probably be presenting when the leaving certificate results are out. Can one imagine the trauma she is going through? She is asking herself what she is doing. She will be homeless with four children and she does not know if she is going to get a house. All of the children are in education locally. One is in national school, two are in secondary school and hopefully the fourth one is going on to college. I meet that lady on a regular basis but I have no comfort for her because I do not see any solution. Yet, I have 20 minutes today to speak about judicial appointments. That is totally wrong. What all of us should be working on and keeping to the forefront are the people with sick children, those who are homeless, those who are seeking home help hours, people with the domiciliary care allowance, and people looking for the back-to-education allowance. That is what is real but somewhere along the line, Members on the other side of the House have taken their eye off the ball. They lack imagination, vision and deliverability. It is a shame on them. It is an absolute shame that the Minister, Deputy Ross, can bring them to this point but what is even more shameful is that he is not here himself to hear the debate.

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